This is a guest post from Vicky Shillings who is a Pinterest lover and a coach helping health and wellness entrepreneurs to grow their business.  You can read more about her bio at the end of this post.

Pinterest is a powerful search engine tool that could be helping you and your business get found. Not using it yet? You should be. 

Far more strategic than other platforms, think of Pinterest like a visual search engine that your perfect customer is using to find answers to the biggest questions and problems they’re having. 

The beauty of Pinterest? Instead of needing loads of time and man-power to engage and be constantly present like social media channels such as Twitter and Instagram, Pinterest has the ability to drive a huge amount of traffic to your website in as little as one hour a week if you’re using it correctly. 

To give you an idea of the impact Pinterest could have on your website traffic – last year 30% of my traffic came from Pinterest. And I only spend 1hr a week on my strategy. Compare that with just 7% of my traffic coming from social media, platforms where I am very present and active. It’s powerful. 

If you haven’t ever considered using Pinterest for your health and wellness business here are some tips to get you started:

1. Assess if Pinterest is going to be effective for your business

Pinterest is most effective for businesses that have evergreen products and blog posts. It’s not ideal for brands that are trying to advertise date-specific events only. 

That’s because the great thing about Pinterest is the content you share can get found for weeks, months and years to come. 

If you have coaching or 1:1 service that is always available, it’s a great tool. If you have blog posts that are always relevant and are answering common questions for your ideal clients, it’s a great tool. If you have freebies or downloads that are always going to be helpful no matter what time of year then it’s a great tool. 

Not all content is perfect for Pinterest but I’m guessing there will be a lot of your content that could work really well if you’re already savvy with evergreen products and services. 

2. Start a business account on Pinterest

If you’re convinced by what I’ve said so far about Pinterest then make sure to set up correctly from the start. 

As with social media channels like Instagram, the best advice is to go straight in with a Business Account, so that you get access to all the analytics that will show you what’s working and what’s not when it comes to your strategy. 

Follow the Pinterest instructions for setting up as a business account here.

3.  Do a search for your keywords to see what’s showing up on Pinterest already 

If you have no idea how to use Pinterest for business then have a good look around on the platform first to see what’s working and perhaps what your competitors are doing in the space, before you start designing pins and directing traffic to your website. 

If you know what your ideal client or customer is searching for on Google, it’ll be very similar to what they look for on Pinterest too. All that work you’ve done on SEO and key-words? It’s going to come in really handy on Pinterest. 

If you’ve got a Pinterest account for personal use have a quick look to see what shows up. The top pins will often be high performing content so you’ll get an idea of what’s working in terms of pin layout and popular content. These are formats and layouts you can replicate or adapt for your own use. 

Type in your keywords to the search bar and see what other words Pinterest recommends – these will be popular searches as well. More content you could create and direct to. 

4. Create boards that encompass your whole brand ethos

Pinterest is a place that you can really expand the idea of what your brand is and connect with what your ideal customer is looking for and cares about.

Pinterest is also not just about sharing your content and images. A good Pinterest strategy is about sharing other people’s content that you think is useful or valuable to your ideal client. If your clients love it and pin it, Pinterest sees you as a great pinner and will prioritise your content in searches. Win-win. 

Ideally, when you start your account you need to be creating at least 20 boards (with the aim to push this to 50-60 boards as you use more regularly) that show the range of everything you do and are as a brand. 

You’ll always be thinking about creating boards that will be spaces for you to pin your own content, that’s a given. But you’ll also want to create boards that showcase other topics that interest your ideal customer. 

For example, I have Pinterest boards where I can pin my own content like “Wellness Business Growth,” “The Business of Blogging” and “Entrepreneur Life.” But I also have boards like “Beautiful homes,” “Yoga inspiration” and “Get the look clothes.” I’m aware of what my ideal client is searching for and using Pinterest for. And if I’m pinning content that people love, it helps boost my content too. 

5. Invest in a scheduling tool and be consistent 

You’ll really be able to hone a 1 hour a week strategy on Pinterest if you use a scheduling tool. The best one out there is Tailwind*, specifically designed to make Pinterest easy and effective. 

Yes, it’s an investment. But for a 30% increase on your website traffic, with people who are looking specifically for what you’re offering? It’s a no brainer to me. 

You can access a 1 month free trial of Tailwind here.*

As with anything in business and certainly with online marketing, you’ll need to be consistent. If you can commit to your 1hr a week strategy over a period of at least 3-4 months you will see an impact on your traffic. Those results will hopefully encourage you to keep going because it’s totally worth your time when you see the traffic it brings you. 

6. If you’re not going to pin to Pinterest, make sure your customers can pin for you 

If you’re not convinced that using Pinterest is a great use of your time right now (an error in my opinion but I do understand it’s another thing to get your head around!) at the very least you need to optimise your website to enable those that do use Pinterest to share and pin your content on the platform. 

The simplest thing you can do is make sure you switch on a ‘Pin it’ Pinterest button that shows on the images. This will mean when users browse your site and like the look of e.g. a product in your range, they can use the button to pin it quickly and easily to their own Pinterest account. From there it will keep directing traffic back to your website when they or other users find it, without you having to lift a finger. 

Speak to your website developer or check the plugins on WordPress or this how-to guide for Squarespace users (it’s a simple switch on a button!). 

These tips are designed to open your mind to the idea of Pinterest and how it works. For my full guide to getting started on Pinterest for your health and wellness business head here: https://vickyshilling.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-your-wellness-business 

If you’re keen to get started and know you’ve set up in the best way possible, my 5 Day Pinterest Challenge takes you through exactly how to get started on Pinterest and design your own 1 hour a week strategy through daily video guides: https://vickyshilling.com/5-day-pinterest-challenge 

Make sure to check out my other resources for growing your health and wellness business

*affiliate link

This blog post was written by Vicky Shilling.  She is a coach, helping wellness industry entrepreneurs turn their business ideas into reality. Vicky offers 1:1 coaching, online masterclasses and runs a thriving online community of health and wellbeing business owners. She also teaches and lectures about starting a wellness business in both the UK and Ireland. 

Find out how I can help you grow your business.

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