Building and maintaining a strong brand presence on Pinterest can have a dramatically positive impact on your website traffic, lead generation, and sales. Today, we’ll cover some of the most important Pinterest marketing questions:
- How Much Should I Be Pinning?
- What Should I Be Pinning?
- What Role Do Followers Play in Your Pinterest Success?
- Should I Use a Pinterest Scheduler or Do I Need to Pin Manually?
- How Can Using Story Pins Help Build a Strong Brand Presence on Pinterest?
- Consider Pinterest Ads
Let’s dive in. ♀️
What Pinterest and Pinners Want from Brands and Creators
Pinterest has made it no secret – they want more fresh and exciting ideas on the platform.
Did you catch that? People are searching Pinterest for banana ideas, but there are more than enough banana bread recipes on Pinterest!
Other videos along the same lines for summer fashion (no more tie-dye, please) and “something green” (no more succulents) clearly indicate what they’re looking for.
Presenting a new and novel idea is exactly what Pinterest wants from you. More importantly for your Pinterest marketing success, fresh and innovative ideas are what Pinners want from you!
How Much Should I Be Pinning To Maintain a Healthy Brand Presence on Pinterest?
It depends on how much content you are creating or how much still-relevant content you have yet to share on Pinterest!
Always aim for quality over quantity – just make sure to add something brand new at least every week.
What Should I Be Pinning?
Concentrate on your own content. Of course, it’s fine to share others’ content in moderation – Pinners do this naturally!
The 80/20 “rule” (which advised people to share 80% of other people’s content and 20% of their own) was never, in fact, a “rule,” and is even less relevant today.
Additionally, don’t look for great results from resharing your content continually or by making slight variations to images that link to existing content.
In fact, we tested this ourselves! We found that in January, original Pins accounted for 71% of user engagement compared with 29% for saves.
So while you will likely get some results (29% of the total for Tailwind users, 19% for non-Tailwind) from resharing Pins, it’s best to create Pins that are fresh and engaging more frequently, as strategies that involve mainly reposting existing Pins are no longer recommended.
Instead of sharing the same images over and over, think of a few ways your content might appeal to a different audience and appear in different searches!
Related Reading: How to Get the Most Out of Your Content on Pinterest
What Role Do Followers Play in Your Pinterest Success?
Let’s qualify this by focusing on engaged followers. Your Pins are shown to your followers first, and Pinterest looks at their engagement when determining how much to distribute your content more broadly.
That said, our study shows that those accounts with larger follower counts DO enjoy a higher average number of saves on their Pins.
Increase the number of engaged followers on your accounts by encouraging your (already engaged) blog and email audiences to follow you on Pinterest.
We like (and use) the MiloTree popup for WordPress!
Should I Use a Pinterest Scheduler or Do I Need to Pin Manually?
In the above-mentioned study, Tailwind investigated whether sharing directly to Pinterest or “Manual Pinning” might produce better results than sharing from Tailwind.
We found absolutely no advantage to “manual Pinning” compared with using Tailwind.
In fact, Pins scheduled via Tailwind actually performed a bit better (15% better) than those shared manually.
Note: Pins created or saved in July and August have had time to accrue engagement, while those saved later have not yet reached their potential.
Were we to perform this test again today with October 2020 on the far left, the graph would look similar, with the older Pins gathering more engagement and the newer ones not yet picking up!
So why might Tailwind-schedule Pins perform better than “manual” Pins?
It could be because our SmartSchedule recommends times for posting which coincide with the times your followers are most likely to be engaging, or it could be because our members tend to be more consistent in their Pinning!
Using an all-in-one create, schedule, publish, and analytics tool like Tailwind can save you considerable time and make it easier for your brand to maintain an active presence on the site. Remember, sharing content out regularly is much better than engaging in a Pin flurry a few times per month!
Tools like Tailwind are here to make your life easier and free up time so you can focus on other parts of your business.
Of course, you can also use the Pinterest scheduler if you prefer!
Some people find that their Pins saved manually perform better than those scheduled. That may be due to the fact that manual Pinning slows you down and may make it more likely that you’ll spend time to craft effective Pin titles and descriptions (which you could also do when scheduling!). Choose the method that works best for you.
How Can Using Story Pins Help Build a Strong Brand Presence on Pinterest?
Story Pins are a great way to build brand awareness and affinity while attracting new followers who will engage with your content.
If you have access to Story Pins, aim to create a new Story Pin each week and follow the best practices Pinterest shared in their recent online Creators Festival:
- Video with cover title or text
- Show what you’ll need
- step-by-step
- Finished creation
- CTA
While some content creators are reluctant to spend time creating Pins that don’t lead to website traffic, Story Pins are clearly favored in the algorithm, so jump on board (so to speak) and start attracting people who want to see YOUR ideas!
Consider Pinterest Ads
With increasing competition, the potential for organic distribution and growth isn’t endless.
We’ve seen this with every platform, and Pinterest is no exception. While there is still distribution and traffic to be had without a budget for ads, increasingly only the most exceptional content will gain attention.
Not everyone has an ad budget, but if you do, why not move some of your ad spend to Pinterest ads?
Pinterest ads are a great way to quickly test out new ideas and target new audiences.
AND, unlike ads on other platforms, the increased distribution you pay for doesn’t disappear when the campaign ends; downstream increase in traffic and engagement can continue for many months after your promotion is over!
Wrapping Up: How to Maintain a Healthy Brand Presence on Pinterest
- Create fresh and exciting content, presenting it in an appealing way.
- Pin new content consistently.
- Concentrate on sharing your own content.
- Attract engaged followers from your email list and site visitors.
- Use the scheduling method that works best for you.
- Use Story Pins to increase awareness and attract engaged followers.
- Try Pinterest ads.
So, what’s next? Get started on Pinterest in less than an hour with the Pinterest QuickStart.
OR, if you’re already there and looking for more ways to improve your Pinterest marketing, check out the comprehensive webinar, “Everything You Need to Know to Succeed on Pinterest”. Happy Pinning!
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