How to Use Pinterest to Rapidly Grow Your Email List

This is a guest post from Tasha DaCosta of Lady Boss Studio.

Did you know that Pinterest can be a serious powerhouse when it comes to increasing traffic to your website or blog and for growing your email list with free opt-in offers?

When you’re looking to build your email list with Pinterest, there needs to be a plan.  There always needs to be a plan.

The good news is, I HAVE the plan – the plan I used to focus on Pinterest and grow my email list by 700% in just a few months. And I’m super excited to share it with you!

The even better news is that IT DOESN’T matter what your niche, business, and blog are about.  You can market your opt-in offers – ebooks, webinars, checklists, etc. on Pinterest and massively grow your list regardless of your topic.

Content on Pinterest typically gains traction over time. Which means you need to implement the steps below now, so you can start getting more email subscribers as soon as possible.

Before we dive into the plan though, I want to make you sure you know why opt-in freebies are super important if you want to build a list with Pinterest, and why I’ve made them my jam!

Why Grow Your Email List with Pinterest and Opt-In Offers

So why the heck do you need to care so much about opt-in offers as you’re growing your email list on Pinterest?

Let me tell you, there are A LOT of reasons to build an email list with Pinterest. Here are the three most important ones.

1.   Opt-in offers allow you to build your email list with your target audience – and Pinterest is a great place to use them. When you create opt-ins specifically for your target audience, you will build a list of subscribers that you know will love your content and want to support your biz.

An email list without the RIGHT subscribers for your brand won’t get you very far in terms of increasing your sales or building your empire.

2.   Valuable opt-in offers work so much better than a generic, “Sign up for my email newsletter” offer. You may notice that many of the visits from Pinterest to your site are brand new visitors. This is great – it means people are discovering you and your content on the platform.

However, they’re likely to need more than a “get my newsletter” prompt to motivate them to hand over their precious email addresses. If you give your audience something of value right off the bat, they’re much more likely to jump on board with your brand!

3.   Opt-in offers easily allow you to demonstrate authority and develop trust. If your potential clients haven’t heard of you before, they are much more likely to opt in for your freebies than make a purchase right away.

This in-between step allows you to give your reader value, establishes trust, and sets the stage for sealing the deal down the road in a very positive and non-pushy way.

So now that you understand why you need those opt-in freebies soo bad, let’s dive into how to get them noticed on the best marketing platform there is. It’s no secret, I crush hard on Pinterest.

How and Where to Market Opt-In Offers & Freebies on Pinterest

We’ve covered the why, so now let’s cover the how!  Let’s go through the three places and ways to market your opt-in freebies on Pinterest to increase distribution and finally hit those subscriber goals you’ve been dreaming of.

PS – We had a fun discussion about Growing your email list on Pinterest, check it out!

Save Your Opt-In Pins to the Most Relevant Board First

Pinterest is looking to you, the content creator, to provide context for your Pins. With that aim, they pay the most attention to the first Board on which you save a new Pin. So, your “How to get to 10K on Instagram” Pin should be saved to your “Instagram Marketing” Board before it goes to your “Social Media Tips” Board or your “My Blog Posts” Board.

That first save tells Pinterest that your Pin and the content linked from the Pin are about Instagram Marketing. This allows Pinterest to understand and surface your Pin to the right people and in the right search results.

Create a Dedicated Opt-in Freebies Board

While Pinners can search for content and free resources via individual Pins, they can also search for Boards that are entirely dedicated to these. Your own followers in particular may want to find all your offers in one spot.

This is the perfect way to market all of your opt-in freebies in one convenient place for your ideal reader to fall in love with.

You also don’t need to only include your own freebies, either. Fill up your Board with other valuable resources related to your topic if you like!

Kyla, from Dish It Out Social, does an excellent job of this with her Blogging and Freebies Board. She uses it to showcase her opt-in freebies, but also includes Pins from other websites that she knows her audience will love!

Your audience will also love that you’re providing them with great value, no matter the source.  This is how you Pin consistently and supply a steady stream of engaging content.

Create Pinterest Pins that Actually Get More Email Subscribers

As far as I’m concerned, there are two ways to promote your opt-in freebies with your Pins:  create blog post Pins with visuals and create separate freebie Pins.

You’ll never know exactly what might attract a reader to click on your Pin, so why not cover all of your bases and increase those odds? Besides, creating more than one image for each piece of content is a good idea anyway. Each new image gives your page, post, or opt-in offer new life on Pinterest!

So, What are Blog Post Pins With Opt-in Visuals?

These Pins show the actual Opt-in offer (or a visual representation of the offer) that Pinners can get when they check out the blog post.

Pinterest is a visual platform after all, so people are more likely to click on a Pin once they see what’s in store.

This one from Lady Boss Studio entices readers to check out the ultimate list of Pinterest Group Boards and shows them the free Group Boards List they can download.

This one is from Celina at Aligned with Celina.  She explains the topic of her post and also shows you the free download.

As you can see, this can work for any niche!

Now for the Freebie Pins  

Trust me, it’s as easy as it sounds!  You place your opt-in freebies front and center on the Pin to grab as much attention as possible.  

Sometimes, people might not want to dig in or read through an entire post because they just want the free goods.

It’s time to give it to them!

Here’s a great example from Alex Tooby where she is promoting her free Instagram course.

If you’re sitting there thinking that this all sounds great, but wondering how in the world you are going to create such pretty Pins, then be sure to check out our Pinterest and Social Media Templates!

We’ve got you fully covered!

Now that you know where to build a list with Pinterest by using opt ins and how to create Pins that convert, let’s have a quick chat about making it all work long term.

‘Cause you want your business and blog to be around long term, right?

Set Your Opt-in Pins on Repeat

This isn’t a one and done kinda deal. If you want max results and want to seriously explode your list, then you need consistency.

My opt-in freebies strategy takes almost no time at all and I’m able to grow my email list by 700-1,000 new subscribers per month.

And you can do the same!

There’s this special, beautiful, amazing tool that Tailwind has called SmartLoop.

It’s truly been a gift.

I can set up all of my existing opt-in freebies to be posted on a cycle that I’ve chosen and Tailwind just works its magic. Therefore, whenever I have new opt-in freebies, I just add them to the Loop and move along with my day.

The clear, simple analytics in SmartLoop tell me when it’s time to refresh an image or if a particular Pin is simply not resonating well.

My freebies are consistently being pinned and marketed while I change diapers, cook dinner, oh, and sleep!

Grow Your Email List When You Become a Pinterest Opt-in Freebie Boss

I hope you’re super geared up to market the heck out of your opt-in freebies now that you know how to make it happen.

Make sure you’ve got your freebies in your profile description, you’ve created a freebie Board, and given your readers drool-worthy Pins that they can’t help but click on and share.

Save this post on Pinterest so you can make sure you’ve covered every step and then come back to let us know how much your email list is growing because of it.

We want to hear from you!

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