How to dramatically increase Pinterest engagement in 30 days

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So, a long while back, I discovered Pinterest. In fact, I was an early adopter. And I think, if I remember correctly, you needed an invite to join!

That was a long time ago now and it was when Pinterest was solely the domain of people who wanted to store ideas for recipes, learn how to do crafts and plan weddings!

Now that I’ve been an entrepreneur for over a decade I realise the true value of Pinterest. BUT. This was a realisation that is only very recent.

Pinterest is a search engine/ social network hybrid and a massively powerful tool for your blog.

Used correctly, it can help bring you in consistent traffic, act as a platform to keep your audience engaged and it can provide a space for you to solidify yourself as the expert in any field.

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links for which I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase.

On April the 10th 2020, I decided to invest some time into Pinterest. I’d recently started a new Women’s Wellness blog (then) called Zero Fox over 40, and it was doing well enough. I have had a long history in startups and being a marketing leader for some very successful tech companies, but this blog was just for me.

It was a place to journal my thoughts, especially as COVID had hit New Zealand and I found myself craving an outlet for my creativity. But as time grow on, I started to investigate ways I could potentially grow my audience and hence my blog traffic. Just in case I wanted to make this into something bigger than a just for me project.

I knew I had an old Pinterest account from way back. It was stake and had a plethora of irrelevant content on it. But enough to be a great starting point. I switched this very old personal Pinterest account over to a Pinterest Business Account on April 10th. With zero monthly viewers.

10 days later I had a few thousand monthly viewers…

20 days after that, on the 11th of May 2020, I had over 600,000 monthly viewers.

On the 4th of May 2020 I launched a second new website, this one. Going back to my marketing and startup roots, helping other entrepreneurs and bloggers grow their online presence and reach their ideal audience. I started with both blogs on the same Pinterest account under a new name (which are now separate accounts).

Monthly viewers on Pinterest refers to the average per month number of people who saw your Pins on Pinterest. Your goal when using Pinterest for business is just that, business!

And every single new eyeball on your content is one more potential real live human being that may click through to your website, and in turn just might buy your thing! Now, that’s worth investing a wee bit of time over right!

So, here’s a few tips that I’ve learned that will hopefully help you. No one single thing is going to make your impressions, viewers or followers grow, however there are some pretty good staples that you can begin with to get you moving. Here’s 5 of my top tips to get you started.

How to easily increase Pinterest monthly viewers

1. Create a free Pinterest business account

So, you might be lucky enough to have a personal account already. That’s great news! It means you have some sort of history with Pinterest and Pinterest will remember that.

Pinterests smart feed looks at a number of different factors when it’s deciding on who gets prioritised. The longer you’ve had an account, the more trustworthy you will be.

Which bodes well for your brand. In this case you can simply convert your personal account over to a Business one. This is what I did.

Converting to a business account gives you access to analytics and other tools to help grow your brand.

How to convert your personal Pinterest account to a business Pinterest account

1. Simply go to your personal account
2. Login
3. Head over to pinterest.com/business/convert/
4. Complete your biz name and enter your web URL
5. Select what type of business you are
6. Click create account

To create an account separate from an old account or not linked to a personal account simply log out and go here pinterest.com/business/create/.

Or, to add a business account onto the same login as a personal one, log in. Tap the three dots top right of your screen …

Click add a free business profile… and follow the prompts.

2. Use the optimal Pin size and format

I use Canva Pro to create all my Pins.

You can custom create a pin to your exact dimensions. Pinterest favours 600px x 900px. If you are using a different width make sure the ratio of 2:3 is maintained.

If you want to play around with testing which Pins work best for your niche and brand, then try differing sizes. But as a rule, don’t go over 1200px long.

Use your unique brand fonts and colours if you are at that point in your brand creation. Otherwise try out some things and see what works for you.

In general, I go for my brand colours. Soft pinks and beige.

Make sure your font can be read easily by the Pinterest bots. Don’t use too fancy a font for your main keywords in your Pin, or they may be overlooked/unable to be read.

Play around with differing sizes and spacings of text on your Pin for maximum impact. You can also grab really reasonably priced Canva Pin templates to make your life wayyyy easier!

Most of all, if you’re using an image, make sure it’s high quality and you have permission to use it. I love sites like Unsplash or Pexels for high quality, royalty free imagery.

I had a viral pin pretty fast on Pinterest… and it didn’t actually have an amazing image. But, was on brand colour wise, with clear writing.

It was a very boring Pin!

But that’s the point here! Make you content GREAT and the rest will take care of itself.

I’ll talk more about creating great content below.

But think unique, think new, think valuable!

3. Create unique and authentic content

Above all else you should be making sure you are creating! Create unique and authentic content that resonates with your audience (more on your audience below).

The Pin i mentioned above went viral because it was clear, simple and had a message everyone could understand. It had great info. Was easily digestible. It was on brand for my followers. It was of value.

Pinterest is prioritising unique or new content, so make sure what your putting out there – in terms of Pins is fresh! and you’ll be a step up.

Ideally, when you create a post on your blog you’ll be aiming for 2-6 initial Pins that are all slightly different!

Pinterest considers a Pin new content if it has a different design, different wording or an altered description. So shake things up a little.

Tip: Never Pin the same URL in the space of 24 hours. Ideally, I leave 7 days in between pinning the same URL, even if the Pin is different.

4. Know your audience

So, this one is in two parts.

The first is know who your ideal customer is. Who are you aiming to target? and why. Map out exactly what this ideal customer or client looks like.

• Where do they live?
• What do they do?
• What do they love?
• Who do they live with?
• Which brands do they use?
• How do they spend their days?
• When do they shop online?

Then, do the legwork to figure out what they are searching for. This part is the SEO of Pinterest part. Making sure that you are optimising your Pins for what your ideal audience wants to find. You can do this in a variety of ways. I’ll explain two.

The first is you can type into the search bar on Pinterest a short string of words (keywords) that are related to your topic or subtopic. For instance if you were offering wedding planning services, you might type in “planning a wedding”.

Next you’ll see a further break down of the categories that are most searched under this heading.

The first 3 or 4 are popular keywords that are searched by people planning a wedding. A great place to start with your blog topics and ultimately Pins!

Next, make sure you include the keywords in both your Pin title and the start of your Pin description.

Write your description as if you were talking in natural language. Don’t try to be too clever. Pinterest, like Google can sniff out a keyword stuffer a mile away. Then, if you like you can add 2- 3 hashtags relevant to your Pin. For instance #weddingplanning #fastweddingplanning #budgetweddings

Make sure when you create boards that you are optimizing these for SEO as well with clear titles and descriptions.

5. Sort out your strategy – then use a scheduler

So, I definitely started with Pinterest by manual pinning. It works well enough. But is really time consuming when you start to ramp things up as a business. I started a free trial with Tailwind and was instantly delighted.

I used Tailwind religiously and it was fantastic. But only this week have paused Tailwind and am going back to manual pinning. I did this because the Pinterest algorithm is so messed up lately that I wasn’t getting the value out of Tailwind and I changed up my Pinterest strategy.

I now only Pin the same Pin 2 or 3 times MAX to different relevant boards.

So, I don’t need Tailwind right now. I can easily schedule my reduced pins in Pinterest itself (they have an easy to use and great scheduler built right in) or on Canva’s new Content Planner and Scheduler direct from Canva. This new tool from Canva really is a game changer!

But , I do still love Tailwind and won’t be closing my account completely. I want to retain my Tailwind Communities posts and also my analytics. Plus, I want to be ready to dive back in when things change again on Pinterest.

So, you should try it out and see what feels right for you right now. Just remember to not be spammy with your pins. That’s a massive no no and something Pinterest is really clamping down on right now.

If you want to trial Tailwind, you get an initial free trial period, and then it’s paid. It isn’t madly expensive, but unless you have your Pinterest strategy sorted first, you might not want to jump in. It’s most valuable to make sure you have all your other ducks in a row first, then dive into Tailwind once you’re sure you need it.

If you’ve used tools like Buffer before, you’ll find Tailwind familiar.

I’m was on the $15 a month Plus plan.

If you are going to try Tailwind, the Communities are the biggest benefit. I recommend joining a few Tailwind Communities to help get your Pins reshared and ultimately repinned on Pinterest.

Tip: You can actually use Tailwind Communities absolutely FREE!

Two of my favourite Tailwind Communities are:

1. All Niches, Promote, learn and Grow – if you click the link here, it’s an invite to join 🙂
2. Pinterest Friends – click the link to join

You’ll see both of these Tailwind Communities have a ratio of over 1 Pins to Reshares, and also Reshares to RePins. You want to make sure these ratios are higher than 1. Pinterest Friends Community ratio is around 1.6 which is great. (I’ll go into more detail about this in another post, I know it can be confusing!).

There you have it. 5 tips to grow your monthly viewers on Pinterest. There’s plenty more, but I’m hoping this is a good start to get you moving in the right direction.

As always, reach out if you would like to know anything more or hear about other topics, and please share on Pinterest if you found this helpful!