The top 3 things you need to do before you publish your blog post
Soooo, you’ve created something good! Yay! That’s the hard part. Creation is tough and getting into a regular rhythm of putting your words or your work out into the world takes practice and dedication. So, well done!
Now, how do you get that in front of your ideal audience or potentially ideal client or customer? These are the top 3 things you need to do before you publish your blog post!
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Your post is written. It’s good! Really good. So, now you want to make sure it’s shared. You could rely on SEO or pushing it out to your Facebook followers. But how much engagement will it get? Will Facebook even get it to many of your followers? Probably not. Around 6% of your audience on social platforms like Facebook ever see a single post.
Here’s a quick run down of the top 3 things I do once a post is complete. It’s super easy and you can automate some of it.
Best thing is, it allows you to set and forget. All the while your content is being discovered and hopefully, shared.
1. Create 3 Pinterest Pins
Once you’ve created your gold dust, create yourself 2-3 initial Pinterest Pins that can direct back to that very piece of content. You can easily create Pins in Canva. Make them in line with your brand, use the colours and fonts and feel of your brand.
Here’s an example from a post I wrote today over on my Introvert Mom blog.
This sits at the end of the post, after my “subscribe to my newsletter” CTA.
This serves two purposes. First being that any of your readers can easily be reminded to post your content to Pinterest by pinning any of these images.
Win, win. Secondly, I use these to post directly to Pinterest. So my content gets 3 initial hits out to my preferred audience. This is how my overall post appears on my site.
2. Schedule your pins
Schedule those 2-3 initial pins into Pinterest to go out over the next 24 hours- 7 days. I like to use an app like Tailwind. Or, try the new Canva Scheduler … it’s really good!
I can choose what boards the pin will go to, what group boards on Pinterest the Pin will be shared to and on Tailwind what Tailwind Communities I can add the Pin to to get reshares. You can also use Tailwind Communities for free if you’re manually pinning 🙂
I can also set times for when the pins will be published. I like to stagger the 2- 3 initial pins out so they are not all hitting Pinterest at once. Aim for no less than 24 hours between pins with the same URL!
Tip: Make sure any new content of your own goes out onto Pinterest first. That way you’re telling Pinterest to prioritise those pins as the most important over other repins you might make later that day or have scheduled for the same day.
Here’s how my Tailwind scheduler looks …
Remember that Pinterest can take a few days to index your pins, so they may not “take off” immediately. Pinterest does however LOVE fresh content – so if your Pins and your post are fresh and new content, it will prioritise this on the main feed.
Your Pin stats will look empty like this (below) initially until it is indexed and in a day or two you will be able to see your stats.
Tip: Fresh content doesn’t just mean a new blog post! It can be just be a fresh new Pin about the same blog. Just with a new design and description.
Note that it’s important to add a catchy title, a description that includes the keywords your targeting and also hashtags with these same keywords. Your description is by far the most important bit. Make sure you know who your ideal audience is! Then pick your keywords accordingly.
Create 2-3 more Pins that you can schedule and drip feed out over the next 2-8 weeks. So, you have a good stream of promotion for your post going out to your Pinterest account regularly. I like to create a total of 6 ish pins per new blog post. 2-3 which go out within the first week and another 3 that get staggered.
Check in on your Pins regularly and see which one/s, which style and colour etc is working best for your post. You can check you impressions, link clicks and saves in your business profile on Pinterest.
I also like to run A/B tests on all post Pins. Switching up colours, fonts and styles to see which work best and making a mental note for the my next posts.
Here’s 2 Pins I did a few weeks ago for a new post… the stats are a handy reference to see which pins and what content are doing well. As you can see the pink one did way better! Keep note of what sort of styles and layouts work for your content… and what sort of Pins are driving traffic to your site. Your goal!
3. Create an opt in to grow your email list
Impressions are great, traffic is better… but converting that traffic to subscribers rocks on a whole other level.
You can create a special opt in using your email provider for a particularly great post you might have created. I use ConvertKit for creating popups on my blog and LOVE it! Really easy to use and totally intuitive if you’re not that techy inclined!
Planning to both capture and serve your ideal audience in advance will help drive your business growth. If you can, think about an optin popup or sign up form relevant to your content.
When your perfect client hits your site via Pinterest make it super easy for them to get to know you by capturing their lead somehow.
I like to use freebies, like downloads to secret tips or tricks or other high value content that I think they will both enjoy and get real value from thats in line with my particular niche. Enticing them to stay connected to you gives your funnel that extra edge and draws you closer to your goal, which is conversion!
On my lifestyle blog I use a pop up that gives away my top secrets to selfcare. Readers opt in to receive this free download in exchange for their email.
Pinterest is a powerful search engine that can help get your content discovered and shared. The end goal is always traffic and conversion, so make sure you’re keeping an eye on what’s working and how you can optimise both your pins and your processes to get your pin to go viral. I’ll write about viral posts soon!
You might also like:
Pinterest Content Strategy 2021- How to stay relevant on Pinterest in 2021
The top 3 things you need to do to set up a Business Account on Pinterest
Best Practice Guidelines for the Pinterest algorithm changes