3 PINTEREST MISTAKES TO AVOID
Are you using Pinterest to grow your business?
I’m sure you’ve heard people telling you to use Pinterest to grow your audience, but you’re probably confused on how to do that. You might be thinking….
Where do I start?
How do I get my audience to my website?
What do I do to get my target audience to see my pin images?
You can’t just hop on Pinterest and pin a few images and expect it to magically work.
You need to be intentional with how you use this platform, otherwise, you are just wasting your time.
Today, I want to share with you 3 big Pinterest mistakes to avoid so that you can successfully use Pinterest to grow your audience and your business.
If you are completely new to Pinterest, then I recommend that you start by reading my How to Grow Your Business With Pinterest. This will walk you through all the steps you need in order to lay a successful foundation and start driving your target audience to your website.
For me, Pinterest is my number one source of traffic for both of my websites.
BUT…
My goal isn’t just to increase my traffic for the sake of having a high number of pageviews.
My goal is to get my content in front of my ideal client or customer to drive them to my website. It is a very strategic process that requires consistent action.
Let’s get right into the 3 mistakes to avoid with Pinterest.
#1 - Treating Pinterest like a social media platform
Pinterest is not a social media platform.
It is a visual search engine.
You can’t apply the same strategies you do on Instagram and Facebook to Pinterest.
You need to shift your mindset on how you use this platform. It is not just a place for pretty pictures. It is a direct way to get your content in front of your ideal audience.
Since Pinterest is a search engine, your audience is using it to solve a problem they are experiencing. This means they are coming over to Pinterest and typing in a specific keyword for a topic they are searching for in the Pinterest search bar.
Pinterest will then pull the best content to fit the result of their search.
In the picture below, you can see that Pinterest has pulled these images as the most relevant pins when I typed in the word ‘organizing’ into the search bar.
This is where you want your pin image to come up. Your content needs to pop-up as a relevant search result so that your target audience will click on the pin and head over to your website.
How can you avoid this mistake?
Using specific keywords to increase the chance of your content popping up in Pinterest’s search results. Doing this will allow your audience to find your business when they are searching for a specific problem.
You can use keywords in the pin description and title of your pin image. Make sure that you narrow down the keywords, so they are specific to your industry and business.
Here is an example of my content coming up as a relevant search result in Pinterest. This is for my site, Frugal Fanatic.
You can see in the image, two of my pins pop-up at the top when someone types in ‘monthly budget.’ This is a very specific keyword phrase for my business and will help my ideal audience.
#2 - Trying to attract EVERYONE from Pinterest
Your goal is NOT to attract everyone from Pinterest. You do NOT want to just increase your pageviews for the sake of having a big number of monthly views per month.
Even though you want to grow your business, you want to grow it with the right people.
I made the mistake when I first started my business to just try to attract everyone to my website. I thought the more people I had the bigger my business would be.
WRONG.
I quickly realized when I wasn’t specific with WHO I wanted to attract that people weren’t sticking around to read my content, they weren’t signing up for my email list and they weren’t buying my products.
I was just wasting my time trying to build traffic when the people who were coming to my site were not a good fit for my business.
How can you avoid this mistake?
Think about…
Who are you trying to attract?
Who can you help?
How do you help this specific person?
What are they interested in?
Attracting the right people to your website is what will grow your business.
#3 - Not creating an intentional path
You need to have a clear path for your target audience from Pinterest to your website.
Most people focus all of their time and energy on getting their audience to their website, but they don’t consider what they want them to do once they are there.
You need to have a system in place to convert your Pinterest leads into subscribers or customers. Your path will be different depending on what your goals are in your business.
Do you want to increase your email list?
Do you want to get people on sales calls?
Do you want to increase your Facebook group community?
You want your audience to take the next step with your business. Make it easy for them so they know what they should do once they land on your website.
Having a clear path will allow you to grow your business using Pinterest.
How can you avoid this mistake?
What do you want your audience to do when they click on your pin?
What is the end goal?
Work backwards and figure out each step to get your audience off of Pinterest and to your end result.
If you find yourself making any or all of these mistakes, it’s OKAY. They are all pretty simple to fix. Pinterest is all about being intentional and consistent.
Leave a comment below and let us know if you are making any of these Pinterest mistakes or if you have questions about Pinterest.