281 – How to Use Pinterest for Your Product Business with Kate Ahl of Simple Pin Media

Gift biz unwrapped episode 281.

Pinterest is really where people go to find the idea and

then take action to click on the pen,

to go to the website,

to buy the product,

to do the task or to take action on the idea.

Attention gifters bakers,

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Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

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helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

Hi, dear Sue here And welcome to another episode.

And this is a goodie.

We're talking everything Pinterest.

We've never talked about Pinterest on the show before major mistake

being totally honest here.

I haven't focused on this platform at all for years,

that will become apparent with the type of questions I ask.

But I think it's a good thing because a lot of

beginner questions come out that reveal some things you might not

know, even if you've been active on Pinterest for a while,

a lot has changed over the years.

You'll hear what those changes are,

but most importantly,

you'll learn why Pinterest is a valuable place to be these

days. And also why it's worth your time and energy.

If you're a newbie,

like I feel I am.

Everything you need to know is covered,

including picking up with a past dormant account or starting fresh.

We review the account name,

boards, pins,

and their sizes and descriptions and so much more.

You'll also hear a few mistakes Kate cautions us about,

and you'll find out the only industry that should not add

text to their images.

Is it yours?

Let's get into all about Pinterest right now today.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Kate.

All Kate is the owner of simple pin media,

a Pinterest management and marketing agency that helps clients find and

convert their customer on Pinterest.

She has a passion for helping over 600 small business owners

grow on this platform.

When she teaches Pinterest marketing,

she aims for it to consist of actionable,

simple steps that help owners move forward and see results without

being overwhelmed.

Kate also hosts the weekly simple pin podcast.

Of course,

all about Pinterest marketing,

Kate, welcome to the gift biz unrepped podcast.

Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.

I'm excited to chat with you.

I am excited too.

And like I really seriously can't believe we've never talked about

Pinterest on the show before.

I know I can't believe it either with so many of

the types of creative types that you have within your community.

I'm sure so many people already use it.

Yeah, I'm sure too.

And I know it's changed over the years too,

so we're going to get into all of that.

But before we do,

I want you to ask you a question,

that's become tradition on the show,

and that is to have you describe yourself in a creative

way through a motivational candle.

So if you were to tell us all about Kate in

terms of what color and quote would be on a candle

that resonates with you,

what would it look like?

This was such a unique and great question.

I loved it.

So it would be a great candle,

which my daughter jokes and some friends joke.

That is my favorite color,

but they don't believe it should be a color,

but I do.

I love gray and on it would be don't chase someone

else's success.

And that has been really important for me to stay focused

on where I'm going,

who I am and how I'm wired,

because someone else's success is built differently based on who they

are. And so this candle would remind me that gray while

not necessarily bright or colorful really is who I am.

I'm right in the middle.

I match with everything and gray matches with everything.

And that quote just reminds me that I have my own

business and to really chase that success instead of someone else's,

There you go.

I've known you for a while now.

I mean,

you've spoken at social media marketing world.

You are recognized as a Pinterest guru.

Let's just say,

but isn't it interesting how even when you reach a certain

level of success,

you still second guess yourself.

Absolutely. I have no idea why we do that to ourselves,

but we do.

We do.

And yeah,

you're right.

It hits at weird times too.

It's not like you're always doing it,

but you hit these points where you start to do it

and you have to catch yourself.

And the quicker you catch yourself,

the quicker you go back to normal,

but in the beginning you kind of don't realize it's happening.

And then you start to pick up on,

Oh, now I see where I'm going.

You have to catch yourself.

You're exactly right.

I've seen that within this community too,

because people will,

let's say they are a Potter.

Okay. And they think,

well, you know,

why would anybody buy my stuff?

There are a lot of people out there making pottery.

So there's that?

Why should I even start?

Because it's going to be similar to what other people are

already doing when really we get through that conversation and all,

but it hits all of us,

I guess is the whole point.

That's for sure.

Love your quote.

Perfect. Talk to me a little bit about Pinterest and out

of all the different platforms,

I'm not even sure I want to call Pinterest a platform

anymore. We'll get into that later,

but of all the different types of things online,

how did you gravitate to Pinterest?

I think I gravitated there mostly because I realized the power,

it had to drive traffic and at the time Facebook was

driving traffic,

but they had changed their business page algorithm for the very

And I think it shook up the industry to look for

a place that had the ecosystem that was always driving traffic

to somebody's website or to their product page or whatever it

was. And I also liked that Pinterest didn't have the noise

that the other social media platforms did.

And as a result to your point,

I think of Pinterest as a search and discovery platform or

engine very similar to Google or YouTube.

It's where people go to find answers,

to dream into things and to really create the life that

they want without the input of other people,

you really get into be in your own world.

A lot of people joke that it's the introvert's platform.

And I think there's a lot of truth to that because

when you go to Facebook,

you're just trying to drown out the noise.

And even when you go to Instagram,

it's driven by likes and engagement.

And Pinterest is really where people go to find the idea

and then take action to click on the pin,

to go to the website,

to buy the product,

to do the task or to take action on the idea.

And I just love that uniqueness of the platform.

They've toyed around with how to keep people on the platform

more because that's what you need to do to get people,

to see more ads,

but you still have the same ecosystem that they've had from

the beginning,

give people the ideas and then they can save them for

later or go take action right away.

You've already bracketed what I was thinking because when I think

of like a social media platform and I wouldn't even call

it that I agree with you.

What's not a Facebook or an Instagram,

but in the beginning,

2010. So I think we lumped them all together because they

were these new spaces online where we could show product.

And so I think that's where the confusion came in,

but I totally agree with you.

And I love the thinking that now it is a search

engine and in the beginning,

and I don't know if it's like this now I'm not

going to profess that.

I really know Pinterest at all.

So I'm asking you questions from someone who is kind of

starting from the ground floor.

We might get into that at some point here,

but it used to be,

I think it was like 90% of all content was repins

yeah, that's still the case.

Pinterest is really trying to change that to where they tell

the creator,

which is the business owner.

We want more of your fresh content.

So give us all the stuff you have.

We'll take it because what does happen is when a pinner

starts to use Pinterest,

they kind of go down like the black hole and they

just keep saving things.

And that's when they mean 90% are repins cause they're re

saving things to their boards because others have shared great ideas.

So the business owner it's really up to us to put

our new products or our new content out there so that,

that can get circulating as a new idea for the pinners

to save for later.

Got it.

Okay. And I think that that all makes sense in terms

of the evolution of Pinterest as well,

because we were going there because there was a wedding and

we wanted to see all the wedding pictures and capture all

ideas or whatever the different thing was.

And so we were making our own boards and we were

bringing in ideas that we would look at later,

maybe we were decorating for a bedroom,

whatever it was.

So that makes sense.

Let's talk though about someone who is there for business and

we're on the platform because we want to share what we

make because we're all makers here.

What would be the reason to choose Pinterest over anything else

online? One of the biggest reasons you would choose it is

because whenever you do share what you're creating or making that

can live on the platform for a really long time,

whereas something like Instagram,

the life of that post is maybe 15 minutes.

So let's say you bake something that's really unique.

It's really amazing.

Let's say it's a beautiful cake.

What happens is that because people find it so valuable and

inspirational, they keep sharing and keep sharing and keep sharing.

And when they click on that post,

it brings traffic to your website.

So what I love about that is that it's not a

one and done,

but that you get this long term marketing,

this longterm response to something that you may be created a

couple of years ago.

And that is such a good payback for something you spent

so much time creating instead of a quick 15 minute Instagram

post or something on Facebook,

that's seen by half the people who follow you,

if that right.

And then you just don't get a lot of play out

of it.

So we love Pinterest because of that reason.

But number two is really the people who want to consume

our products or consumer content or see what we've created.

They're already there and they're ready to be inspired by you.

So I think that's one of the biggest reasons we would

put our content there or products there because you just get,

I guess,

more kickback from it is a good way to put it.

You just get more engagement from it.

So I just felt like it's such a good investment for

the time you put into creating or building what you did.

We worked so hard on getting the photos just right or

the description,

right. Or whatever the post is going to be.

We'll get into maybe hashtags later.

I don't even know about hashtags on Pinterest.

You're going to educate me on that.

I'm making this a note for myself,

but to think that it only lasts 15 minutes,

as you're saying for Instagram,

or gets lost in the Facebook feed or wherever you're putting

it versus doing all that work and then having it live

on, as you're saying makes so much sense.

So then I'm thinking that your pins then continue to build

on each other,

like the depth and the richness of your Pinterest account then

would just keep growing when you're adding more of your own

original content.

Yeah, exactly.

And one of the really cool things is that everybody has

a brand style,

right? And they take pictures a certain way or they style

things a certain way and have their logo.

What Pinterest does is they can read the image and they

start to match up your images together in what's called like

a more like this section underneath a pin.

So let's say we have a Baker.

Who's created this beautiful cake and they have other cakes.

And a lot of the styles of the photos are the

same. And then they have the same logo underneath them.

More like this.

The pinner is really,

they like to go into again,

this black hole and your other pins will start to show

there too.

So the chance of engagement with your other types of content

increases because of how much great content you already have on

the platform that looks similar or has a similar type to

it. If you only do cakes,

your cakes might show up there too.

And they might go,

Oh, I like this cake in this cake.

And they really all lead back to your website.

Alright. I want to start as if we have listeners who

are thinking,

Oh, that sounds interesting.

I'm going to start a Pinterest account.

Okay. But the first question is maybe they're already on Pinterest

for personal use because they've done what we were talking about

before a wedding or they're doing decorating their house or something.

What do they do with that personal account?

Just leave it and start another one for business,

or what's your suggestion there?

So it really depends on,

let's say you have a personal account.

It has a ton of boards.

They're all over the map.

It doesn't really feel like you can organize the messy closet

if you will.

And so that's when we tell people to start from scratch

and create a new account,

that's very branded to what you talk about.

However, if you have a personal profile that you've kind of

used for business,

you only have a few boards and it's really easy to

rebrand by changing up the names,

moving some of the photos and making it look like it's

a business account,

which you could easily convert that to a business account.

It's simply by going to business.pinterest.com

when you're logged in and it'll walk you through the prompts.

If that's the case,

we tell people simply convert your personal into a business and

you don't have to start one new.

I have a business account,

but I also have a lot of secret boards that I

use personally.

So that's a way that you could potentially use your business

account also personal instead of having to,

but really to answer that question,

if you should start over,

it depends on what you're starting with.

If you just feel like it's a hot mess and you

don't want to update it,

start a brand new Pinterest profile for your baby.

Thinking that some people already have Pinterest accounts in their name.

So it's just their name.

It's not a business name.

Should they change the account then to a business or leave

it as personal?

Or can you change it even?

Yeah. If you have it in your name and your business

is your name,

you could definitely change it to business.

It's really easy to convert,

but if you don't want it in your name and you

want it in your business name,

that's what we tell people.

You could change it.

It just depends on how much work you want to put

into it.

The Pinterest profiles are really easy to change to business with

just a click of a button.

It just depends on how much work you want to do

to update the boards,

to reflect what you talk about or to share your content,

Right? Cause you don't want to change it business.

Let's say you were a personal account.

You changed it over to business.

Could you change the name?

Are you allowed to change the account names?

Okay. So you changed the account name over to business,

but then you have somebody come over and want to see

your whole board because somehow they had seen something and then

they see all these personal boards there.

That would be a disconnect,

right? Exactly.

That's a disconnect.

I love the way you put that.

Cause I think that's a really good question that we tell

people to ask that if somebody came over to your Pinterest

profile, would they understand who you are,

what you talk about or what you sell simply by looking

at your profile and the boards that you have.

Okay, perfect.

I had someone asked me this morning in my coaching group.

Cause I had mentioned that you were coming and now he's

going to be interviewing you this afternoon.

And she specifically said,

I think I have like three or four Pinterest accounts,

but I don't even know.

Is there a way for her to figure that out?

You know,

it is really tough.

Some people do have them and we have noticed a glitch

over time that if you happen to use a similar name,

it's hard to log into one over the other.

So if Pinterest does tell you,

you need a different email for each and everyone.

So the chances are,

she probably use different emails.

And what I would do,

especially if she doesn't know what email she used or what

she did is I would search her name on Pinterest or

her business name and see what boards pop up or what

profiles pop up because you can select to search by profile.

So that's probably an easy way for her to find which

ones are out there.

All right.

Good. And I'm sure she's not alone,

which is why I felt that it was a good question

to ask.

Yeah. Okay.

So I have to tell you,

I'm really excited.

I know I've been doing Pinterest all wrong and I've put

a gift biz on wrapped board in my other business Pinterest

account. And now I have someone new who knows Pinterest working

with me.

And so she's going to help me get my Pinterest account

up and running,

doing what it's supposed to do,

et cetera.

So I am with a lot of our listeners here who

might be thinking,

okay, I'm going to get started.

So let's walk through how you would start an account.

Like obviously you just opened an account,

choose a name.

Do you want your name to be your business?

That's a great question.

I would say it's how people know you.

So for me,

I do not have an as Kate all,

I have it as simple pin media because I want the

business to be separate than my personal name.

However, there's some people who they are known by their name.

So I would go with what you are best known by

and go with that because that's what people will search.

Okay. And if you already have a personal account that you're

keeping, then you have to do some version of the name,

like Nancy,

something designer or Nancy,

something artist or something like that.

Correct? Yeah.

If I had the Cate all account,

what I would do is just convert everything to simple pin

media. Or if I had Kate all,

maybe it was talking about like leadership or business.

I say my name and then leadership and business strategies or

something like that.

Yeah. So you can clearly differentiate between the two,

but you still have the names.

So someone could search you that way.

So that's really good because there are a lot of people

who are artists who use their name.

For sure.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay. So still talking about with this clean account,

there are no boards,

there's nothing up yet.

How do you decide on how many boards,

what the topics of the boards should be?

That kind of thing.

Great question.

So one of the things we do,

we do builds for people and we take what it is

they talk about based on the categories on their website.

So if they primarily focus on baking,

but that can also expand to pies,

cakes, cookies,

we begin to create a minimum of 10 boards and we

look at those 10 boards and it doesn't have to be

10, but we like 10 because it kind of makes it

look filled up.

It makes it look like it's tended to,

and we begin to name each board based on what we

think people would be searching on Pinterest.

So if they are specializing in gluten-free,

we would write gluten free cookies or gluten-free cakes would also

be a board because you are not appealing to the person

who can eat a regular cake because they either have a

gluten allergy or they are gluten intolerant.

So you want to think about broad first and then go

even more specific to what it is you talk about.

So we tell people if you have 10 or so categories

on your website for your products or your content,

that's where you should start.

And if you're ever wondering what terms to use,

Pinterest makes it so easy.

They have a search bar right inside Pinterest.

And when you search,

they give search prediction terms and that shows you what terms

are most popular on Pinterest or that people are already searching.

And you simply choose from those terms to name your boards.

That sounds so easy.

It's kind of fun actually.

And here's the tip before you go into Pinterest,

get out pen and paper old,

traditional and write out the names of the boards first while

you're searching on Pinterest,

because it's very frustrating to try to do both board creation

and searching at the same time.

So we take some time and just pen and paper,

write down your top 10 that you want to create and

then create them.

So smart.

Yeah, because you just get overwhelmed.

Once you get into the platform,

you lose all sense of what you're supposed to be doing.

Probably Exactly.

And so just do that with a pen and paper,

create your boards.

And what you'll want to do too,

is make sure you have a description for each board.

And Pinterest has fields for that,

for where you can enter.

And we tell people in that description,

just one to two sentences,

describe what the board is about and use similar keywords.

Like if it's about gluten free cakes,

use the word gluten-free cakes in the board description and then

choose a category which would be food.

And once you open the board,

you're ready to add pins to.

Okay. So Just a final question about the board.

So when someone is entering in a search word in Pinterest,

overall, what is going to come back to them are boards

that are associated with the term either because they've been named

that word or the word is in the description More,

the name of the board we find holds the most keyword

weight. The name of the board is the first.

Yes. Correct.

Oh, that's good information.

It's kind of like the SEO and Google,

right? Because we're saying Pinterest is a search platform.

Yep. A hundred percent.

Okay. So we've talked about the fact that board topics for

everyone who's listening here would be very product specific.

What about benefits specific or experience or something like that?

Would it make sense to add in those type of boards,

Only if you create a content or a product that goes

along with that,

some people used to do experience or lifestyle cause they thought,

well, if I'm really targeting a mom who is cooking at

home, maybe I'll talk about kitchen remodels,

but that's not really the way we do it anymore.

Because if they go to kitchen remodels and they go to

that board of yours,

you don't talk about kitchen remodels and they really won't see

a good way to reengage with your content like they used

to. So that's why we say,

don't get too far out.

You want to be pretty specific to where you can put

your content or a piece of product in a board.

You have to be able to talk about it.

It would be like me talking about fashion thinking,

well, maybe I'll get somebody looking at my boards and then

they'll want to know about Pinterest.

That's just not how it works.

The searcher is very intent on what they want.

Okay. Two questions following through the same thinking here,

if I'm a soap maker and I talk often about the

value of the healthy ingredients that I put in my soaps.

Would that make sense then to be a board?

Yeah, it could be,

especially because if you talk about it as a blog post,

so if it was something like natural soaps or I'm not

coming up with good names right now,

but something along the lines of organic soap or how the

best ingredients for organic,

or you could say organic soap ingredients,

something along those lines,

for sure.

Especially if you could put your content in there.

Okay. And then what about if you,

during normal times are out at craft shows,

where do you put a board that is just showing craft

shows that might be pictures of you at a craft show

and things like that or no?

No, because the pinner really isn't interested in the experience they're

interested in result and how it serves them.

So the craft show doesn't really serve them.

It shows your credibility,

which I would put on your website,

but I wouldn't necessarily pin it.

Okay. That's great information.

Cause our minds would naturally go there cause you're still thinking

about social media posts kind of exactly something perfect for Instagram,

but not for Pinterest excellent direction.

Okay. So now let's get to the pins.

So we've got your brand new profile.

We've made 10 boards that are product specific or experienced enough

that isn't far from really what our product is.

So we've got those 10 now,

what do we put in these boards and keeping you in

suspense for just a second?

So we can take a quick break to hear from our

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First thing we want to think about is the pin and

the pin is what you create that leads back to your

product or your content.

And this pen has to be vertical,

which means there's a two to three ratio.

It looks different than every single other platform out there.

So it's a tall image.

And if you use something like Canva or PicMonkey,

they have preset dimensions for you.

So you don't have to think about the dimensions there.

And what you're doing is this is what we refer to

as the billboard advertising of Pinterest.

It's the very first thing that the pinner looks at.

So it should display your product or tell a quick little

story about your content,

just enough to get them interested.

Very similar to what you would see on a billboard,

somebody driving by.

They can only read a couple of words.

So that's the same thing you want to put on your

image. So let's take an example of the cake.

So if you have this beautiful cake,

eyelid can look at it.

If I just see the image and think that's gorgeous,

but I have no idea that it's gluten free or maybe

it's vegan or something other that can distinguish it from the

other sea of cakes I'm seeing,

which is why we add just a little bit of text

to it,

to give it more intrigue.

So a gluten three vanilla cake or vegan gluten free.

The point is you want to add something to your image

with the text that tells people more of the story and

gets them just intrigued enough to want to click to your

website. Do you put the text on the image?

Do you do the only time we've where text is not

beneficial? Is those people who are in the home decor space

and that's not DIY home decor because that definitely should tell

the people that they're about to approach a tutorial.

But when it comes to looking at interior or kitchen design

or living room design texts can often get in the way.

And a lot of pinners want to see the whole room.

And so that is the only niche right now that we

see where you should not put text on because then it

can distract,

but everybody else should add a little bit of text to

their image.

Okay. So are we talking right now about the cover image

of each board?

No, we're talking about the actual pin.

Let me back up a little bit.

Cause I was getting myself confused.

What about that first image that is on the cover of

the board?

So the cover of the board is auto populated with the

pins that are in the board.

So we don't put a lot of emphasis on this cover.

Oftentimes what I'll do is take a pin that I already

have inside the board that I really like part of the

picture and I'll just drag it.

Pinterest gives you an option inside the edit function of the

board to move the image where you want.

That's where I put it.

I don't put any effort into board covers besides that.

So you just pick the best one from within the board.

It allows you to select which one should be the cover

for the first one.

Yep. Okay.

Now I get it.

Okay. So when we're talking about the pins in this,

so this is kind of a standard rule,

then it's the image and some type of wording.

Yep. Correct.

And is that also for search?

Yeah, that is also for search because Pinterest has a very

powerful visual recognition tool.

That's called lens.

It also has a visual search.

So let's say one of the biggest frustrations for a pinner

is that they click on a pin and it goes nowhere,

but they really want to purchase maybe that pair of boots

or these earrings.

And they just can't find them.

The visual search allows them to hover over the actual product

they want and see more results,

which increases their chances of finding another pin on the platform

that actually does have a link so they can buy the

product. So visual is very important on Pinterest And all your

pins should have a link,

All your pins.

Absolutely. So there's two ways you can add pins to the

platform. Number one is,

let's say you have a blog post talking about your cake.

You can put that Pinterest image in the blog post,

and then I can simply hit the pin Pinot button on

your bookmark,

on your computer.

And I can choose the board.

I want it to go to,

and then it saves to Pinterest or you can directly upload

an image,

choose the board.

And then it goes onto Pinterest that way by a direct

upload. But you've got to make sure you put the link

right in that little box for where you want it to

go. The first way the link automatically goes the second way

you have to manually add it in.

Correct. Okay.

Got it.

What about infographics?

Are they still good on Pinterest?

I remember years back hearing them About that.

Yeah, they're not.

So what they do is they can get a lot of

good engagement as far as saves because all the information is

on the pin,

but they don't really get people to take action to come

to your website.

And so what you're really looking for is how to drive

a click because that's where you can make a sale or

get an email subscriber.

Whereas if somebody has an infographic and everything's on there,

there's two hurdles,

one, it makes it really hard to read.

And number two,

Pinterest has said they don't want images being really long.

And a lot of times those infographics can get really long.

Cause they're trying to pack in all the info.

So we just tell people just to avoid infographics for now

on Pinterest,

because they don't really have a longterm benefit besides being saved.

Good. I'm glad we got to that because they have to

change then over.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. No.

Okay. See,

it's kind of good that I haven't kept up.

Cause then I remembered to ask these questions and you can

be like,

no Sue.

Nice. Okay.

And so let's talk about the description of the photo.

Do you have any tips for us there?

Yeah, it should be.

I would recommend two to three sentences that are very natural

sounding. You want to appeal to it like you would for

Google talking about this gluten free cake.

You could say,

in fact,

someone gave me this great tip.

It's like writing out a text to a friend.

You should try this gluten free cake.

It's so easy to make as five ingredients.

It would be the best for your next birthday party.

That's a really great description because it has keywords like birthday

party, gluten free cake,

five ingredients.

It really tells Pinterest what it is this specific pin is

about. So then when somebody searches those specific things,

Pinterest goes,

ha I have something here with five ingredients.

Let me show you.

And so you want to be very specific with that.

You asked a question about hashtags.

This is where you would put hashtags,

but I will caution you to say Pinterest,

they pulled back on them.

They've released them again and now they really don't talk about

them anymore.

So what we tell people is that hashtags are really good

for Instagram.

They're not the best for Pinterest because the only reason Pinterest

added them was that it could be another layer of search,

but the pinner never really adopted them.

They never really got used to hashtags being on Pinterest.

So we just tell people for the description two to three

sentences, if you're going to choose a hashtag,

it has to be very closely aligned with a keyword that

you've used in the sentence.

So that could be hashtag gluten free cake or hashtag birthday

party. If you try to say something like,

I guess what would be the total opposite hashtag cookie Pinterest

is like,

no, no,

no, no,

no. You're trying to get into another category.

We need you to stay in your own category.

They have the photo recognition as well.

Just like you hear over on Facebook and Instagram,

all that.

Yeah. Okay.

I actually that there aren't hashtags there.

Me too.

I mean,

I feel like it's kind of junky.

It gets also,

nobody uses them like pinners,

don't search by putting in hashtag a term.

They just put in search terms.

Alright. And so then to your point,

then everything that you just said about the cake and then

the link directs them back.

Since we're a business,

the link then directs them back to information of how they

could purchase that product from Cracks.

And then they either save it for later or they click

on it.

And that's how you get this continued engagement based on your

images on Pinterest.

Okay. What about calls to action?

The call to action could be subtle in your description.

Similar to what I said about you can make this for

your next birthday party or this is a perfect gift for

graduation or something similar like that.

If you don't add one,

it's not a deal breaker,

but really think about being specific with using a key word

in it.

The thing about a habit of a pinner is they don't

read. So your description really is just serving the search algorithm.

Not so much the actual pinner,

the only thing they're reading is your text on the image,

Text on the image and they know to click already,

correct. That's natural to the platform.

So I'm liking this.

It feels right Easier.

Yeah, it is super easy.

And I love Pinterest because of that.

It's going to be dangerous though,

because as I get more integrated and started,

I'm going to have to put a timer up.

Yes, absolutely.

So What do you say if you have a business account,

do you go out and pin other people's content to your,

You know,

I don't very often unless I'm very new to Pinterest.

So when I was just getting my Pinterest boards really built

up, I would pin other people's content and thinking of my

boards, very similar to like a library and a resource library

or inspiration,

but it was very clear not to make it competing.

So if I was selling a candle and someone else was

selling a candle,

I'm not pinning their candle.

But if they were maybe talking about ways to relax,

I might pin that.

You just need to be very clear about why you're pinning

somebody else's content and it's not to trick the algorithm into

anything it's really just,

you want to be helpful or you want to build up

your boards with some content.

Do you ever use Boards for like a resource?

I mean,

my other account for my other business and I started this

seven years ago and I haven't even really looked at it

very much since,

but I was thinking I was going to use the boards

as a resource for clients so that I could say,

Oh, if you want other ideas of how to use these

products, go to Pinterest on this board and take a look

at all these ideas that I've brought together on the board.

Yeah. This is actually a really great tool for people who

are service-based.

So if they are a photographer or a wedding coordinator or

a branding expert or anybody that needs to coordinate with a

client to get the right vision,

even somebody who's a Pinterest boards are the way to go

because you get into your client's head.

So you can use that as a resource there,

or you could pull together all of your posts into one

place and you can link to that at any time in

an email or maybe on Facebook or Instagram to say,

if you want all my content on Pinterest,

here you go.

It's right here in this great Pinterest board about X,

All right.

Super self serving.

What do I do about the podcast?

Okay. So this is,

well, I have a podcast,

so I do this.

So we actually create the image that leads back to the

blog post on our site that connects to the podcast.

We have found linking directly to an Apple podcast is okay,

but you want to make sure you have a really good

image and some texts that tells them that it's Apple podcasts

so that they know where they're going,

because they don't want to be surprised.

So a podcast is great.

As long as you take something catchy like a title.

And then for us,

we actually write simple pin podcast on our image.

It's kind of looks like our logo so that they know

they're going to be engaging with a podcast.

And then all of those sit in one board.

Yup. Alright.

I just had to ask you since I had you on

and no,

that's a great question.

Okay. Another thing I've heard and we have been talking a

lot about,

even though we're makers and product creators,

we have been talking about the value of adding a blog

to your content,

to set you off as a specialist and expert in your

industry. It's great for the Google juice,

all of that.

So a lot of people now,

hopefully fingers crossed are thinking about or considering are starting to

do blog articles.

So pins can go back to that article.

We've talked about that a little bit.

I've also heard that you can send multiple images back to

the same article.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. What's the strategy behind that?

That's a way to stretch your content.

So we call it content stretching.

So if you have one blog post,

but you could create five to 10 different images that either

they need to look not super different,

but they need to look unique either they have the placement

of the text in a different area or a different angle.

You can create those all in Canva or PicMonkey and you

can upload them to Pinterest.

We suggest at least probably like a week apart or so,

so that you're not uploading them all at once and linking

them to the blog post.

But that is a great way to try to engage with

a different type of consumer based on the view of the

product or the topic or the catchy slogan that you put

on the pin.

Okay. Yeah.

So creating one piece of content and then using it multiple

ways in multiple places by the photo.

Yeah. Correct.

Also love that all of this is feeling so good to

me. It's such a good and easy way to stretch something

out without writing like a thousand word blog posts.

Yeah. And I'm also feeling even with products,

like you could have the straight on single your product against

a back background or a flat lay,

you know,

whatever makes sense for a product.

Then you could also have that same product in more of

a lifestyle photo.

Like there could be three or four different photos also for

each product.

Yep. Correct.

And would you change then the wording of the,

do you even call it a post?

What do you call it?

A wording of the pin.

Yeah. Like the text overlay.

Yeah. I would,

I would play around with it a little bit and see,

maybe get into the mind of the person who's buying your

product and maybe what their pain point is,

or even use a question.

Ooh. Yeah.

So that's the text overlay.

What about The description part?

The description can be the same.

Pinterest is really what they call fresh images is really just

a new image that you don't need to change up the

description if you don't want to.

Oh, even better.

Yeah. Love,

love, love that.

Are there any tools that you would suggest we use to

make this whole process easier?

Yeah, we really like Canva.

It's an easy way to create,

especially if you are not really good at creating Pinterest images.

We also do sell templates on our site too,

that people can purchase and just put their images in.

And there's lots of templates for sale around the interwebs that

you can definitely purchase as well.

So that's number one.

Number two is we do like to schedule our contents.

We use a tool called tailwind and that allows us to

not have to be a slave to pin every single day,

but we can definitely schedule them out over the weeks and

they have great analytics too.

So you can see how much engagement you got on your

pin or how many people actually clicked on it.

So those are our top two that we use.

Okay. So can we talk about tailwind a little bit more?

Yeah. I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that

it's not as much social media.

I hear a lot over on that side that some of

the scheduling apps reduce the reach of your posts.

Yeah. Like you're demoted.

Yes. You're demoted.

Yeah. That has been a conversation that's actually been circulating for

the last five or so years.

And it really started with this idea that Facebook didn't like

third party schedulers.

And they were very clear on that.

Well, Pinterest actually created a program specifically for third parties called

their marketing partner program.

And tailwind is a part of that.

So you want to be very clear to choose a scheduler

that has the API from Pinterest and is a marketing partner

that ensures that your content will be seen and it's not

demoted due to using something that's not approved.

Okay. So entail wind is that,

so that will be perfect.

And given the fact again that this is different than social

media, you know how in social media,

even though we're not having to post 50 million times a

day, like was the strategy way back when you still post

regularly over on your social media platforms,

given the here that our content stays longer,

it sits there to be searched and found.

How often should you be adding new content to boards?

We tell people a minimum of five times per day and

a maximum up to 30 per day per day.

Now that sounds overwhelming,

but here's an example.

Somebody who has been maybe a content creator for 10 years,

and they've been creating new blog posts five days a week

for like 10 years,

they can sustain penning,

some new and some old,

which is why we tell them,

okay, no more than 30.

So for them,

we're kind of putting this cap on it.

But for those who are like me,

who maybe have only 200 or so posts,

we're doing a little bit between five to seven and that's

a mix of old and new new images.

And it's just really keeping the drip going.

That's pretty much it.

So this is why you'd want tailwind.

Correct. Because I'm thinking,

okay, so let's say I have a new product taking the

pictures, different angles,

maybe different overlays,

maybe different colors of that same product.

So all of that,

I'm thinking this through and tell me if I've got this

right. So I have all these images.

I can put them into Canva with different overlays.

I don't have to make new descriptions because you said those

can be the same.

I've got my 10 boards.

Maybe I'm going to have more boards who knows so that

I could take that one project and schedule it into tailwind

for, I think you said going back to the same content

no more than once a week.

So then I could go and schedule all of that for

however many images.

I have five,

six weeks out.

So that would be one,

but it's really Six.

Yeah. Correct.

And it's going to different boards.

So you're really getting a stretch of six weeks or so

out of your content where it's just kind of dripping out

to Pinterest.

So that's why we love tailwind because it's dripping it out

for you.

Right. So then you just continue layering it down.

Yes, exactly.

If you do it all at once versus,

Oh my gosh,

today I have to do five or six 30.

Yeah. That's why tailwinds so valuable.

Correct. Okay.

I'm getting that.

I love it.

I've heard something About tribes and I have no idea what

that means.

So I would say for beginners,

don't worry about tribes,

but for those who may be our advanced tribes is a

benefit of groups that know each other.

Well, it's a reciprocity piece.

So I share yours.

You share mine,

we're going to try to get a boost from each other's

content. It really only works well.

If you have a small group of people who are already

committed to that because they support one another and their niches

closely match.

So if I was in a group with other Pinterest marketers

and we wanted to support each other,

we would each put in a few pins into the tribes

and then we could easily schedule them out to Pinterest onto

our boards,

therefore supporting my colleague and my colleagues supporting me.

But if you do not have that community,

we don't suggest it right off the bat,

just because sometimes people don't share your stuff or maybe you

don't want to share other people's stuff.

So only enter.

And if you're really ready to share.

Okay. And you would want to share things that you're Would

also like,

right? Correct.

Yeah. A lot of times people will enter into those and

they'll be in a group of cake decorators,

but they only talk about cookies.

So it's not really a good fit because they only are

their cake decorator and they don't really talk about cookies.

So yeah,

I'd be pretty clear about what you talk about.

That Makes sense.

All right.

We know a little bit about what it is and as

we get more educated on this,

we can dive deeper into that.

Would you have a few mistakes cautionary tales that you can

just warn us about as we finish up here?

Yeah. I would say one of the things is your images.

Like we see a lot of people who either they're not

really good at it,

or they don't like it and they're just kind of slapping

some up there.

We just don't encourage you to really get smart and very

strategic with your marketing and your images because that is your

front door on Pinterest.

And so we see a lot of people putting content creation

or product creation before that.

And there,

by the time they get to the Pinterest image,

they're like,

whatever, fine,

just put it up.

But you're really missing an opportunity there to really engage with

the pinner and get them to click on your content.

Some make that probably the very first important thing in your

Pinterest marketing.

The other mistake we see people making is the not linking.

So they get really quick and busy and they'll just upload

pins to Pinterest.

And then all of a sudden,

nothing is linked and it's like,

well, that's a missed opportunity too.

Right. Because it's not like people will just go back to

your account necessarily and find a website there or something they're

just going to move on.

Right. Exactly.

And I imagine,

and we talked about this briefly,

The earlier that you want Your tire account to be cohesive

so that you can get into those pictures like that Happening,

right? Yep.

Correct. So You want to make sure that everything is in

alignment, your logos look similar where your customer would see you,

other places.

So everything cohesive across all your different platforms,

social media Included.

Yes. Wonderful.

Another motivational statement from you on someone who's thinking about this,

you know how it is Kate?

Like we listen to a podcast it's like,

okay, that sounds like a really good idea.

And then we're done and we go back to our regular

work schedule and then it doesn't happen.

Right? Yeah.

So what's the big value.

What would be the motivational ending statement about Pinterest?

I would say to just remind yourself that it is a

longterm marketing strategy and that it is not going to give

you a quick win.

You're going to have to invest for a little while,

but your investment will have big payoffs in the future.

And so don't try to wrap your brain around everything.

Just take it one piece at a time,

start with your Pinterest image,

or actually start with your profile to make sure it looks

branded, take an hour and do it,

and then really get into your Pinterest images and take one

piece at a time.

And don't worry about crazy strategies or tactics really keep your

eyes on the prize,

which is really just mastering what it looks like for you

to do Pinterest marketing for your business.

And then to know why you do it.

Do you do it to grow your email list,

to sell your products,

and then really getting into the mind of the customer.

Who's going to take that action.

And we find that when people really double down on that

tunnel vision,

that's where they grow and they know,

Oh, this is an investment.

This is going to take time.

There is not a quick win and have a like,

or some type of other engagement metric,

but you've really got to stay the course for a while

and invest in it.

Perfect. I intentionally stayed away from ads because I'm feeling like

people who are just starting out,

like let's get the platform,

let's get stable,

knowing what you're doing,

content itself A hundred percent.

Yes, exactly.

Who knows.

I might be requesting you back to talk about ad someday.

You bet I'll be the SAC about it.

We're Are you looking at going yourself with simple pin media?

What's your vision for the future?

We're really looking to serve more people in the way of

both education and then clients who hire us.

But also I think there's an element of business and leadership

that I am really eager to talk about and share with

people. All I've learned over these past six and a half

years of growing my business.

And so I think the future is both straddling Pinterest marketing

agency and then leadership business,

helping people grow their own.

And where can people go to find more about you?

Simple pin media.com.

We have lots of resources there for you.

I love when it's as easy as that.

Yeah. Everything's the same,

right? It's so perfect.

Exactly. Kate,

thank you.

This has been so helpful.

I personally am so super excited to go and get that

new account started and I'm sure a lot of our other

listeners will be too and give biz listeners,

if you do start an account,

will you please let us know even,

I don't know how you do that.

You don't tag people on Pinterest,

right? You just share your Pinterest URL with them,

But you could let me know any way that you've started

your account.

So I want to know I want to come see it.

And when mine is up,

I'll definitely let you know about mine too.

Kate, thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

All of your information and let's all.

Go start our Pinterest accounts.

You bet.

Thanks so much for having me.

Could you hear how I was getting more and more excited

about Pinterest as our talk went on,

we're starting a new account for gift biz unwrapped,

and I can't wait to share it with you.

And I was serious.

If you start or reactivate a Pinterest account,

I want to know about it.

A great place to do that is over in my private

Facebook group,

gift biz breeze.

This is also where I do weekly Q and a sessions

I'm answering your questions on starting and growing your business around

your handmade products.

You'll hear more about this group in the closing of the

show, but now it's time for me to pique your interest

about next week,

seriously off the rails.

I intended to talk about one thing in this show and

it ended up being a conversation covering so many good business

topics. I just kept it going the way it was.

Grab some coffee,

pull up a chair and hang out with us.

As we have some honest woman talk about business.

It's a good one.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you as always for being here.

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

please go leave a rating and review.

That means so much and helps to get the show seen

by more makers to great way to pay it forward and

now be safe and well.

And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz

on rap Podcast.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.