Deciding to Market your blog post on Pinterest is as important and possibly even more important than the actual words on the page.
Google has made this very clear in all of their algorithm updates. 9 times out of 10 you’ll find that posts that rank high in search traffic always have a significant amount of social proof in them.
This means that there’s a good chance that they’ve gone viral on Facebook, done well on Pinterest and possibly gotten a lot of love on Twitter, too.
That’s why this post “how to market your blog” is in my opinion the most important part of blogging.
Writing with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind is a very close second to providing the social proof that you’ll need as well.
In this post I’m outlining the exact steps that I take to market my blog post on Pinterest and how I get over 30,000 views from Pinterest every month.
How to Market a Blog Post on Pinterest
Before we dig too much into this post I’d like to paint a picture for you to help you realize what the internet is and what it’s not.
Imagine yourself as a business person.
You put on slacks, a button up and heels everyday and you go to the office, and immediately clock in.
You sit down at your desk and start working. You schedule the meetings, the phone calls, the lunches, the interviews for the day.
Day in and day out you do the same thing.
You’re organized because you have to be, you don’t want anyone to think that you can’t handle the job you’re being paid to do right?
The day goes by just like all the others have.
You made a difference here and there ….
You clock out and you go home and start your “second job” as a mom and a wife (and a taxi) 🙂
And then the next day you get up and you do it again.
But, there’s a problem.
You’re not passionate about these meetings, these phone calls, these appointments.
It’s not filling your cup.
Sure, you’re helping people.
But not in ways that you feel most passionate about.
What if every day you go to work and do these same exact things, but you’re passionate as heck about doing it??
That’s what finding your passion is about!
Starting a blog is exactly what I’m talking about!
You want to scream from the rooftops how great your newest recipe is, and that your Instant Pot recipes are the best. Or, that your Crock Pot apple dump cake is second to none.
That is what I’m teaching you today.
I’m teaching you how to share your passion with the world and love what you do.
Of course, you’re still going to have to be organized just like the person wearing the suit and heels …
And you’ll want to clock in everyday.
But I can promise you that once you get your wheels under you, you’re going to love what you’re doing because you realize how successful you are at it.
You get to determine how success is defined for you – and once you start having wins, you’re going to replicate it over and over again.
Your enthusiasm is going to come through your writing like wildfire and you can’t wait to help the next person.
This is what I do.
This is exactly what this post is about.
I’ve won, and I’m sharing it all.
Today I’m sharing how to market a blog post on Pinterest. This post is over 3000 words. But I promise it’s worth the read.
There are several legit ways to market a blog post – today it’s all about Pinterest, though.
I am a lover of all things Pinterest. I drink the Pinterest Kool Aid, only because it’s helped me make thousands of dollars.
While Pinterest started out as a social media platform, it’s really become a search engine.
According to a Pinterest study, a whopping 250 million people use Pinterest every month. That’s over 8 million people … per day.
So getting even a small teeny tiny fraction of those eyeballs is HUGE. But, just like anything, Pinterest is not something where you can throw up just any ‘ol image and get traffic from it.
Before you start pinning on Pinterest:
- 1. Make a business Pinterest account here.
- 2. Make a Secret Pinterest Board to pin all of your own content.
- 3. Make public Pinterest Boards for all of the subjects that you’re planning on blogging about.
- Make the board public by ‘not’ ticking the mark next to ‘secret’
- 4. Use the Pinterest search bar to come up with 10-15 longtail keywords to use in your boards description.
- This will help Pinterest users find your board to follow later and will help users to know if they want to consume your content.
How to do Keyword Research on Pinterest:
Let’s pretend that I am making a Breakfast Pinterest Board to pin my pins and others’ breakfast casserole pins to. Here are the steps I will take to find the keywords I should be using in my descriptions.
- 1. Go to Pinterest
- 2. In the search bar at the top of the page type related short phrases: breakfast casserole, casserole, breakfast recipe, etc.
- 3. Write down (or paste into a blank document) any longer words that will make sense when used in a written description of what the pins on this Pinterest board will be about. 3-5 words preferably.
- 4. As you type in words like “breakfast casserole” and press enter, you’ll see a bunch of boxes with related terms underneath
- 5. Keep on pressing these related terms to make more long tail keyword phrases
- 6. Type out a description of this board using these longtail keywords. You can do this on a blank document or in Pinterest itself.
- 7. Do not only make your board description make sense to Pinterest, but the reader first and foremost.
- 8. Save the board
How to Market Your Blog Effectively on Pinterest:
There are six things that you have to get right when you’re looking to market your blog on Pinterest.
- 1. Do your Pinterest research
- 2. Make two to five pins per blog post
- 3. Upload your pins to your post
- 4. Save your pin to Pinterest on your most relevant board
- 5. Use Tailwind Tribes
- 6. Use Tailwind Smartloop
Do your Pinterest Research:
- Go to Pinterest and do a search for what you’re planning on pinning (what your blog post is about)
- Look at the (non-promoted) pins that come up first.
- Do another search for a different keyword and take note.
Do NOT copy these pins but look for similarities. Is there a lot of text overlay? Are they images only? Is there a call to action text overlay? What is the background image of? What colors are they using?
Store all of these things in the back of your mind as you go to make your image.
Now you know what people/Pinterest are choosing to put first in the images you’re going to try to get in that spot for.
I am NOT suggesting that you copy these bloggers.
I am however suggesting that you do your marketing research. These pins are showing up above the fold for a reason. It’s behove of you to recognize why.
Take note of these keywords:
As you are searching on Pinterest open a document/notes/new post/blank template and paste the keywords that you’re searching
For example: If I am writing a blog post about my bacon breakfast casserole here is what I will have searched on Pinterest:
– Bacon Casserole
(which will lead me down the long tail keyword rabbit hole of: “bacon casserole breakfast easy recipes” as the dropdown menu gives me options of what words are most often searched for on Pinterest with the words “bacon casserole” )
Next, I will press “enter” after entering “bacon casserole”
I’ll see a bunch of boxes with related terms
Keep on pressing these related terms to make more long tail keyword phrases
** The chances of you ranking on the first search for “bacon casserole” is slim. But, the chances of you ranking above the fold for “bacon casserole breakfast easy recipes” is pretty good.
Now you have a list of long tail Pinterest search terms for the items that you’re going to be pinning.
2. Make two to five pins per blog post:
Before I press publish I make two to five pins for my blog post. It takes a bit of time but I’m here to tell you that it’s worth it’s weight in gold.
In marketing anything you know that everyone consumes and learns information in different ways. While one person might be a visual learner, another learns and prefers words.
How to make a pin on Pinterest:
- Go to Pixabay.com to search for and choose images (free as you scroll down past sponsored images)
- Go to Picmonkey.com ($7.99 per month but well worth it)
- Hover over the design dropdown
- Choose blank canvas
- Choose Pinterest Promoted Pin
- Press on the butterfly image and choose “add your own” from “my computer”
- Make your image cover the white on the template that you chose
- Add your text overlay
When you are done with your first image, press “export”
Save the image to your desktop as one of the longtail keywords that you have from your Pinterest search that you did prior to making your image.
Use dashes to signify a space when you save the image title.
Do this process 2-4 more times depending on the number of pins you make for your latest blog post.
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here because Picmonkey has done a fabulous job already. If you want more information and uses for Picmonkey, I highly suggest you use this tutorial.
3. Upload your pins to your post
Press add media and drag the Pinterest images that you just made to the media library.
In the caption or alt tag area use your Pinterest keywords to make a user-friendly but keyword rich description of what the user will find when they land on your blog post.
At the end of your description use two to five hashtags that are relevant to your post and pin as well.
For this pin I’ll use #bacon #breakfastcasserole #eggs
Serious about starting a blog? See How I make $6k/Month on my Recipe Blog.
4. Save your pin to Pinterest on your most relevant board
For my bacon casserole pin, I am going to pin this first to my “Breakfast RECIPES to Try” board. This also signals to Pinterest that this is what this pin is about.
I am also going to pin the other four pins that I made like this.
You can decide to space out the pins if you want. But, since they’re all different pins and don’t look like eachother, there’s no harm in pinning them at the same time.
But, that’s a personal preference.
Something to think about is this: If when you pin your pin to your board you also pin it to Tailwind Tribes (which you do immediately after pinning to your board), the “professional blogger” will know that these are all from the same blog post and will only repin one from that blog post. Whereas if you make a note in your planner to go back to the second, third and fourth pins from that post, you’ll likely get more repins from tribes.
As far as Pinterest goes though, no harm, no foul as long as they are different images and different pins.
** Do not ever pin the same pin to them same board more than once every 30 days, you will see a drop in your Pinterest reach.
** If you do not have a relevant board, and you plan on pinning this type of content regularly make a board for this subject.
5. Use Tailwind Tribes:
Tailwind Tribes are helpful groups of like-minded bloggers who need eachother to pin eachothers content.
To find Tribes head here to Tailwind and create an account if you don’t have one already.
Press on “tribes” in the lefthand menu
Press “find a tribe”
Use the search bar to search for tribes that you’ll be able to contribute and pin from.
Request to join tribes from there.
Before you join a Tailwind Tribe I recommend clicking on it to see what type of content is in the tribe. If you don’t have any content like that (and therefore have no boards to add that content to) don’t request to join the tribe.
After you join a Tribe:
Go into the tribe and in the search box of each pin, as you start typing the name of your board that that bloggers pin will fit into, it will prefill.
Select that board and press “add to queue”
The number in the top righthand of each pin is how popular that pin is. That also means that it’s resonating with people. I usually look for the higher numbers in the righthand side of the pin because that will likely resonate with my Pinterest followers as well. It’s kind of like sharing buttons on a blog, really. If you hover over that number you’ll see how popular that blog post is on Pinterest and Facebook.
After I’ve pinned several pins by other members of a tribe I might add a few pins of mine to the tribe if I have time.
It is a good idea to carve out 10-15 minutes of your day to devote to Tailwind Tribes. I use this time to thank others that have repinned my content, or to find new content to pin.
** Always follow the Tailwind Tribe rules.
QUOTES: Treat Tailwind Tribes and any groups online like you’re at a cocktail party. Be professional, be respectful and always give more than you take. This will help you personally and professionally.
6. Use Tailwind Smartloop
What is Tailwind Smartloop?
Tailwind Smartloop is a way to make groups of relevant pins to go to relevant boards on a certain time interval.
Tailwind Smartloop allows you to have several groups. Let’s use a Breakfast loop to stay on the same bacon casserole theme.
Maybe you have several boards that a bacon casserole could fit on: Casseroles, Breakfast, Kid Friendly Recipes, Party Food and Brunch Ideas.
And, you want your bacon casserole to go on each of these boards at the best time possible, but not to the same board but once every 30 days, and only on Saturdays.
Smartloop allows you to do this.
It’s absolutely fantastic!
So, you’re constantly putting out new pins from old content. But you’re not breaking any Pinterest rules, and you’re not oversharing the same post over and over again.
You can have several groups. This is also nice for holidays. Like the Thanksgiving example I shared earlier. When you set it up this way, Smartloop will start sharing your Thanksgiving content in September, and stop the day after Thanksgiving if you set it up this way.
This is just another tool offered to bloggers to help manage all that we have on our plates and this feature is awesome.
See this helpful interview of Alisa Meredith from Tailwind.
Pinterest used to be based on boards and timing. It’s not anymore. With this being said, please don’t clog the feed with Thanksgiving table decor pins in March 🙂 These would be best suited for September, right? More on this in the Tailwind Smartloop section.
What is Tailwind all about?
I have talked a lot about Tailwind. But I haven’t gone into the costs associated with Tailwind. I 100% believe that this is a necessary expense for any blogger and I know that you will get your money back ten-fold when you use Tailwind.
I recommend the $9.99/month package for starting out. Here is what it includes:
- Smart scheduling, scheduling your pins to go out at the times that your followers are most active on Pinterest
- Allows you to measure post success with rock star analytics
- * Unlimited scheduling – schedule as far out as you can
- Basic Profile (& Board) Metrics
- Basic Website Insights
- 30-Day History Archive
- 1 Account Included
- 5 Tailwind Tribes Membership
- 30 Monthly Tribe Submissions
- 250 Active SmartLoop Posts
Once you decide that you like Tailwind, you can always upgrade.
Every once in awhile you might be asked to test out a new product for Tailwind. I highly recommend doing that as you’ll get insight to what’s coming down the pike and you’ll also usually get special pricing on new features (which is always good!)
Start a Tailwind account here.
Steps to Market a Blog Post on Pinterest
When I press publish on a blog post I have a certain list of steps that I take that allow my newest blog post to get the most eyes on it as possible.
We know that this makes a difference in ranking factors so marketing your blog is as important as all of the words and knowledge you put into that article.
After I press publish on a blog post here is what I do:
- Pin my first pin to Pinterest
- Put this pin into relevant Tailwind Tribes
- Put this pin into my Tailwind Smartloop
- Repeat these steps based on how many pins you have for this post.
Have more questions?? Email me at [email protected] – I’d love to help!
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