There are over 500 million blogs to date. But unfortunately, nearly a fifth of bloggers find it hard to get traffic from Google, resulting in low leads and sales.
If you own a blog, I believe you are aware of how frustrating it can be to rank in search engines, drive traffic, and even record sales.
While there are so many methods out there on how to get more readers to a blog, many are already over-exploited, while avenues like Facebook are proving to be not so cost-effective. As a result, marketers, and bloggers are looking for other ways. One being Pinterest blogging.
Pinterest blogging has already conquered the hearts of many marketers and received good ratings for its immense benefit. It is the new goldmine in online marketing that most marketers are talking about.
But to take advantage of Pinterest, you need a blueprint that will help you build the right foundation. And this post is all about that. In the next section, we will discuss strategies to help you be successful with Pinterest blogging.
How to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to your Blog
Create relevant boards
The first step after signing up for a Pinterest business account is to create your Pinterest board. Note that you won’t be creating any board but a board related to your articles or blog.
If you blog about food and beverages, ensure your board titles are similar to your blog titles. Apart from that, you may add images and a link to your website. This makes it easier for Pinterest users to follow or find you. Here is an example of how your board should look like.
Other than creating a board for your products, consider also creating related boards. From our examples above on grocery shopping on a budget, we see that Lyndsey has created related boards healthy snacks, clean eating recipes, and summer recipes.
Connect Pinterest to your WordPress blog
Your friends and followers are your biggest advertisers. So when they come to your site, make it easier for them to share your blog articles with their audience.
This you can do by adding a “Pin it” button on your blog posts or images. Note that your “Pin it” button can be outside the image, as in the example below, or embedded in the image.
With the “Pin it” button on your image or post, you will easily bring in referral traffic to your site.
Fill your boards with relevant visuals
Pinterest is a visual social media marketing tool. So one thing about it is that your account will flourish only if it has great visuals. However, don’t just add images but pleasant images to capture the reader’s attention.
The images that work well on Pinterest are valuable infographics and quotes. Whatever images you use, make them taller instead of wider, as they are more favored by the Pinterest interface, like in the example below from $ 5 dinners.
Another way to make your content stand out is to use vibrant colors such as red or pink to attract pinners to share. Besides, add contextual background to your pins and make them lighter instead of darker.
Finally, while flourishing your board with images, avoid over-complication with colors but keep things as simple as possible so that viewers don’t get confused with your offers.
Engage with your followers
To get Pinterest users to read your blog, you need to engage with them. As much as you may want to publish and aggressively promote your pins, engage followers by following their accounts and checking what they do.
Besides, encourage them to ask questions about your blogging activities. Consider commenting on follower’s pins and re-pin pins from followers and thought leaders.
Engaging with followers helps build relationships and a social media audience which will drive traffic to your site.
Optimize bio description
This is probably the next step after creating your profile and board. The first thing to do when optimizing your images or bio is to have a title description that tells pinners what to do.
Make sure you are very creative with your descriptions, like what $ 5 Dinner has, to encourage pinners to find you and click back to your site to learn more about you.
Apart from pin descriptions, add hashtags to your images and description. Pinterest will usually give suggestions, so try hashtags with most pins. Another way to promote your pins is to add call-to-action. In the example above, there are several CTA, such as “sign up,” and “follow me” directing your audience on what action to take. These steps ensure your blog is easy to find.
Join group boards
Group boards are where interesting things happen. Group boards allow members to post content and even share pins from other users, leading to more engagement, viewership, and traffic.
The best way to take advantage of them is to join relevant groups’ boards. They should be niche boards related to what your business is about and engage appropriately.
To find group boards, you may use a tool like PinGroupie and niche down to categories that suit you. Remember that joining boards should be an ongoing activity. Thus, ensure to join many group boards and, once accepted, pin consistently.
Alternatively, you may create your own group board and invite friends and followers to collaborate on your board.
Use Tailwind to automate your activities
Let’s face it. Pinterest blogging consumes a lot of time and effort. As a result, consider purchasing a tool to automate your marketing activities. Tailwind is the most recommended tool that doesn’t disappoint.
Once Tailwind is connected to your account, you can schedule your pins and even reshuffle pins in the queue. Tailwind also gives you data on your board’s performance and pins performance besides suggestions on the most optimal times to post your pins. These help you maximize your Pinterest blogging activities.
Besides taking away all the hassle of posting, Tailwind has Tailwind Tribes or communities. These are like group boards and a great avenue to share your pins, re-pin, and encourage members to re-share your pins.
Tribe members are reciprocal in that when you share their pins, they can return the love with increased engagements on your pins, leading to increased exposure and traffic to your site.
Refresh your pins consistently
Every marketer seems to have their own recommendations on how many times or the best times to pin on Pinterest, but we say this will depend on several factors, such as your audience.
You may start with seven pins per day and increase momentum when needed. Nonetheless, pin regularly. Pinterest users love fresh content and would love to see new creative ideas from you.
Conclusion
Every day, Pinterest is growing stronger and stronger as more people realize this hidden gem. For bloggers that constantly use images for advertising products, you will find Pinterest a great tool for driving traffic to your site. The above strategies are a good starting point for guiding you through Pinterest blogging and expanding your opportunities beyond just driving traffic.
Adela Belin is a content marketer and blogger at Writers Per Hour. She is passionate about sharing stories with the hope to make a difference in people’s lives and contribute to their personal and professional growth. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
