15. Pinterest for Beginners: Launching Your Marketing Strategy in 2024 with Kate Ahl

How do you turn Pinterest into a powerful marketing tool that drives traffic, builds your email list, and boosts your business? I’m sitting down with the incredible Kate Ahl, the genius behind Simple Pin Media and a true Pinterest powerhouse. 

Kate shares her journey of building a successful media agency that helps businesses leverage Pinterest to grow their audience, drive traffic, and increase sales. She provides invaluable insights into how to get started with Pinterest marketing, repurpose content from other platforms, and utilize Pinterest to build an email list and drive website traffic.

In this episode, you’ll learn…

• [00:02:45] Introduction to Pinterest Marketing: The basics of Pinterest and how it differs from other social media platforms.

• [00:07:20] Kate’s background and Simple Pin Media: How Kate started in digital marketing and the inception of Simple Pin Media.

• [00:13:35] Pinterest for Coaches and Service Providers: How coaches and online service providers can use Pinterest to attract clients.

• [00:19:10] Effective Pinterest Strategies: Step-by-step guidance on getting started with Pinterest marketing and repurposing Instagram content for Pinterest.

• [00:25:50] The Role of Keywords in Pinterest Marketing: The importance of keywords and how to find the right ones for your industry.

• [00:32:00] Pinterest's Algorithm and Linking Strategy: Best practices for adding links to pins and driving traffic to your website.

Links mentioned in this episode…

FREE 4-part training to set up your Pinterest Marketing for success

Grab these done-for-you Pinterest templates

Connect with Kate on Instagram

Insta-Growth: The 30-Day Private Instagram Mentorship (SAVE $200 WITH CODE "PODCAST") - https://www.elizabethmarberry.com/insta-growth

Free guide to Monetize Your IG: Seven Simple and Proven Ways to Finally Make Money on Instagram

Apply for your FREE Instagram Breakthrough Call with Elizabeth

Quotes

[00:10:15] "Instagram is like a bar, Pinterest is like a library. You don't enter them the same way."

[00:22:30] "The key to Pinterest success is understanding and utilizing keywords effectively."

TRANSCRIPT

S3 Ep15 Pinterest for Beginners: Launching Your Marketing Strategy in 2024 with Kate Ahl

Elizabeth Marberry: 00:00

Get ready to learn all about Pinterest marketing. Today on the pod, I'm bringing in a Pinterest expert. Her name is Kate Ahl, and she has built an impressive media agency that helps other business owners use Pinterest to grow their business and attract more of their soulmate clients. I know you are going to love today's podcast, and you're gonna walk away feeling so empowered and so lit up about how you can effectively use Pinterest

00:29

in your strategy in the most simple way possible. Kate talks about how you can repurpose some of your Instagram marketing. And if you're new to Pinterest, she really walks us through step by step exactly how you can get started, what the timeline looks like, like how long is it gonna take for you to start to see results, how to build your email list and drive traffic to your website, and so much more.

00:56

So get ready, buckle up, and let's dive into the world of Pinterest together. Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole led work.

01:24

If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

01:44

Beyond pumped and I'm completely being serious. I have been wanting to talk about Pinterest on this podcast for months. And I am so honored because today we have a Pinterest master in our midst. Yes, we do. Today on the podcast, I know I'm so cheesy. We have Kate All and she is the owner and founder of Simple Pin Media, a Pinterest management and marketing agency.

02:12

Her company has worked with over a thousand Pinterest accounts over the last 10 years and their goal is to help business owners understand how to leverage the platform to grow their email list, find cold leads and make more sales. Yes, please. Kate is a Pinterest speaker, teacher.

02:33

podcaster and strategist and I am a huge fan of hers. So Kate, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. And I'm excited that you've been wanting to talk about Pinterest for months, because here we go, it's gonna be amazing. Yes, and I have so much to learn. I know our audience is really curious about it as well. So before we dive into all of the goods about how we can get started on Pinterest, if our business should even consider being on Pinterest and all those questions.

03:02

I would love to know from you a brief overview of who you are and how you grew Simple Pin Media. Yeah. So I started actually working for a friend in 2010. She had just started a blog and was really taking off and said, hey, why don't you try Facebook? Everybody says it's a place that you go to really get engagement and interaction. And I need some help. And I had three little kids at home. So I said, sure, let's do it.

03:27

And I grew to love this whole idea of driving traffic, driving engagement. And pretty soon she allowed me to write blog posts, learn WordPress and affiliate marketing. And I think what I learned was like what business owners pain points were during that time. And we really didn't have as many social media options or SEO or all that kind of stuff at the time, but Pinterest was on the scene.

03:50

And what we knew about Pinterest was that it was this personal platform. It was invite only, but it had this really cool stuff on it, but nobody really knew how to use it for business. So it definitely didn't feel like a tool, but then in 2013, we watched a webinar about Pinterest marketing and how to use it for business and our minds were blown. So we spent all this time kind of updating boards, doing all this stuff for her business. And then my life kind of collided with this.

04:19

not having any money, we were coming out of the recession, and Facebook had changed our algorithm and we were not able to drive traffic, like not at all. And so a lot of people were looking around going, well, what's next? And some people were looking to Pinterest. And so she said, you should manage people's Pinterest accounts. And I said, that's a dumb idea. Like nobody's gonna do that. And she said, you're poor, you should try. And so I did. And...

04:44

I got three clients, I got Simple Pin Media as the domain, and I knew back to that original pain point, like business owners need a system that works right now because they feel like they have so much on their plate. So how can I simplify it, which is why I added Simple in there, and make it so that it did fulfill the goal on driving traffic. And so three clients, I said, let's start, see if it works. And they were like, this is amazing. And they told more people, and then pretty soon I was like, I guess I have a business. And...

05:13

There's lots between then and the 10 years, but that's how I got started. I love it. I love hearing your story. And that is so cool that you just saw a need in the market and you saw that, okay, we're not getting traction on Facebook. So let's go somewhere else. And that's definitely part of why I always teach people to diversify their marketing strategy too, is that.

05:36

one of your strategies might stop working. And so it's good to be on different platforms with different formats and all of that, which is part of why I really am curious about, our audience is on Instagram. Everyone is really, really focusing on growing their audience on Instagram, nurturing them and hopefully converting them into sales, into paying clients. So I would love to start with, I'm sure,

06:04

many of our listeners might be thinking, okay, wait, Pinterest to market my business. And let's think about it from a coaching offer standpoint, because a lot of the people who listen to my podcast are coaches or they're online service providers. And what if they're kind of hearing us dive into Pinterest marketing and they're thinking, well, I thought that's just where you go to, you know, plan your living room or plan your wedding, but is Pinterest really something that...

06:33

a coach could use or a podcaster could use or are there only specific niches that really do well on Pinterest? Yeah, it is a great question, something that I hear often. And I always start with this and I say, Instagram is like a bar, Pinterest is like a library. You don't enter into them the same way. So on Instagram, you're looking for engagement and connection and it's conversation and DMs and it has a purpose. It's loud. It's bubbly, all those things.

07:02

But Pinterest is quiet. It's your cold traffic. So Instagram is your warm, Pinterest is your cold. So it's two different types of sources that can drive conversions to your website or to your business. And so when it comes to somebody who's a coach, in particular on Instagram, they're gonna use it to kind of showcase their life, showcase their business. And I follow along to warm up to you. I want to know, are you the person that I'm going to connect with?

07:31

If I was to take that same person and start using Pinterest, you go back to the main FAQs and the pain points. You start answering questions about why do you need a health coach? What advantages are with hiring a health coach or a business coach or whatever type of coaching you do, you go back to the original question and you go, someone doesn't know me, but they're out there asking the question. And I know that I can be helpful, very similar to how you look at Google and SEO.

08:00

So it's not an either or, it's a both and. And if you're looking for a new type of traffic that is on a different type of platform and you don't have that cold traffic source, this is a great place to get it. And to address the question of, isn't it just for remodels or recipes or things like that, I would challenge anybody to just go to the platform and search you, number one, and then search the topic that you talk about.

08:28

And I guarantee you'll find it there. Will it be the same type of traffic that like a food creator's getting? No, I mean, they're getting 100,000 sessions a month on recipes, right? But yours might be less, but still just as qualified for the person who's searching. So again, not either or, but both and.

08:51

for my Instagram coaching brand, I have decided, okay, I want to learn Pinterest, I want to show up more on Pinterest, specifically driving traffic to my podcast and my website. And that's exactly what I did. I went on there and I searched Instagram and I was so amazed. There was so much that popped up and it really inspired me because I saw what people were doing and I was thinking, okay, I can totally reverse engineer this. I can figure this out. I'm so excited because I think that that is like,

09:21

101 before you even go and invest your time and energy on a platform, you do want to ensure that your audience is there. And I would argue there's probably, you know, all of these social platforms are so big, probably every demographic is on every platform. So really, you just need to pick the one that you feel called to that you feel most excited and lit up about. But I totally love that strategy. And that's a great reminder of if you're even considering like, should I do this?

09:49

Just go search on there, do a little bit of research. I absolutely love that idea. Here's what I would like to kind of go back, because I know we jumped right into the conversation, but if someone is new to Pinterest and they're really wanting to understand what is Pinterest and how is it different from other sites? I've heard many people say before that Pinterest is not social media, so I would love for you to touch on that for a total Pinterest newbie and kind of share with them what is Pinterest and how does it work.

10:19

the basics of how it works. Yeah, it's really helpful to think of Pinterest like Google with pictures. So people go over there, they search terms, they search phrases. And what they can do when they find what they're looking for is they can save something for later to their boards. So it's a unique outlier. You're right. It's not social media. It's search and discovery.

10:42

And so people go there to gather all their ideas, their dreams, their articles, anything that they find helpful. And there really is no other place on the internet that allows you to perfectly curate what you want in a categorized way. So if I was to go onto Pinterest and I was searching for, how do I use Instagram to market my business? I can definitely do that in Google, but I could also do that on Pinterest and I can pull up articles.

11:10

and I can save a bunch of things and then I can revisit them later. It's basically where I'm going to hold everything. So if you're trying to frame up, how does Pinterest fit? We put them in the bucket of Google and YouTube, and that's exactly how people view the platform. They don't give it up in a social media detox because they don't see it as social media. They see it as a tool and they don't doom scroll like I do. I'm scroll all the time on Instagram. I'm just like, can't stop.

11:39

But people on Pinterest only visit the platform probably between three times a week. Their power users might visit it like every single day. Whereas on Instagram, we visit it multiple times a day. But people have to be in the mode of searching to go to Pinterest. So they're just in a different intent. So they're not set on mindless scrolling.

12:02

Oh my gosh, I just had a light bulb moment. That makes so much sense. Like I think about how I consume Pinterest and that's exactly it. Like when I was researching brand colors, when I was rebranding, I went in there and I typed in, you know, bright, bold, branding colors. But it's not like I opened up Pinterest and I was like, I'm just gonna scroll on Pinterest. So that makes so much sense. I mean, we hear all the time it's a search engine and it's a visual search engine, which I love how you described it as Google with photos. I think that that is brilliant.

12:31

One question that's coming through to me is on Instagram, they don't like when you leave their platform. So you have to be very strategic about how you share links on Instagram effectively. On Instagram, what works right now is DM automation. I'm using many chat and Instagram approves of it. It works great. People don't have to stop scrolling to get what you're dishing up, okay? You don't wanna interrupt what people are doing. So,

13:00

moving over to Pinterest, from my understanding, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, is that the whole idea is that you're sharing as a very specific link in each pin, and ideally you're driving traffic back to your website or back to your blog, something that you own. So ideally not Instagram, not Facebook, not a domain that you have no ownership over, ideally something that you own. Yeah, my question is buried in here, but it's like, is it okay,

13:30

Because I would imagine on Pinterest, if I find a pin, I'm like, oh, I love this. I want to know 10 reasons why my reels aren't going viral. I'm going to click on that. That takes me to your blog. I'm leaving Pinterest, but that's how Pinterest is set up. So is that OK on Pinterest? Or how does that work with their algorithm? 100%. I'll call out two things first and then kind of walk you through that.

13:51

One, I love that you're challenging what you know about Instagram and saying, is this the same? Because a lot of people don't do that. They go, well, this is how it works on Instagram. So this is how it must work on Pinterest. And we're like, no, that's not how it works. So you're right. Pinterest is the place where you go to find ideas and you leave. Now.

14:12

Pinterest doesn't totally love that. And a couple of years ago, probably 2020, 21, they introduced a format called an idea pin. And this was kind of like Instagram story in a reel like had a baby, right? And it didn't have a link. One of the number one frustrations of Pinterest users is when something doesn't link. So Pinterest, while trying to capture TikTok and Instagram type of traffic,

14:38

introduced the one most frustrating element of their users. It was like the dumbest move ever, and they tried to get creators and all these kinds of things. I knew why they were doing it, because they want more advertisers on the platform. But what they should have done was really move towards making their ads better, which their ads are great. They're native, it's awesome. They pulled back on that completely and said,

15:03

Okay, everything will have a link and there's no longer this thing called idea pins. There's just now a video format or a standard pin format, and it will always have a link and that was such a great move because number one, you have retailers. You have people who are bloggers and you have people who have services on their sites and Pinterest has toyed around with this idea of being like as a point of sale platform or doing something on the platform.

15:29

But whenever they do that, they always pull back on it. Because the native pathway, click on an image, go to the website. And if you are adding anything to Pinterest as a marketer, always, always, always add a link. And one of the things some people don't do is they don't add a link because they're like, maybe I shouldn't add a link because I can't do that on Instagram. So you just want to be cautious and challenge your norms of what you know about another platform and don't put those on Pinterest.

15:56

I'm so glad you brought up the idea of pins because I remember doing that and being like, oh, I can put my TikToks over here. And I was so confused as to why they were doing that. Like I was just like, this is so different from Pinterest, from the Pinterest that I know where, yeah, like as a user for years, that's what you're used to is you just click on it and you know, it's going to just take you straight to that site. And so that's really interesting that Pinterest.

16:23

It's kind of like every business though, right? Like we have to test things, we have to try things out and then oops, they didn't work. So let's go back to the drawing board. It's like, no matter how big your company is, you never stop testing and experimenting with new things, I guess. Yeah, it's very true. And I think one of the things to note too, is that right about that time, they switched their founders, had been in charge of it for a long time and they brought in a new CEO from Google.

16:50

PayPal kind of Venmo had that experience. So heavy with the e-commerce, because what they knew is that Pinterest is the great informer of purchases. So it's not necessarily that you're gonna make a purchase or a buying decision on the platform, but it's going to be the main driver. One great example is to say, if I'm looking for, let's say rebranding my site, or I'm looking for new colors or a photo shoot.

17:16

I'm starting to search on Pinterest three to six months in advance. Then when I get closer to the event, I might actually go back there, but I might go to Nordstrom.com to buy outfits or I might go to Amazon or something like that. But it's still the great informer. And then I'm going to show on Instagram me being actually in the shoot. So that's how they kind of all work together to where people need links because they want to act on their

17:46

branding photo shoot or their redesign for their website. So then again, when you don't have links, Pinterest added this visual search tool where you can drag across an image and it'll pull more images on the platform. What's funny is that when something gets shared and it goes so crazy, when you search that, it's all the other things that don't have links. And so people are commenting, they're like, where is this, right?

18:09

So it's just kind of funny to see it in action. And I'm really glad they got a new CEO. They pulled back on that. And they are growing again, pre-pandemic levels. They're higher in users again, growing globally. They made the right choice. So to your point, yeah, we got to test things. Pulling back on this was very smart. Yeah, I'm so glad that they're in that direction now. And I know that keywords are exceptionally important on Pinterest. And they're really important anywhere that you're marketing your business.

18:39

And I'm curious, is there a specific strategy or tip that you have for people who are wanting to start on Pinterest and they know that they need to be using the right keywords? Is there like a keyword tool that you use or any hot tips for people to find the keywords for their industry? Yeah, the two best places that you want to look, one, the search bar on Pinterest, both for the actual keyword and keyword phrases. And then number two, they have a tool called Trends.

19:08

trends.pinterest.com and you can search any keyword to see the volume of zero to 100. When are they searching these particular things and what time of year those two things really give us as much keyword data as we're looking for and we'll take and we'll put those keywords into four places. Your board names, your board descriptions, your pin titles and your pin descriptions.

19:33

That is where the algorithm looks for very natural sounding phrases. So not keyword stuffed or anything like that. And don't use hashtags. Hashtags do not work on the platform. Pinterest has said multiple times. There's like weird urban myths and legends out there about hashtags, but don't use them at all because the SEO value is in the keyword. And when you add a hashtag over a keyword, you break that. So that's really how keywords are so valuable on the platform.

20:02

Okay, so I have another question and I feel kind of silly asking. I feel like this is one of those questions where I'm like, is this a dumb question? I love dumb questions. I ask them all the time. So okay, I have my business. You know, recently I got my studio manager for wedding dance coach, our brick and mortar dance studio. You know, I did a very basic training for her on Pinterest and some basic coaching and mentoring on what I wanted her to do.

20:30

you know, labeling our boards and keywords and all of that. OK, so my question is, when you have a business account on Pinterest and you're obviously you're creating a lot of content, should you also be pinning other people's content that is in a similar niche to yours? Like, is that something that you have to do? Or can we just skip that step altogether? Yes, completely skip it altogether. Yeah.

20:59

Don't worry about it. Yay. Oh my God, one last thing to do. Yes. And really here's the reason why, is that that content doesn't really give a whole lot of value to your content. So people don't go to your profile on Pinterest. It's very, very rare. And so they're finding things in the main, they call the smart feed, the home feed where you open up or the search feed.

21:25

So if people are searching and they find this other person's content, it's in no way attached to you. So like nobody will know that you pinned it. So nope, don't pin other people's stuff totally fine, unless you want to. I mean, like if you wanna pin somebody else's stuff because you think they're awesome, go ahead and do it. Yeah, totally. So, okay, my people are creating a ton of content for Instagram and they're probably like Elizabeth, now you want us to go somewhere else and create more content.

21:53

So I always like to ask my guests this question, is there any Instagram content that they are already creating and putting their time and energy into that they can repurpose for Pinterest? Absolutely, if you are doing anything educational, if you are answering your community's questions, you can 100% repurpose that over to Pinterest. You just wanna stay away from anything.

22:21

where it's talking about your story or it's talking about you to where it feels more personal that if I was following you on Instagram, I would start to understand what you're talking about because I've been a part of your story this whole time. But if you put that on Pinterest, people are like, I don't know what they're talking about. Like I don't even know who this is. So you want to have anything that you create and you look at and you say, if somebody didn't know me, this would either pique their interest or answer their question.

22:50

You could repurpose that to Pinterest. I love it. It's interesting. I interviewed wave wild and she's a tick tock expert. You know, I asked her the same question and she said, you know, it's, it's funny how other people's perceptions of Instagram are kind of different from my perception of it, but what I always teach people in terms of marketing or business on Instagram is it cannot be me content. It cannot be like.

23:14

look at me, look at my business, look at our offers, look at our services. I'm like, that does not work on Instagram. What you need to always be doing is creating high value content. And on Instagram, what that means is you're educating, you're sharing information, you're inspiring them, or you're entertaining them and you're making them laugh. So what I'm hearing from you is that educational informational content and that high value content is the content that you can repurpose.

23:44

over on Pinterest and where would they link it to though? So let's say I had a reel of five ways to grow your Instagram following. And then let's say I did take the time to write out a caption where I share those five steps and obviously the caption can only be so long. If I were to repurpose that content for Pinterest.

24:04

would you say that I would need to create like a blog post on my website that says five ways to grow your Instagram following? And then, so I would take that copy from my caption, put it on my website blog, and then my Pinterest would link over to my blog, or like how would you recommend that? I'm just trying to connect all these dots in my brain. Yeah, in fact, I might reframe it just a little bit. I might start with the blog post first.

24:29

because when you start with a blog post first, you get the most value out of everything. You're getting keyword value, you're getting Pinterest value, and then you've already written it, so you can take and you can swipe it for Instagram. So then I would put that on Instagram, and then I would create a Pinterest image, which looks different. It's two to three, right? It's vertical. And I would put that over on Pinterest and link back to the blog post.

24:53

If you really want to grow your Instagram, you can definitely call to action in the blog post. If you want them to follow you on Instagram for more. But what we find is that the only app to app integration that really works is YouTube for some reason. We do find that Pinterest users driving traffic from Pinterest to YouTube works because they're both in the same frame of mind of learning, right? But not everybody has Instagram and the app to app is funky and

25:22

they don't know where they're at. It's almost like they're confused. But if you have a post like five ways to grow on Instagram, I come to a blog post, I have a greater chance of engaging them with my email list growth. I have a greater chance of calling to action basically anything else. But when you go to Instagram, it's kind of a little bit dead in the water. It's like, oh, there's so many objections that can happen. Either they aren't an Instagram user, it moves into their web browser for some crazy reason, because

25:51

in the app when you click on it in Pinterest, you're in the app still. And then to click over, I've never had a good experience and I don't want to drive traffic to Instagram. I want to drive traffic to what I own. Yeah. And as you're talking, I love that you said, Hey, actually let's, what if we started with the blog posts? Because I am all about learning how to work smarter, not harder. And for me, I've actually had to kind of.

26:16

play with what just feels good to me. A lot of times as a creator on Instagram, because I've been creating for three years, I will start to get ideas on there and then I'll create a reel that I'm feeling super amped up about. And then that motivates me to wanna go deeper on my blog or my email. But what I've been doing in this long form content of podcasting is because I spend so much time researching and scripting and there's a lot.

26:44

As you know, you have an incredible podcast. There's so much that goes into podcasting. And so now I'm actually in this incredible AI course right now with this incredible coach. And I'm starting to think in a totally different way. And it's honestly putting me out of my comfort zone, but I think it's really good. And that is, how do I take this giant piece of content, which is essentially my podcast transcript, right? And...

27:10

turn that into a blog post and then turn that blog post into 10 reels and then turn that blog post into 10 different pins, making your content go further. So I feel like that's kind of what you were just walking us through. How do you take one piece of content and then make it move across all the platforms? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And I think the pushback to that is that

27:35

I can pick up my phone, I can write out what I want, I can grab a picture and I can slap it up on Instagram. I'm not saying it's that easy, but I'm saying there's less of a barrier to do that. When you enter in the blog post piece or the podcast piece, for some reason it feels so labor intensive to people. But I would argue that this content that you've just created that is actually probably really good on Instagram can hold a lot of value for other platforms.

28:03

So if we back up and we think of it more as a, I wanna build a really long-term sustainable business on a land that I own, not leaving that awesome content that you put on Instagram, now I have the opportunity to impact more people. And even though we're so stretched thin, I understand it's easy to just pick up your phone and do it. If we take the time to back up and get a new system.

28:29

that will actually reap more rewards for our business, greater growth than just focusing on Instagram. So that's kind of what my philosophy is with that. Absolutely. And that is what I am like pen to paper right now. I am just really trying to figure out exactly what my process is in the most efficient, pleasurable, joyous way for myself so I can teach my clients. So I love

28:59

that mindset and that idea. Yeah, it does take a little bit more time upfront because you have to be more strategic about what you're doing versus what so many business owners do on Instagram, which is they're just like, they're just constantly in like catch up mode of like, oh, I just need to post something today. Oh, I just need to post something today. And I totally agree with you. I think, oh my gosh, this is insane for me to say, but what if we took a month off of creating any kind of content for our business? Like I'm almost gonna throw up even saying that.

29:28

But what if you did that and then during that month, you got your content creation funnel together where you're like, okay, what is like my big piece of content, my longer form piece of content? How is it gonna connect to all these other pieces? And how can I drive these external pieces that I don't own that Meta owns, that Google owns, right? How can I get all of that content driven back to my website and

29:56

The truth is, is that takes time. And we live in this attention economy. Like we just expect it to happen overnight. Like I can't tell you how many people come to me and they're like, Elizabeth, I just want to grow to like 10K followers. Can you help me in like the next month? And I'm just like, sister, sister, no, that's not how this works. It takes time. Like give us an idea of like timeline on Pinterest. Like if someone wants to get started on there. Okay, two questions. One is like,

30:24

how would they get started? Like what are some first kind of beginner steps? And then what is the timeline expectation of how long it takes to even start to know like what pins are working and what's resonating and all of that? Yeah, okay, there's so much that you said too that I wanna respond to as well, but I'll start with that. It takes six to nine months of an investment in Pinterest in order to see really good forward movement. And you use Pinterest because it is a traffic driver.

30:53

That's the whole reason. Right. And so when we look at people's analytics, Google, Pinterest, and now we see YouTube more and more Instagram, Facebook, they fall way down the list for people. But we feel like there's a lot of things that we are doing with it, which I think is what you were kind of alluding to. Like we get caught in this mentality of like, I've got to keep up. Or I see other creators on the platform doing really well. I can tell you, I have seen creators.

31:20

who have 400,000 followers on Instagram, come to us and say, I really wanna get started on Pinterest, I really wanna push it. And within those six to nine months, Pinterest is blowing Instagram out of the water. But we look at that from the outside and we say, they have 400,000 followers. It's what I think breeds this insatiable appetite for, get me to 10K, get me to this. But you actually don't know if that person's making a lot of money. So we go over to Pinterest and we've had some people say,

31:48

I'm gonna take a break from Instagram and I'm only gonna focus on my Pinterest traffic. I'm only gonna focus on creating blog posts and then I'm gonna create my Pinterest image and I'm gonna make sure this whole thing works, my system works. And then I'm going to think about adding an Instagram again. And so if I was gonna take a month to pause, then I would go back and I would say, okay, how can I build a system to where

32:16

Writing is the big thing, because I know if I write a blog post, I'm going to hit Pinterest and I'm going to hit Google and then I can take any of that copy and I can use it on Instagram. I'll tell you firsthand, I love writing, but I get caught up in all the things. And so I've had to outsource a few things that I know I won't do it. I have even a second podcast. I can record that podcast all day long. When I get to putting it into a blog post, I just shut down.

32:44

I need people to help me do that. And I think there's inexpensive ways that you can do that. And I think it's also good to admit that that's where your struggle is. Like that's where your tripping point is. And if it is, bring in help. It can be inexpensive to get you over that hurdle so that you now have this backlog of stuff that lives forever that you own. And I feel like there was probably another question in there that I haven't answered yet. So if I didn't, you let me know.

33:13

I got you, I got you. Yeah, I know, I threw a lot at you and then you're like, oh my God. No, it's so good, it's so good. I love this conversation. So what are some top tips you can share for someone who wants to get started? Let's just say promoting their coaching brand on Pinterest. Let's say they're listening to this and they're like having a moment where they're thinking, I never knew that all of this was possible with Pinterest. Holy cow, I'm super pumped, I wanna get started. How do they get started?

33:43

Okay, so number one is just to get your profile on Pinterest. It's a business account. You have to. It's a, people come and they're like, is there a creator account type thing on Pinterest? No, you need a business account. You want it. You get analytics, access to ads, all these other things. And it terms of service says you have to have it if you're doing business. So that's number one. And then just go through. It's very intuitive. Fill out all the settings thinking of if somebody is searching to find me.

34:10

Does my profile description describe who I am? If I have a coaching business, does it say what type of coaching business, who I work with, whether it's bloggers or e-commerce or health and wellness? Add that in those sections, it'll cut you off when you've added too many characters, right? Add a great image, add a profile image, link your blog with it or your website with it, claim your account, and that's probably gonna take you about an hour. Then after that, think about creating

34:40

at least five boards. And also we have a whole start sequence that walks you through all these with videos. So I'll give you the link for that and you can send them that way. But then you're gonna create those five boards that go along with, okay, what are people searching for what type of coaching I do? You can build those. People are like, there's all these rumors out there. Just build them. I don't care if they're empty. Board name, board description, that's it.

35:07

and then start to create your pin style. This is where a lot of people really struggle, buy templates. There are tons of Canva templates out there for Pinterest images. We sell them, other people sell them. Just remove the barrier and start to create pin images that have your branding on them. So your logo, your colors, your font, they're gonna change 20 times over the course of five years because you're gonna hate the first ones that you've created, but just do it.

35:35

and do it while you're watching like a Netflix or HBO Max or whatever, and get into this style of, I'm only going to choose these five templates. This is what's going to be for the next six to nine months. And I'm going to then be able to link this to blog posts, right? That's a whole nother system. But when you're have that on Pinterest, the third part is your keywords. What are 10 top keywords I'm going to target for?

36:01

And I would say that this process from setting your business account up to your images and your keywords, give yourself a good couple of weeks to do it and really feel confident with like, okay, here's where I'm at practice pinning, throw things up. You can pin other people's stuff in the beginning if you want just to kind of fill up your boards a little bit. That's totally okay. Especially if you don't have a lot of content and then just get into the groove.

36:28

And you're gonna hit a point right about the two month bark where you're gonna say, this isn't doing anything. And that is totally normal. You're gonna feel like you're throwing spaghetti on a wall, which is exactly what you need to do because you don't know the Pinterest audience. You actually don't know how they're gonna respond to your content, what they're gonna click on. And you don't know how the algorithm works with showing your content to those people. So you have to give that six to nine month runway.

36:55

But once you do, here's the great part, is my number one traffic pin is from 2017. Every spring, I use the words, spring clean your Pinterest boards. I did it on accident. And every spring right about now, it gets a ton of clicks and we get a ton of emails. I've put two hours of time into it in 2017. I've got 1500 emails just from that sitting there. I mean, sometimes we'll update new images for it, we'll link to it.

37:24

We've done spun off of content, but what we learned is that our people want how to use, how to upload video, how to deal with a suspended Pinterest account, how to clean up your Pinterest boards. And so we always know any how to content on Pinterest does really great. And it does it for years. So it's this beautiful snowball effect that it can grow and grow and grow forever. So that's why we put in that investment now because we want to reap the rewards later.

37:51

Oh, thank you for breaking it down step by step. I just love that. And it sounds there's lots of steps, but it's not rocket science. Like we can sit down, we can do this. And I love how you said there's times too, where you just invest, you know, I know you have a do it yourself course that you guys, um, sell and we'll be sure to link that below and that you have these Pinterest templates and I always tell people that as an Instagram coach, it's like, that's why you hire a coach is we can shortcut the learning curve for you. And.

38:20

even if you can't afford a coach or a virtual assistant or get a course or there's just ways to shortcut the process. But the most important thing is that you get started. I have one more really specific question and then we're going to close out because you and I could talk forever, but I know we have places to go, people to see. So on Instagram, part of the sales funnel that is imperative is building your email list. That is the strategy that I teach.

38:49

where all of your content needs to be somehow funneling to some sort of freebie. It could be a checklist or a guide, it could be an audio, it could be whatever it is. But ideally, in exchange, you get your name, your email, and you're building your list, which is that is what you own, you don't own Instagram. So I'm curious on Pinterest, I know we've talked a lot about driving traffic to a website or a blog. Do you recommend driving traffic directly to a landing page for a lead magnet?

39:17

or burying the kind of the lead magnet in the blog post or what works best for building your email list on Pinterest? Yeah, I love that. And I'll say number one, landing pages convert lower than a blog post with it embedded. And I think the key of what you said, like that's why I use Pinterest. And you said, I teach people this Instagram strategy to grow their email list. And that is such an important thing because before you start using Pinterest, that is your why.

39:47

This is why I'm using it. This is the goal that I have. And for us, we have found that embedding the opt-in in those posts is the best way to get them to convert because they're most often going to blog posts and they're getting warmed up. They're reading, then they see that you're the answer and they're more likely to opt in. We've tested it where we've gone straight to a landing page that looks kind of like a sales page. It talks about the values, but it has to really answer their question.

40:16

And if you can do that on a landing page and make it not super like they're being sold to, I feel like Pinterest users are really keen to that. They're like, I'm out. Like if something doesn't look like I've done this as a Pinterest user, I've searched something. I go to the website and like, this isn't helpful. I'm out of here. Or if I go and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is what I was looking for. Yes. I'm in the right place. Sign me up, give me the discount, whatever it is.

40:46

that's what you're hoping to have happen. So if a landing page can do that for you, another cool thing about Pinterest is you could test a lot of fun stuff. So you could do different landing pages if you wanted to, to see which one could convert. You could have a different, you could have the same image for each one and you could test it that way. Or you could do different images with the same landing page and kind of test your imagery that way because people on Pinterest don't read.

41:14

So on Instagram, they're reading below in the caption, like you see this like beautiful picture and you're like, what's these deep thoughts, right? Nobody on Pinterest is doing that. They're looking straight at the image, one second, billboard advertising, does this answer my question? Yes or no, I'm out, right? That's really why your imagery matters with the connection to where they're going. Does it answer my question? You've piqued my interest, yes or no, I'm either here or I'm not.

41:44

I'm having all these light bulb moments. That makes so much sense. Like if I'm going there to ask a very specific question, I click on your image, cause it's telling me that it has the answer. I go to your blog post, I read the answer. I get the information I need. And then it's like, oh, if you want more, grab this lead magnet. That makes so much sense. So thank you so much for sharing with us in terms of how that works on Pinterest. Cause that is so different from Instagram, you're right.

42:10

And okay, so I know everyone wants to know about Simple Pin Media and how they can work with you and your company. So tell us all the things about where people can find you and how they can work with you. Yeah, SimplePinMedia.com is where we're at. And then our handle is just at Simple Pin Media on most places. I would say number one is start listening to our podcast, which is Simple Pin Podcast, and just get to know me the way that I teach.

42:38

We'll give you all the links to our start series and all of those, but we have the DIY and then we have done with you. That's mostly in our ads or in our circle membership. That's for a lot of people who want to figure it out themselves. And then obviously you can hire us to to outsource it completely from build all the way up to ads, just depending on what your budget is. So that's how you can work with us. Perfect. And we will drop all of those links in the show notes and.

43:05

Let's just close with one final thought. What is one last thing that you want our audience to walk away with as they close out this podcast? Yeah, I think that I would want people to really give Pinterest a shot in their business. If they are feeling very fatigued with Instagram or they are feeling like there is a way to complement the two platforms, then try it and invest in it.

43:35

It's an investment. It's not going to make you feel good. There's no dopamine hits on the platform. It's not fun sometimes to be a marketer over there. And I wanna be honest and transparent about that, but it is fun to look at your analytics and go, ooh, where'd this come from? And then it's like Pinterest is really growing and growing and it feels like you're actually making progress. It's not gonna happen for a while, but I think that's what I would want people to do is just...

44:04

know why you're using it, give it a shot, and then know that you are actually making a long-term investment in your business. Perfect. That sounds fabulous. Kate, thank you so much for your time today. You've been so generous with all of your wisdom and knowledge, so thank you for being here. Yeah, you bet. Thanks for having me. Okay. If you love today's episode, make sure you screenshot it, share it to your story, tag us.

44:31

Tag Simple Pin Media. We cannot wait to hear what you have to think about Pinterest. I want to know, are you going to get on Pinterest now? Send me a direct message on Instagram. Let me know. And be sure that you rate and review the show. That really helps us to reach more fabulous, ambitious entrepreneurs and business owners like yourself. And I cannot wait to start it with you next week.

44:58

Thank you for listening to Struttit. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies. That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my Monetize Your IG Guide.

45:28

If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.