How to Use and Optimize Pinterest for Business Success with Sarah Otto

Unlock the secrets to harnessing Pinterest as a marketing powerhouse with our special guest, Sarah Otto! Sarah shares her expertise on transforming Pinterest from a casual browsing platform into a dynamic visual search engine that can amplify your business’s reach. Learn how to create high-level topic boards and craft pins that drive traffic to your blogs, podcasts, and product listings, all while targeting what your potential customers are actively searching for.

Have you ever wondered how Pinterest can help you build your email list? Sarah walks us through the strategy of creating a compelling lead magnet optimized with keyword research to ensure maximum discoverability. By consistently pinning varied images linked to your lead magnet, you can effectively drive traffic to your email landing page. Sarah also highlights the difference in user intent between Pinterest and Instagram, shedding light on why Pinterest users might be more valuable for your business goals.

Tune in to feel inspired and ready to integrate Pinterest into your digital marketing strategy with newfound confidence!

Connect with Sarah Otto:
heysarahemily.com

IG: heysarahemily

Pinterest Co-work Session Sign Up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

Hola, hola, welcome to another episode of the Money Chisme podcast. This week, we are going to talk about Pinterest and how you can use it for your business. With me today is Sarah Otto, who is here to inspire business owners, bloggers, influencers and more to start using Pinterest in their marketing strategy. Hi, Sarah, Thank you so much for joining me today.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Thank you, glad to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Before we get into the details of Pinterest, tell us a little bit more about you and what you do.

Speaker 2: 1:34

All right. Well, I help online entrepreneurs get their business started on Pinterest or started with using Pinterest. I also have a nine to five, so most of my workday is working my nine to five, but I've really felt called to help online business owners leverage Pinterest, especially like being in the online space and with social media.

Speaker 1: 2:06

I just feel like Pinterest has really helped people alleviate stress or some sort of like burden that they have about social media so Pinterest has been like for around for like quite some time but, like to me, I always saw it as just kind of like a mood board. I never like, to be honest, I never understood, like the point of Pinterest. Besides, just like you know, maybe you want to like decorate your room or something you know right, and so like I never thought of using it like for a business. So for those that you know they have heard about Pinterest, can you tell us a little bit of what it is and how you can use it for your business?

Speaker 2: 2:59

a little bit of what it is and how you can use it for your business. That's exactly what a lot of people think of Pinterest, and it's what I thought too when I first started. But the more I learned about it, the more I realized it's more of a search engine, a visual search engine for your business, very similar to Google, how you would maybe search a question, you're doing research on a topic, you're looking into products you'd use Traditionally. You would go to Google for that those types of questions. Right Now maybe you're using TikTok a little bit more or whatever. But people also use Pinterest, like the way that you use it for a mood board or get inspired. You're searching on how to solve problems, work on your next project. But people are also out there searching for business advice so how to do real estate investing, how to start their business, how to do email marketing, or you know, it's not just DIYers out there, it's people also looking for different services. Or they get inspired to take that next step with you from the content that's out on Pinterest.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Okay. So it's kind of like you're saying that you could make like a board, but it's also searchable because people can, I guess, put their their stuff in a board. Can you explain a little bit more of that, how that works? Like, how would you put your content so that that way someone can actually find it Like how does it work? That way someone can actually find it Like how does it work?

Speaker 2: 4:35

Yeah, usually. So when you're out there on Pinterest I assume that you've used it right and when you're using it, you're out there, you're searching and you see like the sea of pins that show up based off of like what you type in to Pinterest search, right, and then you're pinning those things and you're categorizing them based off what you're for your own personal needs, right? So I have boards that have to do with, like, home and style, and then I have recipe boards, and then I have kids birthday boards Right, for my own personal searches. So you really want to think, when you're thinking about it for your business, you want to think about it from those high level categories of what topics do you talk about in your business and at that very high level like that's what the boards are is you want to create those high level categories and topics of the type of content, content that you talk about. So for me, for example, in my Pinterest business and helping online entrepreneurs, I'll have a board of for Pinterest marketing. I'll have a board for social media marketing. I'll have a board for Pinterest for Etsy sellers, pinterest for service providers. Those are all like very high level topics that I create content around. And content then is blogs, podcasts, social media Reels, tiktoks, anything that has a URL, that you can grab a URL and send it to someone basically, right, a product listing things like that. So the boards you start with creating boards around those high-level topics and then you can go into Pinterest and, instead of like doing a search and pinning other people's content, you can actually go into your profile and say, create new pin and you can create your own pins as a business, which which now on Pinterest, that is highly recommended as a business, that you stop pinning other people's content and you pin and you create your own pins around your content.

Speaker 2: 7:06

Okay, you go in there, you create a new pin. A pin is either an image or a video type and you link it to the content that you have. So you can link it to a podcast or a blog. You want it to be content that you've created on. Usually it's on some other platform, right? So like YouTube, for example. And then that pin, now you save it to one of those high level topics, those boards, and that pin becomes searchable on the platform. So when you're using it as a business, you got to think about, like, what information can I put out here on Pinterest that somebody else is using Pinterest to search for it, and that's kind of the switch between like Instagram versus Pinterest, right, is you got to think about? What is somebody out on Pinterest searching for and what? What type of content can I put out here?

Speaker 1: 8:14

for someone that is I starting out and trying to think of adding Pinterest as part of like their marketing strategy and stuff like what are some like beginner tips for them to help them get started, for example, I know you mentioned to think about like what is someone searching as like how can they figure that out?

Speaker 2: 8:43

What you can do is really start with keywords. So there's this thing in any sort of search platform. So whether you're going to use Google, whether even TikTok to some extent like, has this search engine SEO optimization right? And that really has traditionally revolved around knowing what your keywords are. So keywords are really what search terms people are putting inside of a search bar. So when you go to Pinterest and you type something in so like ideas for five-year-old birthday parties, that's a search term and that is also a keyword. When you go into Google and you use the search bar, or you go into YouTube and use the search bar, all of those things that people are putting in there, like, oddly enough, there there becomes trends of what people are searching for in different types of seasons. So really understanding what that is for your business is a good place to start, I think.

Speaker 2: 9:53

So the way that I typically understand that is I.

Speaker 2: 9:59

I literally just go into Pinterest and start thinking about what is my, what would my audience want to know about that?

Speaker 2: 10:07

I'll that, I create content for that, I have a service or a product around, and then I just start typing that into the Pinterest search bar and really any platform. You're going to get things that auto-populate for you and then you're going to get like a list of suggestions and those. I take those and I just kind of save them off into like a keyword research spreadsheet or something and just keep note of like the terms and the things that people are searching for. So when I type in, like Pinterest marketing in the search bar, things like how do I create pins, how do I find my keywords for Pinterest, how do I, how do I clean up my boards, a lot of like common questions and searches, and so you just kind of you, you just want to keep track of of that type of stuff. This gives you research into what people are looking for, what they're searching for on the platform itself, the platform itself. Then the second step is really saying do you have content?

Speaker 2: 11:30

that matches up with those searches or not. If you don't, that's where you get to be creative and decide what content do you want to create. Do you want to create a reel? Do you want to create a blog, a podcast? I think that side of it really just depends, like, what level, what level you're at. So I work with a lot of people who are just starting their business and they start on social media so Instagram or TikTok, right and then they want to look to adding another platform like Pinterest to their business. In that case, you want to look at the types of TikToks and Reels that you're creating and see, can you repost that onto Pinterest with, like, matching up with the keywords that you found right?

Speaker 2: 12:24

Other business owners might be farther along. They have a website, like yourself, right? You have your podcast, you have a blog. You got your website. You might just have a little bit more content to pull from. You also have your YouTube, right, so you might just have a little bit more content to pull from. Maybe you've already done your keyword research. In that case, you're you're already creating content around what people are searching for, um, and then it's just a matter of repurposing that onto Pinterest by creating your own pins.

Speaker 1: 12:56

There's definitely a lot more than what I thought Pinterest was, because, uh, when I first thought of adding uh, well, when I first started adding Pinterest as one of the things I was just posting whatever you know, like a blog or I was just I was just thinking that I could just move my TikToks into Pinterest and stuff, and so that makes sense I didn't really get a lot of traction because I didn't realize that you had to put, like, all these keywords and everything like that. But one of the things I see that you talk about as well is how you can use Pinterest to actually grow your email list. So can you go a little bit in that on how you've been using Pinterest to increase your email list subscribers?

Speaker 2: 13:49

Yeah, this is like a hidden gem. I really love this feature of Pinterest because it really takes those core principles of what I just talked about but also has a really great business benefit on the other side of it. So when you have an email list, typically you have a lead magnet or something that's going to drive people to an email landing page where they put plug in their email for exchange, in exchange, right. And then, once they get on your email list, you have a series of emails that get sent to nurture them into either following your community more, staying a long life subscriber or purchasing a product or service that you offer. So a lot of people focus on that. Second part of like this is the email sequence. This is the nurture sequence, the welcome sequence, like the email side, right. But yeah, you might be scratching your head like, well, how do I get people on here if no one is even watching my TikToks?

Speaker 2: 15:04

No one's even watching my it's like no one's clicking my link in bio. What do I do? Well, okay, this is where Pinterest comes in, and what I really love about it is that like, oh, people are searching for your lead magnets, so you create a lead magnet, um, a freebie, a uh, free training, a webinar. You create a thing, right, um, and you package that as a lead magnet. But you want to create that around again the keywords that people are searching for, um in, so that they can find you on pinterest or that, if they can find that lead magnet on google as well, right, um? So, creating a webinar, or maybe it's a checklist or whatever, you want to get inspiration from that keyword research that you would have started with.

Speaker 2: 16:03

So, creating a lead magnet around that, creating a, you would create a pin graphic for it, using those keywords on it. The link then links to your email landing page and now it's on Pinterest. And if you keep doing that, you create maybe three times a week, you're pinning that same lead magnet, a different image, on Pinterest. It becomes searchable and searchable all year, for the life that you have this email landing page and if anyone searches in Pinterest, your pin has the potential for showing up to them and then at that point, because why this works? Right, why this works, is because somebody is going on to Pinterest and they have a need. Right, they have a need. They're like actually looking for solutions and your pin shows up that says, hey, free download, free training, for the thing that they're actually like searching for it gets them.

Speaker 2: 17:14

Um, it's a uh again, not I don't, I don't know the right word to say but um, a more valid lead, right? Yeah, it's easier for them to say, oh, like, I'll give them my email address. There's no convincing or anything to do because they were already looking for it, versus like on Instagram, where it's more like, um, getting them aware of like what you're talking about. Maybe they're a very new follower and they followed you because you know we love the same coffee, we're in the same communities, but I'm not really ready to like buy from you yet. I don't really know if your product or your service is like you know. Maybe they just didn't follow you for those reasons, right?

Speaker 2: 18:03

and it takes a little bit to get them warmed up, but on Pinterest they're like they typed it into the search box. You didn't follow you for those reasons, right, and it takes a little bit to get them warmed up, but on Pinterest they're like they typed it into the search box. You didn't have to do anything besides provide that lead magnet on Pinterest, right? So I would start with again that keyword research, understanding what people are searching for and how you can create maybe a checklist or a free training or an ebook around those topics. And creating pins on Pinterest is getting people to see and have the opportunity to join your email list.

Speaker 1: 18:42

Yeah, like on Instagram. I have people that follow. You know that, like you said, they just liked you from tiktok or whatever um but now I could. Yeah, the power of pinterest. They're already like looking for for that, and so you're. That's one less step that you have to do to um you know, give them an offer or get them in your email marketing. So, yeah, I could see. Yeah, I should have been using this. Yeah, I know, and it's not like either or right yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:18

I think you need both. You need social media and you need that touch point, because after somebody joins your email list, like I don't know about you, but I'm a stalker, I want to know that you are a real person, and you go to their Instagram and so it's like it's not either or Right. It's just a different way to present that. You probably already created your lead magnets. You probably already have them. It's just really providing it to a different audience that's searching in a different way.

Speaker 1: 19:50

I got to get back on it because I kind of I felt I gave up on it a little bit. I think I was just doing too many things, but I could see it like running in the background kind of, because one of the things that I've noticed that you know I also want to talk about is how there's a little bit of a difference, because you know Instagram, you have like stories and like the comment section to kind of engage with your audience. But Pinterest, I think I think you can comment, like people could comment on it, but it's not, uh, as expected, I guess. Um, do you find that, or is it like becoming a thing to like also talk there?

Speaker 2: 20:36

um. So I think that probably depends like what niche you're in. Um. So if you're more of the like influencer or even maybe a product seller that maybe shows their process behind the scenes and stuff like that, then I see a lot more like likes and comments on those types of things, whereas if you're like a business providing like the blogs or the free trainings, the lead magnets, things like that, then I don't really see a whole lot Like it's not expected because, like, for better or worse, it's really kind of a selfish platform. It's like you're not there to like make friends with people. You're there to get answers and do research and plan um plan for your next step in business, your next step in your home, like whatever, whatever it is right, um.

Speaker 1: 21:38

But there is a huge section of Pinterest that is more of that um like influencer type with like style and travel and and things like that, where I see a lot more of that, that engagement, happening well, I guess that takes a little bit of the pressure, because adding more things for marketing like TikTok and stuff, and having to ensure that you're engaging in both I guess that's a good thing about Pinterest that you can still add it and not have to feel that stress of having to to show up, like on the comment section or whatever. So that's a that's a nice feature that it's kind of like laid back in the background that you could set up and generate stuff for you in the background.

Speaker 2: 22:30

So yeah, I think that part of Pinterest is what really solidified, because I had started my business with trying to help people on like showing their business, sharing their knowledge and their culture with Instagram, and the more I used Pinterest and the more I helped business owners on Instagram, it was that like, oh, I'm on a hamster wheel, oh, it's stressful, oh, I gotta do this today. And the more I use Pinterest, the more I'm like I didn't check this for like a month and it's fine. And oh, like five, ten people are on my email list.

Speaker 2: 23:11

This is great nice um, so like seeing results like that versus like almost the like, I have to do this it. It is a platform that you can leverage for your business. That can that can be running in the background because of the way it works.

Speaker 2: 23:30

Like showing up on Pinterest means you have a pin that is getting published every day, but you can schedule those pins, so you can, um, you can do that in one day a month and schedule all of your pins, or you could you know you could go on the platform and create a new pin every day. I wouldn't suggest it because you're going to experience the same kind of burnout, right?

Speaker 1: 23:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:56

But really like the engagement part. All of that stuff is very minimal compared to creating content that is helpful by matching what people are searching for.

Speaker 1: 24:11

How like with Instagram, you got like your followers and the engagement and stuff. Like, how do you, uh, gauge how well a pin is doing? Like, how does the I guess the metrics work over there, because I know I can? I think there's something it's called like views or something. I forgot what it was called on Pinterest, but like I didn't know how to judge if something, if a pin of mine, was actually doing good or not, so, like, how do you do that?

Speaker 2: 24:40

yeah, the. So the views, um, or that is, I use that metric to gauge whether I'm using, I have the right content or the right keywords out here on Pinterest. So if it has a high view count, then you know, like, okay, this pin is getting in front of a lot of people. Then you know, like, okay, this pin is getting in front of a lot of people. So the content, the image, the pin style, the keywords, something about that is working, that Pinterest is pushing that out to in front of people and they're seeing it. So if you have a high impression, it.

Speaker 2: 25:29

So, if you have a high impression, but then you also like taking a step back, your goal, like what's your goal on Pinterest, right? So for business owners, I don't suggest that they focus too much on getting a lot of impressions and getting a lot of views, because that doesn't get someone onto your email list. That doesn't get someone onto your email list. That doesn't get someone over to your website. It doesn't get someone in your ecosystem to then follow you and hear about what you have to offer, right? So the real, the real metric that, if you want to know if you're matching your goals or not, is really looking more at the outbound clicks on pins. So I've had pins that didn't have a lot of views or impressions, but they're getting several outbound clicks.

Speaker 2: 26:18

And that means somebody's clicking on your pin and then it takes you to whatever you have on the other side. So for me it's either a blog or a lead magnet on the other side of that pin, right? So I tend to look a lot at those outbound clicks. If I'm not seeing that anything is getting outbound clicks, then I'm going back to say like, okay, am I using the right keywords? Is this, is it getting in front of people? Does it have these impressions? And if it does, but people aren't clicking, then there's something else that we gotta tweak a little bit around. Maybe it wasn't clear to people why they should click, right? So then it's kind of just tweaking that image, tweaking the video, maybe having a stronger call to action, something like that to get people to start clicking and going over to your offer.

Speaker 1: 27:18

And what would be like some tips for someone in creating their Pinterest pin? Cause I struggled with that. I didn't know is to like just put big, giant, bold letters or like you know, it was just like a background that said, you know, sign up for this or free this or whatever. Um, but like, when I scroll Pinterest, there's so many different ones and, um, I'm kind of like, what do I do to make my pin stand out? So what, what is your like tips or advice for someone that's getting started?

Speaker 2: 27:54

yeah, that's a good one. Um, because I think that also takes time in. Like um, it takes several months for you to kind of see what what people do like about your content too. So if you're just starting and you're within the first three months and there's not a lot of like clicking or views, like I would say just maybe hold off, keep doing what you're doing and maybe after several more months then maybe kind of assess right, but I would start with finding templates that you like.

Speaker 2: 28:32

So, going on, canva is a great resource that's free. You could find free Pinterest templates. You could also start on Pinterest and then just seeing, like what stands out to you, like maybe doing those searches, doing a little bit of research, what pins are standing out to you, which ones make you want to click on those pins, and just kind of assessing why. But what I find is that, like you said, the bold text, things that are very simple, tend to grab a little bit more of attention. Because, if you can think about the way most users use Pinterest right now is on a mobile device.

Speaker 2: 29:16

They're also scrolling and it's just like small images right on your phone that you're scrolling, so you want something that is going to make them at a glance that they can read and grasp the concept of what you're saying quickly, right? So that's where those really simple pins that use the keywords, because then they get into the search algorithm, they show up in front of your ideal audience and then a simple pin that has a call to action on it like shop now, free training, free download, read the blog. Having a strong call to action on there, on the graphic itself or on the video that you have in there, could be almost the tipping point of like making someone take action on your pin.

Speaker 1: 30:17

I guess I was um thinking, you know, like on TikTok or even with Instagram, sometimes you go kind of like, kind of like viral or whatever it's like. You know you, you can get seen pretty quick. So Pinterest is more of like a consistency game kind of. And um, not be like me, where I was like changing every other week. I was like, well, this week the other pins didn't get anything, so maybe I'll try something else.

Speaker 2: 30:42

So, uh, so I shouldn't have done that, I should have just kept and see if it actually worked yeah, yeah, in some cases, in some niches, you really just need to give it a little bit of time. Could all that? Yeah, it definitely could just be the amount of time that you're on the platform, especially as a new account. It is the long game with any sort of search type platform. It is a long game, right? It's going back analyzing what content do I have, how can I make it better, or use different keywords that'll make it show up for a different audience, that sort of thing.

Speaker 1: 31:29

So you kind of mentioned it about. You know, roughly around three times per week. Is that a kind of posting schedule that you would advise someone that's starting now, and is it like certain times that that we should be posting? Like you know, like YouTube has a certain time that you get best and same with like. Tiktok and stuff. Is the Pinterest similar or does it matter like timing?

Speaker 2: 32:00

it might matter, but like super minimally. So what I just suggest especially if you're just starting out, it can be really hard to take on another platform, right? You're already feeling like you're spending all day on TikTok or Instagram creating content. So, just to keep it as simple as possible, because I think this matters so little compared to, again, the search terms and keywords and things like that, think about your audience and what time do you think they would be using Pinterest. What time a day, right? Is it after work? Is it early morning? And then you can just schedule your pins to go out around that time. So that's all that.

Speaker 2: 32:50

I would worry about the time, but it is more of a consistency game. So I don't have a hard and fast rule around like how often you should be pinning every day, but I would suggest pick a frequency that you think you can sustain for more than three, three to six months. So if that is three times a week, then be consistent with doing Monday, wednesday, friday, every week, right? If it's one pin per day that you can do, that would be even better. So it's more of a volume and consistency game. If you can do more pins, then you're gonna. You're giving pinterest, more information about what type of content you create. And then it's going to learn about the content. It's gonna say, hey, like sarah, somebody out here is pinning, then she, she's active on the platform, she's creating fresh content for us. We're going to, we're going to share her pins more. Right, there's a certain tipping point, right? So, like, creating five pins a day or 10 pins a day, like is way overkill, right?

Speaker 1: 34:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:13

So I think most, most, most Pinterest experts just say like one pin every day is really great. If you can do one to three pins a day like that's probably as much as you need. You don't need to go more than like three pins a day, so you don't need to go totally crazy. Um, awesome. But more than anything, just pick a frequency that you think you can sustain for more than three to six months.

Speaker 1: 34:43

A lot of great tips for those that are starting out and for those who are interested in learning how to use Pinterest. More like how. What are some ways that they can work with you or you can help them out to get started on Pinterest?

Speaker 2: 35:01

Yeah, I have my blog. So if you go to my website and my blog, I have a lot of free content out there that can help you. If you are an Etsy seller or if you're a service provider, that can help you share your offers out on Pinterest, your lead magnets or get your product listings showing up on Pinterest. I also have a right now. It is a free co-working session. So a lot of business owners that I work with can't quite afford the Pinterest management just where they're at in their business. So they do a lot of their social media and blogging and Pinterest themselves.

Speaker 2: 35:46

But the one thing that I've heard over and over is oh, I just didn't make time for that, or you know, I got, I got stuck on a question and I didn't have anyone to ask, so then I I kind of fell off on on Pinterest, but I know I really want to do it, Right that's.

Speaker 2: 36:05

I hear that across the board from a lot of the business owners that I'm in touch with. So I created this co-working session. I'm going to have one more free one in August, so August 22nd, so you can sign up. I'll have a link for that where you can sign up and I kind of just guide you through the steps that I would take for getting started, for creating new pins every month, and at the end of the co-working session you'll have two weeks to I've gotten myself to. Within a couple hours I have a whole month of pins created for myself and you can have that published and then kind of step away from Pinterest. So I have that co-working session that you can join just to get a feel for the mechanics of creating pins, how simple it can be if you just keep up with that every month.

Speaker 1: 37:07

Nice, nice, that's perfect. Make sure that I have all that link, all those links down below, and make sure you sign up for that. The next session you said August 22nd.

Speaker 2: 37:21

Yes.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Okay, yeah, so I'll have that down below Um, but other than that, thank you so much for you know, um, showing us the the ways of Pinterest and you know, showing us how we can actually use it and how it's not as overwhelming how I thought at the beginning. When I thought that I needed to use Pinterest, I was like, oh great, another platform I have to get on, but it's not now.

Speaker 1: 37:52

it doesn't seem so bad. So thank you for coming on here and sharing your expertise. Well, that's it for this episode and I'll see everyone in the next one. Bye.