Honestly, I’m more inclined to say, “The real question should be who can’t benefit from Pinterest marketing,” but even that is way too easy because (almost) EVERYONE can benefit from Pinterest marketing! Let’s go over some of the ways that practically every type of business can use Pinterest in their 2022 marketing strategy. 

Photographers

Whether you’re a wedding photographer, a lifestyle photographer, or a portrait/branding/product/food/[fill in the blank] photographer, Pinterest will be your best FREE method to drive traffic back to your website or portfolio. Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, users are usually looking for beautiful images, which are totally in your wheelhouse! Focus on fresh static pins to direct traffic to your site, and add a few idea pins per week, highlighting recent sessions, to drive Pinterest account growth and website referrals! 

Product-Based Businesses

No matter what you’re selling, whether it’s clothing, prints, or polymer clay earrings, your audience is on Pinterest. 85% of Pinterest users have made a purchase on or through the platform. If you’re not already on Pinterest, you are missing out on so many valuable potential customers! For long-term growth, I recommend fresh content on your website via a blog so that you can reel people in with more than just product shots and rich pins. As a product-based business, you may write blogs about the creative process or create gift guides that include your products in them! Focus on rich pins, static pins, and idea pins to experience well-rounded Pinterest growth. 

Pinterest is an evergreen marketing strategy, so the moment you start putting your products on the platform is the moment that they exist on the platform forever. Depending on what keywords you use and how thoroughly you do your keyword research, pins from this year could continue driving traffic to your shop for YEARS as those keywords ebb in and out of relevancy.

Service-Based Businesses (Copywriters, Brand Designers, Chefs, etc.)

Just because you’re not marketing a tangible item doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include Pinterest in your marketing strategy! Contrary to popular belief, you don’t HAVE to have a plethora of images or products to be successful on Pinterest. In fact, you may have an advantage over product-based businesses here because you have plenty of blogging material! Even if you don’t have a blog yet, start by repurposing your Instagram posts into blog posts, and resize Instagram graphics into Pinterest static or idea pins. Once you have some momentum, additional blog topics will come naturally! 

At the end of the day, Pinterest is an amazing way to drive traffic to your website and get people’s eyes on your services. If you’re struggling to sell yourself on Instagram, I suggest giving Pinterest a shot. It’s a great way to generate leads and add people to your e-mail list.

Need Some Guidance, or Not Sure Where to Start?

If you’re looking for some guidance on how to get started with the best Pinterest strategy for your business, my Done in a Day Pinterest service was made for you! You’ll receive 10 branded Pinterest templates and pin descriptions, 15 blog ideas, one week of Voxer support after, and a keyword research sheet. Click here to learn more and here to sign up! Already have a Pinterest account but don’t have time to maintain it? Check out my Monthly Account Management to drive traffic to your website while you sleep! 

Do you HATE doing engagement as much as I do? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could continue gaining followers WITHOUT having to do a ton of engagement before and after your post? To me, engagement is one of the most tedious parts of Instagram, and I’m always looking for ways to continue gaining followers without engagement. 

 If you’re in the same boat, you’re in luck. Today, I want to share how I got 46 followers in one day without doing a single minute of engagement! Ready to know my secret?

It was simply THIS carousel! (Click the image after reading this blog to see the post on Instagram). Isn’t it crazy that if you continue to provide your audience with juicy, valuable information, they’ll be interested in it without you having to constantly engage with and remind them you exist?? My analytics speak for themselves! I got 132 profile visits and 46 new followers, plus the post reached over 1,000 accounts and prompted 200+ interactions! 

Engagement will always be a great tool to add to your marketing strategy, because it builds community. However, I feel like engagement has turned into this ‘get followers quick’ Instagram growth hack. 

Really, you shouldn’t rely solely on engagement to grow your account and generate new leads. Creating super valuable content and binge-worthy carousels will easily grow your Instagram without requiring a ton of additional engagement. I strongly recommend focusing on your content and content strategy rather than the amount of time you’re spending on engagement.

All that aside, it is way easier said than done to create that “juicy, valuable” content! That’s why I wrote this blog. To give you all of the tips and ticks on creating those juicy carousels.

What Does Your Audience Want More Of?

Take a MAJOR step back and really think about your audience. If you were in their shoes, what would stop your scroll? Ask yourself, “What would MY target audience really want to see? What burning questions do they have?” Putting your audience back at the center of your content creation, regardless of how many followers you have, ensures that every piece of content you create will be valuable for someone. Instagram loves content that brings value to users, because it keeps them coming back!

Do Market Research

After you ask YOURSELF what your audience wants to see as a baseline, try actually asking your audience. You can use story polls, past questions in your DM’s and comments, or Facebook Group comment threads, for great content ideas. Figure out what your audience is actually interested in, and what types of questions they’re asking. Then, structure your content around that information!

Work Smarter Not Harder

I don’t know about you, but one of the most stressful aspects of content creation for me is actually making the content look original, aesthetically pleasing, and on brand. To make things easier on myself, I LOVE buying templates to keep things simple. That way, when it comes time to write the binge-worthy content, I don’t have to worry about creating original layouts–I just have to make some adjustments, input my copy, and alter the colors to match my branding!

Skip The Fluff

Don’t include any fluff in your post, just the juicy stuff! Your audience will not want to binge your content if half of it is unhelpful or just “extra” that you added to make the carousel look longer. In order to keep my posts super concise, I outline them ahead of time, write them out, and then edit them down a few different times. This allows me to make sure I have only the best parts of my content, and my messaging is super clear. 

Remember, not every carousel will be a hit. However, every once in a while, you’ll post one and it will TAKE off. When you have a reputation for creating great content and helpful carousels, there’s a higher chance for success. At the end of the day, it’s all about consistency and VALUE. 

Sidenote: I’m definitely not recommending that you stop engagement altogether! I’m just saying that it may be helpful to shift some of the time you spend on engagement toward researching and creating valuable content. 

Need Someone To Take Instagram Off Your Plate?

If you’re totally overwhelmed thinking about coming up with a content strategy, or creating content, my Social Media Management services were made for you! My IG management service is perfect for the business owner who just hit a growth spurt and no longer has the time to create content or do engagement. IG Management will allow you to get back to your business without sacrificing your social media reach. Click here to fill out an application to work with me!

 

There were SO many BIG changes to the Pinterest algorithm in 2021. From changing the way that Pinterest calculated and showed us our analytics, to the heavy push toward idea pins and away from re-pins. 2021 forced all of us to rethink our Pinterest strategies and find new roads to success. 

I’m sure there will be even more changes in 2022 (hopefully not quite as dramatic) but if this is the first time you’re coming across any Pinterest algorithm update information, buckle up. 

Analytics Shift

Before 2020, Pinterest analytics were a bit deceiving. Pinterest calculated statistics like monthly viewers, impressions, outbound clicks, etc. based on the reach and outbound traffic from ALL of the pins on your profile. 

This means that your analytics numbers were based on pins that you created, and ALL of the pins from across the internet that you’ve ever repinned. As I’m sure you can imagine, this created an extremely inflated set of analytics. 

Now, Pinterest analytics ONLY tracks the analytics of your original content. While this may seem like it’s a negative algorithm change, it’s actually incredibly helpful. Sure, everyone’s analytics took a MASSIVE dip after the change, but now your Pinterest analytics provide you with a super accurate idea of how much traffic you’re driving to YOUR website, and which content is performing best. 

Idea Pins, Story Pins, Whatever You Want to Call Them

Story pins, idea pins, you know what I’m talking about! This feature changed names TWICE in one year, and I’m sure a new name will be released for 2022 (I’m only kind of kidding, lol). Idea pins were a beta feature in 2020; however, most accounts didn’t even have the feature until mid-2021. 

THAT’S when the real Idea Pin algorithm shift happened. After Idea Pins were introduced to the public, the Pinterest algorithm started heavily favoring them. Then, “takes” were rolled out in the fall and unless you had them switched “on,” your idea pins probably started tanking! Talk about a confusing turn of events. Since then, things have cooled off quite a bit, but idea pins are still EXTRA important. 

 Re-Pins are BAD

This algorithm shift was probably the hardest one to cope with for a lot of Pinterest creators! Pinterest has always been a place to re-share ideas, and then contribute some new ones here and there. 

Most of us were using strategies in which we would pin the same pin to multiple boards, or re-share just as much content (if not more) from Tailwind communities than we would our own original content. However, we now KNOW that Pinterest absolutely favors fresh content, and new Pinterest strategies have come out to accommodate this adjustment. 

That’s All for Now!

To be honest, this post only scratches the surface because there are quite a few other algorithm changes that have happened this year. As a Pinterest manager and Pinterest coach, I strive to stay up-to-date on the newest trends and changes on Pinterest so that I can better serve my clients and students. Want to stay current on Pinterest trends and algorithm changes in 2022? Sign up for my email list here and receive Pinterest tips and updates delivered to your inbox weekly!  

 

2021 was the first FULL year in business, and I learned so much!

I’ve taken the last few weeks to reflect on last year hoping to find areas for improvement in 2022. So often, it feels like businesses only share their success metrics online. This means we’re only seeing a piece of the puzzle, instead of the whole thing. That can lead to a toxic mentality about the online business world! In this blog, I want to go over ALL of my business metrics with you—from the wins to the losses. That way you can see the full picture.

I gathered up allll the metrics for you and made them into easy-to-read graphs and charts, so let’s get started! Don’t worry, I included pretty much everything that I look at to evaluate my business on a quarterly basis. If you’ve never done an evaluation like this before, feel free to use this as an example! I got my inspiration from @thepassionscollective on Instagram!

Clients

My Clients & their Niches

Firstly, I wanted to start with my clients, because without clients there would be no business. Not to mention, questions about niches, clients, ways to find clients, etc. are what I get asked about the most. As you can see, my highest category of clients is service-based businesses and, more specifically, wedding photographers.

Interestingly, product-based businesses came in a close second with a wide variety of different businesses following in third. Oftentimes, I find that new Pinterest managers don’t include product-based businesses in their target market. This is a mistake! Product-based businesses are the perfect candidates for Pinterest Marketing because they’re constantly selling products, updating their offerings, and often have new content or products.

How my Clients Find Me

The next part of my evaluation looked at how most of my clients found me. The majority of my clients found me on Instagram. HOWEVER it is important to note that none of my long-term or ongoing clients are from Instagram. Instagram clients, on average, have typically hired me for 1-3 months at a time. The clients I’ve retained the longest have been from referrals from previous clients, or via Facebook groups.

Remember: If you’re struggling to find clients on Instagram, widen your reach. Facebook groups are a great way to showcase your expertise to potential clients who already know they need your services. Once you have 1-2 clients, create a referral program to encourage referrals.

Discovery Call Deep-Dive

Discovery calls, get-to-know-you calls, coffee chats, regardless of what you call them, they’re stressful when you first start your own business! However, seeing this breakdown of all of my discovery call data gives me a confidence boost. Even though I typically assume the worst, the data shows that I’m killing it. In fact, I have a 64% success rate, which is pretty great if you ask me!

I wanted to make sure that I included discovery call stats because it’s important to remember that everyone has unsuccessful discovery calls. I’m sure I’ll have even more of them in 2022! However, it’s important to keep booking them regardless of your success rate. You never know when the next one will be a new client! If you need tips on how to nail a discovery call, check out this IG post! (link)

Client Relationship Timeline 

The last part of client metrics that I tracked was how long I worked with each of them. The majority of my clients hired me for about three months, which is just long enough to start seeing traction on Pinterest. Almost all of my 5+ month clients are still working with me, which speaks for itself.

This metric is very important to evaluate because in 2022 I want to retain clients for longer periods of time by improving my client experience. Knowing that the average client length is four months also helps me plan my income, workload, and timeline for lead generation.

Finances

Income Breakdown

Some months are better than others. Because this is my first year in business, I can make any trend predictions based on time of year or season; however, I am excited to have this graph to refer back to in 2023 when I do next year’s breakdown!

At the end of the day, just because you have a few bad months doesn’t mean you won’t have an amazing next month. Looking at this graph, I’m sure you can tell when I was feeling down in the dumps about my business. But what brought the higher income months was determination, re-evaluation, and implementing new strategies. Don’t give up! Not every month will be an 8K month, but when you have one, it’ll feel GREAT.

Job Type Breakdown

Clearly, the majority of my work in 2021 came from Pinterest Management. In planning for 2022, I’m going to use this breakdown to figure out how I can better market myself for a more even distribution of work. While my specialty is Pinterest Management, I also started a coaching program in Q3, and I’d love to do more of that in 2022. Comparing this with the income breakdown is a great way to plan quarterly goals and create a marketing plan for each quarter in order to hit those goals.

Total Income & Total Expenses

I am proud of my 2021 total income. I went from making $1.6k a month–before starting my business–to the occasional $8k month and a consistent $4 – $5k month. That is massive growth, and it’s something to celebrate. Looking at my total take-home income, I’m definitely not RICH by any means. Unfortunately, running a business is costly. But I am comfortable.

I’m dedicated to being one of the best in my field, which means constantly reinvesting in my business. On top of that, there are so many subscriptions and services that are absolutely essential to my current business and my ability to scale in 2022, like my VA and tools like Notion, Canva, Click-Up, and Tailwind.

Looking for some business support?

Whether you’re a new Pinterest manager, or you’re interested in starting your own Pinterest management business, I want to help you! When I was a new business owner, I struggled a lot with self-doubt, and I almost gave up a couple of times. The success I’ve experienced this year makes me feel so relieved that I kept going, and I want to support you through those difficult times too. My 1:1 Pinterest Coaching Program is the perfect way to get started. I wrote a comprehensive Pinterest Management Workbook with 70+ pages of juice Pinterest management hacks and how-to’s for you, so that you will be successful! PLUS the 1:1 Coaching Program includes 4 strategy calls with me and 2 months of Voxer support.  Click here to apply for my next round of coaching, starting in February!