Is Your Pinterest Account Leaking Massive Traffic?

Many Pinterest marketers build Pinterest accounts that are a bit like sinking ships. The result can sometimes be the loss of MASSIVE free traffic. This post will teach you how to patch five potential “leaks” and get more traffic for your site because leaking massive traffic can hit you square in the wallet.  Just fixing this one problem can show you how to increase the website traffic you get from Pinterest.

Note: Pin scheduler Traffic Wonker has sadly gone out of business, but owner and CEO Andy Fling has given me permission to share his useful Pinterest research and other information on my site. I jumped at the chance as Andy is the smartest guy I know when it comes to Pinterest!

Leak #1 – No Clear Understanding of Your Business

The first big hole in your ship happens because business owners don’t have a clear understanding of their company’s purpose. One of my church pastors used to say, “There was a failure before the finish because of a flaw from the first.” You can patch this leak with a mantra. A mantra is an extremely short phrase that sums it all up for your company. Creating this phrase will keep your business and your Pinterest account focused on customer interests.

Here are three examples of successful mantras for business:

• Nike – Authentic athletic performance.
• Disney – Fun family entertainment.
• Starbucks – Rewarding everyday moments.

Leak #2 – No Plan for Your Pinterest Boards

Many Pinterest marketers try to market their business with their personal account, which often includes their recipes, craft projects, and tips for home repair. That’s great for your personal use, but these pins and boards don’t meet the needs of your customer. Consider creating a separate business account. It’s easy to set up and should only take you a weekend to build and fill your first 20 boards.

Here are two excellent examples of businesses that discovered how to get traffic from Pinterest.

Example #1 – Whole Foods

Whole Foods’ Pinterest account provides us with an awesome example. They created a set of boards that give their followers tons of helpful tips on how to use the food they sell. Many of the pins are for taste-tempting recipes.

Boards include:

Breakfast Recipes
Coffee & Tea
Seasonal Recipes
Fruits & Veggies
Cheese & Specialty Foods

Example #2 – Etsy

Etsy’s Pinterest account is also exceptionally well planned. Their account offers a variety of Etsy product boards. Creating the Gifts for Her and Gifts for Him boards was a brilliant idea. It allows them to cross-promote many of their best selling products to make shopping a breeze. With 1M+ followers, they must be doing something right.

Boards include:

DIY Projects
Etsy Jewelry
Etsy Weddings
Colors of Spring
Gifts for Her & Gifts for Him

Leak #3 – Under Optimized Pinterest Pins and Boards

It’s possible to have great products and attractive pins that don’t get found. It’s also possible to create pins that get found but the descriptions fail to encourage Pinterest visitors to click. You can patch this leak by writing better pin and board descriptions, and post your pins at the right time of day.

• Write Perfect Pin Descriptions – Some pins do great with just the title of your post. Others will benefit from a story about why your product or post will be useful. Always include keywords in your description that people use to search. A study shows that writing 200-300 characters works best. WordCountTools.com is a site I love to use for word and character counts.
• Write Perfect Board Titles and Descriptions – Well written, keyword rich board titles and descriptions affect the success of your pins because your pin carries forward information about the first board every time it is repinned. Look to top pinners in your niche for examples.
• Be the First to Post Your Pin – Pinterest wants to know who owns the pin. If you’re the first to post it they know it’s your pin. Being first also allows you the opportunity to post your pin to the board of your choice and give it all the perks of your well-crafted board description. Don’t schedule your new product pin. One of your site visitors might add it to their account before it’s posted to your board. The value of posting your pin first it too important.

Leak #4 – Traffic Gushing Hashtags

Avoiding hashtags might be a little controversial, but there’s a good reason to keep your distance. Hashtags are an escape route away from your pin. You got someone to look at your pin and read your description. Your next hope is that they’ll click to visit your site. If they click the hashtag they’re gone forever. Instead, find a way to include those keywords in your description.

All that said, there is one hashtag that I do like. It’s your company hashtag. For TrafficWonker.com it’s #TrafficWonker. If Pinterest visitors click this hashtag they’ll see the rest of your awesome pins.

Leak #5 – Under Optimized Sharing Strategy

Getting saves for your pins starts with quality posts and products. After that, it’s just a matter of making them visible on Pinterest. To make them more visible you’ll need to optimize your pins and boards and develop a good routine for sharing regularly by pinning manually or with a pin scheduler.

• Build Your Boards – I learned early on that you want to build “points of entry” to your online presence. For your Pinterest account, that means building 40-50 boards that people can find through Pinterest board search. Every board should include a minimum of 20 pins. Your most important boards should include 100+ pins to help them rank well in board search. Boards should also include a keyword-rich description.
• Verify Your Account – Pinterest wants people to find the content that they’re expecting to find on Pinterest. To transform your account into an account Pinterest can trust you just need to verify your account. You do this by adding a logo or photo to your profile and by claiming your website.
• Follow Other Pinners – Pinterest doesn’t place a big emphasis on the number of followers that you have so you don’t need to go crazy following other pinners. Just follow a couple hundred of your favorite pinners to get started and then dive into the next task.
• Join 10 Collaborative Boards – Collaborative boards (also known as group boards) boards give you a way to connect with other audiences. When you’re just getting started your audience is very small. Finding boards that you can contribute to will help you attract saves and clicks considerably faster.

Check out Pinterest Marketing for Beginners :: 5 Steps to Explode Your Traffic for tips on choosing collaborative boards that will be an incredible asset to you.

• Build Your Monthly Views – You’re followers love fresh and interesting pins. When they enjoy what you’re sharing your monthly views go up. When monthly views go up so do your pin saves and clicks to your site. This number, displayed on your profile, is by far the most important number to watch.
• Automate Your Pin Scheduling – One of the most important things you can do to build saves for your pins and traffic to your site is to automate your Pinterest pin scheduling. Posting pins with a scheduler helps you connect with your followers every day at the perfect time and stay active on Pinterest. Not only do you connect with visitors more often, but Pinterest rewards you for staying active by ranking your pins and boards higher in search.

Following these steps is going to give you a great solution to the problem of leaking massive traffic to the competitors in your particular niche.

Other posts from Andy you may enjoy:

Pinterest Marketing – 18 Things That Worked

How Many Pinterest Boards is Too Many?

How to Make Pinterest Pins Go Viral – 7 Proven Techniques

by Andy Fling
Founder and CEO of TrafficWonker.com