Are you looking for ways to drive traffic and take advantage of the Pinterest holiday season to increase your sales? If you are looking to do that then you are in the right place. I’m posting this in August, and it’s the best time frame for a content creator or online shop owner to implement the best practices for increasing traffic and sales with your holiday content and products.

How to drive traffic with the Pinterest holiday season

Today, I’m detailing 10 ways to increase traffic from Pinterest during the holiday season, and some may not be what you think. A lot of people are only doing a few of these, so check out what you may have missing in your Pinterest marketing strategy for the upcoming holiday season.

1. Start pinning 3-4 months in advance

Start pinning at least three to four months in advance, maybe even five. Because of how Pinterest trends build, this gives the algorithm enough time to get those pins going not only in the smart feed but in search results and related pins too.

Pinners are planners! They are gathering ideas for future shopping, or buying things overtime for budgeting needs well in advance. You need to do the same.

RELATED: Pinterest Holiday Marketing Strategy That Works Year After Year

2. Create gift guides

Pinners are shopping for gifts during the holiday season so why not make gift guides and make their shopping experience easier? Create gift guides from your product catalog, then create Pinterest images that encompass the gifts in your list post or shopping videos.

They may see one item and not realize you have other similar or complimentary items from a guide they didn’t know they wanted or needed. Help them shop easier. You can highlight individual products on your pins that go to full guide pages where they connect to even more of your products.

RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Create and Sell Digital Products

3. Email your list with seasonal boards and offerings

Email your list any of your seasonal boards. Maybe even consider making this part of your email template depending on the season or trend. This will get pinners to your boards, increase your impressions, clicks and saves which all helps your pins in the algorithm.

You can create boards and board sections tailored to your different products whether they are seasonal or not. Put all of your pins in a single place for previous customers or active followers to find easily. Highlight them in newsletters and even consider promoting them if you run Pinterest ads.

RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Create Your Pinterest Board Strategy

4. Update your holiday posts and seasonal listings

Go in and update any holiday posts you have already with your blog posts. Create new graphics and make sure all of your links are working. You can even swap out your opt-in to a holiday themed option if you have one.

If you have seasonal content and products, make sure they’re up to date. Refresh the images, create new pins, circulate them through your coupons or banners in your Etsy shop or online store. Reoptimized the keywords and SEO depending on the platform.

RELATED: Why You Need to Optimize Your Website for Pinterest

5. Create new pins for popular links

Create new Pinterest pins that are seasonally themed and use seasonal keywords. Make sure your overall pin appearance as well as text overlay includes that seasonally themed content. You could simply swap in new images, or design something entirely new for your really popular products or links.

If you have a really engaging old pin from years previous, try and duplicate it, but perhaps just change out the text for fresh pins. Or use the same design but for a different product you’d like to promote for the holidays. Always create something new whether it’s based off of older posts or entirely fresh.

RELATED: How to Recycle Your Pinterest Pins Without Looking Spammy

6. Pin to Tailwind communities

Tailwind community (previously called tribes) members are Pinterest users and marketers more dedicated to pinning than those people just using group boards. Here you can contribute your pins and in turn pin other people’s content that is similar or relevant that you’d also share with your following.

If you already use Tailwind for your scheduling, make sure when you are uploading your pins you are putting them in Communities that are relevant and that you’re active in. Be sure to use communities based off your content topics and offerings, not necessarily just holiday themed groups.

RELATED: How to Use Tailwind Communities to Grow Your Website Traffic

7. Promote your pins

Promoting your pins (paid conversion campaign) is a great way to skip the organic time it takes to get your pin seen by the audience you want. You can target specific keywords and optimize based on whatever your goal is with your audience shopping campaigns.

Focus on pins that already have great engagement and traffic from previous seasons. Also test out pins that lead to your yearly specials or highlighted promotions. Seeing how they gain (or don’t) traction in the months leading up to your holiday can help you decide how to best promote.

RELATED: Promoted Pins on Pinterest: How to Setup & Optimize Your Conversion Campaigns

8. Pin relevant affiliate links

Pin complimentary affiliate products to your boards so you can generate income that way. Create cohesive boards by adding affiliate products as well as your everyday pins to those boards. When your pins are clicked on from those buyers, your other pins will be more likely suggested to them in their feeds.

Bonus if you email them to your list as featured products you also recommend. When buyers see you recommending other products that aren’t just your own, it builds trust and rapport with them to see you helping other companies or creators as well.

RELATED: 3 Simple Yet Effective Affiliate Marketing Strategies for Pinterest

9. Create holiday roundups

Create holiday roundups of your gift guides, tip posts, new offerings and more. If you don’t have enough content of your own to create a roundup then reach out to other creators and ask to feature their items. They may be inclined to share your posts that way as well.

Remember it’s not just to regurgitate old content and spam it out again hoping something will stick. It’s showing your audience that though they may have seen one old post or product in the past, there is so much more that may compliment their shopping or personal situation that’s also helpful. If they have liked or bought one thing form you in the past, they’re way more likely to enjoy something else again.

10. Create a holiday funnel

If you have a holiday opt-in (freebie) and holiday related products, then set up a holiday funnel where you have the opt-in for them to download, then offer the product as an upsell. Turn your most active readers into buyers.

Review your tags with your email list or most commonly commented “needs or wants” from your audience. Create a funnel that supports that gap and launch it with an early-in option to the most interested buyers to jump start momentum or test it out.

RELATED: Tripwire Funnel: How to Create a Powerful Lead Generation Machine

What’s next after driving traffic with the Pinterest holiday season

Those are the 10 ways to drive traffic from Pinterest during the holiday season. Give them a try with your new content and let me know how they work for you! In the meantime, need additional help with your entire Pinterest marketing strategy?

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