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Here’s how to increase Pinterest engagement with one simple process that I have seen success with for my own content and for my clients too. I want to talk about that today.
Based on my understanding of the Pinterest algorithm, what Pinterest releases publicly about how their platform works, and their preferences for the delivery of content to the audience, I have come across one Pinterest tactic that I think everyone should implement on their Pinterest account.
At the end of this post, I will give you my workflow that you can also implement to streamline this a little bit.
Let’s discuss what’s working for my clients and me on Pinterest to increase engagements and saves. To note, it is not with the goal of outbound traffic.
We want on-platform engagement signals to continue delivering our content to our audience. And we want to drive that traffic through standard pins, static pins, and ads.
So what is this one pinning tactic? It’s video pins. After 90 days of implementing this tactic and seeing the increase month over month, seeing the good engagement happening on the platform from videos, and pairing those with Idea pins, I can tell you that you, too, should try this.
RELATED: How to Create Video Pins for Pinterest & 6 Benefits of Using Video
Now, if you have watched my videos for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me say in the past that I’m not a huge fan of video pins. That’s because, in the past, Pinterest did not tell us that followers and saves mattered.
So we have always thought that video helps stop the scroll. But it wasn’t until this year that it was confirmed that video is a preferred content type on Pinterest and that engagements in the form of followers and saves do matter on this platform.
What better way to connect with your audience and help to build that trust than video? Video is the fastest way to build trust with your audience because they can hear you and see you and ideally connect with you if they like what you’re saying.
If you don’t like what I’m saying, then hopefully, you don’t stick around because I don’t want you here, nor do I need you here. We wish to repel those who aren’t attracted to us and draw those who are; video is a proven way to do that.
RELATED: Why You Need a Content Strategy Before You Ever Begin Marketing
This is just one tactic. It is not the only thing your Pinterest strategy will comprise. You still need all of the main heavy hitters – your foundations. You need:
This is just one tactic you will implement into your weekly strategy to help you increase views, engagement, and overall growth on your Pinterest account.
RELATED: The Complete Pinterest Marketing Strategy I Would Tell My Friends
Pinterest views are going to ebb and flow. You will notice a spike and a decrease in views, which is normal. When I went to pull analytics for this post, I only found two accounts where the numbers were going up across the board.
There were a handful of accounts where the numbers were going up in three out of four categories and going down in one category. There were a handful of accounts where all the numbers were going down. It depends heavily on your audience, the seasonality of the content you’re publishing, and the product you’re selling if you’re selling a product.
There are many factors outside your control, but there are also many factors within your control. One of them is creating videos that aid in building engagement and audience growth on the platform. They have a trickle-down effect of getting people to follow you.
If they don’t follow you, they at least engage with you, and then they begin to see some of your pins in their smart feeds. When they follow you, they see your Idea pins across the top of their app, and a lot more of your pins throughout their home feeds. So that’s the idea.
Let’s talk about some of the results I have gotten in the last 90 days. These are 90-day figures, not just
one month. And they are stark.
So this tactic of creating video pins has:
These numbers are excellent. These are the results of the third quarter in 2022. I was consistent in publishing Idea pins and video pins right after them. I even have video content from other platforms that I scheduled as video and animated pins.
I know you will ask me, “Can I do animated pins versus video content?” If you watch my channel, you know I create a lot of video content. You can test this out with animated pins if you’re not creating a ton of video content.
All of the pins I’m publishing for myself and my clients have videos shot by or used from a source we can legally use. So we can use the copyright on the video.
I use some videos from the stock video selection of Canva for some of my clients because they don’t create much of their own video content. Even in such cases, I still think utilizing videos instead of simple animations is preferred.
You can test out the animated style of pins if you would like. But through my experience, even in just these last 90 days, I can tell you we only used videos.
Here is my delivery method…
RELATED: How to Create Video Pins for Pinterest & 6 Benefits of Using Video
The first step is to create my long-form content, full length videos. I create YouTube videos every week, and from my YouTube video, I create multiple pieces of content that all splinter off a single video.
The next thing I create is an e-mail newsletter to my audience, based on what I taught in that video. Sometimes I’m good about sending those every week. Sometimes, admittedly, they are sent every other week. I will usually send my email on Tuesdays to my list and that includes the week’s video.
From that, within two to three weeks, I will have a blog post published. From that blog post, we create Pinterest pins, and we share that on Instagram stories and Instagram feed.
I’m haphazard about doing this because I do my own social media, but we generally will cre ate social media posts for every content piece I create.
Then, I will pick up my phone and outline what Idea pins I want to publish on Pinterest for Creator rewards for the week.
RELATED: How to Repurpose Content for Pinterest
Step two is to create short-form content on your video platform of choice. I work backward from those Idea pins and create short-form content on TikTok.
It doesn’t matter if it’s YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, or TikTok. I know it’s easy for me to do TikTok. I love their editing features, and I can just create my quick short-form content from the YouTube video.
The YouTube video with this post was done in reverse because I created a TikTok video about this same thing a couple of weeks ago. So I’m doing this one in reverse, but I usually would do it the other way around.
Create this video in long-form, create the short form TikTok and then I’m repurposing that to all the places.
The third step would be turning that TikTok video into an Idea pin. Then I will schedule that TikTok video as a video pin with a link to my website. So in the TikTok video, if I’m talking about a YouTube video I published and I don’t have the blog post ready, I would send it to the YouTube video.
If I have the blog post ready and send them to a blog post, I will send them to the blog post where this video also lives. If I’m in the video talking about an offer, whether free or paid, I will send them to that location.
I know you’re going to ask where I should send them because the video pins have links. Send them to the most relevant landing page for the content you’re talking about.
I can create a video on creating short-form content. If you are interested, let me know in the comments below.
How I create my TikTok videos is very similar to how I make my Idea pins, which I can try to link. There is a video on my channel about how to outline Idea pins. I walk you through the process, and then I publish it in all of the places.
RELATED: How to Repurpose TikToks Videos to Pinterest
The big issue people encounter is getting video content from one platform to the next without the watermark. I’m using a tool right now called Repurpose.io. I had the founder of Repurpose.io come into my paid member community last October to discuss advanced repurposing strategies and how to use his tool.
So if you’re interested in learning from Hani Mourra directly, you can join the Academy and go back to October content, learn from him and then get a discount on the tool itself. It’s always there, and you can join the Academy if you want to come and learn.
So here’s my workflow:
I hope this is helpful and gives you insight if you’re struggling to get views right now on Pinterest. I have been using this tactic consistently for 90 days with clients and with students with my own account, and we are seeing this really work for us.
Try it and see how it works for you. Please let me know in the comments below if you want a video on how I create my short form TikTok-style videos. I’d be happy to take you behind the scenes on that. Watch my Pinterest Strategy videos, and I’ll see you next week.
Heather Farris went to school for accounting and worked for years in banking and finance. After finding all of that entirely too boring she started her first blog in her basement in August of 2016. She has started 3 blogs in the marketing, motherhood and travel niches and used Pinterest to grow them all. She quickly became the go-to Pinterest strategist in her peer circles and has been implementing strategies, driving traffic and sales through organic and paid tactics for her clients. On this blog and her YouTube channel, as a renowned Pinterest marketing expert, she educates the public about clear and transparent marketing strategies to help them to grow on Pinterest and in other places online.