Why is Pinterest marketing so hard? Has this thought ever come to your mind? Well, you are not alone. I thought it was high time I write about how this platform just seems hard.

Well, in this post, I have a bit of a story, a few little pieces of information, and maybe some comfort at the end.

It’s OK for Pinterest to seem hard. It might be hard for you, but for me, it may not be as challenging to implement and see results on. But that’s where all of this comes together.

Where I’m coming from as a Pinterest marketer

If you’re new here, my name is Heather Farris. I run a Pinterest marketing channel, and a Pinterest marketing agency, where I help content creators and e-commerce shop owners get sales, traffic, and leads from Pinterest. I’ve been doing this for five years, and I have managed hundreds of accounts at this point.

When I started Pinterest Marketing, it was so easy to get traffic. You could put up a pin and get hundreds of clicks on that pin to your website within a week. I started on Pinterest as a mom blogger in 2016. Within the first two months, by January of 2017, I had amassed over 5000 page views per month because of my Pinterest strategy.

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What is happening that makes Pinterest seem so hard?

My strategy then wasn’t that much different from what it is today. However, back then, it was easier to get traffic because of the nature of the platform. We only had static images, videos hadn’t become popular yet, and group boards were still a thing.

Fast forward five years and things have changed a lot. Now, with any marketing platform, with any little bit of marketing that you get yourself into, it’s not going to be as easy as putting up a piece of content, going viral and making tons of money off of that, or just amassing a huge audience. It is simply not like that anymore.

I don’t want you to believe anything in the ecosystem that says Pinterest is now only a pay-to-play operation.

However, I don’t want you to believe anything in the ecosystem that says Pinterest is now only a pay-to-play operation. It is not just a pay-to-play operation. However, if you have money to invest in their ads platform, it can be a really lucrative platform.

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#1 – Following outdated Pinterest marketing advice

In my opinion, over the course of five years working with hundreds of different clients in dozens of different industries, the number one thing that I see or hear over and over again is, “I heard I could just put pins on Pinterest and they would get picked up. And then I would get traffic.”

The problem with that is that there are other creators on this platform selling you a dream that is not necessarily the truth. 

The number one reason I started my channel was that I was watching other Pinterest marketing channels give outdated Pinterest marketing advice. There was one creator in particular, who I will not name, claiming that they were getting hundreds of thousands of views per year from Pinterest. However, they were not disclosing the fact that they were running ads.

I took it upon myself to spread some advice that I felt was due, transparent, and honest. Just good advice that you can follow. If you are listening to someone for marketing advice and they are not showing you how to wean off the advice that they’re offering you so you can do this on your own, I don’t think you’re choosing the right person.

My ultimate goal in my business is to be transparent, to be honest with you, and to ultimately give you the tools that you need to succeed on your own.

My ultimate goal in my business is to be transparent, to be honest with you, and to ultimately give you the tools that you need to succeed on your own. Even my clients come and go. And we have long-term clients. One of my longest-standing clients has been with me for almost four years, and that’s fine.

I understand the phase of business that she’s in, and she needs us on her team, and that’s great. However, at the end of the day, we want you to take the advice you’re learning, implement it, and eventually get to the point where you don’t need me.

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#2 – The hustle and juggle of online business ownership

The second reason why things seem so hard when it comes to succeeding on Pinterest is the hustle of online business ownership. Even if you have a brick-and-mortar store and you are also marketing online, there is a level of hustle as a small business owner.

I come from a small business family. I completely understand having to carry the hat for every single role in your business. I want to be completely transparent with you, and I have said this before. I have a team, I have:

• four Pinterest assistants,
• three are organic,
• one is an ad strategist,
• a video editor,
• a ghostwriter, and
• a content manager.

And then there’s me. So my business provides an income for all of these people. It’s a small army, and it’s not easy even for me. I let things fall through the cracks.

So going back to being the sole hat owner in your business where you’re doing all of the things can be challenging. It can be tough to make sure that you prioritize the things in your business that you want to achieve, Pinterest being one of them. Especially when it seems like you can’t figure out a workflow to make it work for you.

If you’re a client or a mentee of mine, I want to teach you how to create a workflow to make Pinterest work for you.

That’s the first thing outside of teaching the actual Pinterest strategy that I want to teach you inside my membership program. If you’re a client or a mentee of mine, I want to teach you how to create a workflow to make Pinterest work for you.

And I think the hustle and the juggle of doing it all and wearing all the hats in your own business really does make it difficult. It seems like it’s taking forever to get anything to happen. The hustle and juggle are real.

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#3 – Time commitment needed to make a difference

The time commitment it takes to actually make a difference on a platform like Pinterest, especially with brand new accounts, is what makes Pinterest seem hard. Let’s say you started a Pinterest account in 2021. Sometimes, it can take months to see anything happen on that Pinterest account. It may seem like nothing is happening ever at all, but the algorithm is actually helping you to build long-term sustainable growth in AI. Because Pinterest is a visual search engine platform, it is going to take longer for you to rank for the keywords you’re trying to rank for and to get in front of the audience that you want to get in front of.

That doesn’t mean that you should give up, though. If it takes you nine months, but after nine months, you’re seeing a steady stream of traffic of 2,000 to 3,000 people a month on your website, wouldn’t you want that? So, a lot of people give up on Pinterest really early, but they’re not even asking the same questions that they ask for Instagram or Facebook or Google SEO or YouTube.

It took me nine months of publishing on this channel before I was even able to make a huge difference in the income in my business. Then right at one year, it was just growing steadily.

However, if I had given up early, I wouldn’t be here today with a multi-six-figure business supporting nine people. It’s insane! So, if you would have asked me, “Will you give up if it doesn’t work in three months?”, I would have said, “No, I will not.”.

When you invest in a platform like this, you need to ask yourself, am I willing to put in the time it will take to see the results that I want to see?

So the time commitment is real. When you invest in a platform like this, you need to ask yourself, am I willing to put in the time it will take to see the results that I want to see?

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#4 – Fear of putting yourself out in the world

This one is pretty standard. It’s the fear of putting yourself out into the world and maybe getting rejected. So a lot of times, as creators, we don’t know how to sell in a way that makes us feel good. We’re told that selling is bad, we shouldn’t be salesy.

That’s all a lie. Don’t think like that. Your people will find you, and they will be so thankful that you put your information out and tell the world that you put your products out into the world. You have to get over the fear of putting yourself out into the world and possibly being rejected. The right people will find you, and they will love you forever for sharing your content. Trust me; I know this one to be true.

You have to think differently about Pinterest

This platform is designed to be a search and discovery engine. It is a place for people to go, to buy and try. They want to be inspired to take action in their own lives month over month, year over year.

Pinterest is excited for new creators to bring their content to the platform, to bring new tools to creators, and to partner together to serve the people on the platform. Pinterest is not social media; it is not a place where I will see what my brother and his wife are up to this week.

I’m not going there to comment or engage with other creators. I’m going there to find a recipe for chocolate chip cookies to make for my kids or for plant advice. I’m not going there to engage with other people. I’m going there to engage with other people’s content, but not in the same way you’re going to do so on Instagram or Facebook.

You have to ask yourself when you’re feeling down about this platform, “Am I approaching the platform and the way the platform was designed? Am I putting expectations of Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok on Pinterest?” They are not the same.

• The brand values of this platform will matter.
• The way we choose to present our information that we hope to connect with other people on the platform will matter.
• The way that you go about it matters.
• The time investment and commitment to make a platform like Pinterest work will matter.

And for you to be successful on Pinterest going into 2022 is going to take some time. It’s going to take some workflows, systems, and strategies that work for you individually to reap Pinterest rewards long-term.

Investing in Pinterest Successfully

Everyone says it’s such a great platform, longevity wise, and it is. Some of our clients’ top-performing pins have been years old now.  However, the pins we create within the last 90 days are also reaping the rewards.

So invest in the tools that Pinterest is giving you right now:

•  Invest in idea pins.
•  Invest in ads if you want to (you don’t have to).

Give your audience what they want, but also use keywords, pin titles and descriptions, and text overlays on your images and create engaging content. Create content that helps inspire people, which helps people do, buy, or try.

Create content that helps inspire people, which helps people do, buy, or try.

Are you ready for Pinterest?

It takes an average of 9 to 12 months to see a really solid return on your investment for Pinterest. If you’re not willing to put in the time of day, which is about 90 minutes a week (you can get it down to about an hour a week), then you’re likely not going to see the results that you want to see, and you’re going to burnout.

If you do want to commit that kind of time to an actual strategy that works, using idea pins, static pins, creating consistently, and pinning every single day… then I can help you.  You’re in the right place.

However, if you’re feeling kind of lost out in the wilderness right now, leave me a comment down below. I’d be happy to give you some insight or maybe some mindset boost.

Head on over and watch the Pinterest marketing strategy playlist if you are ready for more Pinterest marketing strategies in your life. Until next time!

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