Pinterest Mistakes Holding You Back From Success
Could you possibly be making these Pinterest mistakes? If you have been trying to grow traffic and sales through Pinterest, but you do not see any results, you may be making some of these Pinterest mistakes.
Pinterest Mistakes Keeping You Stuck
These could be holding you back from succeeding and seeing the traffic and sales coming from this excellent search engine. Let’s break down each of these Pinterest mistakes you could be making and the solutions you can put into place going forward.
- Following arbitrary rules from “gurus” with big claims
- Not creating a smooth experience for viewers
- Not using Pinterest trends
- Inconsistent creation and pinning
- Not using your analytics
- Incorrect use of keywords and optimization
RELATED: Content Marketing on Pinterest: 11 Mistakes Businesses Make on Pinterest
Following arbitrary rules with no backing
Many people are afraid of marketing on Pinterest because they are scared that they will break all the rules. I’m afraid to be the bearer of bad news but that’s one of the biggest Pinterest mistakes you’re making.
For example, have you ever heard that you shouldn’t repin ever? Wrong. With proper spacing and a focus on pinning to relevant boards you’re going to be fine. Yes, it’s better to focus your efforts on fresh and new content but you’re not going to get yourself in Pinterest jail by repinning your pins to more than one board.
You may be afraid that you will break something or get blocked for spam. In fact, even if you get blocked for spam, you can get unblocked as long as you didn’t commit any egregious acts on the platform.
Stop listening to these gurus and “Pinterest experts” that are operating on limited experience and data. People will give you false claims about viral pins and making $100,000 dollars in 30 days using Pinterest with your affiliate links. It’s not true. Pinterest is a long game.
RELATED: How to Avoid Getting Your Pinterest Account Suspended
Not creating a smooth experience for viewers
The second mistake you are making is that you are not creating a smooth experience for your audience when they go from your Pinterest pins to your website. Whether it’s your shop or blog, if the experience isn’t frictionless, you’re going to lose traffic.
You have to remove all of the unnecessary pop ups that happen immediately when someone hits your website. You don’t need a welcome mat, pop up, and a slide down hello bar. Limit the ads you may have on your website. I know you are trying to monetize with display ads, but you may need to reel some of those in and make the user experience on your site better.
Your website needs to be fast; it cannot be slow. Most people are on their mobile devices too, so you need to optimize your website for mobile for sure. People will leave immediately if it’s not great for mobile. This action sends signals to Pinterest & Google that your content may not be what the user wanted and could limit delivery in the future.
I had a recent experience on someone’s website on my iPhone that was really bad. I hit the blog post from Pinterest and immediately had a popup I couldn’t exit out of and was limited by display ads on reading the blog post. What did I do? Immediately left.
RELATED: How to Make Your Website Pinterest Friendly
Not using Pinterest trends
If you are not following Pinterest Trends, you are not creating content for Pinterest users that they want and how they are receiving it. Essentially, you need to plan your content at least 30 to 45 days in advance, in some cases, even up to 90 to 120 days in advance.
Pinterest users are planning and looking for things early. It’s pretty similar to walking into a grocery store in September and finding Christmas products on the shelves already. People want to plan stuff for their lives, and you need to be ready by putting up content on the platform in advance.
RELATED: Pinterest Trends: How to Use This Keyword Tool for Content Planning
Inconsistent content creation and pinning
You have to be consistent. You can’t just show up one month and decide you will put up pins for the next 30 days in one go and then not come back for awhile. Consistency on Pinterest means a consistent six to 12 months of pinning activity. You have to be present and consistent on Pinterest for six to 12 months, even to start seeing progress on the platform.
RELATED: How Often Can You Pin the Same URL to Pinterest Without Being Spammy?
Not reading and using your analytics data
Part of the problem may be that you do not know what to read or where to look for with your analytics, let alone how to use the information. To start, you have to know your numbers and what’s working or not. Don’t be afraid of the data.
This topic is plenty for a whole entire course, but I’ve broken down all the essentials you need to know in this blog post linked just below. Use the data every year as you plan your content and see what is working for your audience and brand.
RELATED: Pinterest Analytics: A Simple Guide to Read & Analyze Your Data
Not Using Keywords Properly
You must do keyword research and use them to optimize your pins in your marketing strategy. You must have a strategy in place. I talk about the 5 pillars of a Pinterest strategy and one of those is your keyword strategy.
An excellent way to increase your Pinterest traffic is Pinterest SEO. With 96% of Pinterest users using unbranded terms on the platform, you have as much opportunity to show up as big brands. But not optimizing your Pinterest SEO with keywords is killing your reach and traffic.
RELATED: 6 Places to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Pinterest Profile
What to do instead, so no more Pinterest mistakes
Now that you know what Pinterest mistakes you are making, it’s time to transition to things you need to focus on as you go forward. These are my five phases of a Pinterest Marketing Strategy, the five things you need to focus on that will give you great results with the platform.
- Strong foundation with your Pinterest system
- Keyword research process and implementation
- Workflow for creating great Pinterest images
- Publishing your pins easily and strategicaly
- Utilizing your Pinterest analytics the correct way
RELATED: The Complete Pinterest Marketing Strategy I Would Tell My Friends
Build Your Foundation with my Pinterest System
You need a proper foundation with your content and Pinterest account setup. In most cases, the foundation is a content hub or a Pinterest System. You need a foundation for your content, so you know what you have to promote and you’re not promoting last minute. This helps you to know what to market and when so that you stay on-trend and you’re not just throwing things out there.
You also need a foundation on Pinterest with an optimized profile and workflow with publishing the best ways on there. Get yourself a foundation, get your content organized. Use my Pinterest System to get started.
The Pinterest System
Speed up your client management processes and personal Pinterest marketing strategy with every content workflow and tracking system you need.
Track and manage your content, links, data analytics, keyword research and more! No more wasted time in your product or service business because you’ll have everything you need.
Do your Pinterest keyword research and use it
The next step is a keyword strategy. Going into another year on Pinterest being a public platform, more people are going into Pinterest using it as a marketing platform. As of writing this post, 28% of marketers worldwide are using this platform as a marketing engine. So there is plenty of space for you.
But you won’t be found or seen by viewers if you’re not using the write keywords with your pins to align your products and services in front of your audience. Remember, Pinterest is a search engine, not social media. You’ve got to always start your content creation with keyword research.
RELATED: Pinterest SEO Strategies: Ultimate Guide to Boost Traffic
Create a workflow system for creating your Pinterest images
The next thing you need in your arsenal is an image strategy and workflow process. You cannot simply create images randomly without a process and cohesion. We all want to spend less time working on it and still get a high-quality product out of it.
Use ClickUp to keep yourself organized. Use Canva to create your designs. Create things in bulk so you’re maximizing your time and efforts with still great quality output. Find you flow and keep to a creation schedule that works for you.
RELATED: How to Create Pins for Pinterest in Canva: An Image Workflow to Save Time
Publish your pins with a scheduling system
You can do this manually with the native Pinterest publishing, or use a scheduling tool like Tailwind. We use Tailwind in my agency for most of our clients.
Get yourself a scheduling system, there’s a lot of tools that will help you with this. It is a lot less about how many pins you need to send out instead of the quality and the strategy of the pins you send out.
RELATED: I Tested Pinterest Approved Schedulers So You Don’t Have To
Read and use your Pinterest analytics data
Start reading your analytics. Pinterest analytics can help you better understand your audience so that you can serve them better content in the long term. People assume that if they’re getting Pinterest traffic, they don’t need to look at their analytics. Some people look at their impressions, and that is the only thing they base their strategy on.
You can use my Pinterest System to learn how to read your analytics. This system will make it easier to review your analytics and start using your data to guide the business decision that you need to make. Don’t let your fear of data scare you away!
RELATED: Pinterest Analytics: What to Do With Your Pinterest Data
We Make it Easy with our Pinterest System
Consistency is the key to success on Pinterest. It is a lot less about other stuff and a lot more about getting yourself organized and understanding what content you have and when it is popular.
So, if you want to succeed with Pinterest as a marketing engine for your business, I’m here to help you succeed. If you want more support & accountability with your Pinterest strategy then you should opt to join Pin Profit Academy instead.
Pin It For Later
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. She created Pin Profit Academy and helps small business owners just like you to master their Pinterest marketing strategy. Heather is now a Pinterest Educator, one of the very few sponsored by Pinterest.
