Pinterest is a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website, but can it actually help you book clients to grow your creative small business? Here are five ways that you can use Pinterest to bring more quality inquiries—and ultimately, clients—to your business:
Tip #1: Write a blog
Before I lose you, are you surprised I suggested this? In fact, blogging is a powerful tool for SEO, Pinterest, and getting more inquiries! Each blog post you write is a chance to attract a client, as well as an opportunity to attract a click from Pinterest.
So, what should you write about as a service-based business? If you are in the wedding or event industry, you should absolutely be blogging about your latest “real wedding/event”. Sharing your creative work is important, and it gives potential clients an opportunity to envision how they could hire you to photograph or style their upcoming event.
I’d also suggest blogging about your clients’ biggest pain points. Think through the top questions you are asked by prospective clients and create a blog post answering them. Chances are that if someone had these questions, others will be looking for the solutions, too. By providing these answers on your blog, you’ll have a unique opportunity to establish a know/like/trust relationship with that audience.
As for your Pinterest strategy, be sure to create multiple pin images (approximately 1000 x 1500px) per blog post. Multiple images will give pinners on the Pinterest platform different ways to discover your content in the Pinterest smart feed.
Tip #2: Incorporate email newsletters
Pinterest users are notoriously “bouncy”. They are looking for inspiring ideas or solutions to their problem, but hop on and off your website quickly as they browse. To ensure that you can continue to speak to your Pinterest audience, start an email list. Offer an opt-in or incentive to join your email list and send out a nurturing email campaign that highlights your service-based business. During the campaign, you should detail your unique craft and style, describe how you’ve worked with clients in the past, and of course, make the pitch for your services. The important thing is to show, not tell someone why they should want to work with you.
Tip #3: Use keywords wisely
I couldn’t write a thorough blog post on Pinterest without mentioning keywords. Keywords are the secret sauce to Pinterest (though the platform is getting smarter with vertical search). For good results, you should use keywords everywhere: in your profile name, profile description, board names, and board categories. Most importantly, write keyword-rich pin descriptions and blog titles (but don’t keyword-stuff!) for your pin images.
If you are a business serving clients locally (or you hope to serve a particular destination), make sure you are using targeted local keywords throughout your profile. Add your local place of business to your profile, and don’t forget to include it in your pin descriptions. In the wedding industry, brides and grooms often search on Pinterest using local-based keywords. So, make sure that you aren’t missing the opportunity to be found by your ideal clients in your local area.
Tip #4: Have a highly visible contact form
What’s the purpose of traffic from Pinterest if your ideal client can’t book you on your website? Make sure that you have a well-thought-out website that makes it easy to collect inquiries. Use your contact page to ask prospective clients the obvious questions about name and contact details, but be sure to also ask them how they found you (hint—it might be Pinterest!). Secondly, test out your contact page’s appearance on mobile. Most Pinterest pinners will be reaching out to you via mobile, so their user experience should be just as seamless as it is for your desktop users.
Tip #5: Connect other social accounts
Pinterest has just allowed for business profiles to connect their Instagram, YouTube, and Etsy accounts on the platform. By connecting these accounts to your Pinterest profile, you can both get attribution (a fancy word for credit in engagement) if someone pins from those platforms to Pinterest and use the Pinterest platform to cross-pollinate your marketing efforts. It has often been said that it takes seven touchpoints before someone is willing to buy. With this is mind, target your ideal client on Pinterest (remember those local keywords) with your Instagram posts or YouTube videos so that they can get to know you in a different form of media. Using Pinterest as the beginning, middle, and end of your total marketing funnel will help you book more clients.
These five tips can help you get more qualified leads from Pinterest and ultimately book more clients. If you’re looking for even more information on how to get started on Pinterest, grab my Free Pinterest Start-Up Guide now.
Want to learn more about Pinterest for Business? Get our Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business here.
