If you’ve ever searched Pinterest for blogging tips, you’ve surely come across hundreds of Pins offering to help you grow your email list. Usually when life offers up something on repeat (from success, to sunburns to bad boyfriends) the universe in trying to tell you something about your own behaviour, and what you need to do more or less of. Well, the Pin-universe is no different, and when you see a topic like growing your email list trending … and trending some more … then trending some more – you can trust that it’s time to check it out. Today, I am going to explain why you need an email list, and how to get more email subscribers using Pinterest.
But first, let’s start with some important that for some unknown reason, is up for “debate”. Email lists. Do you need one? Is it essential for business? Yes. And here’s why.
Why You Need an Email List
Emails. Who needs more of THAT, amiright? I actually had to turn my email notifications off because my phone sounded more like a handbell choir than a phone.
The truth is no one has time to read every email that goes in their inbox, so most of the time people only read the emails they’re interested in.
Let’s say that again with some feeling: People only read the emails they’re interested in.
The beauty of a well grown email list, is that everyone on it confirmed that they are interested in your niche, your expertise and what you are offering, the minute they signed up to be on that list. These email addresses, when collected properly, will lead all of your correspondence to the inboxes of the most interested peeps on the planet. Email is a direct line to your people. Feel like social media is noisy and a mess? Well it is. We don’t have control over social media but our inboxes? We do have control of that.
Every email you write as a business owner is a chance to re-engage with your audience, and to have them in turn, re-engage with your brand. Whether your site thrives off of traffic (pageviews), sales, leads or affiliate marketing, your email list is your passport into the lives of the people who want to see your content the most. If a social media platform crashes, dies or gets over saturated, an email list is a CRUCIAL cornerstone of a business that can continue to serve you.
So yeah, you kinda need an email list. If you are still unconvinced, take the thing to look at some of the brilliant minds of online marketing. Although they all have their own advice to offer on different things, there is an underlying message that your email list is crucial.
Why You Should be Using Pinterest to Grow Your Email List
If you’re a reader of my blog, I know I sound like a broken record on this, but Pinterest is so invested in creating a superb user experience, that it works hand over fist to ensure that only Pins you are very likely to be very interested in, show up in your feed. This means that every time a pair of eyeballs lands on your Pin, through Pinterest search, Pinterest guided search, or in your SmartFeed, those eyeballs are connected to a very interested brain.
Here are a couple of 2019 statistics Hootsuite collected, for you to ponder before we move on.
250 million people use Pinterest every month
But hey, who wants to get in front of such a small audience, right?
97 percent of Pinterest searches are unbranded
This means that when people are searching in Pinterest, they are looking for ideas, quality and usefulness, regardless of brand and how big you’ve become! These open-minded users are looking for YOUR content!
51 percent of women have been exposed to new brands on Pinterest
You do not have to be a big, established, mega-brand to get found on Pinterest!
Pinterest drives 33 percent more traffic than Facebook, proportionately
Not pointing fingers, just saying.
Growing Your Email List Using Lead Magnets on Pinterest
Lead magnets, also known as opt-ins, freebies or content upgrades are a powerful way to attract potential new readers. You know you have something to offer, you know your journey is interesting, you know that people would want to follow it all, if they only knew.
Lead magnets let them know. A lead magnet, draws readers in (like a magnet) and gives them a reason to sign up for your email list. This is a common strategy for most online businesses – an exchange of a valuable piece of content for permission to land into your inbox.
There are many types of things you could offer as a lead magnet. You’ve seen them: A free e-book, a checklist, an infographic, access to gated resources/a library – the list goes on. In my observation and experience, the most effective and best performing content upgrades vary by what you have to offer but there are a few that seem to be superstars on Pinterest. One of those is templates. Pinterest users LOVE a good, free template that’s going to help them level up their business in some way!
It’s always a good idea to try a few different offers – different strokes for different folks, right? The important things to address when deciding what to offer are this:
Get clear on your niche – If you don’t know who you are, no one else will. Make sure that your website and your lead magnet are reflections of who you are and what you offer as a brand.
Speak to your people – Think about the people you’re trying to reach, and create something useful for them.
Preparing Your Lead Magnet for Traffic from Pinterest
Ok, you’ve created a beautiful checklist, or a lovely new template to offer your audience, now what?
Create a Landing Page
Your Pin will draw them in, but there’s not a lot of room on that little 900x600px Pin to give them all the reasons they want to sign up for your content upgrade (and email list). Pinterest users are different than users on Facebook or Instagram. Your landing page should detail the reason they need your offer, and the ways your offer solves their problems. Most importantly, it will give them a place to sign up. In my experience running organic and paid traffic to lead magnets from Pinterest, users want CONTEXT.
Write a Useful Blog Post
Remember that most Pinterest users are coming in cold. They have no idea who you are, or what you do. This is your chance to show them how fun, helpful and generous you are! A useful blog post is a great way to provide context, background and instructions on how to use the content upgrade. While you’re giving them some of that, offer to give them a little more with a lead in to your content upgrade! This is going to increase your conversion rate for email signups coming straight from Pinterest.
Promoting your Lead Magnet on Pinterest
Ready to leverage Pinterest to grow your email list? Let’s get to it. Before we batten down the hatches in anticipation of all this traffic, let’s remember one thing: This is Pinterest. That means that this growth will be a bit of a slow burn. This is organic distribution so you have to get the Pins circulating, and they will begin to snowball over time. Snowballs are what we want in marketing. Bursts of growth are high maintenance and hard to keep up with. We want to set it and (kind of) forget it. I focus (most of the time) on sustainable growth. Slow and steady wins the race for me.
Your Pinterest Visuals Are KEY
The bulk of Pinterest users haven’t heard of you yet, so you have to be VERY clear that this Pin leads to an offer. And not just any offer, an amazing offer only you can provide. Head over to this blog post to grab some free resources about how to make amazing Pins.
Clear, Keyword Rich Pin Descriptions
In addition to selling your offer, your Pin descriptions should clearly state that they have to sign up to get access. This is hella important and in line with Pinterest community guidelines. Use keywords to help get your content into the right hands that are relevant to the offer.
Show Them What They’re Getting!
Give a preview of what they will get/learn/take away in your Pin description – mockups are wonderful and people love seeing a sneak peak!
Why You Should be Using Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Lead Magnets
You design a lead magnet with an audience in mind: The audience you want reading your content. Pinterest’s sole mission in life, is to make audiences happy, by dangling as many enticing Pins in front of their eager eyes as possible. This combination, gets you the audience you need and want, the highest quality audience, in the form of an email list.
When your email list is organic and thoughtfully grown, every email you send will land in the inbox of an interested person. And as we discussed first thing in this post, those are the people that will read your email.
WANT TO SAVE TIME AND ENERGY ON YOUR PINTEREST JOURNEY? I CAN HELP!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but the internet is littered with so much dated content that the term overwhelming in this case, is underwhelming. When searching for advice to keep you up to date with Pinterest’s best, CURRENT practices, the results are no different.
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