How to get more Leads on Pinterest (2021 Updated)

Pinterest has become hot property for marketers and business owners over the years, but it’s also WILDLY misunderstood by many of them. 

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Pinterest isn’t like other social media platforms, it’s its own beast. But it’s a beast worth taming and if you take the time to leverage it properly you won’t just see a big uptake in traffic, but you can use it to generate more direct leads for your business too. 

Spoiler alert! 

If you’re looking for quick ‘n’ dirty tricks on exploding your Pinterest account, I’m sorry to  disappoint, but you won’t find it here! Instead, I’ll be sharing the sustainable Pinterest growth framework that I teach my own students within my signature Pinterest social media training program called Pin Potential. 

So, if you’re ready to take a walk with me, let’s dive in! 

Before you get more leads from Pinterest, you need to do an account audit

Before you can leverage Pinterest to drive email sign-ups, sales or traffic to your blog, you first need to understand how your account is performing now by doing an audit. 

It’s so important to track your progress because I promise that in 1 year’s time when you look back, you’ll be glad you recorded your progress! You’ll be amazed at the results Pinterest will get you once you put the work in. 

Not only this, but it helps you identify what’s working and what’s not working about your Pinterest strategy so you can make smarter decisions in the future. 

In a spreadsheet, start tracking things like: 

• Your followers 
• Impressions 
• Outbound link clicks 
• Total Saves 
• Account views/reach 

I made a handy spreadsheet for my Pin Potential members using Google Sheets (because who saves things to their own computer these days?!) I suggest you do a monthly check-in with your numbers using your own Google Sheet.

Once you have a handle on how your account is currently performing and what things you should be measuring, let’s take a look at the Pin Potential framework for getting new leads on Pinterest (the RIGHT way). 

Getting more Leads from Pinterest with the Pin Potential Framework

I created this framework because I saw way too many business owners and marketers just copying and pasting their Facebook or Instagram strategies to Pinterest which is a total waste of time. The Pinterest customer journey is just so different compared to other platforms and usually requires much more nurturing. 

I’ve broken up this Pinterest framework into three key pillars: 

1. Captivate
2. Create 
3. Convert 

Let’s look at each one in more detail. 

Step #1: Captivate your Pinterest Audience

Captivating your audience is about truly understanding who you are actually talking to and creating visual content that they’ll love. Before we can touch strategies, we need to be crystal clear on who your ideal audience actually is and how you serve them, that way we can make content that will truly captivate them. 

There is so much noise today on social media and it’s getting harder and harder to stand out and speak directly to the people that you want to help. You’ve probably heard of the importance of “niching” your business down and narrowing your focus and you’ll hear it from me too. 

I’m a big believer in the niche because you’ll produce the best content when you’re focused on being amazing at like 1-2 things, rather than being OK at a lot of different things. 

So making sure that you’ve nailed down your niche will allow you to create more targeted Pins, write more specific copy and stand out in a busy marketplace. 

Next, you need to think about the people you serve. You want to know their pain, goals, aspirations and objections inside out because that’s the only way that you’re going to be able to create content that will actually pull in leads for your business. 

If you don’t know that much about your target audience here are some pointers; 

1. Join industry relevant Facebook groups: Facebook groups are a great way to listen in on your target audience and see what they’re struggling with and what goals they have 
2. Surveys: if you have an email list or some followers on Instagram, try sending out a survey that helps you better understand what struggles your audience is having and how they talk about their goals 
3. Quora & Reddit: these forum style sites are a great way to find out what burning questions your audience has (and you can make content that answers them!) 

This step is so crucial because you could have the best strategies in the WORLD, but unless you actually understand who you help and how, you’ll never get leads on Pinterest. 

Now, as Pinterest is such a visual platform, it only makes sense that the next step on the Pin Potential Framework is about creating incredible Pins! 

Step #2: Create Incredible Pins

You have about 1-2 seconds to capture someone’s attention on Pinterest, so the images and graphics you use on your Pins are crucial. 

Your Pins should; 

• Be uncluttered: keep things simple and don’t overload your Pin’s image with lots of text and “noise” 
• Leverage whitespace: whitespace is our friend! It helps the user take in the image more easily and focus 
• Have a 2:3 aspect ratio: the last thing you want is for your image to be badly cropped for Pinterest. You can use Canva or Tailwind to create perfectly sized Pins.
• Use templates: don’t start from scratch with every single Pin, save time and use a template. Canva, Tailwind and Creative Market are all places where you can find templates made for Pinterest. 

Bonus tip! Consider adding a logo to your Pins to protect yourself in case anyone wants to reuse your Pins without your permission! 

One of the reasons my own Pinterest account just exploded was because I didn’t just use Pinterest for self-promotion: I was authentically (and regularly!) curating a beautiful collection of images that other people liked to see.

So even when you are promoting, you need to make sure that you’re offering a beautiful visual experience for your Pinterest audience. 

Within Pin Potential I go deep on how to create visually stunning pins that stop the scroll and appeal to your ideal audience, but you can get started for FREE with my Perfect Pinterest Image Guide. 

Step #3: Convert by Pinning with Purpose

Now the juicy bit! Once you’ve nailed down your niche, understood your audience and their needs and desires, created visually stunning Pins THEN we can start talking about getting leads on Pinterest. 

I talk a lot about the importance of respecting the Pinterest customer journey because it’s so fundamental to leveraging Pinterest for your business. The really great thing about Pinners is that they are going to the app with PURPOSE. 

This is quite different from users on Facebook or Instagram who may be just opening up the apps to nosey in on some family drama or scroll through their feeds while they wait in line at the DMV.

Pinners open up Pinterest because they’ve had an idea and they want to investigate it further – and this gives you an amazing opportunity as a blogger or business owner to insert yourself in their customer journey. 

So, with that in mind, let’s look at the final pillar of the Pin Potential Framework: convert. 

When we talk about converting from Pinterest we want Pinners to take an action like sign up for our email list, subscribe to us on YouTube, buy our product etc. Ask them to do something that affects your growth.

So, where can you send people on Pinterest to increase your conversions? 

• Landing pages
  • Tip: Pinterest users may need more convincing when they go to a landing page, so don’t be shy with your copy – you may need to write more than usual to help them overcome objections and help warm up your audience coming from Pinterest (I like to say your Pinterest audience is warm/cold).
• Lead Magnets 
  • A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer people in exchange for their email address (also called content upgrades, optins or free offers)
• Podcast Episodes 
• YouTube Videos 
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Product listings 

Get creative! Leverage Pinterest to promote and generate leads to other areas of your business and think outside the box. 

But how do you actually GET the outbound link clicks (or website referrals) from your Pins in the first place?

This involves writing killer copy for your Pins that highlights the amazing benefit the Pinner will get if they click the outbound link from your Pin. Once someone clicks on your Pin you have 3 ways to convince them that it’s worth their while to click-through. 

1. The Title of your Pin 
2. Your Pin description: build upon your title and drive home the real benefits of your content 
3. Your call-to-action: make sure people actually know what to do once they’ve seen your Pin 

Let’s say you’ve nailed everything so far and someone has clicked through to your link – yay! But the story doesn’t end here – we want leads from Pinterest, right? So that means we now need to wow them once they’re off the platform.

Let’s say you want to grow your email list and you’re using Pinterest to drive traffic to your lead magnet. Once someone clicks-through to your link, they’ll be taken to your landing page where you’ll have to convince them of the value of your resource so they’ll take action and sign-up. 

Remember: embrace long-form copy on your landing pages! 

Another thing that will help you drive traffic and convert more leads from Pinterest is Pinning consistently. A lot of accounts will throw out a Pin once a month and call it a day, but Pinterest users who put in the time to regularly Pin will see much more growth and return on investment. 

But I get it, you’re busy! How can you be Pinning all the time?! 

Don’t worry, you can do what’s known as batching content. Batching means you use a scheduling tool like Tailwind to pre-schedule your Pins. You can take 1-2 days out of the month where you upload your Pins to Tailwind and schedule when you’ll Pin them. This means you aren’t scrambling every week trying to pull together Pins. 

There are other scheduling tools you can use, but Tailwind is an approved Pinterest partner and has so many other great features for Pinterest. 

Now that you’ve had a glimpse of the Pin Potential Framework…

Get on the Waitlist for the Pinterest Social Media Training that’ll 10x your growth

When I created Pin Potential, my signature program for online business owners and bloggers, I didn’t want to just throw up some videos and leave them to it, I wanted to create a community. 

The kind of community who can unmute their mics to ask questions during our coaching calls and live masterclasses. The kind of community who never leaves a question unanswered in our lively Facebook group. The kind of community that is ALWAYS supporting one another on their journey to leverage the power of Pinterest for their businesses. 

I’m so proud to say that we’ve achieved that and we’re now the biggest Pinterest membership program on the market. 

Here’s what’s on the inside of Pin Potential; 

• The Pin Potential Roadmap 
  • Liked what you saw in this post? You can unlock the entire Pin Potential roadmap which takes you step-by-step through the process of using Pinterest strategically to grow your business 
  • Workbooks and a Pinterest account audit to understand your numbers on Pinterest
  • Spreadsheets and other resources needed to track your progress 
  • On-going up to date trainings each month that will impact your business growth
• Expert Masterclasses from industry experts 
  • I’ve been around this whole online marketing block for a while now and I’ve made some incredible connections over the years. I invite guest experts to give trainings on topics like; SEO, Facebook advertising, sales funnels, business finances and so much more. 
• Our incredible Facebook community 
  • The kind that never leaves you hanging. Got a question? Need to vent? Want to celebrate a win? We’ve got your back!
  • Feel like you need to talk about your account? We gotchu! We host regular question and answer sessions each month along with regular review clinics as a group (it’s the best!)
• Swipe files, Resources & Templates 
  • Steal my proven Pin copy formulas and get a collection of Canva templates to create stunning Pins 
  • Spreadsheets and ways to organize your crucial Pinterest keyword research
  • Email welcome sequence templates to make sure you’re converting new subscribers 
• Tool trainings 
  • Using Pinterest analytics, Google Analytics and Tailwind 
• Updated resources 
  • You better believe I am on top of any new changes within Pinterest and that I share those with you. That way you’re using the techniques and strategies that are working today 
• A Pinterest mentor and certified business coach who’s been around since Pinterest was in Beta 
  • Yep, I got on Pinterest via invitation back when it first beta-launched to a very small group of people. That means you’re not getting someone who jumped on Pinterest yesterday, I’ve been on top of all the changes and development of Pinterest from the very start
  • And if that wasn’t amazing, I also work alongside of Pinterest and am honoured to be invited to participate in their events ?

Join the waitlist now to make sure you’re in the loop about when Pin Potential opens its doors (and get notified about any special offers!)

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