In our previous post, we walked through how to set up a Pinterest business account and how to get started with pins. In this post, we will talk about several ways you can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website and grow your small business.
Read on for ideas you can put into action today!
First things first—Pinterest is an image-centric social platform, so it’s important to use the best quality images and graphics to represent your business. Does this mean you need a professional photographer? No. However, it’s helpful to understand how to find and create the best images for your pins. If you need help with this, check out our post for tips to help you find and create high-quality digital images and graphics.
One of our personal favorite online tools is Canva. Not only do they have some free images and graphics, but it’s also easy to take your current images and modify them to add text, your logo, and various effects for a professional-looking end result.
How to Create Pinterest Boards
Before we jump into pinning ideas for your small business, let’s learn how to set up our boards. Boards are handy ways to organize your pins by topic. It’s helpful to decide what boards you would like to have from the start so your pins stay organized. For example, at OpenVine we help small businesses with websites, blogging, graphics, advertising, SEO, and more. We would set up a board for each of these areas and then add our pins to the most relevant board as we go.
Since you already know how to set up a pin, we will go over how to create boards to connect with Pinners by pinning products, helpful DIYs, tutorials, blog posts, and other valuable content. You can pin your own content to these boards as well as other people’s content. Interested Pinners will be eager to follow your board and re-pin your Pins, amplifying your reach.
To create a board, go to your profile and scroll down to the boards area. Click the Create Board button with the red plus sign. 
Add your descriptive title and click Create. 
You will be prompted to add some pins to your board from a provided list. You can add pins now by selecting them (or skip this step). Click Done to move on.
Now your board has been created. Fine-tune it by clicking on the pencil icon to edit the board. 
Here you can do the following:
- Add a keyword-rich description of your board (for SEO).
- Choose an appropriate category (for SEO).
- Add a cover image (optional).
- Add collaborators (optional).
Click Save at the bottom when you are done editing your profile.
What Types of Pins to Create for Your Small Business
Now that you know how to create your boards, we can talk about what to pin on those boards. Here are some suggestions to get you started.
Promote Your Blog Posts.
We’ve talked in the past about how beneficial blogs are for small business websites. A blog that is updated regularly (at least twice a month) can boost your website traffic exponentially, enhance your SEO efforts, and increase conversion rates. If you are keeping up with your blog posting, BRAVO! Since you’ve put in all of that hard work, squeeze every drop out of those posts by pinning them on Pinterest. If you are using graphics and images on your blog (and you should be), Pinterest can pull the image directly from your blog post when you pin it.
Here’s how you do it:
- Go to Pinterest and click the Red plus (+) button in the top right of your screen. Choose the Create Pin option.
- In the box that pops up, click on the Save from site button in the bottom left, then enter your website blog URL when prompted and click the arrow to the right of the URL when finished.
- You will then be taken to a screen where you will see any images that appear in your blog post. Select the best one and click the Add to Pin button.
- Then add your title and description and click Publish.
*Note: We recommend having a text overlay on your images because it makes them more descriptive and shareable. If your blog images don’t have a text overlay, you can use Canva or another photo editing tool to add text to your image. Then upload that image to your pin instead of using the Save from site option.
Showcase Your Products
If you sell products, you probably already have great photos to share. Create pins highlighting those products! You can show products in different colors or variations and even show people using (or wearing) your products.
If you have a couple of products, consider manually tagging your product pins with product links from your domain. Click here for instructions on how to do this.
If you have several products, consider Using Pinterest’s Catalogs. Click here for a detailed description of what is involved in the Pinterest Catalog setup process.
Broadcast Your Services
I know what you are thinking: “How am I supposed to promote my services on such a visual platform?” If you are providing services, here are some ways you can stand out:
- Pin how-to’s and other instructional blog posts from your website. Of course, make sure that you include a call-to-action with your blog posts so visitors can take that next step.
- Toot your own horn by showing before and after pics that highlight the service you provide.
- Pin images of events that showcase your services. For example, if you are a caterer, take pictures of your delicious food after you have laid it out for your customers and pin them.
Be sure to check your Pinterest Analytics periodically to see what content is performing the best. The Overview provides data on impressions, total audience, engagement, and more. Audience Insights can help you discover whether or not you are reaching the people you are intending to reach. Your analytics will guide you on the type of content you pin going forward for best results, so check it frequently. 
Hopefully this post gave you some helpful ideas on how to promote your small business using Pinterest. At OpenVine, we specialize in helping small businesses grow with a suite of internet marketing and website services. If you need help getting more traffic to your website and turning visitors into quality leads, get in touch with us to see how we can help you achieve your goals!