6 Creative Strategies for Getting Traffic from Pinterest

Pinterest is an undeniable opportunity to reach and convert new audiences.

If you don’t believe me, consider this: the platform has over 250 million users. And around 90% of these Pinterest users say they look at content on the network to make purchasing decisions.

However, excelling yourself on Pinterest and using Pinterest as a powerful sales channel are two different things.

If you have seen a surge in followers on your Pinterest account, then consider how to turn those followers into real leads and customers for your business.

Here, let’s explore some creative strategies to turn the followers you get on Pinterest into traffic for your website and social channels.

1. Create boards with relevant keywords.

A board – or an organized set of related Pins to make it easy to find – is a necessary component of a good user experience on Pinterest.

For example, CoSchedule, which has nearly 17,000 followers on Pinterest, organized its Pins into boards titled “Content Marketing”, “Social Media Marketing”, “Marketing Inspiration” and more:

New followers can easily find the Pins they’re looking for using these broader categories. Hence, it makes sense to use popular keywords when creating your boards, as was the case with CoSchedule.

Additionally, these keyword-optimized boards can help make your Pinterest content more visible in search engines when someone searches for related keywords – especially Google image searches, since Pinterest is primarily a visual channel:

As shown above, two images from Pinterest appear on the Google image search page for the search term “Best Marketing Statistics”. By creating boards with searchable keywords, you are more likely to reach users both on and off Pinterest.

2. Use Rich Pins to make sure your Pinterest content is up to date.

Put simply, Rich Pins can be synced with your website to ensure that your content on Pinterest is up to date when you make changes to those pages on your website.

There are a few reasons you might want to use rich pins. When you publish your products on Pinterest, Product Rich Pins can ensure that availability and prices are automatically updated as these factors change on your ecommerce website.

Alternatively, if you publish recipes, Recipe Rich Pins can add additional information – including serving size, diet preference, and ratings – to the recipes you pin on your website to make them more recognizable.

Finally, Article Rich Pins add headings, titles, descriptions, and author byline information of the article or blog post to your Pinterest site when you pin an article.

These little details go a long way in ensuring that your Pinterest content is always up-to-date when users find it. Especially if you want to increase sales of products from Pinterest, it is important to use product-rich Pins so people don’t get frustrated when they find that prices or other information are different between Pinterest and your product pages.

3. Pin consistently and often.

You can’t expect a lot of traffic from Pinterest if you don’t pin content on the platform on a regular basis. Pinterest, like any social network, requires dedicated, long-term work to produce results.

You wouldn’t expect to write a blog post for your website and see a large, steady flow of traffic from it – and that goes for Pinterest too.

Additionally, as your followers grow, you’ll want to provide high quality, engaging content to increase brand loyalty and to keep those followers who are active on your page. By pinning regularly, you increase your chances of turning those followers into fans of your brand – which ultimately drives them from Pinterest to your website or social pages.

4. Optimize your pins – and boards – for searching.

At its core, Pinterest is essentially its own visual search engine. Similar to other search engines, keyword optimized content performs best on the network.

In addition, keyword optimization of your Pinterest profile increases your chances of achieving an organic rank other Search engines and drive traffic from search engines like Google to your Pinterest website.

To optimize your Pinterest page, you should include branded keywords on your bio and profile, pin descriptions, board titles, board descriptions, and even the picture alt-text of any content you post on Pinterest.

This can help your images show up in Google’s image search results and improve your chances of ranking on Pinterest for your intended keywords.

5. Create pen-worthy images and use those images to link to original content on your website or social pages.

One of the easiest ways to get traffic back to your website is to create unique, original content specifically for Pinterest and then use that PIN to link back to your website or blog post.

For example, consider the following infographic I found while searching for “best social media platforms” on Pinterest:

It’s a good idea to create unique, standalone value for Pinterest with your images. In this case, I can find my “best social media platforms” answer by looking at the infographic myself without ever leaving Pinterest – which makes for a better user experience.

However, once I’ve found unique value in the content, I might want to hit the brand’s website to learn more about their business or view additional content. When I click the digichef url, I am taken to the original page for the infographic on the company’s website:

You could try a similar approach with your own Pinterest strategy. Think about how you can create unique, standalone content that will perform well on Pinterest. Alternatively, you may be able to post infographics or other visuals you’ve already created for your brand on Pinterest with a link back to your website.

6. Follow similar brands to get inspiration from content and repin images that are specific to your brand.

On Pinterest, every Pin you save doesn’t have to be original branded content. Instead, an easy way to increase engagement is to re-pin images that are branded to share with your own followers.

In addition, following other brands can increase traffic to your own Pinterest profile and, ultimately, your website. When you follow someone on Pinterest, Pinterest sends a notification letting them know that they have a new follower. Some of these people can then follow you in return, which is a great way to grow your audience.

Following similar brands can also help you identify popular or trending content in other profiles, as well as gaps in your own Pinterest content strategy.

For example, if you work in a home decor e-commerce store, you may find that many competitors post images of Easter Home Decor:

This could inspire your team to create your own version of the Easter home decor content, as well as other seasonal pins and boards.

Finally, you should consider partnering with specific brands that offer products or services that are complementary to your own. For example, Benefit Cosmetics created the page “Wedding Looks: Benefit Cosmetics x Wedding Paper Divas” in collaboration with Shutterfly:

The page is filled with pens that relate to both the makeup and the stationary stuff for the big day. To expand your reach and add value to your followers, you can try partnering with other popular brands on Pinterest.

Ultimately, creating a successful Pinterest strategy takes work and commitment. However, if you find that Pinterest is a popular social platform for your target audience, it is likely worth investing the time and effort into growing your following, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately increasing sales.