How To Get Traffic From Pinterest (As An Artist)

Hi Friends! This blog post is going to be a quick but super helpful one! I wanted to write a bit about what I’ve learned to be the best ways to bring organic traffic to your website from Pinterest. But why Pinterest? Well, In the last quarter of 2023, Pinterest had over 490 million monthly active users worldwide, up by 16 million users when compared to the previous quarter (source: statistica).

Pinterest is growing an at incredible rate and has completely redesigned the tools they have to help small business owners. They’ve also gone on the record to say that their mission is to help find a balanced relationship with social media, encourage positivity and limit the scrolling spiral-effect. And when I consider the alternatives, I’d rather support and grow my business on that over anything else. 

Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest is a powerful visual search engine that has incredible potential to engage and share your work with your target audience. It’s strength comes from the fact that Pinterest users are on the platform because they’re looking for a solution, a product or a resource. They’re not just scrolling mindlessly. As artists we can position ourselves to really leverage our visual skills and showcase our artwork in a really interesting way, capturing people’s attention and guiding them to our website. 

My Pinterest Strategy 

No doubt, there are so many different ways online entrepreneurs use Pinterest. I think that’s where the overwhelm happens. Another platform, another strategy… 

However, my pinning strategy has become a very systematic process that I do at the end of any new content or artwork I publish or post. Think of it as the last step in my marketing before completing that one task. If you do it this way, it becomes a part of your workflow and then it sort of just becomes a natural part of your process. 

Before we get into each step, if you read through this post but still want a 1:1 walk-through and personalized strategy, I offer a 2 Hour Pinterest For Creatives Strategy Session that covers everything including Creating Your Business Profile, Creating Boards, Creating Pin Templates on Canva, Branding, Pinning and Scheduling Pins, Analytics and Finding Relevant Keywords. In that 2 hour session, you’ll learn everything you need to drive traffic to your site from Pinterest. Book your session today!

Here is how to get traffic from Pinterest, as an artist, creative or anyone who wants to learn how to create visually stunning images and pins linking back to their website.

Canva Templates And Pinterest Pins

I’m sure many of you can relate to this. You have the artwork, the photography, even the mockups… But, you’re lacking the knowledge to use these beautiful images as marketing tools. That’s where Canva comes in. Using their platform, you can create your own or pre-designed Pinterest Pin templates and plug in your artwork or product to create really visually stunning Pins. 

Here’s How I Use Canva To Design My Pins:

I’ve just taken some beautiful photographs of a new painting. I want to post that painting to Pinterest and create multiple pins of the same piece or content. The same would apply for a tutorial, blog post, new collection, etc. 

Think of it this way. For each new piece of content, you want to upload at least 3-10 unique pins leading back to that item on your website.

1. On the main Canva page, in the “What will you design today?” search bar, type “Pinterest Pin – 1000×1500 px”. Click on the search result option and you’ll be taken to a results page with something like 12,000 Pinterest Pin Templates. Scroll through and find one that you can use, or will modify slightly to reflect your brand. Click on it and then on Customize this template. 

2. The template will open and you can begin to customize the layout to suit your business. Upload your own images, change the fonts and colours to suit your branding. 

3. As mentioned before, you’ll want to create at least 3 and up to 10 pin variations of this template. What I mean by this is that the style or content doesn’t change much but you make slight adjustments relatively quickly to create fresh pins. The term fresh pins is one you hear a lot because you definitely don’t want to be spamming Pinterest by uploading the same exact pin multiple times. A fresh pin is a pin that may have the same content but is presenting that content in a different way – text, image, colour… I’ll show you what I mean next. 

4. Click on the little plus page icon and the pin will duplicate below the first one. 

5. For the second pin, modify something about that pin. In my case, I’m going to change the layout and quantity of the polaroid images.

6. Repeat this process until you have between 3-10 pins. 

7. When you’re all set, click on “share”  on the top right of the page, download, and then review your save settings. Use at at least 1000×1500 in size. PNG or JPEG is a good format for Pinterest. Click Download. Let that save. Okay, you’re done with Canva for today. 

Creating Pins and My Pinterest Marketing Strategy

Now we’re off to Pinterest to create our Pins. Make sure your profile or account is a Pinterest business account. If it’s not you won’t have access to analytics and seeing how your pins do, so be sure to have that business account set up first. You’ll also be able to add an email address and website link to your profile and some other additional features. 

1. Click on the Pinterest button on the top left, and then Create Pin.

2. Your Pin Builder platform will open. Here you’ll upload the pins you saved from Canva. Upload your first Pin into the dashed pin area. 

3. Write a unique Pin title between 40-100 characters that reflects the content on the pin. The title is a really important place to include relevant keywords so be sure to have some keywords in mind that you know people are typing, are trending or reflect your artwork or content.

I’m using, “Art Studio – Florals, Botanicals and Nature Inspired Art” – and my keywords are Art Studio, Florals, Botanicals and Nature Inspired Art. 

4. Next comes the pin description. Here is where you have a lot of opportunity to get found. Use this space wisely by adding copy that is well written, searchable and well-keyworded. Think of this as SEO for Pins. For my description, I wrote “Welcome to the Studio! We love florals, botanicals, nature and all things beautiful art. Our love language is wall art so join us on our daily blog featuring home decor, paintings and nature inspired decor that will inspire any decor lover to incorporate nature into their home interiors”. 

I want to be found for florals, botanicals, nature, beautiful art, wall art, home decor, paintings and home interiors. 

5. Add your alt text (a helpful and accurate blurb describing what your pin is about) and the URL (link to your website where they can find the painting or content). 

6. Lastly, pick the most relevant board you want to pin this particular pin to. If you don’t have any boards yet, you’ll want to create 5-10 boards that reflect your business. For example, “HOME DECOR”, “WALL ART”, “FLORAL PAINTINGS”, “DIY WALL ART”… I’ll be writing a separate post about how to create a collection of boards for artists on Pinterest next week, so be sure to join the mailing list here and be notified when that resource becomes available! 

7. Now, you’ll repeat the same steps but with the next pin you saved from Canva. Click on the top left of the Pin you just created and select “Duplicate”. This will create an exact copy of that pin. 

8. Change or replace the image to the next one you’ve saved and modify the title and description slightly to reflect the content uniquely. You don’t want to be using the exact same title and description for each pin. 

9. Now, the difference here is that you’re going to schedule this pin to upload 3-7 days after the first pin, which will upload immediately. Click on Publish at a later date, and using the little calendar pick a date for this one to upload. 

10. Last step. Change the board this pin will pin to on the top right. 

11. Duplicate this pin and repeat the same process for all the pins you have. Once you have all of this completed, click publish for each pin. One will post immediately and the others will show as scheduled. Don’t click on anything until all pins are published and little red (scheduled) or green (immediate) checkmarks appear next to each one. Then, go to your Pinterest profile and you’ll see a little section under your bio that shows your scheduled pins. 

Overview of The Process and Your Pins

What you should have is a collection of pins that are all similar in style and content and have the same URL or direct link, but are pinning to different boards and between 3-7 days apart each one. This way you’re creating fresh pins but spreading your content out longer so that Pinterest has time to digest and place your pins in front of the right users. When you’re done, take a look at your Pins on your mobile devices to make sure they are legible and any font on the pin isn’t too small. If it is, make those adjustments the next time you’re uploading a new pin collection (hopefully within the next 1-3 days!) 

Pinterest Workflow and Staying Consistent

One of the most important things to note about Pinterest is that it takes time to build momentum. Pins take about 30 days to gain traction so be patient with it. This is also why it’s important to do this with every new piece of content you create and that you want that content to be constantly uploaded to Pinterest while you’re working on other things. It helps you build identity and authenticity on the platform. Pinterest is not like other social media platforms where it can just explode overnight. It works like search engines in that the growth look a bit different. You’ll slowly notice your pins getting seen, repined or clicked on. And that means it’s working. You’ll grow your brand awareness and start seeing blog traffic or website traffic to your site from those clicks. 

Pins Types and Helpful Content

As an artist or creative, most of your content will likely be artwork and links to your product pages or service pages. As tempting as it will be to just repeat this process for each artwork, you want to think about how you can diversify your offering by creating helpful content as well. The best thing about Pinterest is that it’s a problem / solution platform, meaning users hop on there to find solutions, resources, how tos…What I mean by this is content that helps solve or gives users the option to learn, engage or try something on their own. This might be hard to do at first, especially if your business model isn’t really set up for this type of content. But try creating pin collections around the following ideas: tutorials, DIY opportunities, How I… , How To…, My Favourite… , Top X Ways To…, Blog Content, Email List Sign Up, Freebie Download… and more. As you expand in your business, these ideas will start to come to your naturally. 

The other and most important thing about Pinterest is to use your own content. On many occasions, Pinterest has announced that they prefer and boost original, authentic and helpful content. Create fresh content, provide extra information and use the best keywords possible and you really can’t fail. 

Keyword Research, Pinterest SEO and Getting the Best Results

Take time to optimize all the different sections where SEO matters – Your profile, Board Titles and Board Descriptions, Pin Tiles, Pin Descriptions and Alt Text. 

If you need some help with finding keywords, using Pinterest Analytics, finding and studying relevant content as well as how to reach a wider audience, 2 hr Pinterest For Creatives Strategy Session would be a great place to start. It covers everything from Creating Your Business Profile, Creating Boards, Creating Great Pins, Templates and Branding, Pinning and Scheduling Pins, Analytics and Finding Relevant Keywords. In that 2 hour session, you’ll learn everything you need to drive traffic to your site from Pinterest. Book your session today!

Thanks for reading!

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Helpful Reads and Resources

GUIDES AND RESOURCES

• Curious to Learn How To Add Links To Your Site? Download our Free Internal Linking Checklist
• Download Our Free Pinterest Guide – How to Create, Schedule and Post Pins
• How To Index Your Website With Google

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