← Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
11 lessons from 11 years of Pinterest Marketing
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Kate All
Hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Simple Pin Podcast. Today is the final podcast of 2024. I can hardly believe that we are already here, but it has been a crazy year, a wild ride, and it's time for us to take a couple weeks off for the holiday break. We will resume podcasting on January 7th. That's where you'll find our next podcast. We're going to be talking about what we predict for 2025. Pinterest has already released. It's 2025 Pinterest predicts. It's a fun read, lots of keywords, and we're going to be going through that so that we can give you an idea of how we think Pinterest is going to grow so that you can leverage it for your business to grow. On today's episode, I'm going to be sharing 11 lessons I've learned in the last 11 years of Pinterest marketing. That's right, Simplepin Media is now 11 years old. I'm going to share with you 11 things that revolve around what I did, what I what to do, what not to do. It's been quite the journey, right? So I'm going to share those lessons in the takeaways. I'm also going to link in the description back to an episode that I did with my very first business coach, Leslie Samuel, and we reflect on Simple Pin Media. He interviews me about my story, what I learned, how things got started. It's a really interesting episode and it was very poignant for me because he was a big part of the growth in those early days. So I'll link it down below in the description in the show notes. You can go listen to that after we're done here. Also, Simple Pen Media is still here to serve you and all your Pinterest marketing needs. Whether it's done for you, done with you, or you're going to DIY yourself. There's a lot of options that we have@simplepinmedia.com plus we have a lot of free things down in the description, so go ahead and look at those as well. If you're listening on your podcast app, make sure you hop over to YouTube so you can say hi and comment over there. If you're listening on YouTube or watching on YouTube. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe foreign. You're listening to the Simple Pen podcast Pinterest for business advice that goes down smooth and easy. Here's your host, Kate all okay, 11 lessons, things I have learned in 11 years. These are in no particular order. These are things that I came up with throughout the day as I was processing this podcast and what I plan to say to you. So we're just going to dive right in. The number one thing I've learned is there are no quick hacks or ways to game the Pinterest system. I have said this many times and if you're new here and you've never heard me say it, let me say it again. If there was a hack or something that could make your traffic or your profile or your saves or whatever it is explode to the moon or go viral, I would be the first to employ it. And that is not because I believe in black hat or doing anything outside the lines. I just believe that sometimes you can try things and see if they work or they don't work. And there has been nothing over the years that I have seen that is a quick hack. In order to get rapid Pinterest traffic, I think people have tried to come up with ones. I think people have tried to sell things on the back of them. And consistency wins the day with Pinterest every single time. If there's ever been any tools that have come out, they've always been shut down. If there's anybody that comes down out with a theory, people have tried it for a couple months and then it dies. There's really no quick hack or tool to be able to make you grow faster on Pinterest. Number two, the top three things to to master a really solid Pinterest marketing strategy have stayed the same over the years pretty much since 2014, when Pinterest switched to a smart feed algorithm. The three things that have stayed the same are figuring out the right keywords your user is using to find you getting really great at your images so people will click on them and come to your website and being consistent with using the platform. I've seen people love on Pinterest and they go deep and then they hate on Pinterest and they leave the platform. The people who have gone back and forth, Pinterest, Google, Pinterest, Google or another platform, TikTok, they always regret never having stayed consistent. So over the years, those three things have become the pillars of Pinterest marketing. Keywords, images, inconsistency. The third thing I've learned is that Pinterest has the right to alter or mess with traffic at any time time. I have seen Facebook groups blow up with people freaking out about what Pinterest is doing. I've seen letters to Pinterest on people's blogs that entitle them to tell Pinterest how to run their business. I've seen it all. And you know what? Pinterest has a business plan just like you have a business plan of your own. And they are going to test things, they're going to alter things, they are going to make different decisions for their platform. Right. Just like you would. So that being said, they're just going to do what they want and that's great. It is important for me to understand what those changes are doing to my traffic and really get investigative and figure those things out. There is literally no reason to get all up in arms or write a letter to the editor, type style to Pinterest. It's just not going to work. They're going to do what they're going to do. Lesson number four is this. Those who are successful set their intentions on the long term and they always know why they use Pinterest. So this can be somebody who they say, I am going to use Pinterest because I want to grow my email list. And they set their intentions. They figure out a really great way to do it. When Pinterest alters or messes with their traffic and the waters get bumpy, they don't jump ship. They know why they're using Pinterest. And in that same kind of vein, people who start using Pinterest and know why and have a goal and realize that Pinterest isn't meeting that goal and make a decision not to use it as a marketing tool is just as successful because they know why or why not. And they have data to prove why they're going to use it. And so those people tend to be less susceptible to the waves of a community, the hysteria of a community. They just know why they're doing it. And so they end up being successful because they have their own metrics that they're benchmarking against. They're not benchmarking their, their metrics against anybody else. So that would be the next one is looking at your own stats will always be a winner. So the people that I have seen who again have been most successful on Pinterest, know their why. I just said that. But then they know their data. They can go into analytics, they can look around and they really, it's like they just absolutely know what they're doing and why and the data shows them and then they follow. Okay, this is getting more clicks. I'm going to create a new Pinterest image. This is getting more impressions, but no clicks. I'm going to do this. They're very investigative and those analytics really allow them to be super investigative. In fact, that is a big part of my team is that we're having these conversations about did you see month over month, did you see year over year, did you see the video abused here? It's this constant conversation in Slack about like, what is the data telling us? And what we find is that with all these different clients, the data is telling us something totally different about client A than it is about client B. So then it's up to us to go back and say, okay, how do we jog the traffic of client B? We can't use the tools that we did in client A because they're just not working. But we're successful with our clients because we know exactly what the numbers are telling us. Number six, this is an interesting one. Tools that violate or slightly violate the Pinterest terms of service will never be long lived. You will never be successful using them. Board booster. I don't know if that ring is a name for anybody. Rings a bell for anyone with that name. It was a tool that we knew violated terms of service. And you know what? It didn't last long. Did they have some great ideas? They did, but they went around the system that Pinterest has created and they did something that violated the terms of service. It is why? It's one of the number one questions that I ask people when they come to me with a new tool, when they tell me they have a new idea is, is this aligned with Pinterest terms of service? Because what I have learned in the last 11 years is that if you violate the terms of service, you will not be successful and you will get shut down. None of them have lasted. Number seven, this is a really funny one, but I think it's important to call out. Pinterest has been saying that men have been the fastest growing demographic for literally over five years. So I kind of think by now, if that were the case, they would have outpaced women or at least we'd be even. I have said many times here on the podcast or even in speaking when people have asked me, where do men fit on the platform? And I've been like, well, Pinterest says they're the fastest growing demographic on Pinterest. I think they are actively using the platform. I think they are not as many as women, growing or not. If that is your target market on the platform and you're trying to get in front of them, figure out what it is they are pinning Now Pinterest line is Gen Z is the fastest growing demographic and they are using it more and more. Could be true. I think that's a little bit easier to buy into that. But I just think it's funny that men have been the fastest growing demographic, actually, I think since 2017, it's been a very long time. So I tried to be cautious when using that one. Number eight, March and April are still the absolute worst for Pinterest traffic. And that has been confirmed many times over in Pinterest investor report. When they come out with their Q3 2024 stock investor report, they're like, well, Q2 or I'm sorry, when they come out with their Q2 report in Q3, Q2. So our lowest traffic time, they don't use that word, but they say lowest engagement time. They make a lot of changes during this time. Everybody, without fail, without fail. That is when we get the highest questions of is my account marked as spam? Did I do something wrong? And every year we go, what date is it? We set our clock by it. March and April are the worst for traffic. There's outliers, there's other people who get really good traffic in March and April, but for the most part, it's just not a high traffic time. So when you look at your stats in March and April and you're like, man, it's really hard right now. You're right, it's low. Number nine. I will not tell anyone to use hashtags unless Pinterest puts it in their documentation. They have before when they came out with them. I did a podcast on it. We went real deep. I think it was like 20 hashtags at first and then it was two. And then magically it went away. But then a couple years later, it resurfaced in a couple emails of people who had just opened up new Pinterest business accounts. And people declared that hashtags were the way to go on Pinterest. It's just not my thing. I don't see a whole lot of case studies supporting using hashtags. I just don't buy that it's a good strategy to use. I don't think the user searches using the hashtag. Sure, they might highlight blue, but I really think the best bang for your buck when it comes to Pinterest marketing is only using keywords. If that disappoints you or you're thinking, kate, hashtags have crushed it for me. In fact, I saw threads the other day where somebody said hashtags was their declarative strategy. I think that's amazing. I just don't see it in mess, if you will. Maybe this will be my lesson next year and I'll say 12 lessons. I should have declared that hashtags work. I am. I'm open to that. But right now I declare that hashtags do not work until Pinterest says they do. Number 10, over the last 11 years, I probably should have shared more of our client wins with you. I plan to do more of that in the future. And the reason I should have shared more is because that's what people want to hear. In fact, this year when we did a question to our newsletter, we asked, what are some things you want us to include? And somebody gave me this great suggestion. They said, will you please tell us what's working for your clients? I was like, well, sure, we talk about that all the time. That's a huge thing that we do internally. I think that there's a part of me that felt if I shared client wins, I was gonna make someone else feel bad or I was gonna make somebody else feel like they weren't successful. And I never wanted to do that to somebody. And so I just didn't. Or I felt like maybe the client didn't want me to share their win. And we never share names. That's really a big one for us to keep their anonymity. But I just didn't share a lot. I have folders and folders and folders of our client wins over the last 11 years. I don't even know. I mean, I could go back and count, but I. Thousands of accounts that we've worked with, organic ads, all there. Not everyone's successful. I would never say that, but a lot of them successful. And I just didn't share that. But I feel like going forward, I really want to share that. I think that's what people want to hear and I want to share more of it. Number 11. I think the lesson that I'm learning now is when I started, there were maybe three to four, 10 other people doing what I'm doing now. There are courses teaching people how to be a Pinterest va. There are courses teaching people how to be a Pinterest manager. There are other teachers. There are big name course creators like Jenna Kutcher, and there are all. There's so much in the Pinterest marketing space that just wasn't there when I started. And so there's been times where I felt very competitive. There's been times where I felt less than. There's times where I felt confident. But I think what I've realized is that I know my limitations. I know the things that I do well and then know the things that I don't do well. I know that people choose to listen who they choose to listen to, because that's who resonates with them. I think there's other great teachers out there. I think there's really terrible teachers out there. I think there's really bas who have no business doing any type of Pinterest marketing. And then there's people who are doing so good. And I feel like for me, I know my limitations. I know what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. And I've gotten laser focused on just focusing on who I am as a communicator, who I am as a teacher, who I am as a Pinterest marketer. And I know I'm not for everyone. And there have been times where I've so wanted everybody to like me. I've wanted such and such Pinterest marketer over here not to talk bad about me because maybe I've heard things behind the scenes that they've said or I know that people have talked bad about me in this arena, but I also know people have talked great about me in this arena. And so I couldn't just focus on the bad, but overall, I couldn't focus on any of it. I needed to focus on putting my blinders on and serving the people who are in front of me in the best way possible. To disseminate information to you through YouTube here, through my podcast, to give you what I knew and not try to explain it away when I didn't know everything, not try to explain it away when I know, quote, unquote, person doesn't like me. So I think I'm more confident in who I am. And that's, I think the 11th lesson that I've learned is I am the teacher that I am. I am the Pinterest marketer that I am. I am very aware of what I don't know. I'm very aware of what I do know. And my goal going into 2025 is to continue to be a great teacher, continue to be a great agency owner, to continue to be a great learner, and to continue to be a great educator that someone might listen to this podcast and it's the very first podcast you've ever listened to, and you're like, I don't know if I like her, that's totally fine. But you might listen to this podcast for the first time and say I'm on board. And for those that are willing to go on the journey with me, for those who are willing to stick with me in 2025, let's go. I'm committed to bringing you the best information. I'm committed to admitting when I don't know what I'm talking about. And I'm committed to trying things that are not black Hat or gaming the system, but might be a really good way for you to grow. So all that to say cheers to 2025 and cheers to the last year of 2024. It's been a crazy growth year, not in terms of income, but it's been a crazy growth year in terms of just who I am individually, how I serve. And I want to go into 2025 more confident and more supportive than I've ever been in the last 11. So thank you so much for those of you who have listened to the Simple Pin podcast or watched it here on YouTube. YouTube has been a big effort for us and I know we have a new community members as a result of that. Thank you for watching this. So for those of you who are in with me in 2025, just make sure you are on our email list. That is really important because that's where we're going to be sharing the latest updates and things. And it's also where I share a lot of value emails, where I just share with you, where I'm at with Pinterest, where I'm at in business. It's a really great way to connect with me on a deeper level. So with that, cheers and I hope that you have a very successful 2025 in your business and on Pinterest.