This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How can we use Pinterest to drive traffic to an e-commerce store? An e-commerce shop, something that you are selling. Hey friends, hey listeners, side hustle school community. We've been talking about Pinterest maybe once or twice a month recently. I do think it is kind of a secret understudied network for side hustlers.
It's a little bit easier to get traction and attention there and traffic. The algorithm is not as brutal as Instagram, TikTok, some other networks. And crucially, Pinterest doesn't seem to mind that a lot of people have this strategy of using it to drive traffic. Whereas these other networks are kind of like, "Hey, we don't want you taking our users off our platform." And they're very deliberate about that. So for all those reasons, it can be a good network for a lot of people.
Today, we're gonna explore how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to the e-commerce shop and boost sales. If you've ever wondered how to do that or might be interested in a new strategy to get more attention on your website or online shop. We're gonna hear today from Laura in San Francisco. She is curious about this very idea. So let's dive into some effective strategies to help Laura and anybody else out there who would like to have a little bit more traffic on their web store.
Detailed question and my answer coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hi team, I'm Laura from San Francisco. I run an e-commerce store and I've been hearing a lot about the potential of Pinterest for driving traffic and increasing sales. How can I effectively use Pinterest to attract visitors to my store? What are some tips for creating engaging pins and optimizing my profile?
By the way, I've been following your podcast for a while and your practical tips have been so valuable. Thanks for all the insights. [Music]
All right, Laura, as I mentioned in the introduction, Pinterest can be a great understudied, underappreciated platform for driving traffic. And not only for an e-commerce store, it could be for anything. Got lots of bloggers out there, people doing personality-based blogs, people doing coaching and consulting that have kind of under the radar used Pinterest and it's worked really well for them and no affiliation.
I don't even have a Pinterest account myself. I should have a Pinterest, but I'm just a little bit fully committed at the moment. Nevertheless, I have seen it be very effective. So couple of ideas for you. First of all, optimize your profile.
Let's start with your Pinterest profile. Make sure that you have a clear, high-quality profile picture, preferably your logo if you're representing your business. Your profile bio should clearly describe what your store offers and include keywords to help people find you. Don't be afraid to keyword stuff, stuff those keywords, stuff those images with keywords. Also be sure to link your e-commerce site directly in your profile, kind of critical.
Next, engaging pins. So here's what it's all about, creating visually appealing and engaging pins. Some tips here, use a vertical format. Pins should be vertical, have a two to three aspect ratio. That's the format that tends to go over best on Pinterest.
Takes up more space in users' feeds. So, you know, you get seen more. Text overlay, adding text overlays to your images can help convey your message using clear, readable fonts and contrasting colors to make the text stand out. Then compelling descriptions, right? Detailed descriptions for your pins that include all those keywords.
Again, don't be afraid to use keywords. This helps with Pinterest's search algorithm and makes your pins more discoverable and also include a call to action. What would that be? Shop now, learn more, buy this, register. You know, something that's like, hey, go and do this, right?
And then of course, as we often say, consistency. Post regularly, consistency is key. Aim to pin at least once a day. It keeps your profile active. It increases your chances of being seen by more users and nothing wrong with scheduling.
By the way, you can use scheduling tools. If you're like, I don't want to do it every day, we'll do it once a week and schedule it to go out once a day. That's a lot better than posting seven things one day and not posting for the next six days. So those scheduling tools can be very helpful. Now, of course, Pinterest also has ads.
You can pay to boost your pins. So if you want to experiment with that, that's fine, but I think an organic strategy can often be effective. So start with that, see how it goes. There's also something called rich pins, which I didn't really touch on here, but those can be helpful once you kind of get into it more. All right, listeners and Laura, thank you so much for being out there.
I appreciate you. I make this show for you every day. We are almost at 2,800 total episodes. So thankful that we can keep going here with a new episode every day. Hope you'll continue to listen.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
