The Ultimate Pinterest Marketing Guide for 2022

Pinterest is an aspirational resource. It’s for the dreamers and doers who want to plan their ideal lives. This visual search engine and the bookmarking tool allows users, or “Pinners,” to find inspiration for their wardrobes, homes, events, and businesses. Pinners scroll through “Pins,” which can be anything from photos, graphics, and videos, and save them to themed boards. Other users follow these Pinners and engage with their content by liking, commenting, or re-Pinning.

Pinterest draws millions of users to its platform with its intelligent algorithm—inspiring and motivating with seemingly endless amounts of captivating Pins. For you, as a business owner, this means a lot more opportunities for getting noticed.

1. Why use Pinterest?

Let’s look at a couple of reasons why you should market on Pinterest:

• Pinterest has a large user base

It’s used by 431 million active users worldwide. 1 in 2 millennials have accounts on the platform, and it’s quickly growing in popularity among Gen Z.

• It’s leading the pack

Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social media platform in the US ahead of TikTok, Snapchat, and LinkedIn and globally it’s more popular than Twitter.

• Users are active and engaged

There are nearly 2 billion searches per month and over 70% of users save Pins. Those who use the app, use it actively to find and discover new visuals. 

• Pins are shareable

One of the key metrics you should look at in a marketing platform is the potential reach of your content. 

80% of Pins are Repins, which means Pinterest is a platform that values sharable content. The average lifespan of a Pin is three months. In comparison, a Facebook post’s lifespan averages five to six hours, and Twitter’s 15–20 minutes. 

• Pinterest has a visual search engine

Visual search is growing in popularity, and Pinterest is the only social media platform to offer a visual search engine. The Pinterest Lens can visually identify more than 2.5 billion home and fashion objects.

• Pinterest offers educational marketing materials

The app comes with interactive workshops, webinars, a blog, a newsletter, and other resources for small businesses that want to learn how to best use the app.

And here are some specific reasons you should use Pinterest for business as an online store owner:

And here are some specific reasons you should use Pinterest for business as an online store owner:

• Users are looking to buy 

Pinners are 90% more likely to say they’re always shopping compared to other social media platforms. And 30% are more likely to admit that they love shopping. 

• Pinners spend more

On average, shoppers on Pinterest spend 80% more than people on other platforms every month and have 40% bigger basket sizes. People on Pinterest are 2.2x more likely to say it turns their shopping ideas into reality (vs. non-Pinterest users who rely on social media competitors).

• Pinterest boosts brand exposure

On top of that, 77% of weekly users discover new brands and products on the app.

• Pinterest content is visual

Pinterest is the perfect place to go to display your products in aesthetically-pleasing visuals for added value.

• The app drives traffic to your store

Pinterest has a high clickthrough rate and is second only to Facebook in generating social media traffic to Shopify stores. 

• Ads on Pinterest work

Pinterest ads integrate seamlessly into user feeds, making them feel less invasive. Around 50% of Pinterest users have bought a product after seeing a promoted Pin.

• Women, especially moms, use Pinterest

If your target audience is women, then you’re in luck. 71% of Pinterest’s base is women, and 8 out of every 10 moms in the US are on the platform.

• Pinterest is great for women’s fashion and home decor

These categories are in the top 5 most popular categories on Pinterest, which makes the app an ideal marketing channel for that selling in these categories. 

• Men are also getting into it

75% of men in a recent Pinterest study indicated they’re planning to spend more this year to bring their goals to fruition. They’re more excited about their plans for 2022, compared to 2021.

Let’s dive straight into the process of creating your free Business profile.

2. Create your Pinterest Business profile

If you’re going to use Pinterest to market your online store, you’ll first need to create a business account. Pinterest Business is an account that states you’re a business, which gives you legitimacy. It also gives you access to the Pinterest widget, which allows users to Pin from your website, and gives you more ways for people to shop from your page. 

There are three ways to create a Pinterest Business account. You can either:

• Add a business profile to your existing personal account
• Convert your existing personal account to a business account
• Or, create a new Business account 

The process is essentially the same for each, so I’ll just cover how to build your business account from scratch. 

1. Click on your profile in the top right and select create a business account
2. In the pop-up, write in your business name and include a profile photo. Your profile photo should be something that represents your brand, like your logo. 
3. On the next page, choose a category for your account like “Fashion” or “Home” then describe your brand by choosing “Online Retail” or “Marketplace” and hit “next.”
4. Then decide if you want to run Pinterest ads or not. If you’re not sure yet, there’s an option for that! 
5. Finally, click where you’d like to start: share ideas by creating pins, grow your audience by running ads, or showcase your brand by building your profile.

Since I’ll touch on creating pins and running ads later in the article, let’s finish building your profile. 

1. Choose your location, language, and add a link to your store website 
2. Add a description of your business. You’ll want to include some of your keywords here to increase your organic discoverability, so do some keyword research before filling these in. 
3. Head to the “Claim” page and connect Pinterest to your other social media platforms like Instagram, Etsy, and YouTube. This means you can spread your content across platforms so that more people can see it. If you’re on Shopify, and add your products in just a few clicks. Your Pinterest tag will be automatically set up, along with a shop tab on your profile. 
4. Claim your website on the same page by adding a meta tag or uploading an HTML file to your website’s HTML code—this will ensure that your Pins trace back to you. Plus, it allows you to track your website analytics! By connecting your Pinterest account to your store, you can add a hovering “Pin It” button to any image on your site using Pinterest directly.

This encourages Pinners to re-pin your products, which ultimately increases their reach. You can do this straight from the Pinterest app or by using Pinterest’s widget builder for WordPress, Wix, Blogger, and Tumblr. Even if potential customers aren’t immediately ready to buy your products, connecting your Pinterest account to your store can give customers a way to bookmark your products to save for later.

Now that you’ve created a business account, you can create your Pinterest shop or in other words, you can upload your products in Pinterest Catalogs. Here’s how:

Pinterest Catalogs

In 2019, Pinterest launched the Pinterest Shop—a new dashboard that showcases the profiles and products of small businesses in an Etsy-style fashion.

That same year, Pinterest introduced a personalized “shopping hub” that displays at the top of users’ feeds with product recommendations pulled from retailers’ organic Product Pins and Catalog feeds.

As an ecommerce store owner, you can upload Pins via Catalogs and your products will be distributed across Pinterest’s shopping surfaces including the “shopping hub.” With Catalogs, you can turn your entire product catalog into browsable product Pins, all at once. The new Multi-feed support feature will let you easily upload products in multiple product feeds within the same Pinterest Business account. This means you can sell across multiple countries and build a global presence.

How is it different from shopping on ecommerce sites? Shopping on Pinterest is about discovery. People use Pinterest to refine their taste. They look for the thing that’s just right for them—even before they know exactly what it is. Having a Pinterest store will only add to your existing ecommerce store, so think of it as a really good billboard on a high traffic street. 

To get started with Pinterest Catalogs you’ll need:

• A Pinterest business account
• A claimed website
• A website that meets Pinterest’s Merchant Guidelines, (you need to have a clear and easy-to-find shipping policy, refund policy, and contact details)
• A data source or a file that contains a list of your products and their corresponding attributes (may also be called a product catalog or product feed)
• Data source hosting or a way to consistently host and store a data source of your products that you can send to Pinterest daily

Follow this Pinterest guide to get your account ready for Printful Catalogs. Once you get this done, the next steps are to add your data source, create product groups, and create shopping ads. If this sounds intimidating, you’re not alone, but going through this process is important for you to be able to upload a full catalog to Pinterest and turn your products into dynamic Product Pins. This will in turn allow you to organize your feed so your products can be discovered and purchased by Pinners. You can also become a verified merchant which offers you several other benefits. However, for now, it’s available for specific countries only (see below).

Verified Merchant Program

As a verified merchant, you’ll get:

• The blue checkmark on your Pinterest profile

This marks you as a trusted brand, verified by Pinterest. People who come across your page will know that they can safely shop from your account. Your products will be visible on your profile under the “shop” section. As a verified merchant, your Pins may appear organically to people who are searching for products and shopping on Pinterest.

•  Product tagging 

You’ll be able to tag products on your Pinterest posts—which will make your posts “shoppable.” You’ll also be able to track conversions, see how many people clicked on your product, measure return, and optimize your ads for shopping campaigns or retargeting. You can also build new audiences by finding people who’ve visited a page or taken an action on your site.

Before you use Pinterest for business and create your catalog, you’ll need to add a profile cover and showcase boards, which means you’ll need content. So let’s talk about creating content for Pinterest first. When your content is pre-planned, you can optimize your profile and start working on your Pins.

3. How to create Pinterest content

There are several types of Pinterest content you can create to promote your online store:

• Product Pins—Photos of products you sell
• Blog post graphics—Graphics that promote articles you publish
• Infographic Pins—Convey information and data that could be helpful to your audience 
• Lead magnets—Quality information that could be of use to your audience. You can place this behind an email opt-in
• Videos—Branded videos to promote your product. 75% of Pinners are likely to watch a video about a topic that interests them
• Gifs—Create your own gifs featuring your products.

After you’ve chosen which types of content you’d like to focus on, it’s time to plan topics that you’ll cover as part of your Pinterest marketing plan. 

Most Pinterest searches are done organically through keyword searches, so first you’ll want to create content that people are looking for—this involves some keyword research. I’ll touch on this when covering SEO later on.
Different types of Pinterest content work for different niches, so be sure to research what types of content work in your niche. Consider what topics they’re choosing to get good results, what content types work for them, and what topics they haven’t covered that you could.

Pinterest Business image tips:

To hone your Pinterest marketing strategy, you need some insight on what makes a good Pin. So here are some tips to help you throughout the planning, editing, and posting process: 

• Create bright, high-quality images—As simple as it may sound, bright, crisp images are the key to being discovered and selling on Pinterest 
• Simplicity is key—Think of Pinterest as a window-shopping app. Keep your images simple so they draw Pinners in 
• Avoid using excessive blank space in images—Maximize your framing by having your objects and subjects take up most of your photo. Images with less blank space are Pinned the most.
• Capture clothes and home decor in everyday settings—When selling clothes and accessories, use real people to model them in real places. For home decor, capture your products in a residential setting—this will allow users to visualize themselves using your product. 
• Photograph your models from the neck down—While you should be taking photos of models using your products, interestingly enough, images without faces on Pinterest get 23% more Pins. So when taking product photos, be sure to get a couple of shots without faces for Pinterest.

Now here’s what to be aware of when editing your Pins:

• Design images at the right size—Pins are vertically oriented and most users are on mobile, so aim for a 2:3 aspect ratio and 736 x 1102 pixels for a typical Pin
• Create images with text—Text overlays are extremely popular on Pinterest for good reason. They add context and information to your images, giving users more of a reason to click and learn more! The best technique is to use collages with four or fewer images. 
• Avoid adding borders—Borders on Pinterest tend to interfere with the visual flow of your feed, so steer clear of adding borders to your Pins.
• Brand your images with your logo—Pin sources can often get lost in the Pinterest shuffle, so add your logo or brand name to the corner of your images. Be sure to do this subtly so your watermark is visible, but not an eyesore. 
• Lighten your images before posting—Before uploading your images, I recommend increasing the brightness and saturation as Pinterest tends to darken them in the posting process.

And lastly, before you post on Pinterest, here are some tips about writing titles and descriptions for your Pins:

• Include keywords and helpful details in your Pin and board descriptions—Not only do descriptions strengthen your branding, they also improve how discoverable your content is across Pinterest. Descriptions can be as long as 500 characters, but the first 50–60 characters are what show up in people’s feeds, so put your most important information there. However, avoid keyword stuffing and rather rely on storytelling to help your audience visualize themselves using your product.
• Write in full sentences and use correct capitalization and punctuation—This makes your descriptions more user-friendly and readable. 
• Use a positive tone—Potential customers want to see your product as something that can add positive value to their lives. For best results, show off the benefits of your product with an optimistic tone. 
• Include a call to action—However, avoid promotional information (15% off or two for $39.95), sales-y calls to action (Get it today!) or references to Pin functionality (Pin now!). While hard sells like these work well for other social media platforms, they tend to be off-putting for Pinterest users, so try a softer approach!
• Use hashtags sparingly—While Pinterest allows you to use hashtags, using the right keywords in your description can be enough for people to organically discover your content.

Design tools for Pinterest

There are some great free tools you can use to design content for Pinterest. Here’s a shortlist of the most popular and user-friendly apps you can try:

• Canva—Canva allows you to create pro images for Pinterest with over 1 million images, graphics, templates and icons.
• Pablo—With Pablo, you can quickly create images for Pinterest with easy-to-use effects and templates.
• PicMonkey— This app allows you to create and edit images with advanced editing tools like masking, mirroring, and double exposure.

4. Optimize your profile and Pins

Add a profile cover

Now that your profile is all set up and you’ve got some content ideas pre-planned, it’s time to add a profile cover. Profile covers show non-clickable Pins from that board at the top of your profile. Think of them like a cover photo on Facebook or Twitter.

Profile covers give users a general idea of what your Pinterest profile is about. So include your best branded content, like infographics, style guides, product shots, and new designs. The colors and fonts you use on your cover board should match your general branding.

Include feature boards

Feature boards also aim to showcase your theme and best content. They appear underneath your name and bio and present like a slideshow. They’re a great place to feature your products and give people an opportunity to quickly learn what you’re about.

Make it easy to buy from Pinterest

One of the biggest perks of using Pinterest as an ecommerce store owner is how easy the app makes it to shop. Here are some of the ways the app encourages buying:

Shop the Look Pins allow users to click on a specific item on a Pin that interests them and directs people to buy right through the app. Adding buyable Pins is free and Pinterest doesn’t take a portion of the sales. However, some limitations exist—Shop the Look Pins are only available for Android and iOS in the US, and only for select platforms like Shopify.

The Shop Tab for Business profiles are a feature of business profiles and lets users shop your products right from your profile.

Rich Pins gives users real-time information about your Pins. There are 5 types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product, and place. They showcase information like price, brand, product description, price drops, and calls to action. However, Rich Pins is an advanced technique, as it involves adding meta tags to your website and being validated by Pinterest.

Increase discoverability by using SEO

97% of Pinterest searches are non-branded, which means everyone has a fair shot of getting discovered on the app—as long as you use the right keywords in your Pin titles, descriptions, boards, and image file names. This involves a little search engine optimization (SEO) magic. 

Hop on Pinterest and  Google AdWords Keyword Planner and search keywords people would use to find your business. If you run a store that sells African art prints, your list could include “Kenyan art” and “African woman canvas.” Then type your shortlist of words into the Pinterest search bar and jot down any new terms that pop up in the suggested results. Use these keywords to then come up with topics to cover. 

After you’ve discovered your keywords, you’ll then need to use them to optimize your profile and content for maximum discoverability. Here’s how to do it:

• Optimize keywords in your profile—Use keywords in both your name and bio. Your goal should be to appear in the search result for popular terms related to your brand. If your store sells metalhead clothing, add something like “Metal Tees” at the end of your profile name, and integrate other related terms like “music,” “band,” “concert”, and others to your profile
• Optimize keywords in your Pin title and descriptions— Focus on your main keyword in your Pin title, and include that keyword and other secondary keywords in your Pin description. This will make it easier for the Pinterest algorithm to show your content to the people who want to see it. 
• Optimize keywords in your boards—Your boards should have your main keyword in the title as well as your main and secondary keywords in the description. Again, this will make it easier for your content to be discovered by the right people. 
• Optimize keywords in your images—Your images can pop up in a Google search result, just from your image files being saved with a keyword-focused name. So don’t skip out on taking the care to name your image file.

To learn more about SEO, check out our beginner’s guide to SEO.

How often to Pin on Pinterest

Pinterest suggests Pinning something once per day. This is easier to do when you’ve created a stockpile of content and is more effective than posting a board all at once. Pinning often ensures that your content will get more traffic. 

To increase your followers, post between 5–30 new Pins per day, throughout the day. Given that it’s difficult to create 5–30 pieces of new daily content, plan your content  in advance and save your pre-created Pins on a secret board. Then, when you’re ready to post, grab them from your private board and repost that content on your public boards. Think of it as bookmarking your Pins. You can also use an external scheduling tool to automatically post your Pins for you.

When to post on Pinterest

The best times to post on Pinterest depend mostly on your target audience’s habits, so look at your analytics to see when your audience is most active. However, Pinterest users are less active on weekdays during work hours, and more active on weekends. 

In general, the optimal times to post are 2–4PM and 8PM–1AM EST, with Saturday morning being the best time. Although there’s no formula to pin timing, I’d suggest pinning at different times throughout the day and observing how your audience responds.

Pinterest scheduling tools

If Pinning manually seems like a chore, you’re in luck. There are some great tools out there that simplify the process of Pinning:

• Tailwind—Probably one of the most comprehensive Pinterest tools, Tailwind can help you schedule your Pins and post at the optimal times
• Hootsuite—Using one of Hootsuite’s many functions, you can schedule and publish Pins and new boards
• Buffer—With Buffer, you can Pin from anywhere on the web, upload your own images, and create unique daily Pinning schedules

5. Engage and collaborate with Pinners

As much as Pinterest is a visual search engine and bookmarking tool, you can’t forget that it’s a social network, too. So get social!

You can build an online community on Pinterest by doing the following:

• Follow accounts in your niche or industry who seem like they would enjoy the content you post
• Comment on your followers’ Pins to build relationships with them and so that their followers will check out your page
• Respond to your followers’ comments and messages with personalized responses 
• Monitor your competitor’s pages and see which techniques improve their following
• Ask accessible and relevant followers and influencers to re-pin your content so it can reach their followers
• Do giveaways, offer discount codes, coupons, and product updates for interacting with your brand and creating content featuring your posts

Another tip is to join community boards, which are collaborative boards where multiple Pinners share content about a specific topic.

Here’s the general technique to join existing boards or create boards of your own:

• Follow popular boards—Find out what kinds of Pins that popular boards in your niche are posting and observe what their engagement looks like
• Engage with popular boards—Comment on the Pins of popular boards to build a relationship with the board owners and to increase brand awareness
• Ask to join community boards—Most community boards will have a description of the board, contact information for the owner, rules, and some will include a link to apply. Reach out to the owners, build a relationship, and apply to the board!
• Create your own community board—If you have an idea for a unique community board that doesn’t quite exist yet, create your own and invite popular Pinners or influencers  in your niche who you’ve built relationships with. Make sure you have a clear description of what sort of content you’d like to see on the board, a list of rules, and a link to apply to join.

6. Track your analytics

One key to any successful social media strategy is to watch your analytics closely to see what sort of trends emerge over time. Pinterest Analytics allows you to see information such as:

• Who your demographics are (gender, location, interests)
• What pins, boards, and website content people enjoy the most
• Metrics to see how people interact with your pins on desktop and mobile

Be sure to use Pinterest Analytics and Google Analytics to track your success each month. Pay special attention to which Pins give you the most impressions, which Pins fail to receive clicks, and which Pins give you likes vs. saves and shares. 

Pinterest Analytics tools

• Hootsuite—As mentioned above, Hootsuite is a scheduling tool that can also be used for analytics. Use it to learn how your followers interact with your content, get recommendations to improve your reach, and discover new audiences.
• Sprout Social—With Sprout Social, you can have access to platform analytics, engagement tools, post scheduling, and information about your best performing content 
• Tailwind—In addition to being a scheduling tool, Tailwind can also be used to help you determine what’s doing well, and advice about the best days and times to share your pins

7. Promote Pins on Pinterest

Once you’ve mastered your organic Pin strategy, consider advertising on Pinterest. Pinterest’s native ad format makes ads feel noninvasive so try out Promoted Pins! They help you get to the top search results, give you access to keyword information, and details about your conversions. 

Pinterest lets you target your target audience around keywords, interest, location, and age. You can also target people who have engaged with your Pins or similar content, people who have visited your website, and email lists like newsletter subscribers.

Get Pinning!

Whether you want to post a style guide or videos of your design process, using Pinterest for marketing should be on your ecommerce marketing bucket list, so get Pinning!

Do you have any Pinterest tips or ideas we missed? Share them in the comments!