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To succeed at marketing your Business, Brand or Blog on Pinterest in 2023, you’ll need a solid Pinterest Strategy.

It’s no secret that Pinterest have made a lot of changes to their platform and algorithm over the last couple of years.

The case will probably be the same in the coming years.

I won’t lie to you. There’s no big bold secret or hack you’ll need. The only workaround to any form of marketing on any platform is keeping up with the times.

However, there are a couple of Pinterest must do’s you can’t ignore.

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Pinterest marketing strategies for 2023

1) Use the RIGHT keywords

Pinterest works like a Search Engine unlike other social media platforms and just like with every search engine, keywords are king. It’s really that simple.

Using the right keywords in your pins, pin graphics, titles, descriptions, boards and board descriptions will be key. This will help your target audience find you with great ease.

And no, adding 50 keywords in your pin descriptions isn’t the way to go.

Use a mix of the search bar, the what’s trending on Pinterest section and Pinterest trends to find high converting keywords.

After you find different variations of the keywords you want, add them naturally to the type of content you need more eyes on.

Remember to perform regular Pinterest searches to make sure the keywords you’ve collected are still relevant/still rank high.

Year specific keywords for example change annually. ‘Fall nails 2022’ will not help you get found when a Pinterest user searches for ‘fall nails 2023’.

And no, I am not saying old pins will not get ranked when the year changes. This is actually one of the standout features about Pinterest. Something you posted as early as 2018 can get you traffic in 2023.

Year relevant pins with up to date keywords will signal to the Pinterest algorithm that this is fresh content that it should prioritize.

2) Get used to A/B testing

I should’ve probably started with this one.

A/B test, A/B test, A/B test a lot. I can’t emphasize this enough on this blog.

You’ll never truly find out what type of content people love the most/performs the best if you don’t A/B test.

Before I get too carried away, A/B testing is simply testing 2 version of the same thing.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you run a natural hair blog where you teach people how to grow their hair. And on your Pinterest account you only use pin graphics to drive traffic to your blog.

If I as a user prefer saving/clicking on images of people who have long hair, your pin graphics will probably never catch my attention.

This is exactly why you should A/B test.

A/B test and make adjustments where you need to.

3) Invest in a comprehensive Pinterest Marketing course

Yes, this again.

There’s a lot of conflicting and false information on Pinterest marketing out there.

If you have never bought a Pinterest marketing ebook, there are high chances that you’ll keep getting conflicting information.

Conflicting information equals wonky results because you’ll be trying out whatever the next person recommends.

Like I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I like to think of Pinterest marketing as a 3 step process.

Step 1 is where you start off with free resources- a blog post here, a YouTube video there and the like.

Step 2 is where you invest in a comprehensive Pinterest Marketing ebook and you learn the A to Z of Pinterest Marketing.

The last step and what I’ll get into shortly is customizing your Pinterest strategy.

I grew my first blog to reach 100,000 plus people in 5 months and joined Mediavine right after that.

While I do get traffic from SEO, joining Mediavine and scaling from $50 to $300 a day & more in earnings wouldn’t have been possible if Pinterest wasn’t part of my traffic plan.

I teach you my best methods and more in Pin your Way to Conversions . You can get Pin your Way to Conversions by clicking the link or the image below.

4) Customize your Pinterest strategy

As someone who manages a lot of Pinterest accounts in different niches, I’ve seen first hand how the same strategy won’t work even on accounts in the same niche.

I swear by this strategy and continue to get good results consistently.

Think about it, if you get great results from normal pins and person y tells you how they get incredible results from video pins- and try as you might, video pins refuse to convert for you- will you now ditch what works for you and jump on the video pins bandwagon?

You probably won’t. That’s the thing. Video pins work for them because they know their audience and they go by their analytics.

Take a deep dive into your Pinterest analytics and look into what’s working and what’s not working.

Utilize strategy 2 after referring to 3 and create a customized Pinterest strategy for your account.

Keep at it for 3 to 5 months at most then come back to this blog post and let me know how it went.

5) Use video pins

“Pinterest removed the visible visit site button on video pins so what’s the point of using them?”

I hear you and I understand your frustration. Pinterest is nothing like it was in the past.

The harsh truth is, they’re at liberty to make as many changes as they’d like because at the end of the day, it’s their platform and it’s a business.

Some of the algorithm changes Pinterest made in 2021 to 2022 placed an emphasis on keeping people on the platform for longer.

This is evidenced by them starting to heavily push sto and video pins.

I love video pins and I’ve gotten great results from them. I started using video pins on many of my client’s accounts as well as my accounts way before Pinterest started pushing them.

Even sans the visible visit website button on video pins, you can still get good results from video pins.

If your video content;

I) Is good and interactive.

ii) Doesn’t give away too much.

iii) Is properly search engine optimized.

iv) Includes the right tags.

v) Encourages people to take action/has a CTA.

Your video pins will convert.

If the visible visit button is no longer available on your account, let people know that they can tap the 3 dots to find the visit website button in your description.

6) Use idea pins

I can already hear all the “I can’t add a link to my website so idea pins formally story pins are a waste of my time” comments and other variations.

No seriously it’s actually annoying how the people who have access to idea pins are just complaining instead of testing and getting results. I digress.

Idea pins formally story pins are pins in story format just like Instagram/Facebook stories or fleets on Twitter.

NB– At the time of writing this, what was previously known as story pins on Pinterest were more image focused. Presently, idea pins are more video centred. You can learn how to use the newly revamped story pins now known as idea pins on this post.

Only unlike all those platforms, idea pins on Pinterest;

I) Don’t expire after a set period of time.

ii) Can be pinned to your boards like you would with normal pins.

iii) Have a CTA that encourages users to follow your profile at the end.

iv) Lets users add comments or photos.

v) Can feature text, images, videos or links.

Yes you read that last part right. I’m not talking about the copy & paste link option but idea pins that direct people to your website.

Under stickers in idea pins, you can add a link that leads potential customers/Pinterest users directly to your desired destination. Read more about Idea pins….

I definitely wasn’t going to call you out for complaining about idea pins and not give you some tips for getting conversions.

I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a Pinterest Marketer & Strategist.

In line with this, I have a Pinterest marketing ebook that teaches those who want to navigate Pinterest Marketing on their own strategies they can use.

A story pin now idea pin I’d go with is having the first slide as something that encourages people to view my idea pin.

Something like how to make money using their Pinterest accounts. Since I have up to 20 slides, I can use these to walk people through the process and add a couple of screenshots in line with this.

Like a screenshot of my blog’s ad income from Mediavine, or my affiliate marketing earnings.

I’ll then end the idea pin by letting them know they can get a FREE Pinterest SEO course on my website.

Since idea pins encourage people to check out your profile after they’re done viewing them, a good chunk of these people might end up on my website.

My Pinterest marketing ebook is linked in my free SEO ebook with a discount code.

So regardless of whether I go this route or let people know that I’m teaching them more on the topic at x percent off directly, I’ll still get some conversions.

You can customize this to fit your niche and get as creative as you want with it.

Keep in mind the fact that Pinterest are actively pushing more idea pins to people’s timelines. Which means that they’ll be easier to rank for/get more eyes on.

While you cannot add links to your blog posts in idea pins YET (I will update this as soon as this changes), you can add affiliate links. This is an easy way of getting more money through your affiliate links.

7) Post more fresh pins

For the longest time, monthly views on Pinterest were made up of impressions on your own pins plus the impressions on the pins you had re-pinned/saved.

Re-pinning other people’s pins was therefore recommended as a growth strategy in a bid to boost this metric.

In 2021, Pinterest made it known that their algorithm was favoring fresh content over re-pins.

This was further solidified by them making updates to their metrics in 2022.

Monthly views on Pinterest are currently made up of the impressions on your pins plus pins saved from your claimed account or domain over a 30 day period.

Simply put, you’ll need to publish more fresh content to get more eyes on your pins, which will in turn help with driving your monthly views figure up.

Re-pins will no longer work in your favor but in favor of the person whose pins you’re saving.

Unlike in the past where many people insisted that monthly views are a vanity metric (which was true especially if your strategy was heavily reliant on repins), the case is no longer the same.

All of Pinterest’s metrics updates mean you’ll need to work with all the numbers to get an increase in your desired conversions.

This brings me to my next point.

8) Work with the Pinterest metrics/your analytics

Going by its current definition, increased monthly views will mean that you’re:

1. Publishing content that people love.
2. Pining high quality content.
3. Publishing Search Engine Optimized content that people are finding with ease.

However, you can’t afford to only focus on this figure because your impressions, saves and pin clicks are what you’ll need to convert to outbound clicks.

As you’re creating new content, think of a pinner’s journey and use it to your advantage.

As someone is scrolling on their feed, they’ll see your pin (impressions), they’ll click on the pin to bring it into view and learn more about it (pin click), they’ll then save it on their boards to refer back to it later (saves) and if your pin was properly Search Engine optimized, they’ll click visit website to get more information about your pin (outbound clicks).

This is the ideal Pinterest user journey for conversions focused business accounts but not what always happens.

Working closely with your metrics and analytics will give you insight into what you need to make improvements on.

For example your analytics indicating that people save and click colorful graphics more compared to the neutral ones will help you know what direction to move in.

9) Perform regular Pinterest account audits

Not enough people do this.

I love Pinterest’s current metrics update because it will make this process a lot more easier than it was in the past.

This ties in with point 4 and 8 after you get past point 3.

Use your analytics to perform regular Pinterest account audits and do more of what’s boosting your desired conversions and less of what is making the conversion process hard.

If you have no idea how to go about this, this post takes you step by step through a typical Pinterest account audit.

Do not skip this step. You can’t complain about reduced traffic and conversions on Pinterest if you don’t even know what the current state of your analytics is.

10)Take advantage of seasonal content

Seasonal content means just that. Content that’s relevant in a particular season.

For example, back to school content, Easter, Mother’s Day, Fathers’s day, Halloween etc.

This is some of the easiest traffic you will ever get from Pinterest.

The only catch is that you have to post season relevant content way before the actual season.

No I am not saying you will not get any traffic should you post it during the actual season. You will, you can and I have.

Posting your content before the relevant season gives Pinterest enough time to index your content. It is a search engine after all.

For example, Halloween content can be posted as early as July into August and throughout September.

The best thing about Pinterest and by far my favourite thing is how posts like these will continuously bring you traffic throughout the years without you needing to do anything.

Season relevant content is there in almost every niche. Do your research and make this type of content work for you for an easy traffic boost.

11) Post visually stimulating content

Video content platforms like Tiktok becoming increasingly popular is proof that our attention spans are getting shorter.

Your content -be it a graphic or lifestyle photo- needs to be visually stimulating. It needs to grab your audience’s interest and attention enough to make them want to click.

Colorful graphics have personally helped my clients and I with increasing our CTR (click through rate).

If you don’t enjoy creating Pinterest graphics, I have 40 high Converting customisable Pinterest templates going for only $10 created with you in mind. You can grab them here or click the image below.

12) Create specific boards

The Pinterest algorithm ranks/recognizes search engine optimised boards. Not categories.

While categories might seem like a smart way of keeping everything under one house, I WOULD NOT recommend doing this.

For example if I’m writing about hairstyles, a smart thing to do would be having boards for each short hairstyle. I.e Finger waves, fades etc.

Grouping everything under one board makes it difficult for your target audience to find you.

Boards are searchable on Pinterest remember? So you want to get as specific as possible.

This is also a good way to reach both a wider and new audience.

13) Use the search bar

The search bar on Pinterest is a gold mine.

The best part is that it caters to everyone not just bloggers.

If you’re a business owner, the search bar can:

• Help you come up with a ton of keywords catered to your business and niche.
• Inform inventory decisions.
• Find the keywords you need to include on your business account’s profile.
• Figure out how many boards you need.
• Find the right type of keywords to use in your board descriptions.

Similarly, keywords found through Pinterest searches can help you figure out which type of content:

• You should write about.
• Is performing well rank wise.
• Ranks at the top in terms of graphics.
• Includes keywords the Pinterest algorithm likes.
• Has keyword rich descriptions.

14) Utilize Pinterest trends

Pinterest trends is a collection of search terms and keywords that received heavy traffic over a 12 month period on Pinterest.

This is yet another great way of identifying keywords you should use to help your content rank higher on Pinterest.

Pinterest trends is only available to people in the US, UK & Canada right now. If you don’t live in any of these regions, you can get access to Pinterest trends by either using a vpn or changing your location in your settings.

Under analytics, click on trends.

Type your desired keyword into the search bar and filter the results according to your desired audience.

If you want relevant trending keywords in the UK or Canada, pick this under the country column.

You should see something similar to this after putting in a keyword. Pro tip, if a search term has fewer results, generalise it. For example if Pinterest Marketing has few results, use marketing and build from there.

Don’t forget to also use the keywords featured under the search term you’ve gotten results for (related trends).

Go a step further and check out the popular pins for that keyword.

Using this and the Pinterest search bar will give you enough keywords and content ideas for the whole year. You can use a sheet to keep record of all of the keywords you found.

15) Read the Pinterest predicts report

Every year, Pinterest usually rolls out trend predictions in different niches of what people will be searching on the platform.

This is a what’s to happen report and not a what has happened report like they term it.

Read the Pinterest predicts report, find relevant topics and subjects in your niche and create content around it.

The earlier you do it, the better.

For example, if you’re in the beauty niche. Now is a good time to start posting content that revolves around bejewelled stuff.

From paper art, savings challenges, wedding color predictions, raves and more.

If you’re in the fashion niche, be it a business or a blog, now is a good time to start posting content that revolves around ruffles and romcom core.

From rainbow dresses for women to fuchsia outfits, gradient dresses and vibrant outfits as a whole.

Find more Pinterest trend predictions here.

Other than what you already know or knew, that’s all there is to it. Pinterest is a simple platform. Even after all the algorithm changes. Don’t complicate it.