Why should crafters care about Pinterest?  Because Pinterest is probably the best place that a crafter can reach customers online.

Three of the four most popular categories on Pinterest are craft-heavy: DIY & Crafts, Home Decor, and Holidays & Events.  What’s more, according to Social Media Today Pinterest drives more traffic than other social media site and Pinterest users tend to spend more money.

It’s not uncommon that websites get as much as 80% of their traffic from Pinterest, as is the case with the e-Commerce store Wedding Favors Unlimited.  Erin Dollar, owner of Cotton & Flax, said at the recent Etsy Up Conference that Pinterest captures more brand value and drives more sales to her crafting shop than any other social media platform.

So let’s dig into how you can harness the power of Pinterest to sell more of what you make.

How To Drive Sales From Pinterest

1. Curate boards that interest your target audience

If you’re browsing Pinterest and you see a Pin you love, Pinning it to a board allows you save that Pin to look at later. However, there’s much more to boards than just having a place to store Pins. Pinterest allows you to have as many boards as you like, meaning you can create truly specialized boards around a single topic.

For crafters, this means your boards can become a destination for Pinners looking to be inspired. Think about what your brand evokes and create a few boards around those themes. For example, Tailwind user Johanna Haack, owner of The Wood Grain Gallery, created a number of wood-themed decor boards where she can Pin her own creations as well as beautiful images she’s found online. Johanna’s made her profile a destination for Pinners looking for everything from holiday-inspired wood carvings to wall shelves.

2. Don’t only pin your own content

You’re on social media to promote your crafts, so it makes sense to post a majority of your own projects, right? Well, on social media you have to give in order to receive. As we mentioned in the first tip, you’re trying to curate an experience for the Pinner and not just drop a catalog in their lap.

Tailwind user Jillian Leslie, owner of Catch My Party, says Pinterest accounts for 70% of the traffic to her site. She’s accomplished this by Pinning 70% from her own site and 30% from other sites.

Jillian makes a point of following new users all the time and pinning from other websites, not just to get the best content in front of her audience, but to discover content she’s not producing that she should be. It’s a win-win!

3. Pin consistently

Great Pinners have one thing in common: they Pin content consistently throughout the day. In fact, Tailwind users Pin 28 times per day on average!

Whilst that may sound unmanageable, by using a dedicated tool, hours of Pinning can be accomplished in minutes.  Tailwind’s browser extension allows you to see just the pinnable images on any webpage with one click, and then Pin the same Pin multiple times to different boards spread out over days or weeks.

You can dedicate an hour here and there to fill up your Pinterest schedule weeks or months out, and then set that distraction aside while you focus on your crafting.

Your scheduling tool then hums away in the background Pinning consistently around the clock for you, meaning that you’re able to reach your audience when they’re online and get your content in front of new fans. Which leads us to our 4th tip…

4. Pin at the right times

It doesn’t only matter that you pin consistently, it also matters that you Pin at the right times to reach your followers when they’re active. Now you might be imagining yourself sitting at the computer all day and all night, becoming a slave to Pinterest. But there is a better way.

Tailwind’s scheduling tool identifies your peak times to Pin and allows you to schedule those Pins in advance.  That means that every Pin you publish will get the maximum engagement possible.  That’s one of the reason why Tailwind members enjoy growth in their engagement rate on Pinterest that’s 2.5x greater than non-members, on average.

5. Use relevant keywords

Although we know Pinterest as a social network, it’s also a search engine. And, like with any other search engines (like Google), you need to use keywords to get discovered.

The first step is to think about those words and phrases your customers use when they describe your products. Once you have that list, head over to Pinterest’s search bar and start searching for those words. Pinterest’s Guided Search will show you other words and phrases related to what you’re searching for:

Once you have a list of keywords, start naturally incorporating them into your Pin and Board descriptions. This will help your content get discovered in Pinterest’s search results.

6. Make great Pins

Pinterest’s currency is Pins – a visual representation of the web page the Pin points to. This means that Pins need to be really attractive and engaging to pull people in.

On a basic level, Pins need to:

• Be portrait style – longer than they are wide
• High quality – no pixelations
• Represent the page that they lead to – no misleading images

Rose Lindo, owner of Bittersweet Design Boutique, told us in our “Social Media Marketing Secrets of Successful Etsy Sellers” ebook that the long visual style of her Pins makes a huge difference in her performance on Pinterest:

“Our ‘Marketing Sets’ Pin has been successful for us. It is a long image and clearly displays the types of products and different styles we offer in our shop.”

(Find that pin here.)

For more information on how to create amazing Pins, check out Pinterest’s own “How to make great Pins” guide.

7. Create a blog to Pin from

We told you not to only Pin your own content earlier, and now we’re suggesting that you shouldn’t only Pin your own products! By creating a blog, you can create new content to Pin to your profile and you can create a way to attract customers further up the funnel. Write about how you think about your creative process, or a step-by-step guide to creating something, or provide some behind the scenes details of how you create your crafts. This will help people connect with you on a deeper level and give you plenty of content to share!

8. Learn what your audience enjoys

Once you’re up and running on Pinterest, it’s important to pay attention to what’s working for you. By doing things like checking out what Pins are attracting the most Repins, what Pins are driving traffic to your site, and what Boards are growing followers, you gain a full understanding of what is (and what isn’t) working for you.

Tailwind’s Pinterest analytics allow you to do exactly that. Check out the Pin Inspector tool to see what Pins are driving the most Repins and start learning what kinds of content your audience wants to see more of!

9. Understand trends through the year

After Thanksgiving you start Pinning about Christmas, right? Nope! Pinterest is a platform people use to plan their future. This means people are thinking about events months in advance. Christmas Pins start popping up in the beginning of Fall, Halloween costumes are being planned in July, and life events are planned year round. Our free Pinterest content calendar will help keep you on track throughout the year!

10. Pinterest takes time.

I’ll say it again – Pinterest is not like the other social networks. On Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram the majority of interaction with your posts happens within the first few hours – or even minutes. On Pinterest it often takes months for a Pin to truly gain traction. In fact, we did a case study on a Pin that took 32 weeks to reach an influencer and go viral!

So if you don’t see those amazing results right away, don’t worry! Pinterest takes time, but in the end it’s worth it.

Marketing is hard

We know, marketing is hard. This is why our mission is to make it easier for all businesses to become world class marketers, so you can spend more time doing what you love.

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If you’re ready to join the Tailwind family, Craft Industry Alliance members get 25% off all new Tailwind memberships as part of our member benefits package. The discount is good for the first 3 monthly payments (if paying month-to-month) or the entire first annual payment (if yearly).

Create a Tailwind free trial account and, when ready to upgrade, just use this link and the coupon code will automatically be applied (valid only for new signups).