How I Grew My Pinterest Monthly Views to 2 Million in 2 Weeks
I still remember the day one of my old co-workers IMed me telling me she had something to share with me that I was going to love. Spoiler alert: it was Pinterest. This was probably nine 0r ten years ago-back when you needed to be invited to join. I was so confused about what it was at first, but I eventually started pinning clothes, shoes, baking recipes and whatever else I was into at that time. Up until recently, I never tried to grow a following or gain any traction using my Pinterest account. I mainly used it to pin and find dinner or vegan dessert recipes. Well, a few months ago I had listened to a few podcasts talking about how you can use your Pinterest (this episode is a great one to start with) to grow your business so I decided to start taking it more seriously. I quickly got to 200k monthly visitors, and then hit a plateau for a few weeks. After making some small changes and consistently devoting a few minutes a day to Pinterest, my monthly views skyrocketed to 1 million after a week, and then 2 million after two weeks! I really didn’t do anything crazy, and it kind of happened by accident so I wanted to share a step-by step guide on exactly how I did it.
- Sign up for a a business account
If you haven’t already done this, this would be my first piece of advice. If you are new to Pinterest, you can sign up for a business account or you can convert your existing account to a business one. Once you verify your website, you will be able to access tons of super valuable tools and data. Pinterest will also email you tips and tutorials to achieve success with your business account.
Tip: Add your blog and Instagram links to your Pinterest bio to drive traffic to your other platforms (see example below)
2. Pay attention to analytics
I’m an analytics geek so switching to a business profile was super helpful for me. I immediately noticed that my audience responded best to my inspirational quotes and style photos. Pay attention to what your followers re-pin most so you can focus on those categories. I also love pinning recipes, Russ quotes and parenting articles, but it was important for me to realize that those are not the pins that do well for me.
Just like with any other platform, you have to know your audience. Pinterest has an audience insights tab that shows you everything from their ages and location to their interests. It was interesting for me to see that over 50% of my audience is between the ages of 18-24. When pinning and creating pins, I now keep in mind that my audience is on the younger side. You can even export a CSV with your analytics data if you want to track and store it in a spreadsheet.
One of my favorite features of my business profile is the weekly email they send out with my top three pins for that week. In the email above, three of my pins brought in over 1 MILLION IMPRESSIONS!!! Insane right?! Every time I receive this email, I immediately re-pin those pins. If you notice some of your pins are doing really well, REPIN THEM! If they’re high-performing pins, keep the momentum going!
3. Use Tailwind to schedule pins
I’ve had a Tailwind account for several months now, and I try to login 2-3 times a month to schedule pins. It’s a great way to make sure that you’re pinning at optimal days and times even if you don’t actually have the time to do so. You can join tribes within your niche, which are similar to Pinterest group boards. I have joined several fashion, blogging and motherhood tribes and I add my pins to relevant tribes. I also schedule pins (mainly from my blog) several weeks in advance. Tailwind has soo many resources, blog posts, and amazing tools that are make it so much easier to be a Pinterest expert. They also have really great insights including a Pin Inspector, which ranks your top performing pins. You can even re-schedule your best pins directly from that page! I highly recommend signing up and exploring all of the cool features Tailwind has to offer!
4. Pin manually
I had been using Tailwind for several months, but I noticed my monthly views really started taking off when I set aside about 10 minutes a day to pin manually. It doesn’t take a long time at all to see results. I usually pin while waiting in line, on my lunch break or while cooking dinner-anytime I have a few extra minutes. Make sure that you’re pinning relevant content that you think your audience would be interested in. It sounds so simple, but I’ve definitely noticed that the more consistent time I put into pinning manually, the more growth I see (both followers and monthly viewers).
5. Create your own Pinterest Pins
This was HUGE for me. I had just started pinning my blog and Instagram content (as opposed to just pinning other people’s content on Pinterest), but I had never created my own pins. I was always making inspirational quotes for my Instagram stories, so one day I randomly decided to try to pin one of the quotes. The impressions were INSANE and I immediately saw that I was onto something. I pinned some of the other quotes that I had previously created, and they did just as well. My monthly page views skyrocketed from the impressions of just a few of the pins I had created. I now try to create a few of my own pins a week to pin while also re-pinning my highest performing pins.
Some of my top tips for creating your own Pinterest Pins:
- Use Canva or Unfold to create eye-catching pins
- Link the pin back to your Instagram or Blog to drive traffic
- Create pins in your most pinned category (for me that’s inspirational quotes)
- Use keywords in your description
- Use relevant hashtags (Some hashtags that I use: #inspirational #inspirationalquotes #motivationalquotes #motivational)
I was so shocked that I was able to increase my monthly page view so rapidly, so I hope you guys are able to use these tips to get the same results! I also want to emphasize the fact that you DO NOT need a large Pinterest following to have results like mine (I currently have around 1,700 followers). You can find my Pinterest profile here
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
13 Comments
Lovelyworld
Really interesting information about pinterest, I would use these simple tips to grow my number of views
admin
Thank you! I was so shocked at how simple it was!
Rianna Stavrides
Great tips! I heard Pinterest is a really great source of traffic for bloggers. Will definitely follow your advice.
admin
Thanks so much! It definitely can be if used strategically! Good luck and happy pinning 🙂
Mamie
These are very helpful tips. I am gonna try them out.
admin
I’m so glad they were helpful! Happy pinning! 🙂
Lynn Armstrong
Wow! There were some great tips that I’ve never heard before! I think just the fact that you had a realization about needing to pin what people are liking vs what you personally like to post is so important in a business. That’ll set you up for some wonderful success.
admin
I’m so glad they were helpful! I’ve always seen different tips in other articles about Pinterest too. Yess that was so huge!
Sonja - Too Much Character
I have been on the fence about using Tailwind, but it sounds like it is worth it. Pinterest has been a favorite of mine for a long time!
admin
I was hesitant about it at first because I wasn’t sure how to use it, but it’s so helpful and user-friendly! Yess I love Pinterest too!
Michelle thibeault
I am new to Pinterest and find it so akward as it is not like fb or insta haha this helps me out so much!! Thank you 🙂
admin
I felt the exact same way! It’s completely different from fb or IG, but that’s what I love about it! When you figure it out, it’s so much easier to use than the other platforms! I’m so glad this was helpful! 🙂
Chelsae
I have been hearing so much about Tailwind as I research growing Pinterest! I think it is time for me to make this purchase!