When You Do Not Have Time for One More Platform
This client came to us doing everything right. They had a YouTube channel, great food content, and a real audience, and they told us, “We need to be on Pinterest. We just cannot do it ourselves.” I’m Kate Ahl, and my team and I have been running Pinterest accounts for businesses since 2014. In this episode I’m walking you through exactly what we did for this creator, what it produced, and three questions to ask yourself before you hire anyone to handle Pinterest for you. If you’ve been wondering whether to learn Pinterest yourself or get it off your plate, this one is for you.
Pinterest Is the Library, Instagram Is the Bar
Here was the aha moment for this client. They were really great at being in a bar, but they had no system for the library, where people actually go to plan what to make and what to buy. They were successful everywhere else and invisible on Pinterest. They were not asking us to grow their YouTube or teach them another platform. They simply wanted Pinterest to work for them without adding it to their own plate, so we took the strategy on.
What We Did, Step by Step
First, we gave the profile a full makeover, because their Pinterest presence did not match the brand they already were everywhere else. Second, we set up their shop on Pinterest. They had Shopify, and Pinterest and Shopify go together like PB&J, but their products were not visible yet. We tagged the products that mattered most so they were buyable right from the pin. Third, we wrote keyword-rich descriptions so Pinterest knew who to show the pins to, and then we started pinning consistently, with both static pins and video pins. None of this is super complicated, which is kind of the point. It’s just work that somebody has to do every week on a platform that isn’t the one you already live in.
The Results and Why This Is a Bandwidth Problem
Impressions went from about 131,000 a month to over 2.4 million. Engagement went from about 4,500 a month to almost 99,000. Followers grew by 32,000, although followers are not the number that matters most on Pinterest. The number I really want you to hear is over 70 checkouts a month, which adds up to an extra $38,000 every single month from a platform this brand was not even on before. If you already have a following on YouTube, Instagram, your own site, or Google, and you know your ideal buyer is on Pinterest but you don’t have three more hours a week for pin design, keyword research, shop setup, and tagging, that is not a you problem. It’s a bandwidth problem. You do not have to become a Pinterest expert. You have to decide what is worth taking off your plate so you can focus back on your content.
Related: Pinterest Wins: How AI Tools Are Saving Us Hours Every Week
Three Questions to Ask Before You Hire Anyone
First, have they actually worked with someone in your niche? Content creators, ecommerce sellers, and bloggers all use Pinterest differently, and someone who has only done broad social media management will be learning your world on your dime. Second, ask what they need from you every month. This client did not have to shoot anything new. They handed over what they were already making for Instagram and their website, and we offered suggestions based on Pinterest trends. If an agency needs a whole separate pile of content that doesn’t fit your brand, that is not taking anything off your plate. Third, ask about timeline. Real Pinterest growth takes three to six months to show up, and anyone promising an explosion in a month is worth questioning. There is a messy middle where things build, and a good partner will tell you the truth about that runway. If you sell products, also make sure they know how to set up your shop on the platform, not just post pretty pins.
Related: Pinterest Wins: When Pinterest Keeps Working While You Pivot
You can find this podcast episode by going to Apple or Spotify.
For More Pinterest Marketing Resources:
- Ready to hand Pinterest off? Book a discovery call with Simple Pin Media
- Shop: Learn Pinterest at your own pace with our Pinterest education workshops.
- Watch: Design pins in Canva that Actually Get Clicks
Full Transcript:
Kate [00:00:00]: This client came to us doing everything right. YouTube channel, great food content, and they said, “We need to be on Pinterest. We just cannot do it ourselves.” Stay with me because I wanna walk you through the exact strategy of what we did and what it produced for this client, plus three questions to ask yourself before you hire anyone to do this.
I am Kate Ahl, host of The Simple Pin Podcast, owner of Simple Pin Media. We have been running Pinterest accounts for businesses since 2014. Here’s a bit of our client’s story. Quick question to start. Are you team I’ll figure it out myself, or team get it off my plate? I want you to hold that answer. We’re gonna come back to it in just a second.
So back to this client. They were doing everything right. They had a YouTube channel. They had an audience. They were making great food content, tutorials, products, literally the whole thing. But here’s the aha moment. Pinterest is the library, Instagram is the bar. [00:01:00] They were really great at being in a bar, but they had no system for a library where people actually go to plan what to make and what to buy.
So now we knew the starting point. They were successful everywhere else, but they were invisible on Pinterest. And when they came to us saying they knew they needed to be on Pinterest, we already knew their people were there, and we knew they didn’t have time to do the strategy, so we took it on. They were not asking us to grow their YouTube. They were not asking us to teach them another platform. They simply wanted Pinterest to work for them without adding it to their own plate.
So here’s what we did step by step. First, we did a full profile makeover because their Pinterest presence did not match who they were already everywhere else. They were the same brand, and they had some branding, but it was not translating into search.
Second, we set up their shop with [00:02:00] Pinterest because they had Shopify, and Pinterest and Shopify go together like PB&J. But their products weren’t visible because they didn’t have their shop set up, so they were buyable now right from the pin. We tagged their products, made sure the ones that really mattered stood out.
Third, we wrote keyword-rich descriptions so Pinterest actually knew who to show their pins to. Then we started pinning consistently, both static pins and video pins. None of this is super complicated, which is kind of the point. It isn’t complicated, it’s just work that somebody actually has to do every week on a platform that is not the one you already live in. That’s really tough.
But here’s what happened when we put all this in play. Impressions went from about one hundred and thirty-one thousand a month to over two point four million. Now their pins were getting seen. This library concept is starting to work. The same [00:03:00] content they already have, now findable where people plan.
Engagement went from forty-five hundred a month to almost ninety-nine thousand a month. Anything that could inspire this aha moment in people that gets them to save, and that’s what we saw here. Followers grew, which followers aren’t really important on Pinterest, but they grew by thirty-two thousand.
And here’s the number I really want you to hear: over 70 checkouts a month, which is an extra $38,000 every single month for this brand from a platform they were not even on before.
Now here is why I am telling you this specifically. If you are listening to this and you have already got a following somewhere else, YouTube, Instagram, your own site, Google, you’re selling something, and you know that Pinterest is where your ideal buyer is, but you just don’t have three more hours per [00:04:00] week for pin design, keyword research, shop setup, and tagging on top of everything else, that is not a you problem. That’s a bandwidth problem, and that is the exact problem this client had before they came to us.
You do not have to become a Pinterest expert. You have to decide if it’s worth handing off to somebody who already is one. That’s the whole shift. Not learning one more thing, just deciding what is worth taking off your plate so you can actually grow.
And if you’re thinking, “I do not wanna become a Pinterest expert, I just want it done right,” this is exactly why we built our company. We built it so that we could help businesses really grow when they’re not having to spend their time on management of Pinterest, but they’re actually focusing back on their content. So this is really something that we specialize in.
Okay, here’s a few things I want you to [00:05:00] consider before you hire somebody. First, have they actually worked with someone in your niche? Content creators, e-commerce sellers, bloggers, they all use Pinterest differently. Someone who’s only ever done broad social media management is going to be learning your world on your dime.
Second, ask what they need from you every month. This client did not have to shoot new content. They just handed over what they were already making for Instagram and their website. If an agency needs you to generate a whole bunch of brand-new stuff just for Pinterest, that’s not actually taking stuff off your plate. Now, I’ll say this. We do toss people suggestions, ’cause that helps because we know the trends on Pinterest. But if somebody’s giving you a whole separate list of things that don’t even align with your brand, that is going to be more exhausting to you.
Third, ask about timeline. Real Pinterest growth takes three to six months to show up. If anybody promises you fast results, that [00:06:00] is worth questioning. Don’t be like, “That’s amazing. You can explode my Pinterest account in a month.” Nope. There is a messy middle where things build. An agency worth hiring will tell you the truth about the runway, even when it is not exciting news. And if you sell products, make sure whoever you’re talking to actually knows how to set up your shop on the platform, not just post pretty pins.
So let us bring this all back around to our original client. We have a successful creator who has no time for one more platform. They wanna hand off Pinterest, so they get a full profile set up, a shop set up, keywords, consistent pinning, then over two point four million impressions and an extra $38,000 in their bank account every month.
I hope this has been helpful for you, and if that is where you are at, where you are ready to hand it off, head to simplepinmedia.com. Let’s [00:07:00] talk about how we can work for you. If you wanna get started on Pinterest too, we have a lot of great resources where you can DIY it. But I really wanna talk to those people who know Pinterest can work for them, but they’re just agonizing over this, where they are really wrestling with whether or not to hand it off, whether or not to even invest. That’s what we can do in a discovery call with you. So click down below in the description. We’d love to chat with you. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and we will see you the next time.
