#137 – Creating a Pinterest Video Strategy

When it comes to social media marketing, video is where it’s at. Learn all about creating a Pinterest video strategy as part of your overall marketing strategy in today’s podcast!

A lot of you in my Facebook group have been asking how you can stay up to date on the most recent Pinterest news and changes. The best way to do that is to sign up for my weekly newsletter – it comes out every Wednesday and is jam-packed with resources – relevant articles, reviews of webinars, anything new that Pinterest is doing, etc. So go join the Facebook group and sign up for the Wednesday email, and you’ll get a 21-page Pinterest planner.

You’ll receive an introductory email that describes three different types of Pinterest marketers. Choose the one that best describes you. You’ll then receive a series of emails that will help you specifically where you are in your Pinterest marketing journey.

What are you waiting for? Sign up today!

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Creating a Pinterest Video Strategy 

Video is so crucial for marketing on most social platforms today. When it comes to creating a Pinterest video strategy, however, it’s a bit of a mystery for most content creators. What are the best ways to market your video on Pinterest and drive traffic to your site, as well as maximize the relationship with Youtube?

During 2018, we started to see video really take off on Pinterest. It started off only being rolled out to big brands who were using promoted pins. Soon after, video pins started to become more commonly used across a variety of accounts. That prompted us to release a tutorial last May on how to upload videos to Pinterest. This tutorial covered how to upload pins organically to Pinterest.

Options for Using Video On Pinterest

There are three different methods for using video on Pinterest. I’m going to share them with you, then you can choose which one works best for your business.

1. Uploading Directly to Pinterest

The first method is directly uploading your video to Pinterest. I recommend this method if your videos are less than one minute in length. You want your videos to be a tease, and hook the user in to entice them clicking over to your site.

When you upload your video, make sure your video’s opening image contains text so that the people will know what the video is about. You can create a specific board for your videos. Use specific keywords in the board names (“Pinterest Marketing Videos”, “Gluten Free Recipe Videos”, etc.).

Share the link to that video pin with your audience on other social platforms and in your email newsletter. Encourage them to view it and comment.

Back in episode 29, I interviewed Beth of the super successful YouTube Channel Entertaining with Beth talk about integrating Youtube into your Pinterest strategy. Beth’s Youtube channel is full of delicious recipes. I asked her to share exactly how she is using Pinterest video.

She uploads short form 1:1 square videos into the Pinterest player. These videos lead to a Mediavine video player (her ad network) where you can find the whole recipe. She has only uploaded about eight videos but has gotten 2,000 saves on one video and 137 views on another in just 30 days.

That is amazing, guys!

You can’t schedule your videos through Tailwind, but you can schedule them with the native, organic scheduler that has just come out in the last six months. 

2. Sending the Pinner to the Video on Your Site

The next way to incorporate videos into your Pinterest strategy is to funnel the pinner to your site to a blog post where the video lives. The basic method is to embed a YouTube video into the blog post and then create an image and link it to that blog post.

In the blog post, have several calls to action that will encourage the reader to watch the video. For example, Beth encourages readers to“Click below to watch my step-by-step tutorial”. At the end of the video, she encourages them to “Subscribe to see more of my videos.” and link to her YouTube subscription link (NOT her channel link). 

Now Beth uses the Mediavine native video player on her blog post instead of embedding YouTube videos.

3. Creating An Image That Leads to YouTube

The third method is best for those of you who don’t have a blog or a website but want the user to go directly to your Youtube channel. Create an image that has a play button that links directly to the video on YouTube.

Be sure to maximize the new native player if you’re going to upload video to Pinterest. Avoid uploading directly from YouTube. If you do, those videos upload as small horizontal boxes and don’t typically don’t get any traction in the Pinterest Smart Feed.

If you don’t plan to use the native video player, then you need to create a pinnable image. For example, if you have a tutorial on how to shiplap a wall and you want people to watch your video on YouTube, create an image with a PLAY button in the middle. Pick an image from the video and layer the play button on top. It’s a bit of a trick because people will click the play button and it will automatically send them to Youtube for you.

Including the PLAY button is important so that people don’t expect to be sent to a blog post. One marketing rule of thumb is that you never want to jar the user. If they see a play button, they are expecting to watch a video. And clicking the image will deliver exactly what they’re expecting.

NOTE — if you plan to run a Promoted Pin campaign with this video play button overlay, rumor has it that it won’t get approved. Just a heads up if it gets denied. 

Looking for more subscribers on YouTube?

If you are looking to grow your YouTube subscribers, consider using the MiloTree app, a Google-compliant pop-up that is super quick to set up and easy to customize.

In this day and age of The Great Limited Attention Span, people appreciate being told clearly what to do. The MiloTree app essentially says “Hey! You like this content because you’re here and you’re scrollling. How about more content like this? Subscribe to my YouTube channel!”.

Check out my podcast interview with the creator of MiloTree here.

Pinterest Video Pins: Do They Really Work?

The goal with video is to display your content in alternative format that really hooks the user in. Always have a call to action at the end of your videos, whether that’s subscribing to your channel or joining an email list.

Does this work? My advice is to test this out. I did get some feedback from my team on how this is working for our clients. This is what they had to say:

The impressions and repins are great, but click-throughs are a little behind in comparison. Pinterest is favoring the videos but the engagement may not pay off in the end.

Most of the videos were placed on the main blog board but according to Pinterest analytics, the top five saves are her video pins. The clicks are not quite as high.

Another client created a video board in December and according to Google analytics, her third top pin is one of the main first video pins. In Pinterest analytics, it’s first for impressions and saves and third for clicks.

These are all food blogger case studies. Next, we plan to examine how video pins perform with non-food related content.

Pinterest Video Strategy Action Tip

Search topics on Pinterest and see how they are populating videos for your specific search terms. Scroll through your feed and see what promoted pin advertisers are doing with their video content as well.

There’s a lot for us to explore.

We would love to hear from you about how you are using video on Pinterest. Comment and tell us how you are challenging yourself to think about video in a brand new way.

Time Stamp:

•  1:16 – Email Newsletter
•  3:46 – Using Video on Pinterest
•  6:00 – Uploading Directly to Pinterest
•  7:58 – Entertaining with Beth
•  9:41 – Scheduling Videos
• 10:25 – Sending the Pinner to the Video on Your Site
• 12:29 – Creating An Image That Leads to Youtube
• 16:09 – Does This Really Work?