I’m not going to lie, I was already a fan of Pinterest as a user before I started my blog so that may make me a little biased. The thought of starting a Pinterest business account never crossed my mind until one day I noticed traffic coming to my blog from Pinterest – even though I never pinned anything from my website on there!
That flipped the switch for me and finally lit the fire under my butt to set up a business account and figure out how to use Pinterest to bring more traffic and subscribers to my blog.
Why do you need a Pinterest Business account?
You might be wondering why you can’t just use a personal Pinterest account to help give your website a boost, especially if you’ve already been using a personal account for a long time.
If you think (or know) your ideal readers and customers spend time on Pinterest, then I promise it’s worth it for you to be on there as well – as a business.
Some perks of a Pinterest Business account are access to:
- verify and claim your website
- view your audience insights
- see Pinterest trends (trending search terms)
- check out analytics on each pin
- run promoted pins, or Pinterest ads and get ads reporting
Now before you foo-foo the idea of running ads, or think you can’t spend any money on ads right now, that is fine! Even if you think there is the teeniest tiniest chance you MIGHT want to run ads on Pinterest in the future, in one year or three years down the line, set up the Pinterest tag on your website so it can start collecting data on your visitors.
You’ll thank me later. And you’re welcome, in advance 😉
I also urge you to at least consider promoted pins if you’re thinking about dabbling in ads and paid traffic. With a little bit of optimization and strategy, you can bring in new leads and subscribers at a much lower cost than say, Facebook ads, in my experience.
AND even after your promoted pin campaign ends, that pin and all of its repins are still live on Pinterest, bringing you traffic even though you’re not paying for them anymore. I’ve never heard of a Facebook ad doing that.
Ok, ok, sorry for the promoted pins side-tangent, don’t let that intimidate you! You do not have to run paid ads to see success on Pinterest, it’s just an added bonus if you’re interested. Now onto the nitty-gritty.
How to create a Pinterest business account
If you already have a personal Pinterest account, you do have the option to convert it to a business account. However, I want you to be strategic about this. You want your new business account, and the boards inside it, to be focused on your business niche.
If you have a ton of boards on your personal account that are like, bathroom reno, yummy dinners, wedding reception ideas, favorite places, paint tiles, etc, etc, that is not focused.
So if you decide to convert your personal account into a business account, you’ll want to switch any irrelevant/personal boards to be secret so they don’t distract from your business-related pins and boards.
You can switch to a business account inside your profile/account settings inside Pinterest and go from there. It will prompt you to fill out a new business name and profile for your account.
Or you can create a brand new Pinterest account that is separate from your personal and you’ll have to toggle back and forth as you wish. If you already have a lot of random pins and idea boards on your personal account, it might be best to start over fresh with a new account you can fine-tune to one topic.
To create a brand new business account, go to business.pinterest.com and sign up. Fill out your new profile information as completely as you can, and try to use relevant keywords wherever possible, like in your profile name and about section.
Next, be sure to claim your website and then change your notification settings to fit your preferences. Then is the fun part – creating your first boards!
Try to create at least 10 relevant boards that include terms your ideal reader or customer would be searching for. For example, my main Pinterest account is about hiking and backpacking, so some of my boards are Backpacking Gear, Hiking Trails in the US, Gifs for Hikers, Hiking Workouts, Hiking Tips, Camping Food, etc.
Do you see the theme? It helps your readers and the Pinterest algorithm figure out what your account is about when your profile section and all boards follow a similar theme or topic and include relevant keywords throughout.
After you think of 10 different boards you want to create, it’s time to start pinning relevant, high-quality pins to them. Try to find 10-15 pins to save to each board. If you already have your own content you want to pin to your boards, that’s great! If you don’t have any content yet or don’t have any pins created, that’s ok too!
Think of other brands or voices in your niche that you admire and save their content to your boards to get the Pinterest juices flowing.
After that, you should have a decent foundation setup for your Pinterest account and it’s there waiting for you to save your own great posts and products to your boards over time.
You don’t have to pin a million (or even 25) pins a day to move the needle on Pinterest, but consistency is your best friend here. If you can only pin a few fresh pins per day, or one new idea pin per week, stick to it.
Check your analytics every month or so to see what kinds of pins or graphics are doing well, and then keep creating more like that.
Have fun with it, and let me know in the comments below if you have any questions about setting up your Pinterest business account. Or if you’d like me to set your account up for you, set up a time to chat about Pinterest here.
About the author:
Mallory has been playing around with WordPress and building niche websites since 2017. It’s become a hobby and a challenge to see how many cool, new things she can create online each year.