How to drive traffic to your ecommerce store with Pinterest

When it comes to selling your handmade products online, there’s so much think about. Making your products, photographing them, writing products lists.

Photo by Lorna Stell Photo

But that’s just the beginning.

You also need a strategy for marketing your products and driving traffic to your online shop.

Since starting my shop, I have tried it all. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Periscope, Google+, you name it.

Of all these strategies, the one that has consistently worked is Pinterest.

Why should you use Pinterest to sell Your products?

Unlike other forms of social media, Pinterest has longevity. A Facebook post or Tweet tend to have very short lifespans, unless you are the rare case where one of them goes viral. And let’s be honest, how likely is that to happen?

Pinterest is in for the long haul.

For example, take this tutorial I wrote on how to make a spiral pendant necklace.

The power of Pinterest

I wrote it in March 2015 back when I was making and selling this style of jewelry. It’s been pinned over 63,000 times!

Though it’s technically not selling a product, it demonstrates the long-term benefit of Pinterest. Three years after it was published, it continues to be my number one driver of traffic to my website. If I were still selling this type of necklace, I would leverage this and link to the product for people who want to purchase it instead of making it.

Finally, according to a Pinterest analysis, 93% of people on Pinterest use the platform to plan their purchases.

With 200 monthly users, that’s 186 million people coming to Pinterest looking for products to buy. If you haven’t yet started using this powerful platform for your online jewelry store, here’s how to use Pinterest for marketing your business.

8 tips for Pinterest marketing

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small comission if you click on some links in this post. You can learn more about my disclosure policy here

1. Set up your Pinterest Business account

If you already have a Pinterest account and haven’t done so yet, convert it into a business account. This gives you access to important features such as Pinterest Analytics. We won’t get into that in this post, but it’s information that can provide important insights to your pins.

2. Create high-quality images

Pinterest is foremost a visual platform. For it to work, the images you pin should be visually appealing.

Not sure where to begin? Spend a few minutes perusing Pinterest and see what images catch your eyes. Likely they are well-lit, have complementary colors and text, and words that pique your interest.

Note that Pinterest favors vertical images.

You can manually crop your product and lifestyle photos to fit this size in whatever photo editing program you use. PicMonkey is a great online photo editor which makes it easy to crop your photos to the best size for Pinterest.

Use a photo editing program like PicMonkey to create pinnable images for Pinterest

In addition to pinning product photos, experiment with collages and text overlays to create new pins. Programs like PicMonkey and Canva make this easy to do. (And they both have apps so you can easily make stunning Pinnable images on your smartphone!)

3. Think beyond individual products

In addition to creating pinnable images for individual products, link to multiple pages on your website. This can include:

  • Your shop page on your website
  • A downloadable guide 
  • Categories of products
  • Blog posts

I created this Pinterest immage that links to the minimalist necklaces category in the Linkouture shop which I uploaded onto my jewelry Pinterest board.

Simple elegant sterling silver necklaces by Linkouture

To do this, go to the individual board. Click the red arrow in the upper right hand-hand corner and then click on “Create Pin”.

How to use Pinterest marketing for your ecommerce shop

From there, you’ll be taken to a new screen. Upload the image you created, choose the URL, and write a Pin description.

Pinterest marketing for your ecommerce shop

4. Write keyword-rich product descriptions

Pinterest, like Google, is a search engine.

People go there with the intention of finding specific information. For example, I’m more likely to go to Pinterest to find recipes than I am to hit up Google or even a recipe website.

Write product descriptions with words that your customers would be searching for.

Pull out keywords from the product description you already have written and then look for additional keywords by using Pinterest search.

PRO TIP: I HIGHLY recommend this Monica Frose’s free course, Pin Practical Funneling, where she further explains how to find the right keywords for your brand

In the search bar, type words that you use to describe your products. In this case, since I make minimalist eco-friendly jewelry, I might see what people are searching for on Pinterest when looking for “eco friendly”.

To use Pinterest as a marketing strategy to sell products, create keyword-rich pin descriptions

Typing in eco friendly I can see that the top search terms are eco friendly home, eco friendly, eco friendly product, eco friendly wedding, and eco friendly living.

Since I don’t sell eco friendly home products, I clicked on the second term, eco friendly. On the next screen I can see at the top some of the other popular categories people search for:

When done right, Pinterest can be used as a marketing strategy to sell products online

Some of the other popular keywords that relate to my jewelry are living, products, wedding, lifestyle, and gifts. From there I might craft a Pinterest description such as: “Looking for a special wedding shower gift ideas for women who are into eco friendly living? Check out these beautifully made sterling silver earrings. They are handcrafted from recycled silver and are as unique as the recipient! Click here to see these and other eco friendly products.”

Note how the Pinterest description is written in full sentences, rather than just stuffing a bunch of keywords in there.

I like to do this by writing out the list of keywords I found and writing around them. I then edit and read it through a few times to make sure it flows.

5. Create Pinterest boards that are keyword rich

Just as you write product descriptions using those keywords, do the same thing for your individual boards. Name the boards with keywords that fit your business’ niche and descriptions using the same technique for writeing Pin descriptions.

Be sure to create a board with your own products!

6. Write and pin relevant blog posts

Helpful blog posts that highlight your products when paired with a beautiful Pinnable imagine can help people find your products on Pinterest.

For example, since I design eco-friendly jewelry, around the holidays I wrote a blog post about eco-friendly gift ideas. (When I was selling my jewelry, I included a link to my shop in that post!)

Other blog posts may include a guide on how to use or style your products or even how to make them!

7. Pin consistently

Pinterest marketing works as a strategy when you do it consistently. You can approach this one of two ways. The first is to devote 15-30 minutes each day to pin. Repin your own products on multiple boards and pin what you find on Pinterest.

Alternatively, you can schedule all of your pins for the week or month on one day using a Pinterest-approved scheduler such as Tailwind.

I’ve been using Tailwind for the past few years and it’s one of the best investments for my business. It saves hours by allowing me to schedule my pins ahead of time. Plus their SmartSchedule tool makes sure your content gets pins at the best times for your audience.

SmartSchedule in Tailwind makes it easy to schedule your pins on Pinterest at times that are optimized for your audience

8. Pin related content to your niche

In addition to pinning your own products, also post related products and helpful information you find on Pinterest. For example, if you make boho style jewelry, pin boho outfits ideas and blog posts by fashion bloggers, tutorials on hippie braids, and boho decor.

One of my favorite tools on Tailwind is Tribes, which helps you find products and content in your niche and to help others share your products.

Tailwind Tribes help you discover products to pin and get your products pinned on Pinterest!

To get started, search for tribes in your niche using some of those keywords used for your product descriptions. Add your own pins to the group and schedule other pins. Make sure you follow the rules for that group!

It may feel a bit daunting at first, but Pinterest can be a powerful long-term marketing strategy for your jewelry business.

And for your reference, here are some helpful tools and resources.

Online tools:

  • PicMonkey (free 7-day trial) — Photo editing tool
  • Canva — Photo editing tool, includes premade templates and stock photos (some free, some paid)
  • Tailwind — Pinterest-approved scheduler. Schedule your first 100 pins for free and 5 tribes to join

Additional resources:

  • Pinning Perfect — This is a fantastic course on Pinterest for bloggers, so great if blogging is a big part of your marketing strategy
  • Simple Pin Media — Great tips on using Pinterest for your eCommerce store
  • Deposit Photos — Stock photos for your blog posts
  • Social Warfare — WordPress plugin that allows you to customize your Pinnable image
  • Pin Practical Funneling — A fantastic FREE course that covers some basics of using Pinterest for your business, including creating click-worthy Pinterest images and how to find the right keywords for your business on Pinterest