In this episode of Oh Shoot Podcast!, Cassidy Lynne shares the best strategies to use on Pinterest for photographers to help attract clients.
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This highly requested episode is all about Pinterest! We’re going to talk about how to use Pinterest for your photography business and how to use Pinterest to attract more business.
Pinterest Statistics
Let’s start with some Pinterest stats!
- 97% of searchers are unbranded (meaning not business or brand accounts, just normal people).
- 80% of weekly pinners have discovered a new brand on Pinterest.
- 55% of pinners are influenced to make purchasing decisions.
- 75% of users are women.
- 32% of people are between the ages of 18-29 and 34% are between ages 30-49.
- 40% of users earn more than $75k per year.
- 44% of Pinterest is US BASED!!!
Pinterest for Photographers: The Basics
Niche Audience
There’s a niche audience on Pinterest and your content needs to cater to that niche. When you’re creating content for Pinterest always keep the ideal user in mind!
Wedding Clients
Pinterest is basically WEDDING CLIENTS sitting & waiting to find wedding vendors! Think about the first thing people do when they get engaged. They create a Pinterest board and start pinning and looking up inspiration!
That is the perfect time as a photographer to swoop in and provide potential clients with the inspo they’ve been looking for! Not only can we provide the inspiration, but we can also provide the result! A lot of our ideal clients are on Pinterest and we’re not tapping into that. Pinterest is so overlooked and underrated, and we should put more time and energy into it!
Pinterest is a LONG TERM GAME!
Pinterest is a very long game type of thing. I’ve been consistently pinning on Pinterest for over a year and I am just now starting to see big results. It’s taken a while! Before I posted sporadically for two to three years. Then I hired a virtual assistant who has done consistent pinning for me for about a year. That has been game-changing!
I did have a few pins hit it big back in the day. In 2018, I was creating mood board pins from bridesmaid photos and those pins blew up! I was getting thousands of pins daily on some of my pins. However, it wasn’t getting me bookings and I think it’s because I didn’t optimize my pin for local bookings. Instead, it was more like here’s some inspo, and wasn’t location specific. Creating trendy pins isn’t always helpful because you’re getting an audience that isn’t your ideal customer. You can create trendy and aesthetic pins, but it may not help with your goal of booking local clients.
Pinterest is for local people looking for photographers.
When thinking about Pinterest as a photographer, we want to be thinking of local people who are searching for a photographer. For example, someone looking for senior photos in Phoenix. What I might be searching for on Pinterest are things like:
- Phoenix Senior Photos
- Phoenix photoshoot
- Arizona photoshoot
- senior photoshoot ideas
The term “senior photoshoot idea” isn’t location specific and your pins might pop up for people from all over. Instead, you want to be using keywords that utilize your location and that will really help you as a photographer!
Things that won’t work on Pinterest:
Sharing work that is not your best work
There’s this idea on Instagram where you need to push out content and post all the time. If you’re creating content, put it out there. With Pinterest, you need to be a little more selective. Pinterest does like consistency and frequency. However, if it’s not a photo shoot that you’re super proud of, don’t put those photos on Pinterest. I think of Pinterest as a collection of my best work and like my portfolio.
I post my best work on Pinterest because it’s what will do well and get traction. I know posting photos that I don’t love aren’t going to get traction, so why waste my time on it? You’re not building client relationships on Pinterest like you do on Instagram. On Pinterest, you’re focusing on getting interactions and engagement with your pins and trying to hit viral pins.
Pins that aren’t evergreen.
Another thing that is not going to work on Pinterest is pins that aren’t evergreen. Evergreen basically means everlasting, always available, and always relevant. So pins that aren’t going to stand the test of time, you’re not going to want to post on Pinterest. You want timeless content on Pinterest because Pinterest is a long game.
It can take a while for pins to go viral or to start getting traction. With pins, I’ll post a pin that does well for a while, but then all of a sudden months later 5,000 people have pinned this pin! The algorithm is so good and different on Pinterest because your older stuff can still get you new customers. On TikTok and Instagram, you have to keep putting effort into the platform time and time again in order to get anywhere. The shelf life on Pinterest is amazing and very long-term, so it’s a good platform to put your time and energy into.
Personal stories don’t do well.
Another thing that won’t do super well on Pinterest is personal stories. This is something I’m experimenting with because I’ll share some of my TikTok videos with personal stories on Pinterest. For the most part people on Pinterest aren’t connected to personal stories. Instead, people are looking for a certain aesthetic, inspiration, and education. They’re not looking for a story.
Pinterest Strategies for Photographers
#1 Create a cohesive brand on Pinterest.
Pinterest is all about the aesthetic and branding has everything to do with aesthetic. If you don’t have a consistent brand within your editing style, your work, and your niche, it is going to hinder your performance on Pinterest.
If you’re designing pins with graphics and text, you have to keep it consistent. Use the same templates, fonts, and colors! Someone seeing one individual pin likely won’t see it as on-brand or off-brand. However, when they go to your profile and view your page as a whole you want to have a cohesive look and feel.
#2 Keep using templates that work!
Once you find a template that works on Pinterest, keep using it! For example, the color palette pins I was making from bridesmaid photos were getting thousands of repins every single time. So that was a template that worked and I kept doing it. I really feel like it helped me grow my account early on! If you’re finding a template or format that does really well when you post it, take note of that. Use it to better refine your content in the future. If you find idea pins do the best for you, KEEP DOING THOSE!
#3 Pinterest is a visual search engine.
When you think of Pinterest it really is a visual search engine like Google Images, but way better and more aesthetic. It’s the visual video and photo search engine and is the perfect space for photographers! We create visuals and people can search those visuals, so this should be our jam!
The title of your pins needs to be searchable!
When creating pins you need to make sure that your images are searchable. If you’re not creating searchable content you’re basically wasting your time. You need to have a strategy and it needs to be for searchability. Specifically, you need to work on local searchability. For example, let’s use Malibu engagement photos.
If you’re trying to book sessions locally you need to use local keywords in your titles and descriptions. Let’s go over three title examples:
TITLE: Phoenix Timeless Vintage Engagement Photos
This pin title hits the location, the style, and the type of photos. It’s going to help you pop up for searches similar to “Phoenix engagement photos” and any style keywords too.
TITLE: Vintage Prada Diamond Wedding Necklace
This pin title doesn’t have a location, but if people are searching “wedding necklace” this pin might pop up. If people search for “Prada necklace” this pin could show up. Pins that aren’t location specific, but describe the image can still help you with visibility. It’s good to have both location-specific pins and also more general pins too.
TITLE: Malibu Country Club Boho Chic Wedding
First, I have no idea if this is a wedding venue in Malibu, CA. I just made it up for this example! In this pin, I’m mentioning the city, of Malibu. I’m also targeting the venue with “Malibu Country Club.” Often when people choose a venue they go to Pinterest and search for that venue. You’re doing yourself a favor if you’re able to be specific with your location by using the venue name and even the city and state. The words “boho chic wedding” is also describing a style of wedding.
#4 Pinterest loves consistency!
Pinterest loves consistency. Not as much as Instagram or TikTok, but it is still a good idea to be consistent on Pinterest. It’s easier to be consistent on Pinterest than on any other platform in my opinion!
Use Tailwind to Schedule
Tailwind is an amazing website where you can schedule pins for days and months in advance! It’s incredible and my virtual assistant uses it! So even if you can’t outsource Pinterest, you can sit down once a month and schedule out pins.
Create multiple pins from one session!
With Pinterest, create at least 7-10 pieces of content from every session and at least 10-15 from every wedding. It’s good to vary the content you use from one session and create multiple pins from one session. For example with an engagement session, you can do an idea pin with 5 close-up photos. Then do 5 far-away photos.
#5 Pinterest Trends
Pinterest also has a Trends tool. When I was doing research for this episode, a lot of people mentioned this! Basically, you can see what’s trending on Pinterest at different times of the year which can be helpful if you are an account that relies on trends. It can also be beneficial for photographers. You can see maybe “flowers’ trend in April, May, and June, so you pin flower photo sessions during those months. It’s worth looking into!
To view Pinterest trends:
- Log in to your Pinterest account.
- Next, click “Analytics” at the top of the page, and select “Trends” from the drop-down.
- Or visit directly: https://trends.pinterest.com/
#6 Brand Awareness
Our overall goal on Pinterest is brand awareness. When I’m thinking of Pinterest, I’m thinking of fostering long-term relationships. With idea pins, you can’t add a direct link to your website on those. You have no way of bringing people to your website to book with you. However, you can get them to follow you and build awareness of your brand. Maybe they’ll click to your profile and head to your website from there. Pinterest is more of a long-term game and building brand awareness over making quick sales.
#7 Pinterest Idea Pins
Idea pins are HUGE right now! With idea pins, you create one pin that can be multiple pages/photos. They’re like story format and move to the next photo after five seconds if you don’t click.
With idea pins, do a series of photos or one video. Videos are a new thing on Pinterest and like other platforms, they’re trying to push video. The best-performing content right now on Pinterest is idea pins and Pinterest recommends at least five pages for photo idea pins. You can also experiment with a mix of photos and videos. Mess around and see what content performs well! Idea pins are a great way to gain followers. As I mentioned, idea pins are a long-term relationship vibe. It’s a goal of idea pins to build brand awareness and then gain followers.
Vertical Photos over Horizontal
With idea pins and all pins in general, make sure you are optimizing them for mobile viewing. 90% of users on Pinterest are mobile users, so cater to mobile and use vertical photos instead of horizontal photos.
Use TikTok and Instagram videos on Pinterest
If you’re a photographer, you’re most likely using video content to show off your work. Might as well pop it over to Pinterest and repurpose it. You never know what videos on Pinterest might pop off.
Ideas Pins Target People Who Interact with Similar Content
With idea pins, the algorithm is going to show idea pins to people who have previously engaged with your other pins or with pins that are similar to yours. That’s why idea pins do so well because they target people who interact with content similar to your content!
#8 Optimize Your Profile Page on Pinterest
Before you go off and start pinning, you need to have a good visual profile page on Pinterest.
Create & Name Boards
You need to create boards that match your niche and you need to write descriptions for your boards. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer you might have boards for: florals, venues, ceremony, reception, wedding dresses, suits, bridals, couples portraits, wedding party, etc. Create boards that will match the categories of things you’re going to be pinning. Location-specific boards are great to have as well!
Remember to make your page professional, but also aesthetically pleasing. Go to your Pinterest now and look at how you can improve your Pinterest. Do you have a profile picture? Are your boards all over the place? Does your bio say you’re a photographer and have a location? Is it linked to your photography website with a call to action? Optimize your Pinterest before you start putting effort into it!
That’s it for this episode on Pinterest! I hope you learned something about Pinterest and that this gives you the motivation to go and revamp your Pinterest and experiment with using it for your business!
Show Notes
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