Pinterest Marketing For Your Online Nutrition Business: Grow Your Audience, Not Your To-Do List

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Okay, so you guys, it looks like everyone's kind of piling in here. I'm going to set the stage for how we're going to do things today. Meagan is going to do most of the talking, but I'm going to be in the chat and in the Q and A pulling any questions that you guys have out.

I guess I should introduce myself: I'm Andrea Nordling if you guys don't know me, I am here to talk all things, health and wellness business building. We are going to talk all about building your audience, not your, to do list with Pinterest, because like I was saying, I get asked all the time how I have successfully grown my email list and my online business without being a slave to social media. So this is my favorite topic.

And I always say, short answer is Pinterest. Pinterest is amazing. And Meagan is an expert in that. So I will, I think I'll just let you take it from here. And then I'm going to be popping in keeping an eye on the Q and A you guys.

Awesome. Thank you. Yes. So Andrea already did a little bit of an introduction. My name is Meagan Williamson, and I am a Pinterest marketing expert and strategist. I kind of do all the things when it comes to Pinterest marketing.

And I've been there, done that. You can't really throw me a curve ball because I've worked with all different types of businesses and, you know, seen Pinterest go through changes. Seen I was there when Instagram came out, you know, when people started using Facebook strategically for their businesses, Pinterest, I've gone through all the ruffles of social media and marketing.

And I think because of that, I come to this world with a slightly different perspective of, and why you should want to diversify your traffic when it comes to promoting your business, but not necessarily like, you know, we're all busy, so I do use that term of growing your email list, not your to-do list with Pinterest, because I think as online business owners, we do feel this, you know, pull that we need to be in all the places, doing all the things. Oh, you gotta use reels. Oh, you gotta do IGTV. Oh, got to get in your Facebook community. Okay. Hold on. Now I'm going live on TicToc and it's overwhelming.

So what I want to encourage you that if you're here today and you're watching to really sit back and just be open, that's all I'm asking for is to have an open mind.

You know, Andrea already shared with you that she herself has had Pinterest success with growing her email list. And I think that it's easy as an expert to say like, Oh, Pinterest is for everybody, but it's not going to be for you if you don't bring your A-Game and you're not committed to it. And so I'm sure that you guys talk a lot about this, but mindset is like 80% of the battle. And so if you aren't truly committed to a platform, you're not going to see the amazingness or the success or opportunity that it has for you as a business owner.

So I just want you to be receptive. Think about it, put aside all the things that you may be, think that you know about Pinterest. Um, I've heard all, you know, all the gossip, all the it's not for me, my people aren't there.

Oftentimes as a consultant, I get brought in for small business owners, solopreneurs, content creators, huge corporate brands will hire me to come in and support their marketing teams. And I've seen behind the curtains in a lot of different marketing teams and, and, um, what people are doing behind the scenes when it comes to their marketing. And without a doubt, even when people think they're nailing their Pinterest marketing, there is room for improvement for tweaking subscribers, sales, getting more traffic to your website. And what I find is there's often leaks, right? And so when there's leaks, you're not going to have the same success.

So let's talk a little bit about why Pinterest is so important in 2020. It's so funny, just a little like story this morning. I was on a call with my own, um, someone who works on my team. We were talking about reels and how cool they are on Instagram, right? And people are seeing this amazing, you know, Oh, I did an Instagram reel and now I'm getting all these views. You know, what's weird is I noticed that my IGTV videos, which normally would have 400 to 500 people, view them over the course of a few weeks. They are showing zeros across the board. Every video I have uploaded.

So oftentimes platforms roll something out and something else breaks. So I love IGTV. I love that I can give many 10 minute lessons, but now I'm seeing that all my hard work for the last four weeks on IGTV videos. But I don't mind because I've diversified my traffic.

I never look at putting all of my eggs in one basket. So, um, I'm sure this isn't the first time you're hearing this, but I really focus. I encourage the people that I work with to focus on their house and what you own foremost. So that's your website and your email list because no matter what you own those things and because you own them, you have control over them.

Andrea Sidenote: Check out THIS ARTICLE for optimizing your Website + Growing Your Email List

It's a privilege that we get to be on Facebook and promote our businesses. It's a privilege beyond YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, TicToc, LinkedIn, all of these places, we're at their mercy. And so you need to think about, um, and this is why I say not to increase your, to do list, but if you're heavily focused on your content and reaching and helping and serving your ideal customer, right?

Like we talk a lot about your, your ideal customer avatar and who they are and what they need when you're doing those things. You're going to be thinking about how you can help them. And Pinterest, and this is what's so cool about Pinterest. Pinterest is a discovery platform that is looking for helping people who have problems and pain points.

If you are a solutions focused business, and this is what often people don't think about, then you need to be on Pinterest, because if people are searching for those things on Google or thinking about them, like how do I improve my diet? How do I balance a work life? 

That's what that's that is telling you. Um, but you know, no matter what your, you know, what you focus on or what your niche or niche, depending on what part of the world you're in. Um, if you are creating content for Instagram, YouTube, or your website, that is solutions focused. So it helps people, you're helping them in a free way. So you're educating them, you're providing solutions.

You're telling them how to do something or you're inspiring them. Those people are on Pinterest. And this is like a good little mindset shift that on Google people enter keywords, right?

You enter like how to start eating healthy, busy mom, you know, like that type of thing, or how to remember, to take my vitamins. And so it doesn't matter what, what the thing is. If people are searching it on Google, they're looking for it on Pinterest. And this is where Pinterest is really cool. Pinterest is a forward thinking platform.

So it's people who are wanting their planning. They're wanting to take action. So they're not yet ready to take action. So they're in that gathering stage. So they're out and they're looking for things that are going to help them. So I think oftentimes we default to thinking that maybe, you know, they're searching just for like cute outfits, recipes and craft tutorials.

But the reality is like, I just worked with a woman. Who's a divorce coach and the amount of people who are searching, how to get on out of an unhappy marriage, how to move on from it, how to support my children through separation. It's crazy. Like I even, I was shocked that people are going there and they're looking for inspiration, they're looking for strategies.

And so this is why Pinterest is so cool that people, yes, they do use their eyes, but they're also searching for terms. So there'll be, there'll be putting in two or three keywords to bind content. That's going to solve a problem that they have. And this is, what's so amazing about Pinterest.

Andrea mentioned that she's been growing her email list with it and sort of her secret sauce, but it can be everybody's secret sauce. And that's, what's so cool about it is that often it's not, it's not as saturated as other places. It actually favors the little guy, because all you have to do is optimize your content and be consistent.

And this is where, when I talk about not increasing their to do list, you can repurpose your content from your website and Instagram and just get it up onto Pinterest. And then you're reaching all those new people.

Andrea: Yes, I totally agree with that. And I think the user intent kind of like what you were saying to user intent behind someone that comes to your website through a Pinterest pin is someone who is looking for a solution to their problem.

They are so much more likely to get on your email list, to engage with your content. Then just, you know, someone that is scrolling through their Instagram or their Facebook, and they may not be really interested right. This moment in what you're offering or in what you're talking about. But, Oh my goodness, someone that's actively putting that in a search bar in Pinterest is they want to solve the problem.

Meagan: It's just, and the platform wants people to leave. So unlike we know, and like, I love Instagram. I love Facebook. Well, I don't love, I have a love hate with Facebook, but I love connecting with people on Facebook. And so I think that, um, we know that those platforms want us to stay in the platform.

They don't want people to leave. And Pinterest actually says the opposite. I was at their, um, a big conference that they did here in Toronto. And they said, we want our users to go out and live their life. You know, plan that next, move on, getting healthy on, on, you know, be living a life that you want to live.

Like, you know, my husband and I are renovating a cabin. And, um, each step of the way, we're like being very intentional, like what are bringing in? How can we repurpose things? How can we make sure that we're actually not disrupting the local land that we own? So they are shoreline guess where we went for, for finding them or information about,

you know, don't chop down that Cedar tree because that's protecting our shoreline, you know, all these things. It's funny because not just as a marketing expert, do I use Pinterest, but my husband and I use it in our, our, our daily lives in our, and that's where it becomes, like if I'm using it as a personal user,

my husband is, you know, like the first day he was like, Hey, look at all this great stuff on here. And Pinterest is like, Google. It needs us as content creators as business users. It needs us to be adding high quality information. That's going to help all those people. And you know what? Pinterest is at an all time high,

because when COVID started to really take hold and people were like, wait a sec, I have to work at home with my kids, wait a sec. I have to wash my groceries or all these like creative solutions. I'm going to go camping, but I can't use the normally public showers. How am I going to start showering?

That was like, my, the camping hacks that are happening right now in Ontario are so cool. And they're all being found on. Pinterest. Amazing is just like growing exponentially. And so that's why it's so exciting, right? That it's, it's not just all, like, I've always been in love with it. I've always loved teaching people about it, but it's even more exciting as we see shifts on other social media, as we see people's pain points changing, and they're looking for new ways to solve those problems. And Pinterest has really risen to the occasion.

Andrea: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Your perspective that I didn't actually think about it this way, about how Pinterest wants you to get off of the platform. They want you to click away to the websites and do it.

That's such a shift from other social media. I forgot about that. And I don't think of Pinterest, I guess, as social media, I think of it as a search engine, primarily. That's so interesting. Okay. You guys, if you have questions, I know that there's some specific questions about like content and pinning content, that kind of thing, pop those in the Q and A box. And we can talk about those in a little bit.

Q: I'm curious about for someone who is not, um, that doesn't have a lot of followers on Pinterest, doesn't know how to transition from their personal to a business kind of focus on Pinterest, Do you have any tips for that for someone?

Meagan: First off, make sure you have a business account. Like that's a no brainer, right? Because when you have a business account, it unlocks your ability to see your data. And I know that sometimes numbers can be intimidating. It's not that complicated on Pinterest. Literally your number one thing is how many people are leaving Pinterest and going to my website, right? Like, that's it.

And I think that when you have a business account, you can get more strategic because you start to see what's working. What are people saving? What's encouraging people to leave platform and go to your website and read about your program, read about your service, read about your, your amazing blog post about your own journey of how you, you know, why you do what you do. And so make sure you have a business account.

Now, if you already have a personal account in most situations, I get this question all the time in my Facebook community. And it's in my FAQ videos is that people say, yeah, but Meagan, like I have a baby shower board in there.

I have like, you know, holiday outfit, board, and like that, you know, my business is X and I have, but here's the thing. People, Pinterest loves humans. We love real people and we're nosy. And so, yes, of course, if you sell a program or a service that's helping, you know, in the health and wellness industry and you have seven boards about how to build chicken coops, you know, probably we don't need all those boards, but I want to remind people that people are buying from humans and they're buying from you because of your story and who you are. Not because you're a hundred percent professional all the time.

So yes, if you have a lot of personal boards that are like really off topic and kind of people don't need to know about, you know, you redesigning your bedroom, you know, and what color schemes you're going with. If you sell a service and helping people transform their eating habits. But what I will say is that the vast majority of your boards should be related to what your ideal customer's interested in. And in some cases they are going to be interested in your decorating style.

So you can have a few boards that are kind of like humanizing that are off topic. I would say like, you don't need to have 20, but like, think about it that if you put, you have 10 boards that are business focused and they're in the top two rows, that's cool.

If you're planning a baby shower and it has nothing to do, just make it a secret board and ask the person you're planning with to join it. You can also archive old boards, do not delete boards, deleting boards, well, you'll lose followers, but you can just archive them or secret them. And then they're off your public profile.

Q: So let's go to Shannon. Should you be pinning just your own content or other related content as well?

Meagan: I think that's a huge question. I love that. Okay. So I get this asked Question all the time and I'm not sure why, but people have that real mindset shift. Like it's like, well, why would I share other people's content? Here's the thing. Most of us do not have enough content to bolster out regular activity on our account. Pinterest rewards, high quality, regular consistent presence on the platform. And here's what I like to teach your Pinterest account is like curating a high quality resource.

So you, as an expert in your niche business and industry probably have an eye for other things that are related.

So a great example I have is I have a client who's in the clean beauty niche, but they know that their ideal customer is interested in clean living tips, lifestyle, tips, health, and wellness, yoga, um, supplements, eating healthy, but they don't sell those things, but they know that their people are interested in those things because often women or individuals who identify as women and are interested in buying makeup without chemicals in it are also making other shifts in their life.

They're also looking at furniture with less chemicals in it. They're looking at cleaning up their eating and their, you know, pro other products that they're putting into their home or their body.

So I would say that it's important to curate other content to help provide a resource. And I know there's a few other Pinterest marketing strategists who are like, no, no, no, just pin your own content. That's fine. If you have 800 blog posts, sure. You could probably just pin your own content. Most of us aren't there.

So just pin, you know, you can like, I call it like peppering or like, you know, it's like a quilt, right? Like, you know, one of your own, a few others, one of your own Pinterest rewards, fresh content. What they're, what that is defined by is new images. So it doesn't have to be a new blog post, but it's a new image or new asset that links to that blog post.

So you need to think about how that first time you pin it is when it's going to get the most traction. So long gone are the days of like one pin, one blog, post and pinning at a hundred times over the course of six months, you're going to get banned and locked out of Pinterest if you do that now.

Andrea: Okay. That's so fascinating. And I want to remind you guys that are really good strategy if you love video. And when she's saying blog posts, you're crying inside because you're thinking, "I don't want to do that." You can transcribe your video into a blog post and have your video embedded on your own website and make pins that drive to this.

Meagan: We're not only saying that just written blog posts are the only way it goes for podcast episodes, Andrea. So if you're a podcaster, make sure you have a page for every single podcast episode and you can create pins until the cows come home leading to that podcast episode.

This is where getting repurposing. Like I have a little repurposing system, but like I come up with the core thing I want to teach. And then I look at what does it look like on my email list? What does it look like as a YouTube video? What does it look like as my Pinterest pins? What it, and so I just take that one idea and I adapt it to all the channels.

So I'm not going out and I'm not this like on the hamster wheel of, I need four blog posts every week. And so I can create pins. No, no, no. And oftentimes I've been really busy and I lost the person who helps me with writing my blog content. So, you know what I've been doing, I have my graphic designer every month make 30 to 50 new pins for things I published last year.

So Pinterest is rewarding that fact that I'm putting new assets, but I haven't created any new content since I think may.

Q: Morgan has a good question. She said, so I know we can make multiple pins leading to a single blog post.  What's a good number of pins to make for a single blog post specifically. And how often should I make a new pin for that blog post?

Meagan: It really depends on your workflow. So if you have a really good sort of graphic design workflow of like new blog post, or a new landing page or piece of content podcast, episode, YouTube video that you're going to put on your website, it really depends. I generally recommend that, um, I make five to 15 and then I drip them out over time. You only need to put one or two. So I like to refresh my pins for content once every three to six months. So I just go back and I'm like, okay, I published that three months ago, Let's get another 15 new pins that I'm going to drip out over the month.

Andrea: That is so good. All right. We have another question.

Q: I don't have a Pinterest account. Should I create a personal and a business? And what should those be named? Is there a suggested naming convention?

So you can actually turn, I mean, Megan, you can answer this in detail, but you just actually can turn a personal into a business and yeah, no big deal.

Meagan: Unless you really, like, if less you're looking up really weird stuff and it messes with your algorithm. Like, you know, I actually use my own account to do research for people that I'm helping.

And so like I had a divorce client, recent I've divorce coach client. And so now my account thinks I'm I want to get divorced or I'm interested in divorce. So now my feed is filled with divorce content because Pinterest has like, Oh, your research, you're researching like clean eating, Oh, you're researching chicken coops. Oh, you're re like, you know, you look up a, um, healthy morning breakfast muffin. And then for the next week, Pinterest just wants to show me a lot of healthy muffins. So if, if your personal tastes are very different from your ideal customer, then yeah. Maybe you want to create a separate account.

But the reality is, is like, I know, so here's a good example. I'm in the Pinterest marketing world. A lot of my boards are about Pinterest marketing, but my people are also interested in building online courses, digital products, email marketing, blogging, website, optimization, SEO. And I'm also interested in those things. So what I do is I resources on those things.

And then, yeah, I pin like a new quiche recipe. Um, I'm not too worried about things being perfect. And I know that my people, they, they know that I'm human. They know that I sometimes swear. They know that I'm not perfectly curated or that my dog is at my feet and he's going to move around when I'm doing filming.

So I feel like I bring that to Pinterest that it's like it, we love the like perfectly imperfect, right? Like just taking action and being there. And I'm looking up, I was looking up sales funnel stuff recently. And so I was just like, it's okay. Like if I'm interested in other people are, and I was interested to see what content existed on Pinterest in that industry.

I think that if it's going to help people, then I curate it. If I saw 50 blog posts that were about sales funnels on Pinterest, I found the best five and I shared it with my account so that they didn't have to sift through all the content.

Andrea: That's so good. Okay. So speaking of, I bet that there are a lot of questions about this and want to ask it specifically,

Q: Do you still use tailwind? And when we're saying like you're pinning, you're pinning, it sounds like this is a laborious all day long process, but I know it isn't. So can you talk about how you automate that a little bit?

Meagan: Yeah. So I actually automate, and I recommend to everyone else to this as well is that you can automate your Pinterest activity, but I wouldn't say a hundred percent. And actually there's a presentation on this at the summit that I'm hosting from Pinterest themselves. So tailwind and other approved partners, I actually saw in the chat that someone mentioned Later.

I don't care what scheduler you use as long as it has API, which means it's an approved partner. And it means that it's technology is approved by Pinterest, so you aren't going to get into trouble.

If anyone remembers there used to be a program called BoardBooster and it actually violated, um, it's it's, um, I don't know what the name is, but it, the technology violated Pinterest's own code. And they said, you need to get your act together, or we're going to shut you down. And they refused because they actually asked for permission that they weren't allowed to ask for from their members. And Pinterest said that violates our code. You need to stop it. And they wouldn't. And that business longer exists. And, um, I'm thankful cause I really, I never really liked what they, what they were encouraging people to do.

So just make sure you're using a schedule that has API. My favorite is Tailwind. And I think because it is just so much more robust than all the others. And so I'm also like in full transparency and a pre partner of Tailwind, but I became an approved partner after I scrutinized. And like there that's who I use for my own clients when I manage clients.

Using Tailwind is not going to get you into Pinterest jail. I know there was some gossip recently and that it's, it was totally gossip. And so Tailwind is not going to get you in trouble, but your pinning could. Tailwind has safeguards to make sure you don't get in trouble. But I would recommend just to stay in the good books of Pinterest and have healthy growth that you automate up to 80% of your pinning and then manually do the rest. 

No social platform is a hundred percent set it and forget it, and anyone who tries to sell you that you can automate everything a hundred percent is wrong. It's the same way that if you set up email funnels, right. To respond, to send to people, and then they write you back, they re, they say, Oh my God, this email has helped me so much. And then you don't respond to them, you're probably going to lose that potential sale.

So the same is true for Pinterest that you can automate it. But if you never go in the app, you're really not going to get the most out of it. So Pinterest says like, you know, hop in there once in a while. You don't have to be in there all the time, but get in there once in a while someone actually asked in the chat about my feelings about setting up Later as a scheduler, I have no experience using anything else other than Tailwind. So unfortunately I can't comment on that.

Andrea: Meagan just mentioned her Pinterest summit, that she is hosting a few days and I put the link in the chat. It's my affiliate link. When she said, do you want to be an affiliate? I was like, yes, for sure!

Meagan: We have all kinds of Pinterest experts that are sharing way more information on all of these topics that you guys are going to love. You can sign up through [the link at the top of this page] but I'm also going to keep this recording up. So if you're watching the recording, look [at the top of this page], I will have a button that goes to the summit. If it's still open and if it isn't open, I will be linking you to something else.

Anything you want to tell us about the summit? 

Meagan: My driving force with this summit, I think that there's oftentimes marketing virtual summits, which are amazing, but there's only ever one Pinterest expert. And what I noticed is oftentimes it's a very homogenous lineup. And so my initiatives and my desire to do this were really driven by sharing people and amplifying their voices of people who are doing very cool things on Pinterest.

And it's not the same for people who always give the same advice. Like I sought out people from all across the world who are doing cool things on Pinterest. So people who are, you know, have Intel on video pins, story pins. Um, I interview Pinterest and I ask like the most asked questions. If you have a Shopify website or store, we have a Shopify brand rep coming,  Canva giving a tutorial on how to create pins on Canva.

So I brought in brands to talk about their work, as it relates to Pinterest. And especially from Pinterest themselves, we currently have three people from Pinterest coming, but then also world experts and some new interesting voices, because I think when we represent new diverse voices to the table, that's when exciting things happen. And I know like I could talk about Pinterest all day. I could teach you all the things, but hearing different people describe the thing that they're passionate about helps make it, make it click.

That's why also this summit focuses on strategies, systems and stories, because I think that sometimes you learn through hearing other people's experiences. So Andrea, the same way that your, your people want to hear how you're using Pinterest, because they love and trust you and they're interested. Right? And so I, I brought all these like interesting, different new people to the table.

There's a YouTube influencer, there's a business coach, a seven figure business coach who uses Pinterest. I'm actually the makeup company that I mentioned earlier. They're talking about using it because they were a startup. So they used Pinterest to build their visibility before they even went public. There's some really cool things happening. And I think because it's so focused on Pinterest, it allows you to show up and learn with different people and just really hone in on the Pinterest piece of your marketing plan. And that, that's why I think it's a little bit different. I'm so excited for it. 

Q: When you pin your own stuff, like blog posts, do you create a board of your own and pin it there? And do you rearrange the boards on your page so that the first two rows are helpful pins related to your business?

Meagan: Yeah. So I would put your business boards at the very top of your account so it's the first thing that people see, and I recommend that it be your personal board. So sometimes I'm not going to get into them, but there's a thing called group boards and people put them at the top. And I'm just like, if you're not the owner of the group work, don't put it at the top.

Just keep your own business boards at the top. Now you can create a board that's called like, you know, Meagan, Williamson, Pinterest marketing. And that's where you pin it first. There's been some newer information out of Pinterest where they are telling you that, that first time you pin it, it's most important that you pin it to the board that is most relevant to the topic of the pin.

So if you have one called like, you know, like I have one called Pinterest marketing and it's the first place where I pin all of my Pinterest blog posts, but I actually have a blog post about productivity as an online business owner. So if I was to pin that one, I would actually put it on my productivity board first, not the other one, because it does mention Pinterest stuff, but it's sort of secondary.

So it's more important that you focus on pinning that content to the most relevant board first, because it tells Pinterest what, how to indexed it. So it's like, Oh, this is about productivity. Oh, this is about X. And then it distributes it accordingly.

Andrea: Oh, that's super helpful. I would imagine another reason why having multiple images is important, because then you could, I suppose, have a different image that would take that same content and kind of optimize it for the other board dependent on the other board as well.

Meagan: That's what I do that, like, I have a tips for small business owners. And so sometimes I will, you know, if I create 15 pins, some of them will go to small business tips. Others will go to the Pinterest marketing board and I distribute it. And so that I'm catching different nets or different audiences that I have on Pinterest.

Q: Megan says I'm new to Pinterest. This all sounds like Greek. Any tips for how to get started.

Meagan: Yeah. I would say, you know, um, the best way as a total newbie is to actually just start playing around. And, um, like, you know, I have lots of information on my website, but actually I think the summit is best.

So we've seen a lot of changes in the last six months. There's been incredible, very positive changes on Pinterest, but it's really thrown a lot of people for a loop. And that's also why the summits cool is because everything that's being taught is up to date. So, you know, even we're finding things that people did last year, aren't working this year on Pinterest.

And so to make sure that you're starting in the right place, the summit is going to be amazing. We have people who are, you know, big picture, little picture, very hands on workshops. And so, you know, get a business account, start playing around. That's really, there are no mistakes when it comes to Pinterest.

Andrea:  I would agree with that. And I think you should always know the strategy behind the platform you're using why it works. And I think, you know, getting that, that knowledge, especially from the summit and from Meagan really is the best. So you guys are in the right place, but learning that yourself is amazing.

When and if you are ready, you can outsource the actual pinning of your stuff, the optimizing your account. That's something you can hire someone to do if you really don't want to do it yourself, I just will throw that out there. But it's so important that you understand the fundamentals of what Pinterest does, what the strategy is, so that you understand what someone is doing for you.

So I think you still need to learn it, but if you want to outsource the execution at some point, that might be good. And you are confident in the decisions you make.

Meagan: Right? Like I think like we've all had that experience where we want to outsource something right away. And once actually I heard Amy Porterfield say, I don't listen to Amy Porterfield that much, but she seems like a lovely person. And she said that people often outsource their copywriting before they even know what their own voice is. And that's true for everything. I have a story. I outsource Facebook ads. And I honestly, it was like, you know, someone used the example. It was like reading Greek and it was overwhelming to me. And unfortunately it was a huge financial mistake for me because I didn't understand, I wasn't empowered to ask the right questions because I didn't know what I was looking at. So I couldn't help the person. I didn't like, I like it was a $25,000 mistake. I learned a lot from it and I will never do that again.

And so, you know, I don't want people to make that mistake, but like, you need to sort of understand so that you can ask the right questions when you bring somebody on your team to help you with those things. And that goes for any social, I think, any, anything in your business?

Andrea: I totally agree. But I know you guys probably know, or I think I've mentioned this a few times that I do have someone that manually pins for me, who is overseas and it does that for me. So I that's what I want to say that yes, at this point I have someone that does that for me, but I had done it myself already. I knew the nuances of Pinterest enough that I could ask good questions and I understand what she's doing so I can interpret the results and make sure that everything's working.

Q: I'm interested in trying ads. How do I start?

Meagan: I love Pinterest ads, but they are trickier for conversion. So we find that they're, they're easy for running just like visibility, getting a lot of people onto your website, but it's actually making a profit from them that's harder. So here's the funny thing. So there are a few talks on Pinterest. That's actually, in fact, we have someone from the Pinterest ads team coming to answer the top questions presented by like small businesses.

And what I find is because the Pinterest tag and I hope this isn't overwhelming, but Facebook uses a Facebook pixel to track your people. And you'll, you know, anyone who says like, Oh, I looked at a website and then I saw ads for it. It's because the pixel was following you. So Pinterest has the same thing. It's called the Pinterest tag.

And oftentimes your tag has no information. So it takes much longer to optimize and understand what you want to do with it. So we can take three weeks for your ads to optimize on Pinterest. They're great for driving traffic. I think conversion ads are a little bit trickier. Um, definitely though, like I run Pinterest ads all the time for myself and I encourage other people to do it as well.

But you have to know what you want. Like what do you want people to do? And actually, so there is someone who's really, really well known in the Pinterest ads world, an independent person, her name is Monica, and she's giving a presentation called the six steps to mastering your Pinterest ads. And she gives six really super simple things you need to do when you first start considering, and then using Pinterest ads. And I would say like, I'm not trying to get out of this question, but watching her presentation literally will answer all of that for you.

Andrea: Okay. I'm for sure going to be watching that as well. I've never run Pinterest ads. And Pinterest has been so good to me for free and I've never run any, but I'm interested.

Meagan: Well, I think like most like most paid advertising, it's really good to have a strong organic foundation. And then once you figured out your people on that platform to layer in the paid, so don't just run paid to run it, right? Like run it because you already are seeing organic success. And then Pinterest will tell you, Oh my God, this thing's going viral. And then it's like, Oh, could I get in front of more people?

Or if you know what your highest converting lead magnet or blog post is then, Hey, that's an amazing thing to promote on Pinterest because you're just bringing more visibility and more people into your sales funnel. Yeah.

Andrea: And that's so easy to see you guys with a Pinterest business account. The analytics is very straightforward and easy to read and see what is, what's going to your website, what people are clicking on. Super easy. So good. You guys have great questions.

Q: Should I go through my old pins and make sure they all go towards quality blog posts?

Meagan: Um, yes. So I, I think that, um, what you want to do, don't delete old content. Just let it go. But I would say you would want to look at old blog posts and see which ones are still really valuable and make new pins for existing content.

Q: I have a great set of pins to a blog post keyword optimize great content, but it hardly got any repins. I tried promoting as an experiment, but definitely can't do that all the time. Would you recommend making a new pin and pinning again?

Meagan: Yeah. I would actually look at your creative and try to figure out why it flopped. So it could be a combination of your pin designs. Like, you know, there could be a lot of room for improvement or it could also be the keywords you're using. So there's a reason why that it flopped.

I think when you do that really strong strategic keyword research, we actually have three presentations just on Pinterest keywords in each one is about something slightly different, that's going to help you really narrow down your keyword research, but when you nail your keyword research and then figure out what pin designs drive the most traffic, you then rinse and repeat from there. Right? And that's where we also actually have presentations on understanding, which are your pins is top performing. And then how to sort of figure out which ones are doing best so that when you go to make new assets or Pinterest graphics or older content or new content, you know which ones are going to drive the most traffic and you can create pins that look similar, but with the new tech, you know, there's all these components, text, overlay, um, your images that you're using is it legible?

So just have a really open mind. And I have pins flopped too, right? I also have this happen, but what you just do is you're making educated, you know, you're looking and making data driven decisions. I tried something that I didn't think was going to work for me. And it's like one of my top traffic driving pins. And I'm like, look at that.

I went outside my comfort zone. I did something that I had done for a client in a very different niche. And I was like, said my designer, let's just try it. Let's just try it. And we both were like, nah. And it, like, I got tons of traffic from it. So just being open-minded right.

Andrea: Oh, that's so fun. I love that. You're giving us a teaser of everything that's in the summit too

Meagan: I've watched every presentation except for three that I'm waiting for today. Of course there's always late people. Right. And like watching it, I even, I like, I'm like, Oh, I love the way they described that.

Or, you know, and I know a lot, I've seen a lot of things, but like even just hearing somebody's story or the way that they use their Google analytics or like a little shift, like try this. And that's why social media is a constant experimentation and trying and shifting and evolving with our audience.

That's why we go to school, right? Like when you, if you did any sort of, you go to a workshop or you do a degree, or you go to a class like you're going to learn and hear and absorb new information, then apply it to your own worldview. And that's social media is the same. Yeah.

Andrea: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay. So you guys want to know everything Pinterest, you want to follow Megan everywhere. Well, actually I've been saving the best for last cause. Everybody knows I'm a membership geek and I love memberships.

You must sign up for the summit because you will be on her email list and she will tell you all about the membership, which is called Pin Potential. 

Meagan: You can find me on Pinterest as Meagan Williamson. Now that is a hybrid account that has my old stuff and my new stuff, because I don't believe in deleting things. And if you don't want to see my cottage board, then you're not my people. Beyond that, you can find me on Instagram, Meagan A Williamson. I'm pretty active on Instagram stories and I'm sharing lots of the presentations and what we're going to be doing.

My website is Meagan williamson.com, but like Andrea said, I run a Pinterest marketing membership. So I also am obsessed with the membership model of learning. I think that for me, really came out a true, like I couldn't sleep at night, thinking about putting out a course and it becoming outdated overnight when social media shifts.

So I created a membership that includes core teachings, but regular live training and coaching calls and that like very high touch support, but in a group format so that we can all learn together. That's pinpotential.com. So obviously the summit is an extension of that as it's called the Pin Potential summit.

Andrea: Yes. Okay. I'm so excited for everybody to dive into this more because I just know that for most of us, if you're talking about health and wellness in any way people are, so your people are on Pinterest and they're searching for the answers to the problem that you answer. So I'm excited for you guys all to use it, go sign up for the summit.

Thank you for coming and chatting today.

Meagan: So welcome. And I always love chatting with you because you have such interesting insights, right? Like the last time we talked, it was the same. You've seen and done a lot of things and uh, you're a very savvy online business owner. And that's what I like seeing, right. That gets me really excited because you're living proof of, of what Pinterest can do for you.

Andrea: You guys well, thank you everyone that was here to it's fantastic. Chatting this morning. Take care guys!

👉 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR MEAGAN'S FREE PINTEREST SUMMIT