324 | How to Build a Pinterest Strategy from Scratch (For Service Providers, Not Bloggers)

If you’ve been putting off Pinterest because you don’t know where to start, this episode is going to change that. I’m walking you through exactly how to build a Pinterest strategy from scratch, specifically for service providers. Not bloggers. Not product businesses.

Almost all Pinterest advice out there is built for blogging businesses, and it doesn’t translate when you’re selling a service. I’m breaking down the 6 steps you need, from clarifying your message and optimizing your profile to building keyword-rich boards, creating searchable content, and connecting Pinterest to your larger marketing system. Plus the common mistakes that trip people up and the realistic timeline for results.

ALL THE LINKS: https://jenvazquez.com/how-to-build-a-pinterest-strategy/

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(Cont.) 324 | How to Build a Pinterest Strategy from Scratch (For Service Providers, Not Bloggers)

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you've been putting off Pinterest because you don't know where to start, this video is for you. I am going to be walking you through exactly how to build a Pinterest strategy from scratch, specifically if you're a service provider, not a blogger. Because here's the thing: almost all Pinterest advice online is built for blogging businesses or product businesses. And it does not translate the same way when you're selling a service. So let's fix that. Welcome back to Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast, where we help female entrepreneurs go from marketing overwhelmed to an easy streamlined strategy and system that includes penetration and repurposing content to grow their businesses when they have very little time. I'm your host, Jeff Vasquez. Let's jump right into it. Can I ask you something really quick? How much time did you spend on social media this week creating content? And how many of those posts are still working for you right now, still driving traffic today? That's the thing about social media. You create it, it disappears, you start over every single week. The Quiet Growth Accelerator is a 12-week program that I created with my friend and SEO genius Cynthia Pacheco. Together, we help service providers build a Pinterest and SEO visibility system that actually compounds over time. Your content keeps getting found, your dream clients keep showing up, and you're not chained to the posting hamster wheel to make it happen. We're talking done-for-you audits, a custom keyword list built for you and your niche and your business, a simple two-hour a week system, and one-on-one support from both me and Cynthia the entire 12 weeks. If you're ready to get found instead of just followed, check out all the details in the link in the show notes. Okay, let's get into today's episode. Pinterest is what I've built my business on since 2009. It's how I grew my photography business to six figures, and it is totally the reason that Jen Vasquez Media even exists. I'm also a Pinterest pioneer, which means Pinterest actually tapped me to help educate in their business community. So when I say this platform works, I am not guessing. Let's build your strategy. By the way, if you want ongoing help while you build this out, I have a membership called The Club. And every month I drop new Pinterest trainings, we do live QAs, and you get the strategy plus accountability all in one place. All right, now let's get to that strategy. First, you want to understand what Pinterest actually is. This is the single most important thing to understand before building anything. Pinterest is not social media, it's a search marketing platform. And I know that feels like a weird thing to say, but stick with me because this distinction will actually change everything about how you use it. Pinterest is a visual search engine. And people don't go there to scroll and see what you had for breakfast. They go there to search, to find solutions, to discover things that they are already looking for. That means that your content doesn't disappear in 24 hours, like it does on Instagram and TikTok and everywhere else. It gets indexed. It gets found over and over and over again, just like Google with your blogs, or just like YouTube. It's the same thing. And it gets found over and over and over again, and sometimes for months and sometimes for years. That is an extreme power that Pinterest has that none of the social media platforms actually have. And that's why the strategy that we're gonna be creating looks completely different from anything that social media teaches you right now. So step one, clarifying your message. Before you pin a single thing, you need to be clear on three things. Who you actually serve, not everyone, really get specific. For me, it's female service providers who are looking to be able to get more leads and more traffic to their content. And for my photography, it's female entrepreneurs located in the Bay Area. There's also, you know, coaches who want to grow their online business. That's number one. Who are your ideal clients? If you're trying to speak with everyone, which is something that people often do, you know, can you help those people? Absolutely. And if you don't talk about everyone, can you still book people that are not in your ideal space? Yes, I have a ton of people in my membership who are product sellers, which is not my ideal client, but it's definitely somebody that I can also help. So if you speak with everyone, you end up speaking for no one. And we don't want to do that. Now, the next one is what problem do you solve? Not your job title, but the actual problem that your client has that you can fix for them. And what outcome do you lead them to? So what does life look like after they work with you? Pinterest rewards clarity. I think I've said this like 57,000 times. But if your message is vague or confusing, right? Not simple, not clear, your content cannot compound. It can't build up and multiply like it has the ability to do. It really has nowhere to go. Step three, optimize your Pinterest profile for search. Again, this is so, so important. Your Pinterest profile is searchable from day one. Every single word really matters. Your display name, including your name and a keyword or multiple keywords on what you do or how you help. Some something like Jen Pinterest Marketing for Service Providers. Now I can't use Pinterest Marketing for Service Providers because we're on Pinterest and they don't let us. So I put pin marketing, right? So you got to do what you got to do to get found. The next thing that you want to make sure is optimized is your bio. Write your bio like a search result. What do you do? Who do you do it for, or who do you help? And what will they get from following you? That is your whole focus for your description on Pinterest for your bio. Use the exact words that your ideal client would type into a search bar. You could also put in like a little question bar on your Instagram stories to get all of your followers to help you with this. You can also ask your clients what would they type in to find you? Then it's your link. You want to send people somewhere. I mean, that is literally the whole goal of using Pinterest to market your business. So you want to send people somewhere with a very clear next step: a freebie, a service page, a landing page. Because I don't know about you, but I have been on Pinterest personally, maybe looking for brand photo images that I want to capture of myself or have my photographer capture it for me. And yes, I do work with my photographer because I and she works with me because I don't want to take my own pictures. I want my pictures to exude marketing. And so I want to make sure that someone else is doing that for me. Just an aside. All right, step three, you want to build keyword-rich boards. Your boards are searchable. Name them the way that your client would type in that search bar to look for it, not the way you organize a personal Pinterest account with things like titles like good eats or something like that. Be real specific. If you share recipes, you want to make sure that you're saying simple recipes that you could make in 15 minutes. You just want to make sure that you're being super clear and not creative in this piece. You want to say what it is very clearly. So, some more examples. You don't want to use like my faves or inspo. You want to use something like Pinterest marketing tips for service providers, or brand photography ideas for female service providers, or brand photography ideas for female entrepreneurs. Every board also has a description field. Use it. So I want to tell you this about that. Pinterest does not force you to create a description of that board. So once you create that board, I want you going back into that board, clicking the three dots on the very top, editing that board, and including at least two to three sentences in the description. And the words that you're going to use, you want it to be human red, but you want to think about all the things that you're going to pin to that board when you're creating the description, because that's going to help you to get found for all the pins that are on that board. And you also want to aim for around eight to 12 different boards that are clearly relevant to your business, not 40 random boards with a scattered focus. And I do recommend, like in my case, right, I do marketing coaching and helping service providers with creating a marketing system that like takes less time. So I'm always working with busy professionals. And I do brand photography as well as Pinterest. But for Pinterest, I have, and of course, this is over years, but I always recommend at least two boards on your real specific service. So if there's a service that you want to do more of, make two boards on that. So for me, I've got all kinds of Pinterest boards now, obviously, but I do recommend two boards. And one other tip that I will recommend is that every single Pinterest account should have a board with your business name. So I have a board that's Jen Vasquez Media, and what goes onto that board is everything I pin sometimes. Meaning you can put free things on there, you can put paid things on there, but everything that has to do with your business. And the reason for that board is twofold. It's not just to give you another board to pin to where people can find that content, but it's also for people who go to Pinterest and look up your business name. And this way that board comes up and they can find your actual account. Sometimes it's not as easy to find profile accounts, but if you have a business name board, it will get searched. And when someone searches for it, a lot of your content will come up, but also that board. Step four, create content that answers searches. Here's the mindset shift that makes Pinterest sort of finally click for people. Stop thinking about what you want to share and start thinking about what your ideal client is actually searching for. Think about that for a second. That's really big. It is a way that I tell my students so that they're really thinking about the bottom line. How are people going to find you? You want to make sure you have all that information. Ask yourself this. What does my ideal client type into Pinterest when they are needing that offer? So if we're considering a brand photography business, maybe what to wear to a brand photo session is a big search that happens on Pinterest. Another one, maybe for a business coach, how to get more clients as a coach online. Or for a Pinterest strategist, how to use Pinterest to grow my service business, which I focus on those keywords. Your pin titles and descriptions and the content that you link should all be answering those real searches. Not what sounds good to you. It's not about copy. It's about what people are actually typing into the search bar. And I'll give you an example. I usually think it's like if someone's searching for a brand photographer, let's just say on Google as an example, you'll type brand photographer and then maybe your city. But in actuality, the searches that are bigger are city and then brand photography. That's wild, at least for me here in the Bay Area, right? It can be different for every location. So you really want to know what your client is already looking for. That is the sweet spot of everything on Pinterest. And again, ask your clients, uh, put it in an email for people to put in their answers on there in your weekly email or even use stories on Instagram. Those are the things that I have done. Step five, pin consistently, not constantly. You do not need to pin 30 times a day. That advice is outdated and honestly exhausting. For service providers in particular, what Pinterest rewards is consistent quality content that earns engagement over time. Like I wish that could echo out there really big because it's so true and it's not typically a focus that people have. So starting out five to 10 pins per week, I always say a minimum of one pin a day. The majority should link to your own content. Now, it used to be years ago that you would pin 80% of other people's content and 20% of yours. That is long gone. The majority of your content should be your content. And the only exception to that is if you partner with someone on something or if you value someone's education that you don't educate about. And here's an example for you: the perfect example. I do not teach SEO for websites and stuff. I have my friend and expert, Cynthia, who does, and we partner on a program. I teach Pinterest on how to get all the traffic. And then Cynthia works on making sure that your website is set up not only to get found on Google, but also to help convert. Now, oftentimes the majority of your content are going to be blog posts, any videos or podcasts that you may have released into the world, your service pages, and of course your lead magnet. This is the best way to grow your email list. Consistency over time is what builds compounding traffic, not volume. Step six, connect Pinterest to your larger system. Pinterest is a traffic driver. It sends people somewhere. So the question is, where are we sending them? The strongest Pinterest strategies connect to a very clear path. Pin to a blog post, to email sign up for your like freebie, right? Or pin to a service page, or even pinning to a discovery call. Traffic without direction is just noise and you will not convert people. Every single pin should have a bigger purpose. Common mistakes to avoid during this whole process. This one is kind of obvious. Pinning mostly other people's content. This builds their audience, not your audience. And most of your pins should also link to your own original content. I will also say a huge mistake is to listen to old content. Anytime content, even my own, is more than six months old, it could be outdated. So you want to be thoughtful about that. Another one is skipping keyword research. Keyword research should be done before you even make a PIN, and it should be redone whenever you have a new service or whenever it's been maybe three to six months. We want to make sure that we're doing keyword research on and on and on. This is not a set it and forget it because keywords change all the time. And this process of doing your keywords will help you to make sure that you're up on the latest keywords and will keep you ahead of your competition. If Pinterest doesn't know what your content is about, it cannot surface it in a search. Period, full stop. Keywords are not optional. Another mistake: quitting in a month two or even month six. Pinterest is a slow start, but a strong finish platform. It is always my number one referral to my website. Most people stop right before that compounding that growth happens or kicks in on Pinterest. So don't be that person. We don't want that for you. Another mistake is treating Pinterest like Instagram. That is probably one of the biggest ones. Trending audio, daily posting pressure, chasing the algorithm, none of that helps at all with Pinterest. And it just doesn't apply to this strategy. This is a search engine. Pinterest is a search engine. Approach it like one. So what's the realistic time frame? And I hate to give numbers, but I always want to make sure you have full disclosure. This is the realistic time frame. Months one and two are typically quiet. Pinterest is indexing your content, and this is very normal and does not mean that Pinterest is broken or not working, which I hear all the time for people who stop using Pinterest. Month three and four, impressions start right. Months five and six, link clicks start to be moving in. Beyond that, compounding traffic, old pins resurfacing, and content that you built months ago will continue to keep driving results. So again, don't stop your Pinterest work at that time. So many people start seeing clicks coming in and they're like, ah, we're done. We've set it up. You, if you want to see leads in the future, you have to keep going on Pinterest. Now that timeline is exactly why consistency matters more than anything else on the platform. Pinterest isn't about going viral, it's about showing up consistently in the right searches until traffic compounds. Now that your strategy foundation is in place, the single most important tactical skill that you need next is knowing how to find and use keywords. Because without the right keywords, none of this works. Your content exists, but nobody finds it. That's exactly what we're going to be covering next. See ya.