Simplify to Grow: Pinterest and Purposeful Marketing with Alayna Creative

Artists and creative entrepreneurs can easily feel overwhelmed by marketing advice. 

In this episode Delores sits down with Alayna Creative, a Pinterest and marketing strategist, to explore how you can simplify your marketing and harness Pinterest as a visual search engine. 

Alayna shares her journey from a finance day job to building her one‑woman creative agency, why she swears by cold pitching, and why focusing on a single goal (rather than doing all the things) will move your art business forward. 

You’ll discover how to choose keywords like a customer, how to use Pinterest boards strategically, and a simple 30‑day pin plan that won’t burn you out.

Key Takeaways

·         Marketing clarity – start with one clear goal (first sale, licensing deal, Etsy traffic) and let that drive your marketing actions.

·         Pinterest is a search engine – think like a customer and use keywords and Pinterest Trends to find what they’re looking for.

·         Boards made simple – create boards around your content categories and don’t stress about being perfect.

·         30‑day pin plan – create 10 URLs you want to promote, make three vertical graphics for each, and schedule one pin per day.

·         Metrics that matter – track impressions, saves, and outbound clicks monthly to see what’s working, then double down on it.

Tune in to hear Delores and Alayna’s honest chat about staying focused, finding joy in your marketing, and using Pinterest to quietly work in the background while you make art.

👉 Listen to the full episode now and support the show – your support helps us bring more creative conversations to your ears!

Transcript

Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. I am so glad you're here. Today's episode is one that I've really been looking forward to because we're talking about simplifying your marketing and using Pinterest to help you get your art discovered. And full disclosure, I am actually working with today's guest.

Alayna is my go-to marketing and Pinterest strategist. She helps me make, make sense of what's working in my business. keeps my Pinterest humming along in the background and it helps me focus on what really is going to move with the needle. 

Alayna: Yes. I'm so excited to be here. I, yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

I'm really excited to chat about this. It's kind of fun to pull back the curtain on work we do together and the work I do with other artists and show how fun and simple marketing can actually be. 

Delores Naskrent: Exactly. Let's start from the beginning though. Because you didn't [00:01:00] always see yourself as an entrepreneur, did you?

We've talked about this before. 

Alayna: Yes, that's true. didn't see myself as an entrepreneur at all. So today I run my one woman creative agency, Alayna Creative, where I help artists and educators with their organic marketing strategies. But that was not at all where I envisioned I would end up back in the day.

I had a comfortable day job and running a business was not on my radar at all. My job at the time was actually a little bit boring. I worked in finance and I had a lot of time to listen to podcasts, I stumbled upon this podcast about working online and traveling the world, and I was thinking to myself, I wanna do that.

So my husband and I decided that we would save up money and take what we called an adult gap year. And we, yeah, we just spent a lot of time and energy saving that money where we were able to travel without working. And so we quit [00:02:00] our jobs, we traveled, and that whole experience is what led me to where I am in business today.

Delores Naskrent: that would've taken a lot of guts where does art enter that story? 'cause I know you're really artistic too. While 

Alayna: we were traveling, I met a woman who was a watercolor artist. She had a little watercolor set and she painted. Everywhere that she went, she painted a bookmark for me and I was just so impressed with her skills and her paintings, and I just wanted to try it for myself.

So I bought a little paint set and I started experimenting. And I never, ever thought of myself as visually artistic. I was always kind of a musical arts person, but at that time, during our travels, I was in this mindset of learning new skills and so suddenly it kind of all seemed possible. I started taking Skillshare classes actually, and funny enough, a lot of the Skillshare teachers that I learned from are now my clients years later.

So it was kind of this like, 

Delores Naskrent: yeah, [00:03:00] that's so fun. Full circle. Yeah, and somehow you made the leap from painting to marketing. How, how did that unfold? 

Alayna: Kind of like I mentioned, while we were traveling, I knew I didn't wanna go back to having a quote unquote normal job, so I spent a lot of time painting and just kind of seeing what I was interested in.

But I also spent more time learning service-based skills that I could offer, like digital marketing, graphic design, social media, and copywriting. And that was kind of the avenue that I envisioned for myself with not ever having to go back to my normal job. Right. And I started out with a few graphic design projects, some and some social media management.

And what I discovered with these like initial clients that I had was that with social media management, I was able to build this relationship with the client and help them grow month after month and kind of. Not be stuck in that one-off project of graphic design. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Alayna: [00:04:00] It all started to come together when I realized that I could take these new skills that I learned in marketing and help artists and apply those skills and help them grow, combined both what I was good at and what I was passionate about.

Delores Naskrent: That's so cool. And wasn't one of your first big, big, big breaks from a cold pitch. 

Alayna: Yes. I am a huge proponent of cold pitching. I sent a cold pitch to Kat Collette, who I'm sure many of your listeners will know. Yes. And she was one of the first people that I watched on Skillshare. And when I was thinking about pitching, I really wanted to kind of shoot for the moon.

And so I reached out to her. I actually reached out to her about, uh, Pinterest. my strategy, was to find people that I was interested in working with. Find a gap where I could help them, and at the time I could see that she didn't have an active Pinterest account. Mm-hmm. So I sent her a cold pitch about that.

She responded and asked about a bunch of other services, which I now [00:05:00] help her with in working together five years. 

Delores Naskrent: Wow. I mean, that is such a great story. I love that about marketing for artists because so many of my listeners feel like they're just drowning in advice that's everywhere these days.

Alayna: I. See that a lot. I mean, artists are trying to do everything You have to post daily on Instagram, start a newsletter, be on every POD site, manage a shop, grow a Pinterest account, like the list seems never ending. And. While all of those things are valuable parts of running a business, they can get so exhausting, so fast.

And I think that's where a lot of new business owners get stuck. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, from what I see most artists are, are spreading their energy really thin in trying to go in all these different directions. Rather than putting all of that energy, focusing deeply onto a few things that will actually drive results.

Delores Naskrent: Yeah, a hundred percent agree. And I know my students feel that [00:06:00] pressure too, as do I. So how do you decide what's worth focusing on 

Alayna: from a marketing perspective? What I've learned is that it's always important to come back to you, your biggest goal, like keep your goal at the forefront of your mind. And that could be making your first sale to a stranger.

It could be selling at an art market. It could be getting licensed. It's very important to get clear on what that goal is. That way you can take action based on that goal rather than. Trying to do all the things and getting overwhelmed. A couple of examples of what that might look like. If your big goal is to land your first art licensing deal, you don't need to worry about putting your art on every POD site or building an email list or posting every day on social media.

Your main goal is to get licensed, and the best and quickest way to do that is to actually pitch your work to art directors. You just need to focus on two things. In that case, make good art and pitch it. That's it. And. Another example if [00:07:00] like, say you wanna drive traffic to your Etsy shop, what you might wanna focus on is using social media to get more eyes on your product.

your main goal sales-wise is to get traffic. And so we'll talk about how you can do that with Pinterest in a bit. 

Delores Naskrent: What you've done is you've really broken it down. So that it's much more doable.

Alayna: Yep, exactly. I think that that's the key to keep it simple and think about making a sale first. I think when it comes down to marketing, it can feel kind of nebulous, but when you simplify it and think like all my, all I'm really trying to do here is make a sale, then that really gives you super clear direction.

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Alayna: It gives you the ability to prove your concept and get your work in front of people who actually wanna buy it. And once you've made that first sale, it's validation that you're on the right track, proved that this works and you can repeat it again and again. Yeah. Eventually, of course you can add in all the [00:08:00] stuff that feels overwhelming.

But the North Star is, is doing what works and sticking with it. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. Little by little. I like that. I think that's such. A refreshing perspective because we're hearing all of that other noise, but to just hear you say it this way I think is gonna help people a lot. 

Alayna: Yeah. And that's how I built my business too.

Even though I'm, I'm art adjacent, I think this, this is applicable whether you have a, a art business or any kind of business. When I first started out, I was trying to get clients through Facebook groups or Upwork, word of mouth, friends and family. And I was trying all these things and nothing was happening.

I, I decided to make the pivot to, to cold pitches once I realized that wasn't working the pitching worked, so I doubled down on it, and that's how I built my entire business. 

Delores Naskrent: Wow. Yeah. Did you ever think about going back to a real job? 

Alayna: I did not. So the yes, spoiler, I never had to go back to a normal job after that year [00:09:00] abroad.

I've been working for myself ever since, It's just been a dream come true. I love it. 

Delores Naskrent: Oh wow. I love that. 

Alayna: Absolutely. Mindset is the key. I think when it comes to marketing and building a business. A lot of artists I think, miss the mark in that they don't see themself as a business person.

So that would be some other advice I would give is to see yourself as a business person. art will always be the joy and the, the purpose and and the reason behind what you do. But if you wanna get that in front of people, it's, you've gotta be thinking with your business brain.

I know a lot of marketing can feel kind of scary, it can feel pushy, it can feel salesy, but it doesn't have to feel that way. It's simply about sharing something you love, which is your art, and you're sharing that with other people who will also love it. So when you. Kind of shift the approach from excitement and a genuine love of what you do from obligation to that excitement.

It [00:10:00] kind of makes it actually fun to to market yourself. 

Delores Naskrent: Every time you put it into words, your own words and say it to me in this way, it makes me understand it more. It's totally true. Alright, now let's get to the nitty gritty here. I wanna shift into some specifics about Pinterest because I know that's your specialty and it's been such a game changer for me.

Alayna: Yes, it's such an incredible platform. I, I love sharing about Pinterest and I know that it can feel kind of hard to get started with Pinterest 'cause it feels so different from other social media platforms, but that's actually its greatest benefit. It's not social media in the traditional sense. It's actually a visual search engine.

People come looking for ideas. They're looking for the imagery, which makes it perfect for artists. It's designed for that visual discovery. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah, it really is. I use Pinterest every day. What would you say are the key things for artists and what they need to understand about using Pinterest? 

Alayna: your strategy is gonna [00:11:00] be about keywords.

You need to find the right keywords that people are searching for and use those in your content, and that's how you'll get discovered by new people who are actively searching for what you have to offer. 

Delores Naskrent: Okay, that's great. But then how do you know? Like how do you figure out what those keywords are?

That's always a mystery to me. 

Alayna: It's really putting yourself in your customer's shoes and searching like they would search. We'll use the example of somebody who sells children's art. Maybe. Maybe you make beautiful prints that would work in a nursery or something like that.

If that's your business, you can pretend you're a new mom and think about what she might be searching for. go into the Pinterest search bar and type out nursery wall decor or nursery room design and see if that will auto-populate in the the suggested search results, and if it shows up in those suggestions.

That means that people are searching for it. 

Delores Naskrent: Okay? 

Alayna: And if, if that's even too specific, you can [00:12:00] start more broad. You can type in nursery, put a space next to it, and you're gonna get a list auto-populated of the top 10 searched phrases related to that topic. So I looked that up and saw, it was like nursery room design.

Nursery room inspiration, nursery decor, nursery ideas, girl nursery wall decor, nursery art. So that will give you kind of a starting place to think which of these are related to what I sell. then you can gather those keywords, put them in a spreadsheet, and as you're creating content you'll start to add those, um, into your pin titles, descriptions, board titles, your profile, all those places.

And that's what will show Pinterest that your profile is related to that topic. So that you'll start showing up when people search those things, or in the home feed for people who are interested in those things. Yes, that's one way to do it, which is the easiest and most successful way to do keyword research.

But [00:13:00] there's also, uh, a built-in tool within Pinterest. If you have a Pinterest business profile, right, which you should, if you have a business, it's very easy to change that if you started with a personal account. You wanna change it, you can easily do that. Okay? But once you've got set up with that, that business account, you can use a tool called the Pinterest Trends tool, which is trends.pinterest.com.

It's, it's just got a little bit more data attached to it, so you can type in those same searches. what'll come back to you is it'll show what times of year those searches are most popular. It'll give you related ideas. you can just go from there. there's a lot to it.

You can really get very, very deep and specific into keyword research and it can get a little overwhelming. But I think when you just come back to how your customer would search, that's really the core of it. It's not necessarily about finding the most keywords or having. The biggest quantity. [00:14:00] It's really about quality and making sure that the things you're targeting are things that your customers are actually looking for and are actually related to your products.

Delores Naskrent: I didn't know that. I'm gonna go right after this episode and check that link out. I'll put it in the show notes for everybody. So trends.pinterest.com. So smart. Yeah, it's like doing free market research 

Alayna: Yeah, it is. There's a lot that goes into Pinterest. I do wanna share keywords are really the number one thing to be focusing on that's gonna kind of guide your whole strategy.

I know people have questions about graphics, about things like that, so I wanted to share a couple more top tips related to questions that I usually get asked. Perfect. The first thing is somebody wants to know, what the heck do I even pit. This one's easy. All you need to do is pin content that you wanna drive traffic to, okay?

And what I mean by content is just a link to something that you sell or offer. [00:15:00] That could be a product page, freebies, a blog post, your portfolio, anything that is relevant that you want your potential customers to go to. That's the first thing that overwhelms people. But at the end of the day, the goal of a Pinterest strategy is to drive traffic.

So that's what you wanna pin. for the graphics themselves, Pinterest works best in a vertical aspect ratio. The pins that do best are typically, a thousand by 1500 pixels. So that's just best practice, 

There used to be in, in the old days with Pinterest, you'd see these like really long infographics. We don't do that anymore. You need to keep it short. A thousand by 1500, no more than a 16 by nine ratio. 

Delores Naskrent: Okay. 

Alayna: And then some other best practices for pin design is that you want to make sure that your website or logo is somewhere on the pin, maybe even a watermark.

If it's a piece of art, you really wanna have that there so that people know that it belongs to you and can. Come back and, and find [00:16:00] you if they wanna learn more. Right? And if you're really, I, I'd say a great place to start too with pin design is to do some searching. You're already gonna be doing some searches for your keyword research and look at some of the top pins for those keywords and see what the layouts look like.

Do they use mockups? Do they use text overlays? Is it just artwork? Is it video? Kind of see what's, what's most popular. And the pins that show up at the top of the feed when you search those things will be the most popular viral pins in that category. 

Delores Naskrent: Okay? So 

Alayna: that's just a really good way to start and see what is resonating with your ideal audience, and then you can kind of take that and use it as a template for your own pins too.

Delores Naskrent: Okay. 

Alayna: What about boards? Boards are a, uh, sticking point for some people, I think. how does that fit into the content strategy? I want to just ease your mind that it is shouldn't be stressful. Boards can be really simple. If you're unfamiliar with how Pinterest works, when you're scrolling on Pinterest, you see a pin, and [00:17:00] then if you want to save that pin, you can do so and save it to a board.

In order to pin content on Pinterest, you will need to have boards to pin it to. But most often your pins are gonna get discovered just in someone's feed. People typically don't come to your profile and look at your boards and go through it that way. So really what you wanna think of the boards as is kind of like a catchall bucket for a certain.

Content category that you have. The first step is to define those content categories. That could be nursery decor, watercolor prints, dorm room decor, floral patterns, whatever your specialty is, identify the high level category and then go back to your keyword research and find, I'd say five of the top keywords that are relevant to that category.

Then easy as pie, you'll just use those as your board titles. So if we're using the [00:18:00] nursery example, nursery room decor would be one of your boards, and then anything related to that will get pinned to that collection I would recommend.

Pinning a minimum of once per day if you're gonna commit to this strategy. The Pinterest algorithm likes to see that you're an active pinner, that you are engaging with the platform daily. one pin per day is kind of the bare minimum, I would say, to really get traction with this kind of strategy.

And it, it's not gonna be a quick fix either. It's something that you do wanna. Commit to for a couple months to see if it will start to pick up and, and drive traffic for you, 

Delores Naskrent: which is what we've done, you know, you and I have done together. You've created for me a 30 day ping system that you use for me, and I would love if you could explain that a little bit to everyone.

Alayna: Okay. Quick caveat, the, the pinning strategy that I use with my clients is a little more complex than what I'd recommend to somebody just starting out. In our work together, we typically pin about. 10 to 15 times a day, and [00:19:00] that can be a little bit daunting. Oh, yes. Which is, which is exactly why I come in as a service provider 

For everybody who's looking to do this on their own, I'll simplify the 30 day plan and make it super easy and understandable. It all starts with your content. You'll need 10 unique URLs that you wanna drive traffic to.

This could be, again, your product pages, blog posts, classes, freebies, portfolio, anything like that. For simplicity's sake, let's just say you have 10 unique products in your store. We'll use that as the example for each of these products. This 30 day pin plan is to get you pinning once per day with as little work as possible.

That's my goal. You've got your 10 pieces of content, your 10 products you're gonna make for each of those three different. Pin graphics in that vertical aspect ratio. These should all be distinct so that Pinterest recognizes that graphic as a unique pin. That's helpful with the algorithm as well. [00:20:00] Okay.

In our product example, you could use one of those graphics, a mockup, one could be a video of you packaging the product. One could be a picture of the art. You could use a picture of the product with a text overlay that kind of. Encourages the pinner to click and learn more. I'm all about experimentation in in Pinterest, and I think it's really helpful to try out different styles and see what resonates with your audience.

That's part of the idea of three graphics per piece of content is that it saves you time in the long run, but it also is a good kind of experiment to see what resonates. Once you've got three graphics for each of those 10 products, let's say you start pinning on the first of the month, this is gonna make it really simple.

You'll pin product, one on the first, product, two on the second, product three on the third, and so on and so on, until you've pinned product 10 on the 10th and then on the 11th, rather than having to scramble and find something [00:21:00] new to pin, you'll just cycle right back to product one with the different graphic.

And go through that process again with the second graphic for each product, and you'll do it again for the, the final 10 days with the third graphic. This kind of means a little work upfront. You're creating the graphics, you're, you're getting them set up, but you're able to go into Pinterest's scheduling tool in the Pinterest apps, totally free.

And you can schedule these out in, you know, an hour or two. So this gives you 30 days continuous content and potential visibility that you can just batch. All right. At one time. 

Delores Naskrent: I remember when we were first meeting, you showed me how simply you could change those three pins. Mm-hmm. And sometimes it was just a matter of, like you said, adding a text overlay or changing the colors of the pin slightly.

It doesn't have to be a major, completely different graphic, which was really great. Exactly. And I know that that system has worked beautifully for me and I [00:22:00] also like how sustainable it feels. 

Alayna: Yeah, absolutely. Once you kind of get up and running, there's some initial work upfront. You do need to have, uh, the baseline of like a keyword bank that you can pull from and the, the graphics 

But once that's all set up, it's pretty smooth sailing. 

Delores Naskrent: This has been so clear for me. I love this and I think this is gonna really help the listeners because I don't think I've ever had anybody explain it to me in this detail. And even though we've been working together for a while, I've learned a lot today.

Alayna: Good. I'm glad. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah, it's great. I really appreciate you being here. I'd love for you to share a bit about how we use data and metrics in my own strategies, just so listeners can kind of see what that looks like in real life. So then that's your expertise. I would love to hear that. 

Alayna: Absolutely we look at our analytics every month.

I, recommend monthly looking at your analytics rather than trying to micromanage it or see things at a [00:23:00] nitty gritty level, because Pinterest is a more high level platform, right? You're putting a lot of content and so you really wanna look at things kind of with a, a step back 

when you step back and look at it monthly, I'll look at things like impressions, which is how many times a pin was viewed, the number of saves, which is the number of people who saved it to a board, and outbound clicks, which is the number of people who actually go from Pinterest to your website, 

Delores Naskrent: right?

Alayna: These are kind of my three key metrics. It can get overwhelming to look the dashboard, but. At the end of the day, it also comes down to, to your goals, and in most cases, your goal with Pinterest will be to drive traffic and get engagement on your pins. With those metrics as your guide.

That's really what you wanna be looking at. We'll compare those to what's happening on your site or shop. If a pin is driving consistent traffic, we can make more of that kind of content. That's something that Pinterest really likes to see. It's again, that [00:24:00] experimentation, seeing what your audience resonates with.

Delores Naskrent: Right. 

Alayna: And there's also potential to look at how new pins are working in regards to launches. Seasonal things like we just did a push for Black Friday, Pinterest is a bit more of an evergreen platform, but there's still potential to do seasonal. Pinning for the holidays, like we're working on that right now with a lot of your holiday classes and things like that.

As far as the numbers go, it's really about looking at those to support your creative decisions, to see what you wanna do next, to see what you wanna do more of, less of what's resonating, what's not, and not get too caught up in the numbers themselves. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. For me, that's been huge seeing that what we've made an effort to promote is actually paying off.

I forgot to tell you that with the Template Club, I actually sold two template clubs in the last month completely separate from membership and completely separate from anything else I was [00:25:00] promoting. That just proves right there that our efforts are actually paying off. 

Alayna: I know what's to double down on. 

Delores Naskrent: That's what we'll do. We'll just keep doing what we're doing. I love it. I love that the data will tell us all of that too. And I wasn't one of those people that really even looked at that analysis until you started giving me that monthly breakdown. And we just, that's what we do.

We do it once a month and that's it. That data really helps to tell the story, for sure. 

Alayna: Mm-hmm. 

Delores Naskrent: Now, if listeners could take away one thing from today's episode, what would you want it to be, Alayna? 

Alayna: Ooh, 

Delores Naskrent: good one. Pick you on the spot. 

Alayna: I think I'd say to simplify, always come back to that big goal and be thinking about what right thing is going to, to move the needle with that big goal.

So, yeah, I'd, I'd say it's all about focusing your energy. Don't, don't scatter it. Stay focused. Pay attention to what's [00:26:00] working. When you pay attention to that and keep doing that thing, you'll be amazed at the progress you'll make. 

Delores Naskrent: Absolutely agree with you 100% there. And I know that you have a free goodie for everybody here.

You've got a free resource, right? I 

Alayna: do, I do. So I have put together a presentation call Pinterest for artists. It's, you can find it on my website, Alayna creative.com. It's a free Pinterest course. Like I have put so much detail into it. It walks through all the things that we've talked about today, but you'll get more details, more examples.

It's got my keyword research spreadsheet. It's got the 30 day Pinterest guide, like everything you need to get started. So definitely check that out if you want to get started on Pinterest. 

Delores Naskrent: That's exactly what will be perfect for everybody here, because I love that idea of just really focusing. 

So what's bringing you creative joy this week, Alayna? 

Alayna: I've been painting for, for friends and family, which has been a real joy and it's just so fun to make [00:27:00] homemade ornaments and cards and things that I've personalized for the people I love.

And I also got my first set of professional watercolor paints, which, ooh. It was a huge upgrade. I've been working with Windsor and Newton Cottman for a long time. They're fabulous. I was introduced to the core brand recently, and let me tell you, they're amazing. So that's been so fun to have my new, my fresh new professional palette.

Yes. That's 

Delores Naskrent: so wonderful, Alina. And I see all those watercolors hanging on your wall behind you and I. That's true. Thank you so much for sharing everything that you shared today and the resource. I can't wait to get my hands on that. Thanks for keeping me on track behind the scenes too. You know, I can never wrap my head around how much you actually do.

Once in a blue moon, I'll, you know, log into later and I see like the pins, you've got everything done so far in advance. It's just wonderful and I appreciate you so [00:28:00] much. 

Alayna: Oh, I'm so glad. Thank you so much for having me. I love sharing this. Biggest dream is that every artist feels happy and joyful in how they're running their business, and I hope that this has helped with that a little bit.

Delores Naskrent: I'm sure it will. to everyone listening, I'll have all of the links in the show notes check out Alayna's site and keep creating, keep juggling, and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.