Pinterest - How I use Pinterest as a tool for business

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times again, I am obsessed with Pinterest. You have no idea. My obsession dates back further than my businesses, it hasn’t always been a business tool for me. Lucky for me (since I love it so much), it has proven to be tremendously helpful to drive traffic to Camille Co. and Design by Cheyney websites.

When I first started out on Pinterest, I was using it like an online scrapbook. I would find images that I liked and pin them to neatly categorised boards under my personal profile. I used it for inspiration for fashion, styling, photography, recipes, holiday ideas, DIY ideas etc. I was obsessively pinning every few days, but I never created any of my own pins.

Fast forward to the beginning of Camille Co. and I started hearing murmurs of how Pinterest could be helpful to online businesses. LIGHTBULB. I did a bit of research into what makes a successful pin and jumped on the bandwagon. What I learned from my research is that high-resolution, portrait format pins are the most re-pinned. I started creating my own pins and I have never looked back. I save all my images in Photoshop with the dimensions of 735px (w) x 1100px (h) - I call this a 'portrait pin'. I have the crop preset saved in Photoshop, so it’s super easy.

Some takeaway hints are posted at the bottom of this post if you are someone who likes a quick summary. 
 

How does it work?

I create a 'portrait pin' then upload it to Pinterest with a link back to my website. I pin the image to a board I created named Designs by Cheyney under the pin's appropriate category (logo, print, packaging, patterns etc). After a few days the pin is bound to get lost in a sea of other pins, so I repin it, either to one of my own boards or to one of the group boards I am on (this is a whole separate blog post).  The key is to make your pins visible, but don't clog up people's feeds with them either. The ratio of pinning other people's content to my own is probably around 20-80 (20% my own vs. 80% other people's).

How has it worked for me?

Pinterest is now my number one referrer to my Design by Cheyney website. It drives more than 5 times the volume of traffic than my Design by Cheyney Facebook page. Out of 2271 visits to my website for this year, 1018 were referred from Pinterest. That means 54% of all traffic to land to www.designbycheyney.com comes from Pinterest. You can also see that it out performs the rest of my social media platforms by sitting at 82.97% (of all social referrals). See stats below:

But does it generate genuine business?

You might be wondering if these referrals convert, and yes they do! So far from Pinterest I have designed a logo for a boutique in Atlanta, Georgia (Bella Bleu Boutique), Candle packaging for a candle maker in Reno, Nevada (Wax Happening Logo and Wax Happening Labels), and a logo for a beauty salon in Montreux, Switzerland (Maison Du Sourcil). I am in the middle of negotiations with a Pinterest-driven client at the moment too.  I love how Pinterest opens my design services up to the world. See examples of work from my Pinterest-driven clients below.

Most popular pin

So far, the following image has been the most repinned pin (1.8k repins) on the Design by Cheyney Pinterest account.  It probably gained some traction from one of the group boards. Not everyone that saves a pin will generate a lead back to the website (the user has to click on the pin) but the more exposure the better. 

Take-away hints

• Make sure your pins are high-resolution (pixelated images won't get repinned)
• Create portrait images - 735px (w) x 1100px (h) is what I use
• Always link back to your website so people can find the original source
• Balance - Make your pins visible, but don't clog up people's feeds with them either. Don't just pin your own work, repin other images too. 

Do you use Pinterest? Find Design by Cheyney on Pinterest here and Camille Co. on Pinterest here. Do you have any tips or feedback? I would love to hear from you. Don’t be shy, comment below. Until next time,

Cheyney xxx