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BONUS 1: Faye Strange - Pinterest
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[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to growing pains. The marketing podcast for parent and baby brands who want to grow and get more consistent sales, but without the overwhelm of feeling like you have to be online 24 7, I'm Sophie, your host, and a Facebook and Instagram ad strategist who specializes in parent and baby brands as well as a mom of two.
Join me each week as I alongside some wonderful guests, she had practical tips and advice about how you can use and combine marketing strategies to get more impact for your effort.
Sophie: Hello and welcome to today's episode. So I am thrilled to be here with Faye from strange social Faye is a Pinterest expert who helps inspiring service based business who have educational content to share and reach more of their target audience and increase their revenue through Pinterest marketing.
And I know so many of you are interested in this episode, so I cannot wait [00:01:00] to get into it. Faye, welcome to the podcast.
Faye: Hello, and thank you for having me.
Sophie: I'm very excited about this one. So that's the official intro, but let's talk a little bit more about you. What's
Faye: So I'm a mom to two boys. They're seven and eight. Yeah, so they're at primary school. Currently. I drop them off in the morning, pick them up afterwards. And so it's a case of squashing everything into those few hours in the day and then maybe a bit at bedtime.
So
Sophie: Fantastic. And whereabouts are you?
Faye: I'm based in Bedford. It's right in the middle
Sophie: nice. Yeah. Night in the middle seven and eight boys. Are they like super close? Cuz they're so close in age or is that a bit more of a, they rub against each other. Oh,
Faye: they get along very well. Actually I am very lucky. Yeah. They do, they have their moments, but on the whole, yeah. They're best friends, which
Sophie: Oh, that's nice. That's really nice. I do think [00:02:00] that's the nice thing about having them close at age often. That's the case, isn't it? Where they're like into the same things at the same time and
brilliant. Okay. So we need to get your views on the really important things. There's a bit of a quick fire around.
Are you ready? Okay, then. Good. Okay. Tea or coffee? Nice me too. I don't drink coffee. People think I'm absolutely lunatic. I know. I just know no dogs or cats, dogs. Nice bagels or crumpets
Faye: tea. don't think it either dogs. Bagels. Definitely.
Sophie: Yeah. I love a bagel. Beach or pool.
Faye: Paul
Sophie: Yeah, me too. Winter or summer.
Oh, yeah. See, as we're recording this, this is pre-recorded, so it's really boiling hot and in my head I'm like, oh, maybe wind, but normally I would say summer too, but it's pretty hot for me today. Color or monochrome?
Faye: color. Definitely. I love my color.
Sophie: me too. Early morning or late night.
Faye: Late [00:03:00] nights.
Sophie: Okay. So now we've got past all that good stuff. Let's get into the wonderful world of Pinterest. Now I think I just wanted to set this episode up that I think I probably like a lot of people used Pinterest for my wedding, which was way back in 2014.
And when we had our first house, I think I used it a lot for like inspiration and that sort of thing. But to be honest, I haven't really used it since, and I know it's moved on quite a lot from then. But everyone I seem to speak to at the moment, I think with Instagram being more difficult, evolving all the time, the algorithm changing the kind of goal post changing, it just doesn't seem as it's certainly not strategy.
You can just rely on as a small business anymore as your like sole strategy. And, I think the more and more I'm talking to my clients about layering up different strategies and looking at the bigger marketing picture rather than relying on one or two key platforms.
And everyone I'm speaking to at the moment is talking about Pinterest or to now. I think they're two very different platforms and they probably suit different businesses and [00:04:00] different personality types. But if you are not interested in dancing on reels and showing your face and having to be super visible, Pinterest seems like a really good option.
Faye: Yeah, it is. If you're a business that, used to love Instagram, like sharing images and, being inspired, then. Pinterest is very much about that. It's about sharing, inspiring imagery and finding new ideas. So yeah, so I'd suggest, if you've fallen out of ins out of love with Instagram, that's actually Pinterest might be the one for you.
Yeah.
Sophie: Okay, brilliant. So that's what we're gonna dig in today. So this is for people who don't currently have a strong Pinterest organic strategy, or want to know it's mainly for people who maybe dabble in it, but don't really know if it's good for their business. Haven't used it yet are interested in it.
We're gonna get into all of the basics. We're gonna talk a little bit about strategy and the kinds of businesses that can [00:05:00] benefit. If we just kick off let's talk. Cause I don't think Pinterest is one that everyone knows about. So
Faye: So essentially interest is a search engine and it shouldn't really be thought of as a social media platform. It's more about getting your content on Pinterest and making sure, it's all keyword optimized, and then when your perfect people are looking for something and they're going on Pinterest to search because Pinterest people do actually prefer to use Pinterest over Google because it's so visual and it.
Say, to save the things that you come across and to your boards. So yeah, so when people are searching on Pinterest, let's say it might even be, eight months or a year down the line. And then they're going to discover this pin that you created, 12 months ago. Then they're gonna go back to your website or read your blog to find out more.
And [00:06:00] it, it's just a great way of getting people like into the top of your funnel and discovering it. So it's all about discoverability. And you don't get that, like on the other platforms, you wouldn't get that Instagram or TikTok because your content's evergreen, your pins last for as long as you want them to, until you delete them.
Yeah. So it's it's really important to have the right strategy. So you know how to get your pin seen. And once you've nailed that, you are, they're going to be getting seen again and again, by those people who need your help. Yeah.
Sophie: Yeah, amazing. That does sound ideal, doesn't it? So let's dig into it a bit more and, but let's start with the terminology. So we're all on the same page. What are some of the key like terms we need to know?
Faye: Okay. So first of all, is the pin. So this is. The image that you're sharing to pin trust. And there's three different types of pins. You've [00:07:00] got your standard pin, which is a clickable image. So the person just needs to click on the image and they'll go to wherever you are, directing them in your URL.
Preferably back to your website somewhere. There are idea pins which are new on interest. So like the way I describe these is a bit like a cross between an Instagram story and a TikTok. If you are on TikTok, they'd be great for repurposing into an idea thing.
Sophie: They have to be a video.
Faye: doesn't have to be a video performs.
I want to say better. Pinterest says video is best. So yeah, you do want a mixture of video in there, I've had better results from just like carousels. Yeah, a mixture is good.
Sophie: And are they when you said they're a story, like a story or a TikTok, does that mean there are any available for a certain amount of time or no.
Faye: They stay there [00:08:00] forever as well until you get rid of them. Yep. And they are also going to be keyword searchable as well, so important to have your keywords in those as well. And you can, they're a bit like stories in, in that you can flick through them.
Sophie: Ah, I see. Okay.
Faye: Yeah, but the thing about idea pins is that you can't link back to your website.
So they are great for getting short term reach and for getting more eyes on your content to. But you have to use them strategically to get people to follow your account so that they can see your other pins. So there's ID pins and then video pins as well, which is just like a normal standard pin with a video.
Instead.
Sophie: Yeah. Brilliant. Okay. So those are the three types of pins and then promoted pins.
Faye: So promoted pins are ads, Pinterest ads.
Sophie: Okay.
Faye: They're relatively new. They've not been around very long. And then you [00:09:00] have, so when I talk about keywords, those are the words that you put in your pins that people are searching for. Keywords and SEO is all of the words that people might be looking for.
And the thing that you have to remember with Pinterest as well, is that. The words that people are searching for are gonna be very broad top level, you are the expert, but they are not. So they might not be searching for some of the words that you might think, oh, I'm gonna pop this in my pin.
Cause it won't make sense to them. So if you've got somebody who's and I like to use the example of, if you are a baby sleep consultant for instance, and you like, there's a really tired mom and she just needs help to get her baby to sleep. Like the words that she's gonna be searching for are just gonna be like baby sleep or, Baby not beeping.
Whereas you might know more sophisticated terms, but the chances are, they're not gonna be searching for that. They're just going to be thinking about their [00:10:00] problem. So it's, yeah, it's using those words. It's really important. So that's all like your keyword and SEO stuff. And then boards.
Sophie: Yep.
Faye: So these are the spaces that you save your pins into and boards, you can optimize them with your keywords as well.
And it all helps to just strengthen the SEO of your account.
Sophie: Yeah.
Faye: Yeah. Have I missed any out there pin?
Sophie: I don't think so. No, that's per. Oh, and were we gonna talk about re-pinning or that's changed its name.
Faye: right. Yes. Re pins used to be the term for somebody else pinning a pin that you pinned, but now it's called saved. So if you see the term saved, it just means re-pin. Yeah.
Sophie: Perfect. Lovely. And then I guess we've gone into it a little bit more, a little bit there, but in terms of the content that you had put onto Pinterest, it's obviously images and video, which is great. And you talked a little bit about repurposing. So would [00:11:00] you repurpose from Instagram and TikTok and do you need to change like what's the like dimensions and images and that sort of thing.
Faye: Yeah, so you definitely can repurpose but make sure it is the correct dimension. So the di dimension for a standard pin is 1000 times, 1,500 pixels. And an idea pin is the same dimension as a story or a real. So if you have got some stories or reals, you can just use them as they are. If you are downloading from TikTok, I would try and remove the watermark.
Sophie: Yeah.
Faye: I use, is it snap tick? There's an app called snap
and if you're repurposing a carousel from Instagram to Pinterest, like that's a great example of some content that would do really well on Pinterest. And you might just need to rejig the elements around so that they fit.
The space, because quite often, you can spot it can't you can think, [00:12:00] oh, they've just copied that straight over and they haven't done anything with it. So it's not a great user experience. So you are just as you're creating content for Instagram, say if you just quickly, while you're doing it, shape, size it into a pin, then that's probably the easiest way to do.
Sophie: Okay. And in terms of, I know when I've looked on Pinterest before, sometimes it's just the image, like literally the image, and sometimes it's more like a cover or like a designed front with like words on, is there any kind of guidelines on when you would do each of those or is it just to test it and see.
Faye: So the thing about just images is that they are nice. They might get great reach and, a lot of saves, but there's nothing to let people know that this is a product available to buy or that this is, this is gonna help them. So you really want your pins [00:13:00] to give a call to action.
To let people know, this, isn't just a pretty image that you're finding on Pinterest. You can actually go and get this great thing. Yeah, because pin is really, they want that as well, because there's nothing more frustrating than clicking on a pin and it just goes to a dead end or it doesn't go anywhere.
So if you can signal that, this. This is brilliant pin. You're gonna get the answers that you need, or you're gonna find the product that you've been looking for. Just click yeah, you definitely need to do that.
Sophie: And in terms of managing the content, like how much do you need, like in comparison to maybe like Instagram or Facebook or one of those kind of platforms.
Faye: It's, it's different. Pinterest is different to Instagram. I usually recommend that people do one pin a day, you can schedule them on the Pinterest scheduler really easily. And the thing with Pinterest is that it really likes it when you share fresh URLs. So if you've got lots of product pages on your website, or you've got [00:14:00] lots of blogs or you are thinking about blogging more regularly, then if you can share that fresh content and the fresh that is gonna really help with your your statistics on Pinterest.
And, it's, if you have to take a break from Pinterest now, and again is no big deal. It's not good. It's if you did that on Instagram, everything kind of grinds to a halt, doesn't it. And you, it is starting from scratch again, but that's not the case with Pinterest. If you take, if you make the effort at the start to do all of your optimization, you get all the most, your important pins out there, then they're gonna perform for you in the background.
Again and again. So I say to people, if you can do one great fresh pin a day get it scheduled within the pin track scheduler. And then if you're thinking about Ida pins as well, maybe just like one a week.
Sophie: Okay. Yeah. And if you're already doing reels or TikTok, then you can just reuse those for the idea pins anyway.
Faye: Exactly.[00:15:00]
Sophie: Yeah. Perfect. With Instagram, obviously half the battle is that you have to put stuff out there, but then it's also the engaging with other accounts and being present. And that sort of thing.
Is that the same for Pinterest? Do you get like bonus points for engaging, like on other people's content and that sort of thing?
Faye: No, it's not like that at all. At one of the Pinterest summits last year, they specifically said that Pinterest is all about people kind. Connecting with themselves and, it's so true, isn't it? When somebody's using Pinterest, they are, they're just thinking about themselves or their plans for the future, or, a purchase that they're planning or a project.
And they're not there to see, what their friends have been up to or you, you can leave comments, but. , it's not part of, any Pinterest strategy. As long as you're getting your keywords into your pins, then that's
Sophie: Gosh. That feels I just feel like a massive sense of relief. I hear that. You're not having to provoke engagement [00:16:00] and try and ask a question and try and get people to comment and engage. And that's the only way you're gonna get your stuff out there. Like you are actually, I dunno, from what you're saying, it feels like you're a bit more in control.
Like as long as you like, get those keywords sorted and you're gonna get some images that are gonna catch people's attention. It's actually. Maybe a bit more predictable. I don't know. Is that right? That's how it sounds in terms of it not being so reliant on other people's interaction with your
Faye: Yeah, that's definitely, you can encourage comments if you want to. Because I guess, in a way that does signal that this is a pin that people are engaging with, but as long as your keywords are optimized, they're gonna, they're gonna discover that pin. Yeah, it's great. And one of the things I do want to mention is that Pinterest has changed a lot recently and, back best practice, even just two years ago would be.
To, pin 10 pins a day on repeat again and again. But that is no [00:17:00] longer recommended at all. You might see some people's. Still doing it or saying it, but Pinterest is very clear. They do not want people to do that. So quality over quantity every time, because if Pinterest sees that your account is just regurgitating the same pins it's going to throttle your reach and you're gonna end up getting very frustrated.
Yeah, that's just something to be aware of.
Sophie: Oh, no, that's really good. Yeah. And then in terms of the benefits of Pinterest, we've talked about it a little bit. So you are obviously looking. I guess it's a slightly different mentality in that it cuz it's a search engine. It's a bit more like Google, so people are actively looking for what you offer.
So I guess they're in a bit more of a action mentality anyway. What's the kind, what are the overarching benefits that you see businesses having by being on Pinterest?
Faye: Yeah. So like you just said, when people use Pinterest, they are actively searching. You are [00:18:00] going to be reaching the people who need your help, as opposed to, when you pick you post something on Instagram or. Your reel goes viral, but is it actually being seen by the right people
Sophie: Yeah.
Faye: who want your product or your service?
So there's that, there's the fact that they are it's evergreen content.
Sophie: Yeah.
Faye: It's gonna continue performing for you. Another great benefit of Pinterest is that it helps to bolster your Google rankings as well. For example, if you've got a pin that is is getting some traction, people are clicking through, they're clicking to your website, this all sends signals to Google that your pin no.
Or you, the page on your website that people are going to is getting seen. So that helps. Boost you up the rankings naturally on Google. And then of course your image gets shown up in Google search as well. Because I dunno how many times that you've Googled [00:19:00] something in the past and the top result has been like a Pinterest pin. Have you ever had that? Yeah.
Sophie: that. Yeah.
Faye: Yeah. And then chances are you'll click on it. And it's just a dead end which is the most frustrating thing. Yeah. The potential is massive, you, you really just need to spend that bit of time doing your research. And then, you'll be in like a year or something when you're least expecting it.
Something like you'll be getting notifications from all of these pins that you just maybe have completely forgotten about which is also a great benefit.
Sophie: that is a great benefit. Okay. And how do you, make sure that it's your ideal client coming to your website? Is that all in those keywords again?
Faye: Yeah. So that's in your keyword. And I, it's really important to stress here as well that, you can be driving your perfect client back to your website, but is what's happening on your website? Is there [00:20:00] something there to keep to draw them in? Is have you got the information that they're looking for?
Are they able to easily buy is there, somewhere they can sign up to your mailing list? It's all about trying to capture them while they're on your website, because you don't want them to just Bo bounce away. So that's something that you really have to think about as well. And
Sophie: Yeah, no, I think that is such a good point. And it's one that I make a lot with Facebook ads. The ads can be performing incredibly well, but if they basically go to a website that's not optimized for mobile or there's no way of capturing them or they don't, it doesn't sound of a line with the ad.
It's just. It's just pointless. So I think having that foundation of a great website is so important. And yeah, in terms of converting them as well, isn't it like making the most of it? That's what your website does. The pinned job is to get them on your website and.
Faye: Yeah,
Sophie: Brilliant.
So, if anyone's listening and thinking, I want a piece of this Pinterest action. This sounds amazing. Like how long does it take? I know how long it's a piece of string, but what are we [00:21:00] talking about in terms of really getting a bit of momentum and kind of getting started?
Faye: Yeah. So the important thing that you need to remember is that pins are planners. So yeah they are planning. So we're recording this in July. And I know for a fact, as soon as the schools go back, they'll be planning for Christmas and Halloween. But the fact is that when you submit a pin to Pinterest, it has to go through the indexing process, which is.
Isn't a quick process. It can take a couple of months through your pin to start showing up in search. So when I say indexing, that means that Pinterest is reading everything about your pin. It's reading the words on your image. It's reading your title. it's reading your description, it's reading all the information about the boards that you've pinned it to and all the information about your profile [00:22:00] and making a decision about where that needs to show up in search and to who.
So that's a process and it can take a couple of months for that to happen.
Sophie: Yeah. So if the idea pins go back to your like, account on your boards, would it be worth, setting up those be boards and putting a few pins on there. Just so people are going back to that, but knowing that those pins themselves aren't gonna perform necessarily. Yeah. Perfect. Amazing.
So another thing on my list is we've talked a little bit about what businesses do well and like any business can do well on Pinterest, but is there specific ones that you see doing well? Are there certain types of pins that are really prolific or, we've obviously talked about weddings and homes and that sort of thing.
Are there any other businesses that do really
Faye: Yeah. So when you talk about Pinterest, like the first thing that you think about is, recipes and craft stuff, isn't it, and yes, like those businesses can do really well on Pinterest, but it's a great platform for [00:23:00] any type of business. But I would just say that as long as. , you're not relying on, feet through the door.
If you can reach, if you're serving the whole of the UK, if you can deliver to the whole of the UK or worldwide, because you are gonna be reaching people in America all over the world, you'll start to see traffic coming from all different types of countries. It's great.
If you're an online business and you've got like digital products or, if you post your products worldwide. But I would just say, if you're a local business who's just serving local clients, then it might not be the right platform for you.
Sophie: Yeah. Okay, perfect. And in terms of getting started on Pinterest, how easy is it to just set up an account and kind of get going.
Faye: Yeah, so it's super easy. So if you've got an old Pinterest account, you can convert that to a business account or you can create a business account from [00:24:00] scratch. So it's up to you. You might have an account that's already got quite a few followers. In which case you might just want to convert that. But, if your account's a mess of like crafty recipes and all of that business, then you might just wanna start off on a clean slate.
But it's really straightforward to do that on interest. Yeah. And then what you could do is just maybe hop on over to your website and just pin an image directly from your website into your boards. That's a really quick way to create some pin.
Sophie: fab. Okay. So if we. I'm just thinking about literally, if I started from like a blank pin trust the boards, are they, so you said they're like SEO, searchable. Are we gonna pin one pin to multiple boards? Is it like one pin goes in just one board? Or like how does it kinda work?
Faye: Yeah. So like the practice used to be that you would pin the one pin into multiple boards, like numerous times, but [00:25:00] like the way I teach people is to just pin the one pin into two boards. But you can do different versions of the same pin with a different image.
Sophie: Okay. So as if and the same different version, is that because it's got the same URL or the same co copy, would you change the
Faye: have both. It could have the same P and the same URL, but as long as the image is different you are not gonna get picked up in this spam filter. It's classed as a fresh pin. Yeah, that's really important to remember cuz I always advise people to use the Pininterest scheduler and you can only schedule two weeks in advance with the Pininterest scheduler.
And ideally you want to space your pins seven days apart so that they don't it doesn't look spammy, like if it's got the same cover. So you're talking to two boards max
Sophie: Yeah.
Faye: for the same pin.
Sophie: Okay. And is it a case of, is it better to have less boards and more pins in them or more pin, more boards and less pins in them? does that make [00:26:00] sense?
Faye: Not
Sophie: no. Okay. So I'm thinking, if I set up four boards and had three pins in each board, would that be better than setting up two boards and having eight pins in two boards or does it not matter?
Faye: It doesn't really matter because what I would say is don't go for more than 10 boards make sure they're really relevant to you. You don't want to be pinning other people's pins. You're just focusing
Sophie: yeah. That's a great question. Okay. Yes, we're not re-pinning to our boards. No.
Faye: no, you count a little bit, but I wouldn. Make it, the focus that's not what pin dress wants.
It wants you to, it wants you as a business or a creator to be creating fresh content and not pinning other people's.
No, no more than 10 boards. Because you're pinning your own stuff. If you've got like 25 boards, it's really hard to fill up those boards with your own content.
So
Sophie: boards. Yeah.
Faye: Think about your titles, what people are searching for, [00:27:00] and you want to make it easy for yourself in that you can pin the same pins. To the different boards easily. Just make sure that their titles are a bit different. So yeah, don't do too many boards and yeah, you'll just fill them up as you go.
It doesn't matter how many pins are in them.
Sophie: Okay, fine. So does it's not like a thing about it having to look full rather thing.
Faye: no,
Sophie: Good. Okay. Oh my gosh. We have covered a lot in today's episode. It's been incredibly helpful. So at the end of every episode, I talk about how we can use this strategy in the like wider marketing strategy.
And we did touch on it during the episode, but it, Pinterest is a brilliant way of bringing new people into your world to that top of the funnel. When you're looking at, how do you get people? Into your world. Pinterest is a brilliant way of doing that. It's a little bit like, I think from what phase saying it's a little bit more like Google and SEO, it's definitely a long term strategy and it's something that you're gonna build on over time, rather than being like a [00:28:00] short shop.
Impact. And then once you bring them into your world, it's all about moving them down the funnel and getting them onto your email list or into a warm audience, getting them onto your website will obviously bring them into your Facebook ads, audiences as well, as long as you've got the pixel there.
And that's when you can start to nurture them and then move them towards purchasing from you as well. So we have covered a lot of brilliant strategies today. I'm actually excited to get started myself. I'm gonna start fitting them thinking I'm gonna put the podcast on there actually, cause I've got loads of content for that.
So that might be a good way for me to get the podcast out a bit more as well. And I always ask the guests at the end of every episode, what's the one thing you'd recommend today doing to get started.
Faye: So the one thing that you could do to get started is to set up
Sophie: Yeah.
Faye: your business accounts maybe think about which boards you're gonna create. And yeah, like I said, just pop onto your website and find an image that you could pin directly onto Pininterest. And if you want to go a [00:29:00] little bit further, you could start doing some keyword research and all you need to do that is start typing the words to do with the, or niche into the Pinterest toolbar and seeing what comes.
Sophie: What comes up. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. And if I'm just thinking now, if I was on my website and I went to pin something, but it's the wrong size, would I resize it on my website? Maybe upload a new image on my website to then re-pin it.
Faye: If you can do that. Yeah. That's that would So what I do recommend if you've got a blog or even on, your standalone webpages, If pin trust is gonna start to be part of your strategy, then you're gonna start attracting people who use pin trust. And they're gonna want to save a pin to one of their boards from your website.
So having that pinnable image is really important. Yeah.
Sophie: Perfect. Thank you. If you have loved listening to all of phase tips and advice today, and want to hear more, the best way to do that is to go [00:30:00] onto her website, which is strange social.com. And I will link to that. Of course, in the show notes, she has got a free Pinterest mini course, which would be a great way to get started.
And she. Also has the pin perfect in four weeks course, which is more in depth. And it's gonna give you step by step instructions and strategies and challenges to get you underway in four weeks and have you like up and running as quick as possible. So thank you so much for joining me today. Fay, that has been absolutely brilliant.
Faye: Thank you for having me. It's been lovely.
Thank you so much for joining me this week before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you ever enjoyed these podcast episodes, I'd really love to ask you to leave a review in apple podcasts reviews are one of the major ways that apple ranks their podcasts, and it only takes a few seconds, but really does make a massive difference to new people.
Finding me. Thank you again for joining me, Sophie, [00:31:00] in this episode of growing pains, see you next time.