30/9/2020 0 Comments THE TOP 5 MISTAKES ETSY SELLERS MAKE ON PINTEREST (AND HOW YOU CAN AVOID THEM!)I do a lot of Pinterest account work for Etsy sellers who are trying to promote their products with little to no success. A lot of them say the same thing - they are confused, frustrated and upset that they can't get it right. Especially with the knowledge that Pinterest can drive so much traffic, and you hear about so many people getting successful results. They say to me 'why can't I do that?'. And the answer is you can! Usually, simple little mistakes are the reason they are not finding success. And - even more so - everyone is making the same mistakes! I often find myself repeating the same advice over and over. So, in today's blog post, I will be highlighting the top 5 mistakes Etsy sellers make on Pinterest, and how you can avoid them! 1. Having a lot of empty boards This tends to be a pattern for POD shops, but I have also seen it in handmade shops. For example, I have seen Pinterest pages that have 100+ boards, but each board only has 3 pins each. They have used a separate board for each design, scent, product etc. This will not get you good results. You want a few nice full boards rather than lots of little ones! Think about a clothing store - they organise their products by type of product. Tops, Jeans, Pyjamas, Shoes and Bags are located in different areas. They are grouped together because they are similar, and there's large quantities of them. Most people will go into a shop looking for a specific item, like a T-shirt. If the T-shirts were dotted around the store it would make it harder for the customer, and make it less likely that they'd bother looking at everything. This is the same as your Pinterest boards. You want to group your items together like a shop would so your customers can easily find what they want in one board. You should be aiming for each board to have at least 100 pins, however you shouldn't rush adding pins to it and avoid repinning the same pin over and over in a short space of time. I always recommend newer shops with fewer listings have one business board with all of their products, but when they have more listings I recommend adding more specific boards. For example, I have a board for Etsy Business Printables, where all of my items are pinned. I also have boards for Etsy Shop Bookkeeping, Etsy Social Media Marketing, Etsy Shop Organization and Excel Spreadsheet Templates for Etsy Sellers - where I still only pin my own items, but they are split up if a customer knows what type of item they want. 2. Mixing work and play This is a massive issue that occurs a lot, and can be a big factor in why you aren't seeing the traffic or engagement you require - and that is using the same profile for both your personal and business boards. Usually, the issue starts with a seller who already has a Pinterest account but then wants to use it for marketing their shop. They decide instead of starting over, they will just add on to what they already have because they already have some traffic from the boards they have. The reason I don't like personal mixing with business is 1) You attract the wrong type of audience, and/or 2) You confuse the Pinterest algorithm. For example, if a shop that sells natural vegan soap has boards for their children's birthday party inspiration, this will bring parents who are looking for birthday ideas, but may not necessarily be interested in soaps. So the unique monthly visitors number they are seeing on their page are traffic that have absolutely no interest in their product, so those viewers are useless. Not only that, but the more you pin of others that have no relation to your products, the more you confuse the algorithm because Pinterest doesn't know who you are trying to target. The key thing to remember is your Pinterest account should be made for targeting a specific audience. If you are using it for marketing, it should be purely for that, not for your own personal likes and inspiration. Check out my FREE target audience worksheet to help identify your ideal customers interests for board inspiration by clicking here. The best thing to do in this circumstance is to make a business account completely separate to your personal account. If you have already done a lot of work on your personal account for your business, you can add your business account as a collaborator to your board so you can continue adding to it, but you will eventually want to make your own boards on your business account. For example, on my business account I have a board for Etsy business printables, but on my personal account I have a board for Etsy seller help that has both my personal and business account as a collaborator. This means I can save the progress I made on my old account, and not have to redo the entire board. 3. Only pinning from Etsy I see a lot of accounts use the share button on Etsy to create pins. There isn't anything wrong with doing this - it's a quick easy way to make pins. However, pins directly from Etsy should not be relied on. To be successful you need to make your own pins regularly and upload them. The reason for this is that Etsy optimisation is different from Pinterest optimisation. For Etsy, they prefer square or horizontal images, multiple keyword titles and detailed descriptions. For Pinterest, they prefer vertical images, short and concise titles and brief keyword filled descriptions. Use free programs like Canva to make vertical images that are optimised for Pinterest and upload them manually to create great titles and descriptions that will reach your ideal customer. 4. Being scared to repin others Many accounts get worried that if they repin others they will lose potential customers. But repinning is essential for good traffic. Not only does it bring users to you, but Pinterest also love it! They don't want you to add content and then leave it at that. They want you to share others so more people add content to be shared. The general rule of thumb is for every pin you add, repin 4 other pins. The confusion comes when Etsy sellers worry about promoting their competition - and the simple solution to this to to not promote them! For example, my board Printables For Businesses includes pins of my own, but also other peoples. However, I do not repin users who are in direct competition with me. So, I may repin others who sell printables for appointment making, MLM sales etc - but if someone sells Pinterest workbooks and checklists I will not repin. This ensures a good variety of products in your board, but also doesn't promote your competition. Don't be scared to repin others, but you also don't need to repin everything that relates to a topic if it has potential to take away custom from your shop. 5. Lack of optimisation This is the big one that can make or break your Pinterest account. There are two ways you can optimise your page to get traffic. 1) Keywords - You should be using long tailed keywords on your page, board titles and descriptions, and in your pin titles and descriptions. These can be found for free using the Pinterest search bar. And, 2) Image matching - Your pins should look similar to those that you find in your niche. This is so Pinterest can easily determine what will be popular with their audience. Optimisation will get your content in front of the right audience, rather than everyone seeing it with low link clicks. You want pins that generate high levels of traffic to your shop, rather than pins that are seen by everyone but don't gain traffic. And that's my list of top 5 mistakes Etsy sellers make on Pinterest! Have you been making any of these mistakes? Let me know in the comments! Do you struggle with your Pinterest account? Check out my free downloadable checklist here to up your Pinterest game today!
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