How to Increase Traffic from Pinterest to Your Unique Hand Made Ecommerce Store
Data doesn’t lie.
It’s also proof that when you do Pinterest and content marketing right, they can work in tandem to drive traffic to your site and ultimately sales.
Like two Van Damme’s in Double Impact.
Why is this important?
Well, they’re 24 million eCommerce sites in the world. Over 90% of those don’t get any organic traffic from Google, and less than one million sell more than $1000 a year.
Platforms like Shopify removed entry barriers and democratized online selling capabilities by offering affordable, easy-to-use website templates that required no coding—essentially making online retail available to all.
It’s not enough to pick a template, fire up a subscription, and then expect sales to come pouring in. That’s where Pinterest and content marketing come in.
More specifically, Pinterest and blogging.
To prove that these two work in tandem as traffic drivers, I will share some of my analytics to illustrate my traffic growth. These will reflect my numbers from before I was active in my Pinterest marketing to now. A snapshot of my total Pinterest traffic, users, and pageviews from 2019 to today.
Pinterest Driven Data
Let’s review the numbers.
But first, keep in mind that any form of marketing success is often contingent on high volume, sound strategy, and a bit of luck. I also used a combination of pins for my blog content and product pins.
Remember the two Van Dammes? Using blog content and product pins will seriously double your impact.
Below is a graph of my website traffic growth that I can attribute to Pinterest referrals from 2019 to now. It illustrates how many click-throughs from my pins on Pinterest landed people on my site.
One thing to note here is that my brand is very challenging to gain exposure for through marketing. It’s difficult to understand, it’s not an impulse buy, it doesn’t address a pain point, and it’s one-of-a-kind.
Combine the inherent difficulties associated with my products with the fact that Pinterest is a long game, and I got results that required some commitment to achieve.
That being said, I have had students in the past convert rather quickly with their Pinterest marketing efforts. It just depends on your brand and how broad the appeal is for the products you make. Brands with items that go one step further to solve a problem will also have an easier time.
The graph below shows the growth of unique users coming to my site from Pinterest.
The pie chart below shows the growth of pages viewed on my site by visitors coming from Pinterest.
The reason I invested in my Pinterest marketing in the first place was because of how well the platform performs to drive traffic to your site.
Both Facebook and Instagram discourage you from leaving the app, which is not optimal for driving traffic if that is your marketing objective. These types of social platforms are great for engagement and building brand equity.
How to Optimize Your Pinterest Marketing Efforts
Besides the fact that some brands are more accessible to market than others, you can do things to increase your odds of success on Pinterest.
Stay up to date with what’s working on Pinterest now by joining my community of other makers like you. Stay current here.
Having an excellent current strategy in place - Pinterest is an incredibly dynamic platform that is constantly changing to adapt to user behavior. As it ages, the algorithms are becoming more sophisticated, causing marketers to adjust their tactics.
Being consistent - This is one of the most significant contributing factors to your Pinterest success. It’s also the one factor that has remained constant throughout the years amidst all the changes. Commit to showing up regularly.
Understanding SEO on Pinterest - Creating content for a search engine is different from a social network. Knowing the difference between the two will help you create more compelling pins. If you need some guidance on this topic, go here.
Creating high-quality and beautiful-looking pins - Think of the pins you make and put on Pinterest as a billboard for your business to attract your potential buyers. Is there a text overlay you can place on your pins to make a click to your site more appealing? Are you using fantastic imagery? All these can affect your pins’ performance. If you need some pointers on pin creatives, go here.
A willingness to experiment - As with any kind of marketing, it’s important to stay agile and not get too stuck in your ways. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and those who achieve the most successful results change with it. New features like Story Pins are regularly released, and utilizing them will help your growth. Need to know more about Story Pins? Go here.
Last Words On Blogging
I know I keep mentioning blogging. While I had some success pinning only product pins, I can attribute the bulk of my growth to when I started blogging regularly.
Simply put - it works.
If you’re looking to double down your efforts for double the impact, then I strongly recommend that you start blogging. Here are some recommendations if you’re just starting.
Pick a consistency you’re comfortable sticking to, whether it’s once a week or once a month. Once you’ve established a good cadence, you can then scale your frequency.
Get the most bang for your efforts, and create more than just one pin for your blog post. I usually make five different pins and diversify my keywords to reach a broader audience with various search intents. Release each pin over time instead of publishing them all at the same time.
Create seasonal blog content to capture trending topics that pinners will be searching for on the platform. Remember that people come to Pinterest to plan, so try to get your seasonal pins out there forty-five days before pinners will be searching for those topics. Use the trends tool to help you plan out your content.
If you need assistance with selecting blog topics for your product brand, go here.
Conclusion
I’ll be honest; there is not a ton of info out there to know what benchmarks define success. Trust me; I’ve tried to research this for my purposes and have come up short. The topic of metrics is somewhat opaque.
I shared mine to illustrate that progress is progress. My numbers might be low to you or high to others, but that’s not the point. I wanted you to see that you can increase your traffic from Pinterest no matter where you are in your marketing journey.
When I started, I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned along the way as I stayed consistent.
As your skills grow, so will your traffic.
Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you’re efforts are not yielding results yet. Everything you’re doing builds a groundswell that may not be visible until you reach a tipping point. When that happens, you’ll experience a momentum that is easier to maintain.
Legacy pins that went viral will continue to send traffic to your site long after you originally posted them.
It’s real. I’ve seen it happen with my account.
All you have to do is choose to invest in your Pinterest marketing. Build a strong foundation and start increasing your website traffic by using the strategies I outlined in this post.
Download my Ultimate Pinterest Starter Guide for Makers and get going today.
