Your Board Strategy On Pinterest Needs Adjusting. Find Out Why Today.
The Current Board Strategy on Pinterest
Your board strategy is likely outdated if you haven’t adjusted yet in 2021.
Why might you ask?
Pinterest is less aspirational and more actionable nowadays. You can blame it on the pandemic when things got real.
The lockdown put the entire world into a situation that was brand new without a roadmap. People needed answers, and they came to Pinterest to find them.
Understanding pinner behavior is precisely the insight you need to create practical board topics right now on Pinterest.
Adjusting Your Board Strategy for a New Creator Focused Pinterest
So, let’s dive in to highlight the reasons why you should rethink your board strategy.
Some of the notable changes are because of shifting priorities with Pinterest to adjust with pinner behavior. Below are some main ways you can tailor your efforts to optimize your marketing strategy.
Content Curation vs. Original Content
The good news with these changes is that you will be spending less time on Pinterest now. Curating content to populate your boards by re-pinning, now called saves, is no longer a helpful strategy.
You can boil this down to two reasons:
The Pinterest algorithm is giving recycled content far less reach. You may have heard of the significant shift towards ‘fresh’ pins back in early 2020. Read more on that here. This change came from the fact that Pinterest noticed users engaging with new pins much more than pins that have already been in distribution on the platform.
Pinterest is focusing on creators who create content on their platform in a big way. Pinterest saw the trends of what pinners were searching for. They realized that providing this insight to the community of creators who make content to publish on their platform would serve both the pinner and the creators.
The key takeaway here is to spend the bulk of your time creating your original content instead of re-pinning or saving pins from your home feed.
Dream Client-Focused vs. Brand Focused
It used to be good practice to create board topics around interests that support your brand and create compelling content for your dream client.
Except that Pinterest is giving recycled content less distribution and focusing more on creators.
Sound familiar?
It should. All of these new strategies can you can link to the two big reasons you read above.
The key takeaway here is to create board topics that you can directly tie into your brand. Doing this will make your brand on Pinterest more searchable.
If you’re a custom wedding ring designer, some examples of good board topic ideas could be:
Engagement Rings For a Boho Bride
Bridesmaid Gift Ideas
Engagement Rings For The Alternative Bride
Wedding Bands for Him
Colored Stone Engagement Rings
Rose Cut Engagement Rings
Solitaire Ring Settings
Platinum Ring Settings
Gold Ring Settings
Emerald-Cut Diamond Ring Settings
Marquis-Cut Diamond Ring Settings
Budget-Friendly Ring Ideas
You get the idea.
* * * * A quick word on seasonal boards here - I highly recommend that these be part of your board creation process also. These can be a great place to publish gift guides, gift ideas, and blog posts of seasonally searchable content. You can easily toggle them to secret when the season is over until the following year. Here are some examples of seasonal boards to inspire yours -
Mothers Day Gift Ideas
Graduation Gift Ideas
Spring Jewelry Trends
Fathers Day Gift Ideas
Christmas Gifts For Her
Valentines Day Gifts
Aquamarine March Birthday Jewelry
Broad Topics vs. Niche Topics
No longer would I recommend that you create one or two new board topics every month that you think would appeal to your audience. Instead, focus on hyper niche topics that are super relevant to your brand.
For example - Say you have a jewelry brand, and you have a board called Celebrity Style Icons; swap it out instead for Famous Jewelry Icons.
See what happened there? You took a broad topic and drilled it down to be more niche that is specific to your industry or vertical.
Lots of Boards vs. Fewer Boards
Less is more unless your brand is capable of creating a lot of super relevant boards. This thinking would apply to retailers who carry a large inventory of different items from various categories. Think Target.
If you find yourself with many unnecessary boards, this might be a good time for an audit. Keep in mind; If you delete a board, you will lose all of your followers from that board. You cannot undo this action, so if you’re unsure, just toggle the board to secret instead.
Aspirational Content vs. Inspirational Content
This change is a big one and can be tricky to get around, especially for product sellers looking to pin to their newly curated boards.
Just how do you do this? Create content that is savable. What is savable content? Anything that inspires pinners to take action on later.
Remember when I mentioned how pinners are using Pinterest has changed? So much so, Pinterest rolled out new board features late last year to accommodate these new habits.
Pinners are coming to Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration to create a life they love. As a result, there is a surge in new boards pinners are creating monthly to capture all these ideas.
Just so that you’re aware of these new features, I’m going to cover them briefly and then get into the specifics of how you should consider these changes for your content strategy.
These new board upgrades include the following -
The ability to add private notes to yourself built right into the pins you save.
A super-easy way to mark your favorite saved pins.
A new toolbar to quickly access board functions.
The notes feature reminds you why you saved the pin in the first place. For instance, you saved multiple jewelry pins as gift ideas and want to remember which one was for your mom.
The new toolbar helps pinners stay organized and consolidated all possible board functions in one easily accessed place.
The key takeaway here is, pinners are looking for more actionable content to save to their boards. Content that can help them plan, produce or create a life they love.
Creating Content to Meet the Needs of Pinners
Most makers aren’t creating products that are going to solve the world’s problems. Creatively spinning how you share your content is a way around products that don’t solve problems.
Rethink how to do this is by referring to one of the most famous marketing quotes from Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
By replacing the word problem with desire, you can reframe your messaging that speaks in a similarly effective manner.
For instance, pinners don’t want to buy a piece of handmade jewelry. They want the confidence for a first date. Simply fill in the blank of a desire you can speak to that your product can help them achieve.
Use this concept not only as text overlay on your product pins but also as blog content ideas.
Conclusion
Now you understand that the pinner’s mindset and how they are engaging with Pinterest is responsible for both the platform and businesses needing to stay agile. The good news is that more and more people are flocking to Pinterest, with monthly users hitting an all-time high of 450 million because of this shift.
Implementing these new strategies can help your brand get in front of Pinterest’s growing audience. Let’s review some of the key takeaways from today.
Spend the bulk of your time creating your original content instead of re-pinning or saving pins from your home feed.
Create board topics that you can directly tie into your brand. Doing this will make your brand on Pinterest more searchable.
Less is more when it comes to boards.
Pinners are looking for more actionable content to save to their boards. Content that can help them plan, produce or create a life they love.
Make your content more actionable by reframing it to a desired outcome of the pinner.
Need a place to start on Pinterest? Download my complete roadmap on how to get started with your business account to the right way today.
