How To Sell On Pinterest With Shopify
If you sell products (vs. services) as part of your business, Pinterest can do so much more than drive traffic to your website - it can drive sales through Shoppable Pins.
Before we jump into selling and what Shoppable Pins are and how to use them, let’s cover a few basics on Pinterest for business.
THE BASICS
You need to have a business profile on Pinterest. Part of having a business profile is setting up your account correctly. You need to claim your website, install your Conversion Tag (another name for your tracking pixel), and set up Rich Pins.
You have to know your keywords/keyword phrases on Pinterest. This is easily the most important aspect of your Pinterest strategy (the second most important is consistency - more on that below). Keywords need to in your profile name, about us section, board titles, board descriptions, and pin descriptions. I keep a Google Sheet easily accessible with me keywords for reference.
You need good graphics for brand recognition. Setting up a few templates for your pin graphics in Canva or Photoshop will not only save you tons of time, but you’ll get that brand recognition when Pinterest users are scrolling through their feed. Use your brand colors/fonts, great photos, and a watermark/logo with your website URL on each graphic. I use this gorgeous stock photo site.
You have to pin consistently. This is the name of the game when it comes to a Pinterest strategy. Tailwind is my scheduling tool of choice when it comes to consistent pinning for myself and my clients. I literally could not run my business without it. You can sign up for free using my affiliate link right here. Best practice is to pin a combination of your own pins and re-pins of quality content, and I like to use their Smart Schedule to pin 10x per day.
*Yes...this page does contain affiliate links. Please know that I would never, ever recommend anything I haven't used and love. Affiliate links are no extra cost to you and they support my caffeine habit - which is good for everyone involved.
WHAT ARE PRODUCT PINS?
Pinterest has shifted gears with e-commerce and enabled a feature called Shop The Look for all business profiles. Read more about Shop The Look and how to use them here.
The good thing is, now this awesome feature is available to all users, not just Shopify users.
This blog was only a couple months old when this major change rolled out - which illustrates how often Pinterest strategy can change.
PINTEREST + SHOPIFY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
There are a few key points for making sure your products are set up correctly with Pinterest.
Make sure your products meet the requirements for Pinterest.
Review how to adjust your Shopify settings if you used to use the Pinterest sales channel.
Make sure you have Rich Pins enabled - Product Pins fall under Rich Pins.
“SEEDING” YOUR PRODUCTS IN PINTEREST
Pinterest is a long-term marketing platform, and pins need time to get “seeded” in the different feeds.
There 2 things you need to do with your pins to get them “seeded” into Pinterest feeds.
Make sure pins have keyword-rich descriptions, including 1-3 hashtags, so they show up in search.
Use Tailwind to re-pin your product pins on any applicable board you own, group board and Tailwind Tribes.
Tailwind enables you to spread out these re-pins over several days or weeks so you’re not spamming your feed with the same pin multiple times.
Here’s an example of exactly how I put up pins on Pinterest:
Create a 1000px x 1500px vertical pin graphic showing a lifestyle shot of the product in use.
Create the pin within Pinterest using the “+” button: upload the graphic and link it to the specific, non-variant product in the Shopify store. Write the keyword-rich description, including 3-5 hashtags. (You can also use the PinIt! Chrome Extension to create the pin directly from your website.)
Pin the pin to the closest subject board you own. For example: If you’re selling a sweater, pin it to your sweater board, not your general online store board. The reason for this is when this original pin is re-pinned by you and others, it will take with it the board description and keywords.
Go to the original pin you just created and click the Tailwind schedule button. From here you can schedule the pin into your Smart Schedule to be re-pinned on your other boards, group boards, and into Tailwind Tribes.
Voila! You’re done with the groundwork for pins to get them out there on Pinterest.
PROMOTING YOUR PINS
After a few weeks, you should have some data on which pins/products are being re-pinned and doing well on Pinterest.
To figure this out, I use a few tools for information-gathering:
Pinterest Analytics
Google Analytics
Tailwind Pin Inspector
I like to put ad spend behind pins that I know are starting to do well in search and re-pins. I run ads in 4-week cycles on Pinterest since it’s such a long-term platform. Anything shorter and Pinterest doesn’t have time to do what it needs to do to get your Promoted Pin shown.
BONUS PRO TIP
Pinterest is an evergreen platform - meaning your pins live forever (and that’s one of the best things about it)!
If you discontinue a product, make sure you set up a redirect on your website (not on Pinterest) for that specific URL to go to that product category/collection.
The last thing you want is for a shopper to land on a 404 page or your general home page when they’re ready to buy!
MORE RESOURCES:
Tailwind Affiliate Link for a free trial
Tailwind Video Guides
Selling on Pinterest
Shopify Pinterest Info
