HOW TO GET STARTED WITH PINTEREST FOR LETTERERS

5 STEP YOU NEED TO START IMPLEMENTING TODAY TO GET STARTED WITH PINTEREST THE RIGHT WAY. PLUS GET ACCESS TO A FREE PINTEREST GUIDE FOR CALLIGRAPHERS & LETTERERS

I started blogging back in 2018. As a newly stay-at-home mom and a calligraphy lover, blogging was the outlet I was looking for to share with others my love for calligraphy while potentially generating an income from it.

While I love Instagram because of the lettering community, I was spending countless hours creating content for Instagram without anything in return. Blogging is hard work, and all that hard work was not paying off!

Fast forward to 2019 when I learned about the power of Pinterest and the ways it could maximally increase my traffic! Pinterest has been a GAME-CHANGER for my business. I’ve been using it ever since to bring consistent traffic to my blog and generate income from it, which is a DREAM come true. And even some of my new Instagram followers and my Vial Designs community have found me through Pinterest! Win-win!

I LOVE helping other artists market and get more eyes on their work, and Pinterest is the PERFECT place to do it. People go to Pinterest looking for inspiration and are ready to buy, that’s what makes it a game-changer! That’s why I created this blog post to help you get started.

Ready to start learning EVERYTHING you need to use Pinterest successfully to drive massive traffic and more eyes on your art?

I created a step-by-step guide with actional steps to help you. You can find out more about the course here:

PINTEREST FOR ARTISTS; LEARN HOW TO USE PINTEREST SUCCESSFULLY TO MARKET YOUR ART.

Prefer video? I had the pleasure of talking to Becca at the happyevercrafter.com and the artist interview where I share the 5 Ways to Get Started with Pinterest for Letterers is now live!! You can watch the video below or keep scrolling if you prefer to read it 🙂

PINTEREST 101 FOR HAND LETTERERS AND CALLIGRAPHERS

Get access to the FREE Pinterest Guide by filling out the form below.

5 STEPS TO GET STARTED WITH PINTEREST FOR LETTERERS

STEP1: CREATE A PINTEREST BUSINESS ACCOUNT

There are many reasons why you NEED to use a business account instead of a personal account with Pinterest to market your lettering work. The main one is so that you can claim your website, Instagram, Etsy, YouTube, Shopify, have rich pins, and use analytics.

A business account is what separates you as a “content creator” in Pinterest eyes. This lets Pinterest know that you’re creating content people want to see.

Creating a business account is super simple and will give you the power to access analytics that will help you see which type of content is driving the most traffic to your site. To create a Pinterest Business account go to the link below and follow the steps: https://www.pinterest.com/business/create/

STEP 2: PREPARE YOUR ACCOUNT FOR SUCCESS

Be intentional about your account!

Have you heard of the term niching down? or picking a niche? This is especially important with your Pinterest account. You want to be intentional about the way you use Pinterest to market your lettering. Make sure it’s specific to what you want people to find you and recognize you for. If you’re promoting your calligraphy work, be sure to ONLY pin calligraphy-related pins in your business account.

For example, if you like traveling, meal planning, fitness routines, leave those pins for YOUR personal account and not on your Pinterest business account. If you do randomly add all kinds of pins to your business account that will confuse Pinterest. You want to be intentional about the way you use Pinterest to market your lettering. Make sure it’s specific to what you want people to find you and recognize you for. There’s a way to do this effectively and that’s by using keywords.

PRO TIP: Have a profile photo of yourself. Bonus points if it’s close up to your smiling face. People connect with people! they want to relate to the person that’s creating content or providing a service. That’s why it’s so important to have your picture. This will also help with brand recognition. More bonus points: make sure your picture is consistent across all of your platforms.

STEP 3: KNOW YOUR KEYWORDS

Pinterest relies on keywords to find and deliver relevant content to consumers.

In case you’re not familiar with the term:

“a keyword is an informative word that describes the content on your page or post”

Keywords are what makeup Pinterest SEO (Search Engine Optimization). That’s how you optimize your account to let Pinterest know specifically what people can find on your account.

What keyword should you use on your account?

Let Pinterest tell you exactly what keywords you need to use!

To determine what keywords Pinterest favors, go to pinterest.com and click in the Search box. Pinterest will suggest keywords related to your search.

If you click on the Search box again, it will give you ideas and will show you popular topics as well. Also, the colored words that you might see after your search are other ideas of keywords you may want to use for your Pinterest account.

Once you’ve researched keywords to include on your account, make sure you create a list of keywords related to calligraphy and lettering. Keep this list handy and use it whenever possible on your Pinterest account, your profile name and description, pin titles, pin descriptions, board names, board descriptions, and so on.

STEP 4: YOUR PERSONAL BOARDS MATTER

Same as being intentional about your account, be intentional about your personal boards. Not only you need to make sure you have boards specific to your blog/site topics, but you also want to make sure your Personal Board Titles and Description INCLUDE keywords.

Group boards are still useful. Be sure to search for active group boards in your niche and request access as a contributor.

Group boards can be controversial. It looks like they were more effective years ago than they are now. Because of this, you might hear more established bloggers say that “group boards are dead.” But my experience and the ones of other successful bloggers who STILL use Group boards is that group boards are beneficial to help you increase your exposure. Keep in mind that this can change in the future with any of the updates Pinterest makes to the platform.

STEP 5: CREATE GREAT PINS

Creating eye-catching images that make people want to click on your pin to find out more about what your content is SUPER IMPORTANT.

My favorite place to create my pin images is Canva.com. It’s has a FREE version that you can create beautiful eye-catching images. I now upgraded to the paid version since I’m creating a lot of graphics and other designs, but I did just fine with the free version for the first year.

Other programs you can use are Pickmonkey, Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator.

Here are some things you need to keep in mind when you’re creating your pin images.

Vertical images (preferably in 2:3 aspect ratio)
Relevant and attractive images
Bright and light imagery (avoid dark and low contrast)
Colorful and vivid (avoid dreary and dull)
Text overlays that compel viewers to click because they present solutions or have a strong call to action
Big, bold typography

PRO TIPS FOR CREATING GREAT PIN IMAGES:

Use fonts that are big enough that you can read the pin when scrolling by on your phone.
Avoid hard-to-read script fonts
ALWAYS put your blog/business name at the bottom of pin images for branding purposes
Encourage people to pin your content

FUN FACTS ABOUT PINTEREST

These really should put into perspective why Pinterest is such a powerful tool you need to be using to your advantage to market your calligraphy and lettering work!

There are about 442 million people using Pinterest every month. Instagram reaches about 140 million – that’s over 3 times more people!
Women make up more than 60% of our global audience.
Male Pinners are up nearly 50% year over year
Gen Z Pinners are up 50% year over year.
Millennial Pinners are up 35% year over year.
85% of Pinners say Pinterest is where they go to start a new project
89% of people on Pinterest use it to purchase inspiration. People are ready to buy from Pinterest!
98% of Pinners report trying new things they find on Pinterest.
Studies show the “half-life” of a single Pin is about 3.5 months! I find this part fascinating. I have a pin that has gone viral, then after the craziness passed, it’s still bringing traffic to my site a year and a half later!!! My good performing post on Instagram die about 2 weeks later. Not to mention those posts don’t have direct links to my blog.

The truth is that some niches WILL do better than others on Pinterest. Calligraphy and lettering ARE SOME OF THOSE NICHES that will do really well on Pinterest.

Final Thoughts,

Using Pinterest strategically and consistently can drive massive traffic to your calligraphy and lettering work! Pinterest is for the long game. And the good thing about this is that one single pin can bring you traffic for weeks and even months to come! I’ve had some pins that are still bringing me traffic a YEAR later. Unlike Facebook and Instagram where the life of your post is about 24 hrs, a few days if it performs well!

By now, I hope you know the huge opportunity you’re missing if you’re not already using Pinterest to get more eyes on your art. You don’t need a lot of followers or have an established account to drive traffic directly to your site.