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I have a confession to make; please don’t judge me. 

I used to sleep on Pinterest. I didn’t rate it as a platform you can use for your business; I merely used it to find cute outfits and nail inspiration. 

(you promised not to judge!) 

It’s safe to say I was completely wrong, and I’m so happy to have seen the light. I’ve experienced firsthand just how much Pinterest can help a business. From my Etsy store to this blog, Pinterest has been so good to me. 

If, like old me, you also don’t see how Pinterest can help you, or maybe you know it can, but you’re not sure how to use it effectively, this blog post is for you. 

Grab a pen and paper and take notes because I’ll show you how to turn your Pinterest traffic into leads for your small business. 

What is Pinterest?

The best way to describe Pinterest is as a search engine and a social media platform.

The platform has over 498 million active users. In recent years, it has changed from a place where people go to find recipes, fashion inspo, and DIY techniques to a platform that businesses and creators can use to grow, drive traffic, and even monetize. 

In fact, according to data from Pinterest, more than 85% of users have made a purchase based on pins from brands they’ve seen. Also, about 36% of users use the app to follow or research brands and products. 

That shows you how beneficial the platform can be for your small business. If you aren’t already on it, joining now would do you a lot of good. 

To keep things to the point, I’ll skip over some parts about creating an account and starting to market your small business on Pinterest; you can learn all that here. This post from Buffer gives you a very detailed breakdown of how to get started. 

I want to get into the really juicy bits about Pinterest and show you how you can turn the traffic you get into great leads. Because getting traffic alone is not enough, you need to know how to convert that traffic into valuable leads that can help grow your business. 

Who/what is a lead? In simple terms, a lead is a potential customer.

Understanding Pinterest Traffic

First, you need to understand the type of traffic you can get from Pinterest. Pinterest users are unique. They go on the platform looking for something. It could be inspiration, new ideas, a new product, or a solution to their problem. The point is that they have a specific reason for being there. 

The difference between Pinterest users and users of Instagram, Twitter (sorry X), TikTok, etc, is that they go on those platforms to be entertained. In contrast, for the former, they go on there looking for a solution to their problem. 

This makes them great targets for lead generation. You’re more likely to turn someone into a customer if they are aware of their problem and are actively looking for a solution. You can position your business as their solution. 

Because Pinterest is a discovery search engine, people go there looking for inspiration or solutions and often make a purchase based on what they find. 

You need to position yourself as one of the businesses they purchase from. 

Here are some more characteristics of Pinterest traffic and its users to give you a better understanding of the platform: 

• The platform is highly visual; the more aesthetically pleasing your visual is, the better. 
• Pins (the content you post) have a long shelf life. They can remain relevant and have consistent high engagement months or even years after posting. 
• The Pinterest audience is diverse but leans more towards women than men. 

Now that you know more about the platform let’s get into how to convert its traffic into leads for your small business. 

How to Convert Your Pinterest Traffic into Leads 

Design Effective Pins

The first step in converting your Pinterest traffic to leads is designing an effective pin. You won’t have any traffic to begin with if nobody clicks on your pin. As I said earlier, Pinterest is a very visual platform, so the more eye-catching and engaging your pin is, the more people will click on it. 

Here are some things to remember when designing your pin; 

• Use the right size- just like other platforms, Pinterest has its preferred sizing for posts, which is 1,000 x 1,500 px. So, when designing your pins, make sure they are the correct size. 

• Add text to your images—Adding attention-grabbing text to your pin is very important. It gives more information to your audience and tells them exactly what they can get from your pin. Just make sure your text font is readable. 

• Use keywords—Just like any other search engine, Pinterest uses keywords to rank pins. Take advantage of this and add keywords to your pin images, titles, and descriptions. 

• Add branding to your pins—You want your audience to associate your pins with your business, so be sure to always include some form of branding on all your pins. It could be your logo, colors, or business name added to the bottom of the Pin. 

• Include infographics- Infographics work really well on Pinterest because they provide valuable visual information that is easy to understand. When designing your pins, try to incorporate infographics. 

• Add links—After designing your pin and before scheduling it, remember to add a relevant link to the pin so that when a visitor clicks on it, they are led to your website. 

Create Enticing Lead Magnets 

If you’ve read my blog post on building your first email list, you understand what a lead magnet is and how it’s important in growing your business. 

A lead magnet is something you give out for free to visitors in exchange for their contact information. Once a visitor interacts with your business or content and you have a form of direct communication with them, they become a potential customer, aka a lead. 

For Pinterest, offering a lead magnet to your audience is one of the best ways to convert them from mere visitors to strong leads. 

The lead magnet can be anything from an ebook to templates, webinars, discounts, coupons, mini-courses, etc. It just has to be free and valuable to your audience. Take the time to decide on what this will be and create it. 

(P.s. If you’re having trouble deciding on what lead magnet to use, check out this guide I made, which has over 20 great lead magnet ideas for you to take)

Once you’ve created it, it’s time to share it with your Pinterest audience. Follow the tips I gave you in the point above to create engaging pins that promote your lead magnets.

The pins you create should draw in your audience and make them click. Remember their search intent, and make sure your pins’ image, text, title, and description speak directly to it. 

Lastly, but most importantly, make sure you add the link to the actual lead magnet in the pin. There’s nothing more annoying than someone finding your pin, being interested, and clicking it, only for it to go nowhere. 

Optimize your Landing Pages for Pinterest Traffic

You’ve created your lead magnets and appropriate pins, added your links and posted your pins. A visitor scrolls on the platform and finds your pin. They are interested and click on the link attached to it. Where would it take them? 

The correct answer is your landing page. 

A landing page is a standalone web page that a visitor ‘lands’ on after clicking on a link from an ad or another location (e.g., Pinterest). 

A landing page is very important in determining whether a visitor successfully becomes a lead. It won’t matter how engaging your pin is or how enticing your lead magnet is; if your landing page is not constructed effectively, you will fail to capture leads. 

Here are some important points to remember when designing your landing page: 

• Keep all information relevant: The information on your landing page must be related to and relevant to the lead magnet and pin. 

For example, if you have a pin promoting a free recipe book as a lead magnet, the landing page should be about the free recipe book and only that. It should not have information about a cooking class, a meal subscription service, or anything else—a landing page has to be relevant to its corresponding lead magnet. 

• All information should be to the point: A visitor is on your landing page to receive something; now is not the time to go on and on about your business’s history. 

Talk about the benefits of your offering and why your audience needs it. Provide clear instructions on how to get it, and provide spaces for the visitor to input their information to get what they were promised. Keep it short and sweet; there will be time to talk more about your business later. 

• Visually appealing: Your landing page should have a similar visual appeal to your pin. Don’t make the designs so different that your visitor will wonder if it’s the same business. Keep the visual experience seamless using high-quality images and readable fonts. 

• Optimise for mobile: Because most people use Pinterest on their phones, your landing pages must be optimized for mobile devices and have fast load times. 

Use Effective Calls-to-Action (CTA)

A call to action is an important factor in gaining leads. It tells your visitors exactly what you want them to do, guiding them to take that final step to becoming a lead. You don’t want to mess it up. 

Call-to-actions can be as simple as ‘buy now’ or ‘subscribe,’ or they can be a bit more like ‘Find out more,’ ‘Create a free account,’ or ‘Claim your discount’. 

Whatever call-to-action you use, make sure it is: 

• Action-oriented- use persuasive words to get them to make an action
• Relevant- they should, of course, be relevant to the offer being made

Include calls-to-action on your pin graphic, description, and, of course, your landing page. 

Use your Pinterest Analytics for Lead Conversion

After setting up your pins, lead magnets, and landing pages, you can sit back and watch visitors hopefully interact with them and become your business leads, but your work is not yet done. 

Like other social platforms, Pinterest offers a robust array of analytics that can help you measure the performance of your pins. These analytics will help you figure out which pins are working and which aren’t, where you can improve, and what you might need to scrap altogether. 

Look at the pins that drive the most engagement and traffic. This will tell you what your audience likes so that you can do more of it. A high click-through rate (CTR) will show you that your audience is very interested in your pins. 

If you find that you have a high (CTR) which is good, but you’re not getting any leads, then that means there is an issue with your landing page. Visitors see your pins, like them, and click on them, but when they get to your landing page, they fail to convert. 

Analyze your landing page and figure out what you can change to improve performance. It could be the CTA, the images, or the copy on the page. 

If your CTR is low, it could mean people are seeing your pins but aren’t clicking on them. Analyze and adjust your pins. 

That’s all for now.

Pinterest is a powerful platform that can provide excellent results for your business; you just need to know how to use it best. All you need are these tips I’ve given you and a little patience. 

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