Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest

It’s crucial to know how to pivot in business during challenging times. Unexpected situations can really throw any of us for a loop, especially when they affect the very heart of your business and require major changes for survival.  When the pandemic hit in 2020 that’s exactly what many people faced and we saw some really creative ways people adjusted to their audience’s needs.  Join me in today’s podcast for the opportunity to learn from a long-time client of Simple Pin who felt the brunt of the pandemic as a travel blogger. It’s the story of how Jane Ko of A Taste of Koko, an OG blogger of 10 years, pivoted with her brands and navigated the trials in her home city of Austin through a pandemic and a snowstorm of historic proportions. Understanding the needs of her audience is part of Jane’s story and that’s what we’re all about here at Simple Pin Media.  Helping you understand how to know the needs of your audience is our focus and getting to know the needs of our audience (you) is equally important. So we are hosting a podcast survey giveaway to celebrate five years of the Simple Pin Podcast!  Three lucky winners who complete our short five-minute survey will receive a $50 gift card to Amazon or your local equivalent. So hop up to the top of the page, open the survey link and let us know what information is most relevant to you as you continue building your Pinterest marketing strategy over the next five years.  Complete the survey before our May 31, 2021 deadline and you may be one of our lucky winners! I hope today’s podcast encourages you as you hear from an online business entrepreneur who has navigated this past year with tremendous grit and strength. A Taste of Koko – How It All Started Jane Ko started her travel blog in 2010 before the term influencer had even been coined. When everyone she knew in college had plans to become a doctor or lawyer, Jane knew she just didn’t fit into that life. So what did she do with a college degree she didn’t plan on using? Jane took her passion for reading magazines and looking at all the beautiful photos, especially of food, and started a blog.  From the beginning, she knew one thing — she really wanted her photography to shine because she didn’t think that she was “good with words”.   She jumped on Pinterest and started using it as a resource to help her figure out how to shoot food photography. She combed through Pinterest looking at professional photographs and figured out how to deconstruct them to shoot and create an aesthetic/style of her own. Jane was living in Texas when she started this blogging adventure and felt it was a bit of luck for her when she decided to focus on her home city of Austin. I got super lucky! I feel like there were a variety of factors that really fed into the success of my brand. One of those was Austin becoming a popular city as major companies started opening offices here.  She didn’t truly see herself as a travel blogger since travel represented only 25% of her content. The travel blogging component took off for her in 2014 when the Carnival Cruise Line brand noticed and loved her storytelling style and reached out to her to offer a one-year contract. I was over the moon because Carnival was a brand that I grew up with. My parents saved for our family to go on a cruise. For this brand to come to me and say, ‘We want to do a project with you.’  It was such a big deal!        That contract became a two-year partnership with Carnival that really opened doors for her, propelling a flood of other travel projects. She has been doing this type of blogging full-time...

For a long time now I’ve been struggling to come up with a Pinterest framework that tells us how we learn about our audience. How do we discover where they are in their buyer’s journey or what led them to your site or product. Today we’re talking about a new framework we are using here at Simple Pin Media that guides how we gather this information. We’ve been here for five years on the Simple Pin Podcast talking about Pinterest marketing and how it can help you grow your business. We want to continue to cover topics you want to know more about.  We’d be forever grateful if you would share your thoughts on topics and guests you would be interested in hearing from on our podcast survey.  It’s a quick 10-minute survey, I promise!  We’re giving away three $50 Amazon gift cards to people selected from those who fill out this survey. The winner will be chosen at midnight PST on May 31, 2021.  Now let’s get back to today’s episode.    Pinterest Framework Background For the past couple of years, I’ve had this vision rolling around in my head and I just couldn’t put it into words. Today we are talking about how I found those words, the importance of truly knowing where your audience is at now and what their needs are, and finally, we will talk about how to inspire, inform, and help them make a decision! Simple Pin Media is not a plug-and-play Pinterest management service. We are a high touch management service. Our goal is to really know you, your brand, and your goals.  That high touch philosophy starts way back at the step where you fill out that very first form on our website, even before you sign up for our services. Our contact form is intentionally long because we want to really understand you through the information you provide. We want to serve you well and that comes from knowing that you are a good fit for us and we are a good fit for you.  Once we receive a form, potential clients participate in a discovery call that helps us get to know each other better. Once we know we are a good fit for each other, we determine the best service package for you.  So I kept thinking about that initial entry point as it relates to you – our clients. How do we help you understand where you’re really connecting with your customers? This is at the core of what we do here at Simple Pin. We decided to interview a few of our current e-commerce clients. We know that serving an e-commerce business owner is much different than a blogger/content creator or a person offering services/coaching. We wanted to learn from our e-commerce clients what their biggest pain point was and how we can meet that need. We interviewed Kirsten, from Julep Tile Company. They sell beautiful handmade tiles.  We asked Kirsten what she needs from us as it pertains to getting more sales from Pinterest. What she said really hit home.  I don’t need you guys to get them to my checkout page. This is such a big purchase, I need to get them on the phone so I can help them decide.  So I don’t need you to help them decide. When I’m on the phone I hear that they found me on Pinterest. — Kirsten Kirsten explicitly stated that she needed our help to inspire potential clients. She can talk her clients through the process of choosing the right tile if we help get them to her website. From there, she can personally get them to the purchase decision. All of a sudden it clicked! The decision to purchase doesn’t happen on Pinterest,...

We’re thinking out of the box today. More specifically, the Laurelbox. When we focus on the inner workings of our business 24/7, we can get so caught up in the day-to-day, the data, strategy, and planning that we forget to tell our story…or even lose sight of what our story is. Today we’re talking about inspiring our customers and reaching them in new ways. You’ll hear the story of how one company goes above and beyond to reach out to their customers. I interviewed the owners of Laurelbox, Johanna Mutz and Denise Wolfe, about their box company, which specifically targets people who’ve experienced a loss and are in deep grief.  You’ll learn how they started Laurelbox, who their typical customer is, and how they get an understanding of their customer needs so they can curate this box in a way that really speaks to the people who are in this place of pain.  And no surprise here — we also talk about how they use Pinterest in their marketing strategy! Pinterest analytics play a prominent role in this story. They know all the numbers when it pertains to their Pinterest customers and how they are engaging with them. Their story is truly inspirational!  Before we dive in and hear their story, I want to let you know we just completed our free 5-day Pinterest challenge last week. If you missed it this time, you can sign-up for our next round of the challenge here.  If you are new to Pinterest and struggling with how to get started, we have many great resources that you can discover under the FREE RESOURCES tab on our site. We keep everything updated so the information you find will be exactly what you need to market your business effectively on Pinterest. And of course, we would love to have you join us in the Simple Pin Collective any time.  Let’s dive into Denise and Johanna’s story. Laurel Box: A Business Success Story   The Inspiration for the Business About 6 years ago, when Denise’s friend had a baby and shortly thereafter he passed away, she found herself in a position of not really knowing the right thing to do for her. She had never experienced such a deep loss. Around the same time, Johanna had a good friend who had lost a child as well. The two cousins started brainstorming what they could do for their friends. They just couldn’t find what they were looking for to send to their grieving friends. It just wasn’t out there. Filling A Need: How Laurelbox was born One evening, Denise’s husband looked at her and said,  You need to create this company that you’re out there looking for. She remembers feeling very overwhelmed and inadequate, but she knew there had to be other people out there wanting to send something to a grieving friend but unable to find something that would be perfect and appropriate. So as her husband suggested, she decided to create it. Johanna came on board with Denise. For several months they met with many people who had experienced different types of loss. They focused primarily on mothers who had lost children, had a miscarriage, or were experiencing infertility.  They started brainstorming ideas from those meetings and writing them down. They began creating a line over about seven months which became Laurelbox. Appropriately, Laurelbox launched on Mother’s Day of 2015. The Early Days of Laurelbox Johanna and Denise are best friends and cousins. The relationship between the two is really strong a...

It’s been almost eight years since the birth of Simple Pin Media and so much has happened in that time. I’ve learned a ton about Pinterest, growing an agency, working with a team, and what leadership looks like.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes and there are things I would change. I feel like I have a lot of wisdom to pass on as a result.  Since Pinterest is all about telling your story these days, I decided to focus on that story metaphor and share what I’ve learned by telling another chapter in my business story — a Simple Pin Story 2021 update, if you will.   All month long in the Simple Pin Collective and on the podcast we will be talking about stories. Your pins, your keywords, and your business all tell a story.  Not sure how to tell your story? We have a plan for you! This week we are hosting our FREE 5-Day Pinterest Challenge. It is a fresh take on Pinterest that will walk you through how to spring clean your Pinterest strategy for 2021.  We definitely want you to join this challenge. The last one we hosted was SO fun-filled with high energy and creativity. We really want to make sure you get in on this free training so you can begin to tell your story too! Back to the Simple Pin Story 2021 update! Walk with me down memory lane a bit. I’m not sharing my whole story today, I’ve done that in three previous episodes: * Building a Small Business from the Ground Up * How to Build a Successful Team * Creating Business Core Values Instead, I want to share some of the key things I have learned on my journey and some of the growing moments that helped us to fail forward here at SPM. Hopefully, you’ll extract some nuggets of wisdom that you can then use to benefit your business.   The Simple Pin Story 2021 Update I love listening to the How I Built This podcast series. You get to hear someone else’s perspective and hindsight. There’s so much to learn from that.  I think learning from the journeys of other people is really important. You can take away certain elements to apply to your business that you may not have thought of before. Their journey can give you a new vantage point for your own business.  I hope as I share my story, I will be able to pass some wisdom to you and spare you a little bit of the struggle. And believe me, there are lots of struggles! Let’s talk a little bit about each one of these milestones. Price Setting for Services and Products People ask me a lot about how I set my prices. Here are the two big things I’ve learned: * never lock in a rate for life * be confident in your pricing and don’t waver. One of the things I have learned is to never lock in a rate for life. You will regret that decision. When I started Simple Pin I never envisioned a full-fledged company. I was in this place of just needing a side hustle and I never thought of having a team. I thought I could always afford to set a low price because it was just me.  I wish I wouldn’t have held so close to that.  Inflation, a product change, or a change in the service you are able to deliver to people can all have an effect on your pricing structure. Think ahead! There’s so much that can change in the future of your company and you don’t want to be pigeonholed into that initial pricing structure.  My #1 thing I would change for price setting is this — I would have never offered lifetime locked rates for services.

Which keywords should you be targeting this season? The ones that capture the hottest spring trends on Pinterest of course! Keywords are an important part of your overall strategy on Pinterest. They can be used in many ways on Pinterest to help you target a specific audience. But how do you determine which keywords you should be using? Today we’ll be talking about the why, where, and how of keywords. We’ll look at the seasonality component of Pinterest and how keywords play into that. Specifically, we’ll discuss spring trends on Pinterest that dictate which keywords you should be using this spring. But first, a reminder… This next week we are hosting our FREE 5-Day Pinterest Challenge. It is a fresh take on Pinterest that will walk you through how to spring clean your Pinterest strategy for 2021. Don’t miss out on this!  In the Challenge, we’re going to be talking all about the new direction that Pinterest is headed. We’ll cover how to get really good at story pins, video pins, and all these things that are going to give new life and truly spring clean your strategy. Seasonality is a really important component of Pinterest. People search for topics such as fashion, recipes, decor, and travel based on seasonality. This makes seasonality vital to your Pinterest keyword strategy. Keywords change with the seasons so it is important to stay on top of which words to use in your pin copy and pin descriptions to make sure they are currently relevant to your audience. There are a lot of ways you can incorporate specific keywords into your pins in order to capture that search traffic. Let’s talk about how to do that, keeping seasonality in mind, as we dive into spring keywords on Pinterest! Why Use Keywords on Pinterest First things first. If you are new to Pinterest you’re probably wondering why keywords are even a thing on Pinterest.  Keywords are big because Pinterest is a search and discovery platform. This means when people go to Pinterest they’re not thinking of it as social media. They’re thinking of Pinterest as a place to find ideas, to dream about something, to search for what they really want. They are very focused on that topic. The focus of Pinterest users is similar to how you approach a search engine like Google. People are looking for the how-tos, tips, or tools that are going to help them fulfill a dream or complete a project.  The main reason we use keywords is to meet this objective of the Pinterest audience. Pinterest is a search and discovery platform and keywords are the best tool to help people search and discover the pin that will help them fulfill a goal.  Where to Put Keywords If keywords are so important, then where do we put them? We have a full blog post/podcast about this very question, but here are the top three places where keywords are important: • Pin description
 • Board name
 • Board description
. Related: How to Spring Clean Your Pinterest Boards The number one place you need to put keywords on Pinterest is in your pin description. When you are uploading a pin to Pinterest, you have the opportunity to add a title, ALT text, and a pin description. This description should be one to three sentences long and be written like a text to a friend. Think about that.

  Today’s podcast takeaway is this — the most popular pins on Pinterest tell a story. That’s why people interact with them. When we dig deep and ask ourselves how we’re going to market our business to get the right people to engage with our content, sometimes we lose sight of the need to use our images to tell a story that inspires our audience.  Before we dive in, here’s a reminder that this month we are hosting our free Five-day Pinterest Challenge – A Fresh take on Pinterest. We want to help you spring clean your Pinterest strategy for 2021.  You will want to get in on this.  We’re going to be doing some focused teaching on: * story pins * video pins * traditional (static) pins * branding * keywords.  Our last Pinterest challenge in January definitely had a high engagement level with lots of value being delivered. We hope you’ll join The Challenge this go around! OK, let’s talk about how to tell the story you want your audience to hear with static pins, video pins, and of course, story pins.  One of the main messages I want you to take away from today’s podcast is this: Don’t overthink it.  One thing I always strive for in life is to get things right the first time. I don’t have any patience for making mistakes. That is an expectation I put on myself. I don’t put that on my team. I don’t even put that on my family. But I put that on me.  Here’s a quick story about when my own overthinking hit me right between the eyes. My daughter is 15 and has been learning how to drive. I’m not the person in charge of that in our family but, at my husband’s prodding, I geared up and said I would help her practice on this particular day. I realized something as we started driving. The whole purpose of her time behind the wheel right now is learning! It’s the time for her to make mistakes while someone is with her to help correct those mistakes. I started thinking about all the little things that are required to become a good driver. For example, learning how to drive through the post office also means knowing when to stop the car, put it in park, and put your envelope in the little blue bin.  I realized it takes time to get all of these things right. But there’s this place where you kind of have to screw up a little bit in order to really learn. Pinterest marketing is just like this. When you’re getting started on something new like story pins or video pins, you really just have to get into it and do the ugly one first.  I kind of joke that this stage of the journey is called marketing ugly. You just have to get in there to be able to see what people are engaging with and be able to know what story you want to tell.  Today I want to walk through some examples of our favorite brands and see how they are telling the story. I’ll give examples from three different formats. • static pins • video pins  • story pins.  Our goal is to inspire you to step into the places where you might be afraid to venture and help you start telling the story in your Pinterest marketing. The Most Popular Pins on Pinterest Tell a Story   Pinterest Static Pins Fashion Static Pins Fashion pins are everywhere on Pinterest. You can provide inspiration for outfits,

  Today we’re delivering a full recap of the Q4 earnings report that Pinterest delivered to investors. There is some fantastic information regarding Pinterest’s goals and  priorities for 2021, including where they see the most growth in investments, and what that means for * shopping * ads * story pins. Before we dive in, I want to remind you about our Simple Pin Collective, which is our Pinterest marketing membership community. We teach in the context of a membership model because we believe it’s better than a course model. The Collective gives you access to a full learning library, as well as coaching and mentors that hold you accountable for taking action. Membership also includes access to Collective Connections groups (little mastermind groups that support you). In addition, I do two coaching calls per month. We stay up to date on all things Pinterest. It is the best place to get information, education, and support for Pinterest Marketing in your business. You can join us by selecting the Collective tab above under Simple Pin Products. If you want to know more about how we teach before joining, you can consume any of our free resources by clicking on the Free Resources tab and get our free keyword guide or free image guide. Alrighty, let’s dive into the fun! Ben Silbermann, CEO of Pinterest, laid out their predictions for growth and investment and detailed four main objectives for 2021. He began by reminding everyone of the overall vision of Pinterest.  Our mission is to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love. — Ben Silbermann, Pinterest CEO Pinterest predicts their growth and investment in 2021 will be in the following areas: * gen Z
 * international expansion * video consumption
 * story pins
 * shopping
 With this in mind, here are the four main objectives Pinterest has for this year. Pinterest’s Goals for 2021   Goal #1 – Deliver Inspiring Content Pinterest wants to continue to invest in emerging formats like video. They feel video represents a dynamic new way to deliver how-to tutorials and storytelling. For creators, they view story pins as a new way to publish short-form, multi-page content.  Story pins on Pinterest serve a different purpose compared to stories on other platforms. Story pins are geared more towards the “how-to” and telling a little bit of a story about something that will inspire people.  This is in stark contrast to Instagram stories, which are more focused on entertainment and capturing temporary life moments. Also, story pins are unique because they live forever on the platform.  On Instagram and SnapChat, stories disappear after 24 hours. I do have to give Pinterest props for not making story pins time-sensitive. They understand that pinners want to be inspired. If they are inspired by a story pin and want to revisit it, they have to have a way to keep it.  Related: Is Pinterest Social Media? Goal #2 – Deepen the Pinner Experience In 2020, a goal for Pinterest was to be more useful and introduce people to more ways to use their platform through improved relevance of recommendations and more diverse content.

Designing with Canva is the topic of today’s episode of the Simple Pin Podcast. When it comes to design, I get slightly anxious at the thought of designing a pin (maybe even a little sweaty)! I’m convinced from the get-go that it’s going to look horrible! I’ve always felt like I lacked that left-brain artistic talent that I believe is required to design something well. If you’re like me, image design has always felt unapproachable — like you need to have a graphic design degree or a master class on Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop. I know there are so many people like me who are more data-driven. Graphic design just feels so outside our wheelhouse.  That’s why we are excited to share all things Canva with you today! This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. For those who aren’t familiar with Canva, it is a visual communication design tool that empowers the world to design. It’s a free tool that helps anyone (individuals, businesses, schools, nonprofits) to create beautiful designs simply and easily. In this episode, I talked with Charlotte who is the product marketing lead at Canva. She studied design, moved into the marketing space, and is now at Canva focusing on product marketing with their visual communication design platform. She is passionate about design and helping others to design well. Charlotte and I explored a range of topics that cover how Canva has brought the intimidating design process to a place everybody can access. I can’t wait to share the details of our conversation with you!  But before we dive into our main topic, I just want to remind you that all month long we have been talking about what it looks like to market internationally on Pinterest. We’ve discussed how we can take our marketing to a Pinterest audience beyond the U.S.  We know Pinterest is growing globally. We hope our visits with Pinterest marketing experts from the UK, Netherlands, and Canada have delivered some really great advice and tips for how to reach that international audience.  We also want to let you know that we will be hosting another free five-day challenge in April and we’d love for you to join us (you can get on the waitlist here). We are so excited about it! There’s going to be a ton of information coming soon, so be on the lookout. Let’s dive into my conversation with Charlotte!   Canva has been around for about eight years offering the world a platform that makes design accessible to everyone regardless of language, country, or device. They have experienced a huge amount of growth during those eight years and they have plans to continue that growth. The founder of the company believes they are only 1% of the way into their journey.  Through our discussion we learn about Canva’s overall mission – why they do what they do –  and we talk about: • differences between the free version and the pro version of Canva • reasons you might want to choose Pro over Free  • Canva’s new content planner tool • licensing details • how Canva is serving the education and nonprofit communities. I love the mission of Canva! Canva is a free tool designed to help EVERYONE create beautiful designs simply...

When it comes to marketing on Pinterest, one of the biggest challenges is knowing how to get your content in front of the right people, no matter where they live. As Pinterest continues to expand, many businesses are asking how they can best reach their Pinterest audience, especially if they want that reach to extend beyond the U.S. All this month, we’ve been exploring what it looks like to market internationally on Pinterest. We’ve already touched on the Netherlands and the UK. In this episode, we turn our focus to our neighbors to the north — Canada.  Today I’m talking with Alex Kopytov, another member of the Simple Pin Collective. Alex is a native Canadian — born, raised, and currently residing in Montreal, Canada. He is the founder of KingPin Services – a Montreal-based Pinterest marketing advertising agency.  Alex developed his own Pinterest marketing agency when he realized that the 9-5 career wasn’t for him. Prior to this, Alex worked in a corporate job in the film distribution industry. He also ran an affiliate website marketing pun-based products (an offshoot of his passion for all things Puns). As we explore marketing differences between the U.S. and Canada today, Alex and I talk a little about how our countries are so closely related to each other and the crossover that exists in how we speak and what we talk about. Our focus, however, is on the differences between U.S. and Canadian audiences. Specifically, we look at: * seasonality/holidays/life moments * currency exchange/cost of goods * ethnic diversity * keywords and spellings * marketing images * language. I hope you take away some good tips about when to post certain content, terms to use, and how to target a Canadian audience (both through organic pins and paid advertising through promoted pins). But first… All month long inside The Simple Pin Collective, our Pinterest marketing membership community, we are diving deep into what it looks like to find your person internationally.  We look at some of the hurdles we have to overcome, how we can create the best images, and how to get into the feeds of people we want to target that are not in our home country.  Our Simple Pin Collective is a month-by-month membership community where you have access to a learning library of over fifty videos, coaches, and mentors that will hold you accountable. With the membership, you also have access to Collective Connections. These are small little Masterminds — groups of people who are really trying to figure out how to incorporate smart Pinterest marketing strategies in their businesses.  You also get two coaching calls per month – one with me and one with another expert. We have been bringing in some amazing people to really get you the information that you need to market effectively on Pinterest.   I highly encourage you to join the Collective. If you just aren’t sure if now is the time, we are hosting a five-day challenge in April that you will want to get in on. You can find out more by heading to our FREE resources section (located on the main website navigation menu). In our FREE resources section, you will also find our Keyword Guide, our Pinterest Image Guide, and a lot of additional resources to help you get to know us. You can get a feel for how we teach and how we invest in Pinterest marketing so we can stay ahead of the curve to bring you the best ...

All this month we are talking about Pinterest beyond the U.S. borders and the ways to market as an international business or to an international market. Marketing on Pinterest is global, but before you start targeting EVERYONE, you need to know who your audience is and focus on how to reach them specifically. Don’t get caught in the weeds doing all the things.  This week, we are talking specifically about what it’s like to market to an audience that is not in your home country. In this episode, we focus on a Simple Pin Collective member who has experience marketing globally while living in the UK. I’m chatting with Angela Tempest, of Skylark Virtual Services, to hear about her experience living in the UK and what it has been like marketing to both a Canadian audience and a U.S. audience. Angela shared some tips and strategies that will help you think about how you market to a specific country.  Before we jump into the information that Angela shared… If you are interested in a community of Pinterest marketers that are all learning and strategizing together, we would love to have you join the Simple Pin Collective. The Collective is our Pinterest marketing membership community. It’s open at all times.  Angela is a UK-based Pinterest marketer who manages her own food blog, Pesto & Margaritas. She started her own online business, Skylark Virtual Services, in 2018. Angela serves clients in Canada, the U.S., and the UK. Angela’s clients come from different niches but she tends to attract clients in the niches she knows well — digital marketing and food. She does have a client who teaches watercolor art to kids and another client who is a photographer and coaches people in photography. She says she’s always up for trying something a little different.  I guess I sort of have a little bit of a mixed bag. It’s always interesting because I get to see Pinterest from different avenues and different perspectives, which can be fun! ~ Angela     Angela hasn’t experienced a need to use any special technology to access different platforms in the UK. (this WAS a challenge a few years back). She remembers once or twice being locked out of a client’s account. The typical Is this really you? alert was issued and she just asked the client to respond yes. She’s been able to access clients’ accounts without any problems.  Although the tech difficulties are not a challenge working with clients from other countries, Angela acknowledged many other types of challenges that she’s faced. Challenges Inherent in Marketing to a U.S. Audience from Another Country   Different Holiday Calendars and Seasons Understanding the little differences between countries is important, especially in the food market. Seasonal differences are not as critical because the Canadian, U.S. and UK markets are all in the northern hemisphere. Differences in holidays, however, are important to understand.  For example, Thanksgiving in Canada comes before Thanksgiving in the U.S. While in the UK, they do not celebrate Thanksgiving at all. Language Differences (Spelling and Phrases) Variations in how words are spelled is another important thing to consider in your Pinterest marketing. You need to figure out what terms and keywords work for everyone and which ones need to be specific for different countries and/or different events.   In the UK, words are often spelled with the use of “-our” when “-or” would be used in the U.S. (e.g. favour, colour vs. favor, color) and “s” is often used in the UK where “z” is used in the U.S. (e.g., organisation vs. organization). Food bloggers  likely have up to 75% of their audience coming from the U.S.,

   Pinterest has experienced tremendous growth in 2020, nearly doubling its users! One of the fastest-growing demographics is international users. As a US-based company, it is important not to have tunnel vision but to see the big picture of Pinterest marketing beyond the U.S. This month inside the Collective (our Pinterest Marketing Membership Community), we are talking all about Pinterest marketing beyond the U.S. and ways to market as an international business and to Pinterest users in your home country.  We hope you will join us for this series — you can join The Simple Pin Collective at any time. If you want to dig deeper into understanding your market, I highly encourage you to join the Collective and make connections with other businesses just like yours!  Today we are talking with Sanne Raaimakers-Boons of Socially Sanne. Sanne lives in Europe so we really wanted to hear her perspective on what it’s like to market in the Netherlands using Pinterest and what her experience has been with educating her clients about Pinterest marketing.   There are some really good “Aha” moments in this episode, where Sanne answers questions that many people have been asking us for years. Questions such as: • What language do I use?  • Should I use the same language on boards?  • Should I create a separate English-speaking board and a home country language board? We really delve deep into those questions to get you the answers you need. We’re going to spend the next four weeks talking specifically about international topics because that is the fastest-growing segment on Pinterest.  Pinterest marketing can be a bit frustrating for international users because they don’t have access to the same tools many of us in the States have on the platform. I’m excited to hear the stories from people who are forging ahead with Pinterest marketing in different countries and share their current challenges, opportunities, and takeaways with you over the coming weeks. Let’s Get Started! Perspectives from a Netherlands-Based Pinterest Marketing Consultant Sanne is the owner of Socially Sanne, a small business in a very small village in the Netherlands. She teaches mainly female entrepreneurs about Pinterest marketing. Sanne ‘s background includes a corporate career in social media marketing where the main focus was on Facebook marketing. She started using Pinterest personally around 2012. In 2018, she started her own business and began focusing on Pinterest marketing right away because she could see the potential in the platform. Pinterest marketing has really started growing in the Netherlands, especially last year. Businesses have begun using it in very strategic ways. Sanne’s clients are mainly small business owners, so she spends a lot of time educating them on why small businesses should use Pinterest in their marketing strategy. Sanne still encounters quite a bit of doubt in the Netherlands about Pinterest’s utility as a viable marketing platform. People still think of it as a place to gather recipes or interior design ideas. She finds that many entrepreneurs are really focused on Instagram as their primary business platform. Sanne’s goal is to show them how they can really use Pinterest to grow their business in a less time-consuming way relative to Instagram.  Related: Is Pinterest Social Media? Sanne sees a future of much more growth for Pinterest in the Netherlands, especially as people become convinced of the strength of this platform.

 UPDATE: On August 20th 2021, the owners of the Jumprope app will sunset the existing platform and will focus on helping creators around the world share their stories, skills and ideas on LinkedIn. You can read more about this new partnership in this article. In this week’s episode, we are diving into the best way to easily create video and story pins. Specifically, we’ll be talking about the Jumprope app, an awesome tool that can help you easily create these types of pins. On a recent coaching call in the Simple Pin Collective (our Pinterest membership community) we were talking about the best way to create story pins story pins, Someone mentioned the Jumprope app during that call.  Shortly after that call, I was chatting with some of my mastermind friends and one of them told me to check out Jumprope. When I saw yet another mention of the Jumprope app on Food Blogger Pro, I decided that I need to check it out.  All of you know that I love a good productivity tool. If it can help my business or someone else’s, I’m all about it. When I reached out to Jake (the co-founder and one of the CEOs of the Jumprope app), he was excited to join me on the podcast to tell us all more about how this app can help with Pinterest image creation. In this episode, we’ll cover: * what Jumprope is * how it can be used for Pinterest and other platforms * how video can (and should!) be easily integrated into your Pinterest marketing strategy. Video can be scary, and production can be hard, but Jumprope actually makes it easy! Before we dig into the episode… If you are interested in getting access to a huge Pinterest marketing learning library, coaching calls with me twice a month, and being part of a community of business owners to bounce ideas off of, I invite you to join The Simple Pin Collective. It is the BEST place to learn more about Pinterest, get advice, and grow in your business.  What Exactly is the Jumprope App?   Jumprope is BOTH a Platform and a Tool  The goal of the Jumprope app is to enable you to create, share, and discover how to do anything.  Jumprope is both a platform and a tool. It can be used to create content and also host that content on the app. The best part? That content can also be shared via other platforms and social media sites.  A Step-by-Step Teaching Process Jake’s younger brother, Max, has learning challenges. Breaking tasks down and teaching processes step-by-step has been something Jake has learned to do well in order to teach his brother new things.  The format of both Instagram stories and Snapchat stories applied really well to this way of breaking things down step-by-step. One step in a process per story (including a short video clip and a little bit of text) is a really effective way to teach a process.  For things like video creation, which still intimidates a lot of creators, Jumprope breaks down the process into easily manageable steps. It walks creators through how to achieve multiple formats and aspect ratios from one video filming session. Jumprope App Platforms At the time of this podcast recording, you can create a Jumprope using an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. They are working on releasing a way to create Jumpropes on a desktop as well.  As a user, you can view Jumpropes on the apps or on a desktop computer.

When it’s time for you to consider running an ad campaign for your business, how do you know which direction to take? Pinterest currently offers two different types of Pinterest ads. Choosing the right type of campaign can be confusing if you’re new to the Pinterest ads arena. You may be wondering what the difference is between a consideration campaign and a conversion campaign.  How do you choose which type of Pinterest ad is best for your business? How can you be sure you’re spending your ad campaign budget wisely? What is the best choice for you and your business? In this episode, we offer up some expert advice to help you answer all these questions and more! But before we embark on the journey of choosing between different types of Pinterest ads… This month in the Simple Pin Collective, our discussions have centered around business foundations. As a member of The Collective, you have the opportunity to really dig into all things Pinterest for your business as we explore a new topic in depth each month.  If you are struggling to gain footing in your Pinterest marketing or just need help getting started, we’d love to have you join us over in The Collective. Today, our Director of Promoted Pins Management, Erin Harding, takes the mic to talk about Promoted Pin Campaigns. Erin’s guest today is Emilee Vales. Emilee is a former teacher turned Pinterest marketing and ads expert who has built her own business from the ground up promoting pins and running ad campaigns on the Pinterest platform.  Before we begin, it’s worth noting a couple of terminology and function changes in the ads dashboard that Pinterest recently rolled out. Here’s an overview of the most relevant changes for our discussion: * Traffic Objective Campaigns have now been renamed to Consideration Campaigns * There have been some updates to Pinterest metrics: * Link Clicks have been renamed to Pin Clicks to provide clarity on the actions taking place on Pinterest * Outbound Clicks is a new metric that provides more granular reporting on the number of clicks to your destination URL * The ad experience has been updated so your website loads after an outbound click to help you see audience value through improvements to bounce rates and 3rd party analytics tracking. * Metrics terminology is being updated so organic metrics will mirror paid metrics. * Budgeting for the Consideration Objective is being enhanced Types of Pinterest Ads   What Type of Pinterest Ad Campaign Should You Run? Pinterest allows you to run different types of ad campaigns. Choosing the right one might seem obvious by the name, but is that true? If you’re just getting started with Promoted Pins (aka Pinterest ads), you’re probably thinking: I want to get conversions. That means starting with a conversion campaign, right?  Obviously, we all want to increase our conversions, but a conversion campaign may not be the best option for you. Your best choice might be a consideration campaign (previously called traffic objectives campaign). Making sure Pinterest is receiving and understanding information from your website correctly is vital to any campaign. Running a consideration campaign can be a really solid place to start getting your Pinterest tag “warmed up” and start informing Pinterest about your audience (especially if you’re on a smaller budget).  Running a consideration campaign does not mean you won’t be able to see conversions. A consideration campaign helps drive those outbound clicks you’re looking for and you will still be able to track con...

Learn about Google Data Studio and how you can utilize this free tool to track Pinterest EVERYTHING! We talk a lot about using analytics to find your perfect person on Pinterest. Analytics hold the key to achieving your marketing goals. They provide the data you need to determine whether if your marketing is actually working.  Google Analytics scares a lot of us. It can feel too overwhelming and too technical.  Here at Simple Pin, one of the ways we have made Google Analytics less intimidating is by building dashboards in Google Data Studio. Jennifer Grayeb from The Nimble Co. helped us do this.  Lately, things have been changing a lot on the Pinterest platform. Today we’re going to talk about how these dashboards can provide you with the exact information that you need.  But first… We’re talking all about business foundations in The Simple Pin Collective and a huge component of that is analytics. If you’d like access to tons of information about Pinterest marketing, coaching from me, and advice from all kinds of business owners, you should join the Collective today.  What Is Google Analytics 4?  Jennifer’s business focuses on making businesses more profitable (and data less boring). Her mission is to help online business owners measure the success of their sales and marketing activities in an easy way.  Jennifer has worked with SPM for a few years now. She helped create the Pinterest dashboard, a valuable tool that our account specialists use to distill our client’s analytics data down to the most important information they need to shape their account management strategy. While we have benefited from the information that the current version of Google Analytics provides (referred to as universal analytics), there are some significant limitations. We access Pinterest on our phones, laptops, and desktop computers. Universal analytics is not able to understand that the same user is accessing Pinterest/websites via these different devices.  Recently, Google introduced their next generation of analytics, Google Analytics 4 (G4) as a solution to these limitations. Google Analytics 4 will allow us to make even better decisions as we move forward, once it has a chance to mature (currently, there are some kinks to work out and the data is not entirely accurate). The Google Data Ecosystem There are several components of the Google data ecosystem: * Tag Manager is a tool used to collect data on your website * Google Analytics tracks and reports website traffic * Google Data Studio generates dashboards and reports to better understand data. The goal is to have important information at your fingertips. No one wants to spend hours trying to access and understand your data.  Tracking Pinterest Everything with Google Data Studio You may be wondering if you can use Google Data Studio with any platform. If you can add Google Analytics to the platform you are using, you can then create a dashboard using Google Data Studio to view your data from that platform. Sometimes you need to get creative and use a tool like Zapier to import your data from a specific plat...

We are wading into Pinterest business waters today, talking about Pinterest stock with Maria Gallagher from The Motley Fool’s podcast Market Foolery.  We haven’t talked about this aspect of Pinterest before. Since going public in 2019, Pinterest has experienced a massive surge in popularity. When it comes to stock prices, it’s interesting to explore what those numbers mean for us as Pinterest marketers.  At the time this podcast airs, we’re honing in on business foundations in the Simple Pin Collective. When you join, you gain access to the full learning library, regular coaching calls, and a built-in mechanism for accountability. It’s the best place to learn about all things Pinterest — with people to cheer you on as you grow.  Introducing Maria from The Motley Fool Maria’s job is to help people know where to put their money. After completing an undergraduate degree in psychology, she had an opportunity to complete a six-month internship at an investment firm focusing on marketing. During that time she fell in love with the stock market. Learning about how the stock market worked as well as the various companies was fascinating to Maria.  She started her personal investment journey after she graduated and started interning at The Motley Fool. She has now been working on their investment team for two years.  ESG (environment, social, and government) investing is Maria’s favorite type of investment. It’s the mindset that doing well as a company and doing good for the world can go together. Maria looks at sustainability reports to see what the companies are doing for their employees and communities. She wants to know that the company will do good for others, not just for her as a shareholder.  How has Pinterest Stock Evolved?   Understanding the Pinterest Platform  Pinterest stock had a lackluster performance immediately out of the gate in 2019. Its value began to rise in 2020 as investors began to realize just how useful the platform is and how many people utilize it.  It is also incredibly useful for advertisers. Ninety-one percent of Pinterest users say that Pinterest is a platform filled with positivity and 89% of users say that they leave the platform feeling empowered. Pinterest has promoted positivity by refusing to air political ads on its platform. Once stock market analysts started to learn more about these aspects of the Pinterest platform, Pinterest stock value increased.  Network Effects Network effects are really important for a platform like Pinterest. A Network effect is a phenomenon in which increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service. During the pandemic, Pinterest nearly doubled their user-base. Since advertisers tend to flock to the places where more people are hanging out, Pinterest benefitted from this explosive user growth (since it generates revenue from ads). We have seen this network effect play out with Facebook and with sites like Match.com.  Related: The Transition from Facebook Marketing to Pinterest Marketing As we move forward, it is super important for Pinterest to keep growing its user-base. The more users it has, the better for everyone involved on the platform.  Pinterest had 442 million users at the end of last quarter — 343 million of those users are international. The fact that such a significant portion of users are international is another aspect of Pinterest that makes it appealing to investors.  This allows the investor to see that it is a relevant platform that can span across various languages and cultures.