9 Things Pinterest Managers Must Do for Success
If you’re a virtual assistant looking to add Pinterest management as a service, or you’re a business looking to hire someone to manage your Pinterest marketing, you need to know the 9 things a Pinterest Manager must do for a business.
Maybe you’ve hired someone in the past who just pinned randomly with no understanding of your business’ goals.
Maybe you’ve realized as a VA that offering Pinterest services is the next lucrative income stream for you and you love being on Pinterest anyway, so hey - it makes sense.
Either way, read through these key responsibilities to really understand the big picture of Pinterest management. They’ll help you hire more effectively or blow your clients' socks off with your expertise.
1) Knowledge of Marketing Objectives
Pinterest traffic to your website is only the start of the marketing funnel for your business. If you’re just throwing up Pins and repinning other peoples’ Pins 50x a day - hoping for a numbers game - you’re going to lose.
A Pinterest Manager knows the purpose of each and every Pin for a business profile.
It could be:
awareness
traffic
opt-in or lead magnet
sales page
product
They should also be keeping an eye on the pages the Pins link to - making sure they’re optimized and have strong CTAs.
Remember, Pinterest will get you the traffic, but it the business website’s job to convert that traffic to leads.
A great Pinterest Manager will collaborate with the business owner to make sure those visitors from Pinterest are getting what they expect.
2) Setting Up Correctly
There are a few key things that absolutely HAVE to happen for a Pinterest business profile and website to work well together.
A Pinterest Manager should guide the client through:
confirming their website and other connected accounts
installing the Pinterest Tag correctly
enabling Rich Pins
While I do not recommend a Pinterest Manager actually work on the client’s website (that can get out of hand real quick), they should be able to help the client with the right instructions from Pinterest and some know-how.
3) Insights and Analytics
Having a successful organic Pinterest strategy starts with a clear picture of the business insights and analytics.
One of the first things I do when onboarding with a new client is to have them add me to their Google Analytics. Then I dive in big-time.
I’m looking for trends, traffic from Pinterest specifically, and traffic as a whole. I’m looking at the customer journey on their website. I’m looking for specific Pins that drive traffic and the most visited pages on their site.
Then I dig into Pinterest Insights and look at clicks, engagement rate, Pins from other confirmed accounts (Instagram, YouTube, Etsy), and repins that have done well.
If they’ve already been using Tailwind, I’ll look at their analytics as well.
Basically, any new Pinterest strategy starts with knowing the best places to start (i.e. top landing pages), and inspiration for content that could do well for the client.
4) Research
Any good marketing strategy involves quite a bit of research. For Pinterest, this means keyword research (how the Pins get found in the feeds) and some competitive analysis.
I like to create a spreadsheet for clients that contains “keyword buckets” for their brand and industry in columns. I can refer to these easily and they’re essential for a Pinterest marketing strategy that works with how the Pinterest algorithm functions.
Keywords need to go in the profile’s about section, board titles and descriptions, and pin descriptions. Every single time.
Letting a client auto-post from their website (like Shopify) will not work with Pinterest’s best practices and will be a total waste of time.
Your competitive analysis research should be for eye-catching Pin graphics (for inspiration, not copying), and potential content ideas.
I want to be super clear here - do not copy other people’s stuff. YOU (or your client) will have a unique perspective, brand look, and voice for their own content - use it.
5) Content Curation
A Pinterest strategy that only involves pinning your own stuff is also a mistake.
Pinterest is not just another portfolio or catalog for your business (that’s what your website is for). The Pinterest user goes on Pinterest to get ideas and be inspired, not to shop your catalog.
Your goal as a business is to be seen as a curator of the best ideas and content you think is valuable for your audience.
The best (meaning easiest AND works the best) place to curate that content is in Tailwind Communities. They’re essentially like Pinterest Group Boards before they got too spammy and market-y.
Learn more about Tailwind Communities and try Tailwind for free!
6) Custom Graphics
This one is a bit of a personal choice for a Pinterest Manager.
I used to prefer that a business have its own graphic designer to create their Pin graphics for my team to use. An in-house designer typically has more knowledge of the business’ branding and that is their primary responsibility.
But that changed after a few years…
I have found that Pin graphics are by far the worst bottleneck for a Pinterest marketing strategy.
So I started incorporating Pin graphic design into my monthly management services.
If a client isn’t going to have the resources, talent, or time to do them - a good Pinterest Manager will help them figure out what it looks like to get them done well and on time.
If the client (or the client’s graphic designer) is going to do them, a Pinterest manager will help guide them with best practices and examples.
Graphic design challenged? I recommend Ivory Mix and Beach Babe for beautifully designed templates and stock photography!
7) Scheduling and Content Calendars
The nature of Pinterest is it takes quite a bit of time to have content get “seeded” (or show up) in the different feeds. My goal is to be pinning seasonal content a full 2 months ahead of time.
For example - this looks like pinning holiday gift guides the beginning of October and back-to-school content late spring.
A Pinterest Manager should help the client get ahead and plan accordingly. Throwing up a Pin for Halloween costume ideas on October 30th is not going to work well.
Remember that most businesses tend to do content marketing last minute - which is fine for Instagram and Facebook. NOT fine for Pinterest.
I require all my clients to have their own Tailwind account for my team to batch and schedule their content monthly.
If you’ve had to do content marketing on any platform for any business (yours included), you know how much easier it is to batch the content with an approved scheduler.
8) Reporting
I’m going to let you in on the thing my clients love the most about working with me…
I do monthly video reporting.
No 30-page pdf with a bunch of polished fluff that they’re never going to read.
A 10-15 minute (longer if they’re also doing Promoted Pins Marketing) video where I screenshare and walk through their Pinterest, Tailwind, and Google Analytics.
I talk about their metrics, what I’m seeing, what that information tells me, and how it informs our strategy and content going forward.
If a Pinterest Manager can’t look at what is happening in analytics and digest the information for the client to be able to use...they what are they even doing?
9) Pinterest Knowledge
Lastly, an awesome Pinterest Manager is going to be on top of changes to Pinterest and best practices.
It’s one of the many reasons I chose to niche into Pinterest management and marketing for my clients.
Since Pinterest turned into a publicly-traded company in 2019, the updates, features, paid marketing capabilities and more have gone into overdrive.
A Pinterest Manager will guide the client through the updates and be excited to try new strategies.
Conclusion
Managing a client’s organic Pinterest marketing strategy does not have to be complicated, but it does have to be thorough and complete. Well, it does if you want it done right.
If you are looking to add Pinterest management services to your business - as a virtual assistant or as a client - you’ll want to keep these 9 things in mind.
