Pinterest for Product Sellers

Oh, Pinterest. We’ve all used it for inspiration, and maybe you’ve used it for shopping but in case you haven’t…

Did you know that  50% of U.S. Pinterest Users actually Shop on Pinterest?

Not only that - Nearly 9 in 10 Users are on Pinterest to Plan Purchases.

Wild, right?

In this blog post, we’re going to spill the tea on why Pinterest can be helpful for Etsy Sellers, how to use Pinterest for product sales, and also some of the best features.

And our special guest for this episode is Rachel Emma Waring, Creative Consultant. 

You can listen to the podcast episode here, or keep reading below!

Why is Pinterest a platform that Etsy sellers shouldn’t skip?

Pinterest is helpful for Etsy sellers because it can be an effective tool for driving traffic to their shop. In case you didn’t know, Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social media platform. 

Pinterest is far more like Google than Instagram or Tiktok. 

This is a great thing for Etsy sellers because it means the content you create on Pinterest has a much longer lifespan than your social media content. Pins you create today could drive traffic to your Etsy shop for YEARS.

With Pinterest, sellers can create visually appealing boards that showcase their products, which can then be shared by their followers and potentially reach a much larger audience. Additionally, Pinterest users are typically looking for inspiration, which makes it a great place for sellers to show off their products and attract potential customers.

Why should Etsy Sellers prioritize Pinterest, instead of say, prioritizing daily social media posting?

Pinterest is a great tool for businesses to reach potential customers in a creative way. Unlike traditional social media posts, Pinterest pins can be discovered and shared by others, giving your business greater exposure and over a much longer period of time.

The average lifespan of a pin is about 3 months,  although it can be years! In fact, about half of all product pin orders come from pins around 2.5 months after they were pinned.

Compare this to the average lifespan of an Instagram post?? 48 hours. 

Now is a really really exciting time on Pinterest, and Rachel, our special guest for this podcast, even suggests Pinterest is going on a bit of a Renaissance right now.

Another reason why Pinterest can be valuable is that since Pinterest is a search engine and relies on keywords, pins are actually easier for customers to find and more likely to be shared than traditional social media posts, making them an effective way to reach more customers.

Something that's really exciting about Pinterest in 2023 and beyond is that it's another place to grow a really strong presence for your brand, because Pinterest is a discovery engine.

People can find you when they're searching for what you offer, like “vinyl stickers,” which is amazing when you offer products because getting new eyes on your products is crucial to getting more sales. 

But you can also grow a following there you can nurture an audience there as well, which makes it doubly as powerful. Not only is it a place to get found via the search engine, but it is also a place to grow brand awareness (AKA the powers of google, Etsy & Instagram in a single platform).

You don't have to rely on only Etsy search or Instagram to drive traffic to your shop. Pinterest is another place where you can start diversifying your marketing efforts.

A lot of us have realized in the last few months that relying too heavily on Instagram or other social media platforms (we talked about that in this blog post!) is risky…

But when you can have other places to rely on, like Email Marketing or Pinterest, it's a game changer because you don't feel so beholden to social media.

What kind of types of content should Etsy sellers really be focusing on for Pinterest?

👉Etsy sellers should focus on creating content that is visually appealing, engaging, and relevant to their brand. The great thing is that if you have an Etsy shop, chances are you already have many high quality product photos and hopefully videos!

You also need to be aware of how the search process works on Pinterest. Users find content based on what keywords they type into the search bar, just like on Etsy.

SEO is extremely important on Pinterest because when someone does a search and finds your pins, they're not immediately seeing your entire whole collection of products, they’re seeing a single product of yours in a list of 20 to 40 pins at the top of the Pinterest scroll, which is similar to how Etsy’s results work for the customer.

Pinterest users are seeing your product in isolation (in a sea of other search results, not in your shop), so they don't know your work most of the time and they do not know who you are… so you really have to get that photo and the title right to get them to click over and buy from you.

One tip Rachel shared with us for product sellers is to put text on your primary photos that describe what it is, or who it is for, or why the customer should buy your product. The more specific you can get to help people understand what it is they’re seeing and whether or not it’s for them, the better your sales conversion will be (omg it’s like we’re talking about Etsy here). 

 What kind of types of content should Etsy sellers really be focusing on for Pinterest in 2023?

Videos of course are the way to go to get traffic on Pinterest in 2023. Again, this is very similar to Etsy.

Keep in mind that Pinterest users have no additional context outside of your Pin (they have no idea who you are!) so each Pin really needs to be stand alone content and not require any outside explanation.

When it comes to the actual Pin description and titles, you don't have to be a brilliant writer to write a description that sells products and gets people to click over to your shop. You just need to think like a Pinterest user. 

What would YOU search if you were typing something into the search bar, and looking for that product?

Just like on Etsy…you don't want to make your shop section titles or product titles something that people are not going to be searching for.

What you should include in the title and description are things people are going to actually search. For example, you wouldn’t name a candle “boho sand and sunset” and put that in your etsy title because no one is going to search for that. You’d want to put something that is searchable like, “clove scented candle.” 

Pro tips for easily converting your Etsy products to pins:

• Take your main focus keywords from your Etsy product titles, and make that the title of your pins. 
• Use a couple of sentences from your Etsy product description and make that where you start with your Pinterest captions
• Create easy-to-use Pinterest templates in Canva
• Resize your Etsy product photos to Pinterest pin sizing (1000 x 1500 pixels or 2:3 ratio)
• Re-post your Etsy explore videos to Pinterest idea pins 

What else should Etsy sellers be doing with Pinterest in 2023?

We asked Rachel this question and without hesitation she said…Idea Pins!

Idea Pins are a sort of hybrid between Instagram Reels and Instagram stories. You can do a series of photos OR videos and Idea Pins are the things that are going to help you build your Pinterest presence in 2023!

Idea pins get a lot more eyes on them at the moment, and you probably already creating daily social media content…which can be re-posted into Idea Pins.

Also, you should test different types of content to see what works for you! Getting traffic to your idea pins is a similar process to getting eyes on your standard pins as well, so it's all about SEO making sure you're using clear keywords. Also, make sure that you're using some like broader keywords. Sometimes if you're way too specific with your keywords, then you're going to get fewer views overall because it’s just not something people are searching for.

When creating content on Pinterest, consider “how does this fit into the context of what people are searching for right now?” Considering seasons, styles, and current Pinterest trends are all great ways to help you create better content on Pinterest. 

Want to learn more about Pinterest? You want to check out this post with our special guest, Paper Flo Designs.