Pin Your Way to Profit With Pinterest

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Evolution of Pinterest

Aleisha: Kate, you are a Pinterest expert. Tell me a little bit about how you got into this scene and how it's evolved over the, well, years that you've been producing the show?

Kate: Yeah. So I've been producing this show for four years and I've been doing Pinterest marketing for seven, and it has changed a ton, I feel like every other day. But I originally got into it because I was doing Facebook marketing and a lot of people were trying to switch to Pinterest marketing to diversify where they were getting traffic from. 

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But nobody could really understand it, they were like, "This feels really weird. I use it personally, I don't know how to use it professionally. Can you help me do that?" And I just kind of landed in this opportunity to teach people how to use Pinterest for their business.

Aleisha: Did you realize it was gonna blow up the way it has now as a platform?

Kate: No, I didn't, actually. I know that Pinterest is very unique in its usership. It's different from traditional social media. It's really search and discovery. So for that, I think it does present an element of confusion to people like, "What do I use Pinterest for? Why do I need it?" So I thought it would just be this little sleeper. 

But really during this time when we've had the COVID epidemic, it has exploded because people at home are searching for ideas and Pinterest is the best place to go for that, so they've had steady growth. But this year has definitely accelerated their growth.

Aleisha: That's so interesting, 'cause a lot of platforms, I know we've been talking about podcasting, has taken a bit of a hit because no one's commuting. We're not listening on the bus or in the car as much, so podcasters have had to adjust to different levels of listenership or at least different patterns in it. But of course, people are home. They're going nuts, they wanna make something or do something, and Pinterest is a huge inspo platform, I suppose, for craft and activities as well.

Kate: Yeah, and really just being able to dream. I think when you're at home and you're not able to travel or you're not able to plan for what you had in the future, it gives you an opportunity through the images that are on the platform to really step into a different world and dream about what could be in the future. 

And this is how Pinners normally think. They gather a bunch of ideas onto their boards and they revisit their boards when they're ready to take the plunge to purchase. So in a time where we have a lot of time on our hands, Pinterest is the place to go to dream and kind of exit what the existence is now or improve on something that maybe you're looking at your kitchen and you're at home all the time, thinking, "This kitchen is horrible. It's time for an update. Let's go to Pinterest to see what this could look like."

What Sets Pinterest Apart

Aleisha: Let's go back to the absolute beginning. If we've got listeners who have never been on Pinterest who don't really understand what it's about, I think everyone has a set of preconceived notions of what Pinterest is depending on their friendship group. I run a side hustle selling wedding planning books so I know a lot of people in my community were pinning their weddings. But then I've got a lot of friends who are renovating their homes and have boards that are exactly that, all about their dream kitchens or their dream bathroom. 

Let's talk about what Pinterest offers as a platform, especially compared to some of the other types of social media out there 'cause it is really different from Instagram and it's really different from Facebook. Let's dig into what makes it that different.

Kate: Yeah, such a great differentiator there too. Facebook and Instagram are very much like in the moment. If somebody posts something, it usually lasts about 15 minutes to 30 minutes before it kinda falls off. We don't see it anymore. 

Whereas Pinterest is a place to collect ideas or post things that you love and then people can save that to their board, and that's pretty much it.

There's no conversation, so that's the one differentiator is... Pinterest is... The joke is, it's the place for introverts. You can really be in your own world. You don't have to listen to the noise of conversation. You can really get into anything, right, like there's everything on the platform, so we think of it a little bit like a visual Google. So you go to Google and you search for things and you get text. But when you go to Pinterest and you search for things, you get pictures. And so people wanna engage with what things look like, so they can put it in the context of their own life. 

So that's really the biggest differentiator. Pinterest is a search and discovery engine, and Facebook and Instagram are social media platforms. 

So we wouldn't put Pinterest in the social media bucket, we would put it in the bucket with YouTube and Google.

The Basics of Pinning

Aleisha: Looking at Pinterest as a marketing tool, it's hugely powerful. But I actually... We get a lot of emails saying, "It's overwhelming. I don't know where to start. How many Pins do I need to pin? What size and shape are the images? I don't know where to start." 

And I get it. I go onto Pinterest and sometimes go, "Oh, there's a lot of stuff here, it feels like there's a lot to do. I don't know what to do and I just leave." Or I pin things, and then I'm like," I gotta go. Gotta go."

Kate: Totally.

Aleisha: What are the basics of Pinterest marketing? If you are fresh to the platform, you've got a white screen with nothing on it, which can be pretty overwhelming for a new Pinner. How do we get started? And what should we be pinning, first up?

Kate: Okay. So first up, you wanna have a Pinterest profile or a page. They're the same thing, they're just referred to by those two names, and that is the place where it reflects your brand. So I have Simple Pin Media, and that is talking all about Pinterest marketing tips, blogging tips. 

You wanna build that out first with boards, so those boards will be what we call like these buckets where you can put your content in to show to future readers, future people coming to your site.

So that's number one, you wanna fill up your boards just simply by putting a name. Let's not even talk about creating Pins yet, just name your boards based on what you think people are searching, and we always tell people, “As you begin to build boards, think about…” So if you're skincare, we have a client who works for us who sells skincare. If she has her boards laid out to talk about night creams, eye creams, all of those different things that she actually creates and can put both her products and her blog posts on, that's the direction she's going because as a new user, I wanna land on it and go, "Oh, this person is all about skincare. Let me learn more."

So then number two is the images. The images are quite possibly the biggest part of Pinterest, and the images are different, of course, than every other platform. They are vertical images, they have a 2:3 ratio, which means 600 by 900. We build them using Canva, which is a free tool. And think of this image like a billboard advertising. Somebody is simply scrolling by on what's called a home feed on Pinterest and they are looking just at images. So what is it about your image that's gonna stop them or tell a quick two-second story about what they will find if they click on your Pin? 

So for example, with the skincare, we might have even in the bottom right, something that says, "Shop Now," with an image of the actual eye cream and a descriptor of it. 

So that's really a big deal, is figuring out what your images can represent in the way of your branding.

And then the third component is that search component. What are people searching to find your particular product or content? So for me, if they're searching Pinterest marketing tips, I would put that in the Pin description underneath that Pin image to say, "Here are five ways to get your Pinterest marketing started for business." 

So I always tell people, take it in the part of one, build out your profile to make it look like your brand. So I would be able to go on and see exactly what you do. Number two, work on your images, and then put those on Pinterest and they lead back to the content on your site. 

The Pinner is naturally trained to move off the platform to get what they want. 

Whereas something like Instagram, we stay on Instagram, we stay in stories, we scroll through the feed and we really don't ever leave. But Pinners know they have to leave to get what they want. That's why you wanna make sure that those images are just enough of a teaser for them to go, "I want that face cream,” click on the Pin image, go to the website.

The Pinner’s Journey

Aleisha: And do we need... When we're looking at this then as a brand or someone that is pinning and that has... Let's just stick with the face cream, it's a really good example. If I've created the face cream. It's Aleisha's face cream, it's very good quality, we love using it, and I've got some nice images. 

Do we need to create a whole brand story in that initial moment or it's just that one pin that's caught someone's eyes? Is that important to then create the page, 'cause I read a lot about all of the different boards and how often... And we'll get into how often we should be pinning 'cause I know there's a whole other topic that we should be talking about. 

But should people be going to the page, like a homepage, and seeing all of Aleisha's skin cream, or is it just about that single image that piques their interest and then takes them directly to my store?

Kate: Yeah, that's a great question. So the Pinner usually operates in two ways. Everybody on Pinterest has what's called a home feed. This is where Pinterest brings Pins from people you follow, what you might be interested in, what you've searched for, or promoted Pins, which is paid advertising. 

So if I've ever searched eye cream and I maybe don't follow this particular retailer, Pinterest is gonna go, "Kate's really interested in an eye cream, let me show them this image and see if she engages with it." That's the first layer of engagement. 

So I might never go to the profile. I might only see the image, which is why the image is so important. 

And then there's that second layer of search where I go to Pinterest and my intent is to search for eye creams. Again, both of those things, I don't have to follow you. You just have to have relevant content for the platform. 

The profile doesn't make a huge difference 'cause very few people go there, the biggest difference is your image.

Aleisha: So we don't need to be lingering and spending a lot of time creating these brand profile pages and putting a lot of work into that.

Kate: Exactly. And one thing to note too is that a lot of Pinners don't really always feel compelled to follow people. Like on Instagram, we wanna follow somebody 'cause we really wanna know everything. Pinterest is again, like Google, where they say, "We want whatever search results get pulled up for you to be very specific to what you want. We don't wanna give you anything you don't need."

Aleisha: Yeah, that's interesting. So for us, I suppose, we spend a lot of time building our stores and making it pretty and making sure everything is branded in a way that is appealing and also connected to all of our other social media. With Pinterest, it's just that one image that will work. 

So looking at that, then, let's talk about that image. If it’s Aleisha's skincare, what should we be thinking about to make it appealing to get them to click off Pinterest and actually make that commitment to leave Pinterest where they were having a good time and they were doing a lot of work there, and then go, “This is worth that extra click,” 'cause the click, as we all know, the click can sometimes be easy, but sometimes it's like, it's a real commitment to leave.

Optimizing Your Pin Image and Description

Kate: Yeah, it is. And so it's such a great question, and I think it requires... I always tell people, “You're not gonna get your images right on the first try. You're gonna have to keep testing them.” But one of the common factors is really going back to that billboard advertising. What is the hook in it? What is the amazing difference this skin cream is going to make for me? 

It's not necessarily even the brand or the type, it's... Your eye cream is, or your face cream is gonna make me, like, 20 years younger. I mean, of course, nobody's gonna promise that, but you get where I'm going with that...

Aleisha: I'm ready. I'm gonna promise like, "Aleisha's skincare cream, 20 years younger." I'm gonna be a millionaire.

Kate: A millionaire. So you wanna have something that is kind of clickbaity, but true, obviously. And so something that... It's always that thing of, "Okay, how is it gonna serve the Pinner?" And so you wanna put those few words, probably no more than four to five because they're not gonna read a lot, that's another thing. They're gonna make the connection that it is face cream, they're gonna read the benefit to them and that compels them to click. 

And we see a lot of shop owners just describing the product, maybe using too many words and it's like, "Well, I don't need that. I don't know why I need that." So you're writing things that demonstrate why they need the product or how it will benefit them.

Aleisha: So we're not keyword-stuffing in that when we're looking at that sort of short description 'cause I sometimes see people that do these really chunky descriptions, and it's like, "Ugh! I can't be bothered to read it." We just need to be clear and concise in that description box.

Kate: Correct. So there are two places where we see the text that you can put it. So, on the image is what we refer to as “text overlay.” That should be four to five words, very, very brief. And then we have what's called the Pin description that's right below. One to three sentences is completely appropriate and no keyword-stuffing. You said it exactly, you want it natural-sounding, kind of like if you were sending a text to a friend. "Try this face cream, it's amazing. I'm 20 years younger." 

But the text on the image itself just needs to be very punchy and poppy, and your pin description goes much more in-depth. And that pin description you should remember is really written for the algorithm, for the algorithm to be able to read what it is and who they would potentially show it to.

Recommended Pin Image Dimensions and Content

Aleisha: So when we're looking at planning our Pins and just finding... Let's just say we start with five great images, a lot of the Pinterest images, I think that seem, well, from my observation that get me to click off the page are aspirational and are lifestyle images, not necessarily just product photos on a white background.

Can you talk a little bit more about the sort of images and also the dimensions because I noticed some people pin long images and they've got a lot more detail in it. Other people are pinning Instagram-style square images, which don't seem to be getting... They're not being delivered to me as a user as much. Does Pinterest punish you for not using... Well, for using different formats?

Kate: Yeah, they do. They don't use that word “punish” or “demote,” but they will obviously say, "Here's our ideal." And their ideal is 2:3 ratio, so that could be 600 x 900 or Canva is 735 x 1102, or we even do 1000 x 1500. 

Pinterest will automatically resize it to fit their screen because it's 2:3.

Now, you can go 600 x 1260, which is an oddball way, it's not 2:3. You can still do that, but Pinterest has said, "Hey, if you go over 1260 to create what we call Giraffe pins because you wanna take up more of the feed, we will not show it to people." So they are very clear about that.

Aleisha: Alright.

Kate: Square, however, they say it's okay to do 1:1. But what we've seen is what you said, the square does not get good engagement. So if you stick with 2:3, whatever Canva gives you, you are right in line with their best practices. So stick with that, don't go outside of 2:3.

Aleisha: And I think for people that are new to this and Canva.com, it's an Australian invention, so I'm always proud to talk about it.

Kate: Oh, yeah.

Aleisha: The idea with Canva is, I love that you can then create one image, and then with a click of a button, you can convert it to different formats. So I think it's a time-saver, but also something that you can say, "I want this Instagram to be Pinterest," and then it will instantly convert it and then you might have to make some small changes to the format of the... If you've got text and everything on the image. But it's so simple to do, isn't it? It's not...

Kate: Yeah, it's really simple with that. And I think an important thing that you just noted which I want people to not do is quotes, which we often use on Instagram, don't translate well on Pinterest, because what happens is, if you have an infographic or if you have a quote, people will save it, but they will never take action on it, because everything is on the pin. 

So if we're talking about... Especially product sellers, I see this mistake happen a lot, is that you can pin the product image, which might be a square, I think sometimes people do wanna see things up close sometimes, but they wanna see it in its environment.

So here's an example. I was just looking for brass drawer pulls for my kitchen. And I know there are a lot of small sellers that make their own, so I not only wanna see this drawer pull up close because I can't go into a store and hold it, but I also wanna see it on a cabinet. So if you can give me an image that shows it in action, if you will, and then up close, you have two different Pin images there, but it serves the Pinner in both ways. I can see up close what this brass drawer pull looks like, but I can also see it on a white cabinet. And people will often search for that to say, "white cabinets brass drawer pulls", because they need to visualize it.

So if you're a seller, be thinking of both lifestyle shots and product shots.

Aleisha: And I sometimes see that people make... I'm gonna say this wrong, it's not like a montage, but when they do multiple images in the Giraffe pins, the long pins.

Kate: Yeah. It's distracting.

Aleisha: Yeah, yeah, I find it... And especially if I'm looking on my phone, I'm like, "Ugh! It's too much stuff happening." If I'm on the desktop, I suppose I'm a little bit less icky about it. So you agree, these are not what we should be doing.

Kate: Yeah, and you made a fantastic distinction that I think all of us need to recognize is that almost 90 percent of Pinners are on their phone. Very few are on their desktop. They might be on an iPad, which is a little bit bigger, but the majority of the people, they're gonna be on five or six-inch phones. 

So when you do groupings, let's say you make sandals, and you have them in four different colors. Or, we actually work with a company as a client, they're a custom tile company. So they might have four different colors of this particular tile. So we will group those together in an image, but we will do a shot of the kitchen where this tile is in one color.

And then below we will do the four colors to show the options because we recognize that somebody might not want the brown option, they might want the blue. But if you get too many beyond four or five, if you have eight or nine or ten, you're right, you can't see it. So use your extra, I guess, those extra collections to expand on a color or a feature about the product because the main part of the image is seeing the product in action. Below are the options. Just don't go more than four.

Aleisha: Yeah, you don't want it to be blowing people's brains with going, trying to zoom in, "Oh, what is this? This is weird."

Kate: Yeah.

Pinterest SEO

Aleisha: Let's talk about… You mentioned earlier that Pinterest is akin to being a search engine. And talking about that, I suppose we have to look at SEO, which is obviously hugely important. How do you rate that against Google SEO and looking at driving traffic back to a store, compared to doing Google AdWords or putting money into advertising?

Kate: Oh, such a great question, and I think with... One, Pinterest SEO is gonna be a little bit different 'cause they don't have the same tools that Google SEO does in the targeting and you can't go super deep with Pinterest SEO. You can go pretty deep if you're gonna do promoted Pins, which is the paid advertising platform on Pinterest. 

But I would say you have to remember that the Pinterest person is dreaming for the future. So we talk about the timeline to say, okay, if I'm going on a hiking trip and my hiking trip is in three months, I'm gonna go on to Pinterest and I'm going to find my hiking boots, backpack, all of that kind of stuff. Well, then two weeks before the trip, I'm gonna go revisit that board and I'm gonna then go to Google or Amazon to buy the products. And then when I'm on the trip, I'm gonna post on Instagram. 

So we have this... As far as SEO, you wanna be thinking, not necessarily about how I'm gonna target them in the moment, but how I'm gonna catch them in the dreaming phase. 

And so you have to be thinking what terms are they gonna be putting into the search bar to find something potentially for later. 

Whereas Google, with Google SEO you can really drill down and get a lot of great information. You can do all the AdWords and all of that. With Pinterest, it's a little more... It's... “Loosey-goosey” is probably the best word for it. You go onto Pinterest and there's the search bar at the top, you click on that and you start typing, and it will give you what's called search prediction. Those are the most popular search terms on Pinterest. And then you click on them and you have these boxes that highlight at the top that are called guided search boxes. Pinterest has said these are the keywords that are most popular on our platform. You should use them in your board names and your pin descriptions. And that is how your pins will be surfaced in the search feed.

Aleisha: That's so interesting. So just to go back, let's repeat that 'cause that's a really big bit of information if you are starting from scratch. You should be... Before you pin anything, I'm assuming you should be then searching as to how you would imagine your customer, your target audience would be searching for your product and then using those keywords in the board names and also the descriptions.

Kate: Yeah, correct, exactly. When you're at the building your profile stage, so if you're just new, we always tell people, “Go into Pinterest and search using that search bar and start writing down terms and also look at what the competition is out there. Look at these search results. Why do you think Pinterest pulled up these pins high up in the feed? Do they have the search term in the Pin description?”

It doesn't have to take hours, I would suggest probably just taking about an hour, and then you can start to create your board names from this. And then as you create your Pin images and you put them on to Pinterest… 

So for example, like this eye cream, you might have a very strong distinguisher about your eye cream. Maybe it's organic. Maybe it is plant-based only or something like that. Use differentiators like plant-based or vegan or natural to set it apart from a generic search like eye cream.

Pinterest Strategy: Posting and Frequency

Aleisha: Great. Tell me about the apps and things that we can use to shortcut perhaps the pinning of our Pins but also re-pinning other people's Pins, which seems to be a big deal. Is it a big deal?

Kate: Well, no, actually.

Aleisha: Good. Yes, Kate.

Kate: Yes. You don't have to worry about it and Pinterest has confirmed this. You can only focus on your own stuff. Now, okay, so this is gonna get into a little bit of how many pins per day and what your strategy should be. So if you're first starting out on Pinterest, you're building your profile, just getting your Pin image strategy really up and running. I would always tell you, “For six to eight months, you're gonna throw spaghetti against a wall just to see what the Pinner likes.” 

And so what that means is you're going to maybe share other people's content. We try to make it not competing, obviously, just 'cause you need to share some stuff to fill up your boards. 

But your primary focus is to look at who's engaging with my content, who's saving it for later, or who's clicking on it.

And so you can do a minimum of five pins per day. You don't have to do a ton. But we always tell people, “At least have some of your product, some of your content going on to Pinterest daily.” It's kinda like we're feeding the beast. And then as you get... And by the way, as far as tools and apps, Pinterest does have its own native scheduling tool.

Aleisha: Oh.

Kate: It's very clunky. I would never use it because it just takes so much time. So we actually use a tool called TailWind, which is a great scheduling and analytics tool. It allows us to schedule, which they have a smart schedule, so it makes it really easy, and then you can also see what type of engagement your Pins got and how your boards are doing. 

So we use this for our clients because it makes it so efficient for us to schedule ahead. So if we sit down on a Sunday and we have five pins per day going out to these boards, we can schedule it. Now, this is where people get super confused and they're like, "What? You want me to share how many? To what board?" 

The biggest thing that you need to know is that Pinterest doesn't penalize you for sharing your pin more than once. 

They do say, "Hey, don't spam the platform 50 times a day with the same Pin." But it's okay for you to put your eye cream on maybe your brand board, or an eye cream board, or a plant-based facial care board. If you have boards where this eye cream could go maybe three or four times, you can put them onto those boards and it's not going to be a penalty. 

Pinterest doesn't like it when you pin the same thing over and over and over again, back to back to back, so that's why if you don't have a lot of content, we tell people, "It's okay for you to add other people's pins to your boards, just be very intentional about the ones that you're choosing to make sure that they're really serving not only you but the Pinner that might engage with it."

Aleisha: Yeah, because you do not in any circumstances on any platform want to look like a spammer 'cause it just turns people off and it certainly doesn't make me as a consumer want to then click on your stuff.

Kate: Yeah, yeah, correct.

Pinners Demographic

Aleisha: Tell me about who is using Pinterest, because I was looking at some stats and I found one stat that said that 71 percent of Pinterest users are female. But then I've also read quite a lot about men now moving to Pinterest, especially after COVID or during COVID. Is that true?

Kate: Yeah. It is definitely far more female and it used to be 80 percent female. So now we see it dropping and as Pinterest has expanded internationally, we see a greater use among men. 

And so I think what I saw is that on the international platforms, usage is about 50 percent male. Yeah, which was crazy. 

So I think that more males are using it and they use it differently in the sense that, well, sometimes it could be for recipes too, but there are just different ways that men and women use it, but the advantage and the common thread is that you can save a bunch of ideas for later and unless you're maxing out the bookmark tool on your computer, or I don't know how you would even save on your phone when you go somewhere else, besides the notes feature...

Aleisha: Yeah.

Kate: I think the biggest thing to note is that it's really useful. It's really helpful to remember stuff and categorize it for later. So you are correct, it's... And now their users are above 330 million, I believe.

Aleisha: Wow.

Kate: And they are expanding pretty rapidly on the international platforms.

Types of Pins

Aleisha: Yeah, just before we go, let's just go through the Pin options available because I have been seeing quite a few video pins appearing in my feed. Do we all have access to Pinterest video or is this only something for certain users? And also what are the dimensions? We're not having to shoot in long Giraffe form, I'm assuming.

Kate: Right, yeah, video pins is a great one. We have a post, I'll actually send it to you. We did a podcast and everything on the dimensions for testing, so I can't rattle them off of the top of my head right now, but you can create what's called a square video, that's the first dimension. And then you can also do a vertical video. And so that would have a little bit of text at the top and then the video moving at the bottom. 

The other thing they just released, in fact, this week is what's called Story Pins. This is really interesting, and it's a pretty new development because it allows you to talk about something, but you can't link to it.

Aleisha: Oh. That's interesting.

Kate: Very, very odd. I would say this is a little bit more of Pinterest's push to get people to stay on the platform because like I said, people are primed to leave. So we'll see how that plays out. I did a podcast on that, but I can get you a link too as well, so Story Pins, Video Pins, regular Pins. And then we also have what's called Carousel Pins, those aren't talked about a whole lot, but those are linkable and they're multiple frames, like four to five, that you can swipe through. 

So for product sellers, for product sellers, I really recommend starting with really nailing your static pin image, because those regular pins are predominant in the feed. Video pins have been showing up even more so these days, but I think with Pinterest's big push towards Story Pins, those are gonna start showing up more in the feed, a ton, in fact, in my feed, I probably had 10 when I opened up today.

Aleisha: Wow. So with the Story Pins, just to go back a little bit...

Kate: Yeah.

Aleisha: If we can't then use it to link directly to the site, we just need to hook them with the story pins to make them come back and explore our feed.

Kate: Profile.

Aleisha: Yeah, the profile a little bit more. So that's when we should be focusing on saying, "Hey, Aleisha's skincare, it's gonna make you 20 years younger in seconds," and I'm going to jail. But it's the idea that, so for that then we probably should be focusing more on making sure that page has information and this is then going to get them to explore to then click on the pin and take them to our site to buy my skincare.

Kate: Yeah, and it's a good place to showcase testimonials.

Aleisha: Oh, good.

Kate: Because then you could do the before and the after of that skincare, you could talk about... You could show the person a brief testimonial. You can do some fun stuff with it. Or if you don't wanna write a blog post, this is another thing that we came up with. 

If you don't wanna write a blog post and you wanna do something real poppy and maybe just a quick tutorial with your product, that's another way to do it too.

Aleisha: Fantastic. Yeah, being able to talk to people through how to use your product, we were talking about outsourcing in a recent episode of the show and just saying how valuable… On a storefront, if you have a product that's a little bit complicated or it needs you to click through multiple images to learn how to use it, then a video obviously just keeps people's attention span. I've got a goldfish attention span. Like, it is quick now. I've been ruined... I've been ruined by the internet. It's like if you can't tell me, no, I'm gone, I'm out.

Kate: Yeah, totally. You bring up a great point. In your shop, if you're having to show multiple images and vantage points, think about how you could put that into a Story Pin. And that's a great example right there.

Aleisha: And let's talk a little bit about what you offer because I think a lot of people will be listening to this, sort of going, "This feels like a lot to do. I've already got Instagram, I've already got Facebook, I've already got the store." If you were to work... We love talking about outsourcing. If someone were to come to you and ask to work with you and help create a Pinterest profile and a brand story, how does that all work?

Kate: Yeah, so there are lots of different ways that we can work with people. One, we can set up a profile, we can do daily management, we can create images, and we also offer image consultations. So if you feel like you are pretty artsy and/or creative and you wanna do your own images, but you just want us to consult, we do that, we do promoted Pins, paid advertising too as well. 

We can really help you with really any area of your Pinterest needs we can do for you, and then we also have a place where we can teach you. So like coach alongside, that's our membership community, where there are several shop owners in there as well, who are trying to navigate a lot of the changes, 'cause Shopify and Pinterest have a great integration. But they've been changing it up lately with the verified merchant program. So some of it is just us troubleshooting like what direction this is going. 

So anything that Pinterest related that people need, we do varying on levels of experience and also the level of where you wanna outsource 'cause not everybody wants to outsource management. Some people really wanna keep it in-house, but they need help with images.

Aleisha: Sure, well, this is good. This is very good, Kate. Simplepinmedia.com is where you can get in touch with Kate and also subscribe to the Simple Pin podcast. How many episodes you... I think you're into the 190s now, is that right?

Kate: I am. My 200th episode is in just a few weeks, I cannot believe we've been talking about Pinterest this long. But they keep us on our toes and so we have more to talk about.

Aleisha: Well, that's amazing, so be sure to go and check out Kate's podcast because as you said, they're in-depth episodes where you really go into specifics about what everything we've just talked about. 

This was a really great crash course today, Kate, and I know that our listeners will be jumping on to Pinterest right now, taking their lifestyle photos and hopefully driving more traffic, especially people sitting at home going nuts wanting to buy your thing, and hopefully it will lead to great success. 

So thank you so much for coming on Start Yours, Kate, hope to have you back on the show again and we can maybe go into something a little bit more hardcore.

Kate: You bet, any time.

Aleisha: Let's do it.

Kate: Okay, thank you.

Aleisha: Thank you.

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