There’s never been a better time to get more followers on Pinterest.
With 367M+ monthly active users and a ton of new e-commerce tools in the mix, Pinterest is rapidly becoming the go-to platform for increasing brand awareness and product sales.
In this blog post, we’re covering why growing your Pinterest account is a great strategy, as well as our 8 top tips to send your follower count skyrocketing!
Why Grow a Pinterest Following as a Business?
Pinterest might not be the first platform that springs to mind for brand marketing, but with a 28% increase in monthly active users from 2018 to 2019, it’s definitely one to watch.
Plus, the Pinterest demographic has a higher purchasing power than most other social platforms, with 84% of weekly Pinners using the platform to inform their purchasing decisions.
The platform reaches 77% of all women 25-54 in the US, and, as the global income of women reaches trillions of dollars, women are expected to control almost 75% of discretionary spending by 2028.
So if you want to tap into a community with strong purchasing power, growing a following on Pinterest is a great place to start.
Ready to level-up your Pinterest marketing strategy? Discover all the best tips in our Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Marketing!
8 Ways to Get More Followers on Pinterest
Building a strong and loyal following on any platform is always a good idea.
But as a search-orientated platform, it can be hard to build an engaged following without a strong strategy on Pinterest.
To help you get started, we’re sharing our top 8 tips to get more followers and strengthen the sense of community around your brand:
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #1: Have a Clear Purpose
The first step to growing your following on Pinterest is to make sure your profile clearly reflects the value your business is providing on the platform.
It should be instantly clear what type of content your brand is offering, and what someone can gain by following your account.
A clear purpose makes it much easier for people to commit to following your account, as they know exactly what they’re signing up for — it’s like a digital version of your shop front.
To make your shop front as clear and inviting as possible, pay attention to these key areas:
Profile name: Add words that explain your focal areas
Profile content: Your profile is where your published content lives, so make sure to keep creating original Pins to showcase on your profile
Profile description: Summarize your purpose
Profile header: Select an image or video that visually represents your content themes
It’s equally important to support your brand’s purpose through your Pin designs.
Pinterest is a visual-first platform, so designing Pins with easy-to-read text overlays is a great idea.
TIP: Short on time? Use Later’s text editor to add text to your Pins as you schedule them — there are over 10 different fonts and multiple formatting options to choose from.
Create a seamless workflow for your business by editing your images with Later — available on all paid plans, starting at just $9/month!
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #2: Optimize for Discovery
The most effective way to drive more people to your Pinterest profile is by optimizing your content so it surfaces in relevant search results.
Pinterest is primarily a visual discovery engine, which means most people use the search toolbar to find inspiration on the platform.
So how do you optimize for search on Pinterest?
The trick is to add relevant keywords, along with relevant titles and descriptions to your Pins, that are specific to your business and products, but also aligned with what your target audience is searching for.
This will help your Pins surface for the most relevant categories!
How to Find Keywords to Boost Your Pinterest Following
What keywords should you be adding to improve the visibility of your Pinterest profile? If you’re unsure, you can find inspiration by using Pinterest’s built-in keyword research tool.
By searching for a generic term in the Pinterest search bar, you will see a selection of keywords provided by Pinterest to make your search more specific.
These recommended keywords are ordered by search popularity, so take this into account as you plan the keywords and hashtags for your Pins.
For example, if you don’t have a huge number of followers, it might be worth opting for less popular keywords. The chances are, you’ll have less competition for those keywords, which means you’ll rank higher in the search results.
Want to take it a step further? Pinterest Trends shows a historic view of the top US, UK, and Canada search terms and topics within the past 12 months, available to anyone wanting to learn when people start searching for various topics and what content is popular on Pinterest.
You can get early access to Pinterest Trends and read more about how it can help brands fine-tune their content strategy here.
Although finding and adding keywords may seem like extra effort, this is one of the best ways to secure more traffic and followers for your Pinterest account.
Once you’ve nailed down the best keywords for your business, you can start optimizing key fields for extra discoverability on Pinterest:
#1: Make Your Profile Name Descriptive
You want to tell your audience about your brand as quickly as possible, so adding a few descriptive keywords to your profile name is an easy way to do that.
For example, at Later we’ve entered our profile name as: Later: #1 Marketing Platform for Instagram.
This instantly explains Later’s value, while also providing an extra discoverability boost as users searching for “marketing platform for Instagram” will discover Later’s Pinterest account.
#2: Make Your Pin Titles Relevant to Your Content
Remember when we mentioned that Pinterest is a visual discovery engine? Well, this is where it comes into play!
To help get more eyes on your Pins, you want to be as descriptive as possible in the Pin title and description copy. That means making sure your title and description are as accurate as possible for the content you’re sharing.
Start by including a simple, compelling headline as your title (up to 100 characters) remembering to keep it relevant to the Pin image or video. For example “Easy No-bake Dinners” is better than “Food.”
TIP: Avoid using symbols or spaces in your title, for example, a Pin titled “Cookies” is much better than a Pin or a board titled C O O K I E S.
This will help your Pins get into your audience’s search results, increase your reach, and help grow your community.
#3: Use Your Description to Add Extra, Relevant Information & Key Phrases
In addition to having optimized keywords in your Pin titles, you should also include them in your Pin descriptions.
For your descriptions, you can use up to 500 characters, but we recommend prioritizing what’s important to get across in the first 50-60 characters. These are most likely to show up in people’s feeds.
Just like your Pin title, you want to make sure the Pin description relates closely to the Pin image or video.
Finally, description copy is more important than just what users see — it informs relevancy, and determines where the content appears. Make sure you include important keywords and brand names in this field when applicable.
TIP: Add a call-to-action to your Pin descriptions to encourage people to follow your Pinterest profile.
#4: Optimize Your Pinterest Boards
And finally, it’s a great idea to also optimize the titles and descriptions of your Pinterest boards.
This will bolster the discoverability of the Pins housed within each board, and will also make your Pinterest profile more organized for your visitors. It’s a win-win!
Discover how to take your Pins to the next level in this blog post and don’t forget you can plan, schedule, and publish to Pinterest for free with Later!
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #3: Add a Brand Logo to Your Pins
Pins are designed to be shared far and wide, so adding a branded element to your designs will make sure they’re always promoting your business and driving people back to your profile.
Using your brand logo, fonts, and colors will keep your Pins instantly recognizable wherever they’re saved.
This is especially valuable when paired with content that is highly shareable.
Take note of how Whole Foods Market creates educational, shareworthy Pins with strong branding:
The more people notice your branding on Pins, the more likely they are to check out your profile and hit follow.
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #4: Share Your Brand Story
Being authentic and sharing your brand’s story creates a sense of community on almost every social media platform — and Pinterest is no different.
From delving into how your company was founded to introducing different team members, getting personal can lead to more engagement, trust, and followers for your brand.
An effective way to do this is by creating Pinterest boards that are especially for sharing your brand’s story.
For example, Turmeric Teas has an “About Us” Pinterest board that shares lots of details about the brand and its mission:
TIP: Give your brand story boards an extra visibility boost by adding them to the featured boards on your Pinterest profile!
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #5: Understand Your Existing Audience
If you’re serious about growing your following on Pinterest, it’s a good idea to understand who you’re already reaching and what content resonates with them.
And the best way to do this is by jumping into your Pinterest Analytics.
With a Pinterest Business account you can get valuable audience insights, ranging from your total audience (all users who have seen or engaged with any of your Pins) to your engaged audience (all users who have engaged with any of your Pins) from the last 30 days.
Pinterest’s Audience Insights are awesome for showing the demographics of your audience, such as age, gender, and location, but perhaps more notably, they also show the most popular categories and interests for your audience.
You can use this great insight into what resonates with your existing audience to inform your future content strategy.
ANALYTICS TIP: Looking for more insights? Track and measure your Pinterest growth over the last 3 months with Later. Just check out your Pinterest Analytics from your Later app!
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #6: Experiment with Video Pins
Video Pins can really stand out from the crowd in search results, making them a great strategy for getting more engagement, interactions, and followers on Pinterest.
According to Pinterest, views of organic video Pins are up 240% year over year — and are particularly popular for food, beauty, DIY, entertainment, and home decor content!
For example, this organic Video Pin by Ryderwear appears in the top 10 search results for “fitness clothes”:
ICYMI: You can quickly and easily schedule video content on Pinterest with Later!
Simply choose a date and time to submit your video content to Pinterest for review (all videos must be approved by Pinterest) and your video will go live on your chosen board as soon as it is approved.
Schedule and auto-publish Video Pins with Later, available on all paid plans!
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How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #7: Collaborate on Group Boards
Inviting brands or influencers to collaborate on Group boards is another way to increase your exposure and grow your following on Pinterest.
Pinterest is a great place to grow a community, so it makes sense have a safe space for your influencer community, or peer-group to come together.
Check out how Well+Good and content creator Cupcakes and Cashmere collaborate on the same “Beauty” board, capitalizing on their shared brand values and audience demographic.
Well+Good and Cupcakes and Cashmere
This is a great cross-promotion opportunity for reaching new and relevant followers, and can be a good starting point for creative brand partnerships too.
How to Get More Followers on Pinterest #8: Invest in Pinterest Ads
With the right strategy, Pinterest Ads can be huge for your brand’s follower growth.
Pinterest Ads are one of the easiest ways to get your content in front of the right audience, as they’re surfaced in relevant search results.
You can target Pinterest ads by audience demographics and interests, as well as by selecting relevant keywords, making them a flexible and targeted tool for growing your business.
By investing in your Pinterest growth strategy, you can build an audience that loves your content, engages with your brand, and buys your products.
Start planning, scheduling, and automatically publishing to Pinterest with Later — for free!
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