Are you using Pinterest to help market your business? Pinterest is the number one source of web traffic for my site, so I honestly can’t sing its praises enough. If you want to learn how to leverage Pinterest for your photography business, my friend Cassie Schmidt (who’s a Pinterest genius!) is guest blogging today to share her favorite tips on Pinterest for photographers.
I can’t wait to hear how they work for you!
Pinterest for Photographers
“Nothing hurts my heart more than when I meet a talented photographer who is struggling to sell out their services and they tell me they don’t use Pinterest for their business. I’m convinced they created Pinterest FOR photographers (or at least for visual creatives).
If you’re looking for tips on how to use Pinterest for your photography business, below are six quick, actionable tips. For more help, you can join my free Facebook Group where I’ll be hosting a free Pinterest training the week of 4/13/2020, which will stay in the group indefinitely.
1. Know Your Audience
Stop thinking of Pinterest as your personal photo gallery. You likely have a website for that. Pinterest is a powerful search engine that can connect you with your ideal clients, who are more primed to buy on Pinterest than almost any other platform.
That said, to connect with the users you hope to turn into clients, you have to be strategic about everything from the boards you create to the pins and keywords you use. Before you add content of any kind, ask yourself if it addresses an ideal client’s needs, desires, or fears. If not, it doesn’t belong on your business account.
Even if the pins don’t directly relate to your services, providing boards as resources and magnets for your ideal client can be helpful. For example, if your ideal client is a boho bride, having a board filled with boho wedding decor from past weddings (whether you shot them or not) is helpful! A less obvious example would be creating a skincare board if you know your ideal bride is trying to improve her skin before the big day!
Whenever possible, be a resource of info for them. If you can write a blog about how to prepare for a photoshoot or how to make a timeline for their wedding day, do it and link to it using a helpful graphic on Pinterest! It’s a great way to get potential clients to click through to your site!
2. Use Location-Based Keywords
Location-based keywords such as “Blackhawk Country Club Summer Wedding” or “Wisconsin Winter Wedding Venue” are great for two reasons. First, they help narrow down your audience to potential clients near you. But even more than that, they can get your work in front of the eyes of people who are at the earliest point of their planning process.
Using wedding photography as an example again, venues are typically the first vendor booked by an engaged couple. If they see your photos while searching for venues, they may click through to your site to find more photos and end up falling in love with your work! Conversely, they may book the venue and then search for inspiration and find your work, fall in love, and inquire.
Content idea… create a roundup of your favorite venues in a blog, link it via Pinterest, and use broad location keywords such as “Wedding Venues Near Madison WI.” (But, always type a potential keyword into Pinterest before using it to see if anyone is actually searching it.)
3. Add Your URL or Name to Each Image
No one hates watermarks that distract from a photo more than I do. So, that’s not necessarily what I’m suggesting. Let me just explain my longterm logic on this. If your pin keeps getting re-pinned and saved, your URL may get disconnected from the image at some point, which means you lose credit for it.
On the flip side, if your URL is written on a thin bar at the bottom of the photo in a way that isn’t distracting, people can use it to relink the image and give you proper credit. It’s also helpful to get brand recognition and help Pinners remember your name when they’re ready to book with someone later on!
4. Use Vertical Images
If you’re in LOVE with one of your landscape photos, I’m not telling you you can’t use it. I just want you to understand that vertical images will take up more space as the user scrolls, increasing its chances to perform. If you really want to share your landscape photos, consider adding it to a vertical collage like the examples below. (You can download my vertical pin templates for free here.) These will allow you to include your brand / URL and also take advantage of the vertical ratio Pinterest recommends.
Click here to grab Cassie’s vertical Pinterest templates for free!
5. Don’t Forget Calls to Action
If someone walked up to you and told you they wanted to hire you, would you just walk away without even so much as giving them a business card? No. Of course not, but when you link your pins to a page on your site with no clear path forward, that’s effectively what you’re doing.
Regardless of what page on your site you link your pins to, make sure it includes some sort of call to action OR clear path for the visitor to follow. It could be as simple as “learn more about me,” “download the photoshoot outfit guide here,” to get them on your email list, or even just “contact me for info.” It doesn’t matter as long as you’re keeping them on your site or converting them to a lead!
I promise, you cannot be too obvious. Make that call to action big, bold, bright, and easy to see!
6. Use Boards Strategically
Did you know there are both private and public boards on Pinterest? And there’s a way to use them strategically?
If you ever pin educational photography content, business content, or photo inspiration for sessions you’re about to do, you should pin them to private boards. Private boards are viewable by only you and any collaborators you add. If you pin irrelevant content publicly, you’ll start attracting the wrong crowd.
Public boards should be used to attract the ideal clients we talked about earlier! Serve content from your site and helpful content from other accounts that will help your ideal clients with their desires, fears, or dreams!
If you want to use Pinterest with current clients, you can do so a few different ways:
- Ask them to make a Pinterest inspiration board to get a sense of their personality and what they’re hoping to get out of their portrait session. This can even help you choose locations accordingly!
- Once you book clients, send them to one of your Pinterest boards of past clients that nailed their outfits so they can do the same. Coordinated outfits go a long way. Set yourself (and your clients) up for success by removing any confusion about what to wear.
Moving Forward
Pinterest is a pretty in-depth topic, so if you’d like to learn more, here are a few things you can do:
- Visit my Instagram for more free resources
- Join my free Facebook page to catch the free Pinterest training I’m hosting (again, this training will happen the week of 4/13/2020, but will stay in the group indefinitely)
- Or for more intensive help, check out my Pinterest for Business course which dives deep on all things Pinterest strategy for photographers.
- And don’t forget to download these free vertical pin templates, too!”
Hey, I’m Cassie – a photographer and business coach for creative entrepreneurs. I’m passionate about helping women create the business of their dreams around a life they love. I do this by coaching on topics like mindset, online marketing, sales strategy, and time management that I’ve mastered in my 11 years of entrepreneurship. Outside of business, I’m just your everyday girl who loves soft leggings, a glass of Cabernet with popcorn, and snuggles from my husband and rescue pup!
Find Cassie on Instagram, Facebook, or check out her site CassieSchmidt.com!
