Did you know that Pinterest is the internet’s second largest search engine? Or that 75% of Pinterest’s content comes from businesses? If that’s not enough to convince you to get your freelance business on Pinterest, consider this…
Pinterest drives more website traffic than Google.
If you have a freelancing business and you’re not optimizing your blog posts with Pinterest-friendly images, you are missing out!
Get visible on Pinterest
Being visible is extremely important for freelancers. Clients can’t hire you if they can’t find you.
You need to be where people who can use your services are looking. You can’t rely solely on outbound marketing techniques like cold emailing and running ads. You also need to drive potential customers to your site by offering valuable content and solutions to their problems in the form of blog posts, courses, and coaching.
Pinterest is the place to draw traffic to your website and the services you offer.
So, how do you get started?
Set up a Pinterest Business account
Pinterest offers free personal and business accounts. You’ll want to use a business account because it has features that personal accounts don’t. These features include Rich Pins which pull current information from the website where the pin came from, Promoted Pins which are ads, and Analytics which let you see how your pins are performing.
If you already have a personal Pinterest page, you can easily convert it to a business page by logging into your account, going to the Pinterest Business page and clicking Convert.
Set up your account
Fill out your profile completely. Add a business description, your website address, and a profile image to help potential clients find you.
Next, confirm your website. You’ll need to paste some text into the header section of your website to confirm it. Once you confirm, you’ll be able to view analytics for your site.
Create boards
Once you have your account setup, you’ll need to create boards.
You should create boards that are relevant to your business. Use keywords as titles of your boards. Be creative and descriptive.
For example, I have boards about copywriting, social media marketing, running a small business, being a virtual assistant, and blogging. I also have a dozen parenting boards focusing on specific ages (Infants, Babies, Toddlers, Kindergarteners, etc.)
You’ll also want to create a board where you pin all of your content. My board is called Freelancing Mama Blog Entries and it’s showcased at the top of my page.
Start pinning
Once your boards are set up, you’re ready to start pinning.
I suggest downloading the Pinterest app for your phone and installing the Pinterest Chrome app on your computer. These two apps make it super easy to pin from your devices.
You’ll want to pin a mixture of your content and other people’s content.
Pin other people’s content
You should aim to pin 20-30 things each day. It will take you 15-30 minutes to do this. If that seems daunting to you, there are Pinterest virtual assistant services available as well as automation tools to make the job easier, like Tailwind or Board Booster.
I manually pin while nursing my son. Each session is the perfect length to add 5-10 quality pins to my boards.
Pin your stuff
Pinning your own stuff is a huge part of a great Pinterest strategy. Besides creating a board that showcases your blogs posts, you’ll also want to pin your stuff to other relevant boards you create.
For example, my post about potty training is pinned to the following boards: Blog entries, Raising a Toddler, Potty Training Tips, and Motherhood.
Another way to promote your pins is to join group boards. 
Join group boards
No matter what kind of business you have, you can find corresponding group boards. If you can’t, you can create your own.
You’ll want to join group boards that are relevant to your business. For example, I’m part of several group boards catered to working moms, stay at home moms, working women, and small business owners.
If you blog about freelancing, send me a message and I’ll add you to my group board, Tips for Successful Freelancers.
Add Pinterest friendly images to all of your content
Once you get the hang of Pinterest, you can start optimizing your freelancing website.
One of the most important things to remember about Pinterest is that it’s a visual search engine. In order to get clicks, your images need to look good! The better your images look, the more people will click them and follow through to your site. If your site is optimized, your visitor will read your posts, buy your products or hire you to perform your services.
Pinterest prefers images with the following characteristics:
- Long images
Longer images take up more of the screen and generate more clicks. The best size to use is 735 pixels by 1102 pixels.
- Bright colors
Studies have shown that images with warm, bright colors are clicked more often than images with dark and cool colors.
- Clean design
Crisp images and clean design with attention-grabbing titles do better than cluttered images.
With Pinterest, it all starts with a great image.
What if you don’t know how, or don’t have the time, to create great images?
This is where I can help! I’ve launched a service, Pinterest Perfect Images, where I offer my skills at creating Pinterest images, like the one you see here, for reasonable prices. Packages start as low as $59.
Pinterest can be a game changer for your website traffic. More traffic means more potential clients seeing your services, products, and offers. If you don’t have an account, head over to Pinterest and get started now!
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I wasn’t really aware of the group function; until now. I’ve always intended to use Pinterest as a means of promoting my freelance business, I just never get round to it. I’m going to add it to my ‘to do’ list for this week.
Hi! Lovely article! Wondering how this leads to, well, leads!
Are you directing readers to a sign up form at the end of the blog you’ve pinned? Or a contact form? Are the things you pin freebie downloads that put them on your email list? Do you have a preferred method you’ve found works better?
Thank in advance for your help. 🙂
Hi Tina, thanks!
I do direct readers to a free resource which I use as a lead magnet. In addition, I’ve found that clients will directly contact you for your services if you’re expertly writing about a topic.