How to Sell on Pinterest: A Guide for Beginners

You want to sell products online, but you are stuck at the starting line.

You post, you wait, and nothing really happens.

Pinterest is not just for home ideas and recipes. Right now, it is one of the easiest places for people selling products online to get real buyers if you know how to use it.

And most people don’t fail on Pinterest because their product is bad.

They fail because they start the wrong way.

Well, this guide can clear things up.

Give me a few minutes. By the end, you will know if Pinterest is worth your time and where to start.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an easy way to discover new ideas and inspiration.

Users can “pin” images from the web or upload their own content to create collections of ideas, products, and experiences.

These collections are called “boards” and can be organized by topic, style, or any other way the user chooses.

It can also be used to find and save ideas for projects, such as home decor, recipes, fashion, and travel.

Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the most popular visual search engines, and it’s no surprise why.

But did you know that you can also use Pinterest to sell products?

Yes, you can!

Why You Should Sell on Pinterest?

What makes Pinterest so attractive to businesses is its powerful visual marketing capabilities. With the ability to create visually stunning boards and pins, businesses can easily showcase their products and services to a large audience.

If you’re considering selling on Pinterest, here are some of the benefits you can expect to enjoy:

Increased Reach

With its 537 million user base, Pinterest offers businesses the opportunity to reach a wide range of potential customers. As a result, businesses can expand their reach and increase their sales.

Improved Visibility

Pinterest makes it easier for businesses to be seen. With its visual nature, businesses can create attractive visuals that stand out and draw attention.

Increased Brand Awareness

Pinterest recognized that 97% of the most popular searches on Pinterest are unbranded. By creating boards and pins that are related to your brand, you can increase your brand’s visibility and create a positive impression of your products and services.

Increased Traffic

Pinterest can drive more traffic to businesses’ websites. By creating pins that link to your websites, you can increase the number of visitors to your websites.

These are just a few of the benefits of selling on Pinterest. As you can see, it’s a great way to reach a larger audience, engage with customers, and build your brand.

Improved Conversion Rates

By creating pins and boards that are related to your products and services, you can easily improve your chances of better conversion rates.

With its visual appeal and shopping features, Pinterest makes it easy for customers to find the products they’re looking for.

What Products Sell Best on Pinterest?

You may already have something in mind that you’re planning to sell online, or on Pinterest. That’s great!

But to make your mind clear, let me share what kinds of products people love buying on Pinterest.

This will help you understand if you’re on the right track or maybe give you some new ideas.

Here are the types of products that really shine on Pinterest:

• Home Decor and Furniture: Pinterest users love browsing for inspiration for interior design and home furnishing ideas.
• Fashion and Accessories: Clothing, jewelry, handbags, and other fashion items perform exceptionally well due to Pinterest’s visual nature.
• Beauty Products: Makeup, skincare, and haircare products attract significant attention, especially when paired with tutorial content.
• Craft Supplies: DIY enthusiasts frequently use Pinterest to find materials for their projects.
• Wedding-Related Items: From dresses to decorations, wedding planning is a huge category on Pinterest.
• Fitness and Wellness Products: Exercise equipment, workout gear, and wellness items appeal to health-conscious Pinterest users.

Well, the list may be endless because there are new trends and brands coming out every day.

The most important thing here is making sure your products look great in photos, as Pinterest is all about eye-catching images, and if your products look good in pictures, they’re more likely to catch people’s attention and sell well.

Also, remember that seasonal items do particularly well on Pinterest, but you’ll want to start promoting them 30-45 days before the actual season or holiday to capture early planners.

Now that you know the benefits of Pinterest and what products sell well on it, let’s look at how to start selling and set up your business the right way.

1. Get Your Online Store Ready

The first and most important step before selling on Pinterest is to build your eCommerce store.

This is where you’ll put all your fun things to sell, and when people see them on Pinterest, they can click to visit your store and buy what they like.

Yes, you need to build an online store that looks good and works well.

You need clear product photos, detailed descriptions that are easy to read, safe ways for people to pay, and a store that’s simple to use.

When it comes to all of these eCommerce things, one of the most popular platforms that makes everything painless is Shopify.

Shopify is an all-in-one platform that allows you to create an online store, manage products, take payments, and much more.

It’s easy to use and perfect for those who are new to eCommerce, and you don’t need to be a techy person to own an online store.

It also comes with a free trial, so you don’t need to pay for something you’ve never tried before, and they also offer different levels of plans to suit your needs, so you don’t have to worry about paying for features you don’t need.

Now, you might still be wondering, “How can I even create a Shopify store when I have zero knowledge about building websites?”

Well, don’t worry because I’ve got three options for you:

Option 1: Try It Yourself

Give it a shot yourself!

Shopify has a user-friendly interface and tons of helpful resources to guide you along the way. It may seem challenging at first, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can get the hang of it.

If you’re up for the challenge, check out our Shopify guide for some extra guidance.

It has everything, even screenshots to guide you so you can build your store yourself. You can then come back to this guide to figure out the next steps to sell on Pinterest.

Option 2: Online Courses

If you prefer a more structured approach, consider taking an online course.

Platforms like Shopify Academy (free) or Skillshare offer excellent resources to teach you everything you need to know before diving in.

Option 3: Hire a Shopify Expert

If you’d rather leave the technical stuff to the pros, you can always hire a Shopify expert. They’ll take care of all the nitty-gritty details for you, so you can focus on what you do best.

Now, take a moment to consider which option suits your business best before you jump into selling on Pinterest.

2. Setting Up Your Pinterest Account

A Pinterest account is basically like having a personal account used for pinning content to personal boards.

You can follow other pinners and boards, but you won’t have access to analytics or other features that come with a Pinterest business account.

A Pinterest business account, on the other hand, is used for businesses to market and promote their products and services. It offers features such as analytics, Ads Manager, and the ability to create promoted pins.

So, which one should you use?

If you want to sell on Pinterest, a business account is probably the best option.

Creating a Pinterest Business account is simple and easy.

You can do this by visiting pinterest.com/business/create.

You’ll be asked to enter your full name, email address, and password. Once you’ve completed the signup process, you’ll be ready to start.

To get the most out of your business account on Pinterest, you need to optimize your profile for maximum engagement.

Your profile should include an attractive profile picture, cover photo, and a brief bio about your business, as well as your online store to get access to analytics.

As you’re using Shopify to sell your products, which we discussed above, if your store is all set, you can connect it to your Pinterest business account (just follow the link for instructions) to sell them on Pinterest.

Think of it like how you can connect your smartphone to your TV to show photos to all your family members or friends. Just like that, you can connect your Shopify store, where all your products are kept, to your Pinterest business account.

This connection lets you display and sell your products directly through Pinterest, making it easier for you to promote your products in a more appealing way for Pinterest users to discover and buy your items.

It’s much more powerful than just posting a link on Facebook and saying “Hey, check this out!” Pinterest gives you special tools to showcase your products in a way that really catches people’s eyes.

Once you’re all set, you can also apply for Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Program.

This is what a verified merchant account looks like:

When you become a verified merchant, your Pins will show up naturally to people looking to shop on Pinterest.

You’ll also get valuable benefits, including:

• Eligibility for the distribution of your products within Pinterest shopping experiences
• A blue checkmark on your profile and Pins to show you’ve been vetted
• Access to exclusive features like merchant details
• Price and availability information displayed on all your product Pins

These features help customers connect with and trust your brand more easily, and yes, there are also some eligibility requirements.

3. Creating Your Product Pins

Product pins, also known as product images, are key to helping shoppers discover products they love on Pinterest.

They help shoppers discover and purchase items they would otherwise miss out on.

All you need to do is upload your product catalog to Pinterest. This could include a short description, a website link, and the price of the product.

Luckily, if you’re selling your goods through an online store, the necessary metadata is automatically generated for you. This means that when you connect the online store to your Pinterest profile, all relevant product information will be filled in for you.

But what about non-product pins?

If you want to drive more sales with Pinterest, you should also consider creating non-product pins to promote your brand.

These types of pins can include helpful content, such as blog posts, videos, and other information that is relevant to your business and ultimately drives more users to your online store.

Thankfully, there are tools available to help you create and schedule content quickly and easily.

One of the most popular tools is Canva.

It’s a powerful design tool that makes it simple to create beautiful pins for Pinterest. With Canva, you can choose from a variety of templates or design your own from scratch.

Canva also offers a library of millions of royalty-free stock images, illustrations, videos, and music, so you’ll never have to worry about sourcing media for your pins.

4. Promoting Your Pins

Before you can start promoting your pins, you need to create and organize your boards.

Pinterest boards are a vital part of the Pinterest platform.

They allow users to organize their pins and categorize their interests, making it easier to access content quickly and efficiently.

When it comes to selling on Pinterest, boards are an incredibly effective way to showcase your products and services.

This can be done by creating relevant boards that reflect your brand and include visuals that will both engage users and be relatable to your target audience.

Once you have created your boards, the next step is to promote your pins.

One way to do this is through Pinterest SEO.

You should include relevant keywords in Pin titles and descriptions to help your pins reach more people.

This means optimizing your pins with relevant keywords to increase their visibility in Pinterest search results.

Another way to promote your pins is to use promoted pins. You can use this feature to reach specific audiences or target certain placements. This is especially helpful when launching a new product or service.

5. Analyzing Your Results

Pinterest Analytics provides valuable insights that can help you maximize your campaign’s performance. By diving into this data, you’ll be able to uncover key insights that can inform your future strategies.

Your pins are the main currency of the Pinterest platform. You can view your pins’ performance by looking at metrics such as impressions, saves, and clicks.

Here are some key metrics to consider when analyzing your results:

• Impressions: The number of times your pins were seen by people.
• Engagements: The number of people who interacted with your pins, such as liking, commenting, or repinning them.
• Pin clicks: The total number of clicks you received on your Pin.
• Outbound clicks: The number of people who clicked through to your website or blog from your pins.
• Saves: The number of times users saved your pins to their boards.
• Engagement rate: The number of engagements your pins received divided by the total number of times your Pins were seen.
• Outbound click rate: The number of clicks to your website divided by the total number of times your Pins were on screen.

These metrics can help you gain a better understanding of how your pins are performing and which strategies are paying off.

You can also use Pinterest Audience Insights to get an in-depth look at your target audience, including their interests and demographics. This will help you identify which strategies are working best and which ones could use some improvement.

To gain a better understanding of how your pins are impacting your business, it’s also a good idea to use other analytics tools, such as Google Analytics.

These tools can provide additional insights into how your pins are driving traffic and conversions.

In Summary

Pinterest is a powerful platform for businesses to reach potential customers and drive conversions.

First, you must build an online store, create a Pinterest business account, set it up well, create pins and boards, and connect your shop to Pinterest.

Then, create compelling Pinterest pins to drive traffic to your store, and make sure to use keywords to optimize your pins.

Lastly, use the analytics to track your progress and adjust your strategy as necessary.

That’s the whole process in three sentences you should follow to sell on Pinterest.

And yes, that’s not a secret, you can’t do all of these in one night, it’s an ongoing process, there is a lot of work involved, and this is not just a click-and-earn type of money-making tool.

But if you follow these steps consistently and put in the effort to build a store with good products that people are willing to pay for, and create quality content, Pinterest can become a valuable sales channel for your business.

Happy selling!