five things i really want etsy sellers to know about pinterest
UPDATE March 2015: I wrote this post at a time when all these tips were accurate. Pinterest has changed a bit since then (hello algorithm! but many of these tips are still good ones). I'll be updating this soon with a few more tips in a new post. Stay tuned. But my most important new tip: Be really specific in your description when you pin because people are using Pinterest like Google these days. So don't just write, "New cute zippered pouch." Instead be sure to write the name of your shop and a good description of the product (along with a bit of a story like I share below).
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For the last year, I've been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest finding inspiration, pinning, and learning a lot. And somewhere along the way I found myself with more than 4 million followers. And in the last few months, this is what I've come to believe:
I really want to use Pinterest for good.
And one way I'm using it for good is by sharing what I'm learning with you. (Read previous posts here.)
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I believe that Pinterest is becoming a game changer for Etsy shops. Most articles I've read about what people are pinning indicate that Etsy is one of the top five (usually in the top two) sites people pin from. For the last year, I've been actively using Pinterest to promote my Etsy shop and my business has doubled. With that in mind, here are a few things I really want you to know.
Note: I've written this assuming you are an Etsy seller who has a pretty good understanding of how Etsy works. If you are new to Etsy, you will have to explore the seller features and play a bit to understand all these tips.
1) So this one applies to almost all small businesses who are pinning business-related things to Pinterest. You really want click throughs more than you want repins. Click throughs = sales. Repins = people who think your product is pretty enough to repin or it inspires them in some way and they want to remember it.
What this means: Keeping this in mind will help you learn more about how Pinterest is or is not working for your business. Think about the way you use Pinterest. You might revisit DIY or recipe pins. But when it comes to a product, do you scroll through all your jewelry pins to find that one bird necklace you pinned a year ago? Or do you impulse buy when you LOVE something or see the perfect gift for someone?
Bottomline: Your photo + description on Pinterest need to tell enough of a story that you get people to click. Repins are good. It gets your item out to more people. But we really want people to click through. For most small businesses, getting our products in front of people with a clear way for them to purchase is more important than name recognition alone. Name recognition is good for bigger stores and brands, like Pottery Barn or Nordstrom. We want the click throughs.
2) Sometimes the image that gets people's attention on Etsy might not be the same one that gets their attention on Pinterest. When they are on Etsy, they might already be in a buying mood or are searching for something specific, so unique photos work because they are already looking at "necklaces with big beads" or "zippered pouches" etc. On Pinterest, they are more likely to be looking for inspiration (or passing the time).
What this means: Can people tell what your item is when they are just looking at the first photo without any context? (The first photo is more than likely going to be the one pinned.*) If not, they might scroll right by it on Pinterest. If your item is a necklace, you want people to be able to see that. If your item is a card, make this clear BUT also be sure they can see your gorgeous artwork so they will click through to see more. If they can just tell it is a card, they might not click through unless they are searching for a card. Most people aren't searching for specific products on Pinterest.
Bottomline: Consider experimenting with different types of photos - close-ups, unique angles, clear full product shots - and see what happens when you pin them.
*When pinning your own item, you can actually upload any product photo to Pinterest and then route the URL to the product page on Etsy. You have to first upload + write the description + pin. Then go back and edit the pin and add your product's URL.
3) When you pin your own items, be sure to add a description that explains what your item in and tells enough of a story that people will click through (see #1). But when you pin from Etsy, the default text in the description will be the title of your product plus your shop name and the price.
What this means: For example, when people pin this locket, the text says "i am brave . a whispered hand stamped soul mantra by lizlamoreux, $40.00," which seems like pretty good information on Pinterest. However, when the name gets longer than about 50 characters, it gets shortened, so this description is missing the word locket. If the person pinning your item (who might be you!) doesn't pay attention to what the description says when pinning, other pinners might be confused or your items might not come up on Pinterest searches or your item description might not even make sense if you use a lot of "key words" in your product name.*
Bottomline: Use the description on Pinterest to tell people about your product. Telling a story gets the click throughs. Don't write a lot, but enough to get them thinking about how they fit into the story. (Here's an example that usually sells well for me.)
*I'm not recommending you change the names of your products! In fact, if your items are already on Pinterest, you won't want to change them after reading #5. Just keep this in mind when you are creating new collections/adding new things to your shop.
4) When pinning your own products to Pinterest (which is a good idea!), spread out the pins. Consider one in the morning and one in the evening. Pin a variety of products. Or once a day at varying times throughout the week. Consider creating a board just for your products. And feel free to pin the same item again to the same board because your followers change and people need to be reminded or the item goes on sale or you just have one left etc. Just spread out the pins!
What this means: Think about it. When you pin five items (or more) from your shop at once (or the same item at the same time every day), you are kind of spamming your followers with a lot of the same thing in their feed. You wouldn't do this on Facebook, for example, so avoid it on Pinterest too.
Bottomline: People are on Pinterest throughout the day, but especially in the morning, late afternoon, and evening. You will get different people looking at your items if you vary your pinning. And you will avoid people unfollowing you because you pin too much of your own stuff at one time.
5) Pinterest now sends out notifications when something you've pinned goes on sale. I don't know if this is in every instance, but it is happening. My guess is that they are working with a handful (maybe a large handful) of companies, but Etsy is for sure one of them.
What this means: I've been putting one item on sale each weekend for a few weeks now. When I do this, at least some people who have pinned this item receive an email from Pinterest letting them know that the item they pinned is now on sale. The email takes them to the pin. I'm still experimenting to see how many people are buying, but this is a really interesting new feature to me, especially going into the holidays.
Bottomline: From what I can tell, you shouldn't change the name of your item. For example, when I put something on sale, I often add "SALE" in big letters at the beginning of the item's name. When this happens, Etsy changes the URL of your item, which means it might no longer be linked to your pin. The listing number on Etsy stays the same, but the URL changes to reflect the new title. (You might want to create a new photo though that shows it is on sale. Picmonkey.com is your friend!)
UPDATE 6/2/14: It has been a while since I've received one of these sale emails from Pinterest, so I don't know if they are still doing this. Here's what I recommend: Do what works for your shop. If add "sale" to the name helps people find your sale items, do that. I think tagging your items with "sale" is a good idea too (when they are on sale). Pinterest tries new features out all the time and this one might be one they did for awhile but aren't doing anymore.
+1) And one awesome way that Etsy sellers could use Pinterest for good.
Etsy sellers (and others who have small businesses on other sites) could come together to support one another on Pinterest. Consider gathering a group of friends who all have Etsy shops and commit to sharing each other's work with your Pinterest followers. Let your friends know what items you want to highlight this holiday season. Work together to spread the word that buying handmade is a very good thing.
In the comments: Feel free to share how you are using Pinterest with your business. If you are an Etsy seller and have had other experiences, please let us know! These are my observations and I'd love to pool our knowledge. And if you have any questions about Pinterest, I'll try to answer them in a future post.
liz lamoreux
Reader Comments (27)
Awesome information and thank you for sharing it! I don't have an Etsy shop yet but I'm hoping to have enough products to open one I. The spring and this will be helpful. And wow, 4 million followers? I'm bowled over!
Helpful! I've been using Pinterest to drive traffic to my Etsy shop (http://cosmicamerican.etsy.com) and it's been amazing! I didn't know about the sale thing, though. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this Liz. While I'm not selling anything yet, I am keeping this for when I do ... you just gave me an early holiday gift.. Thank you again girlfriend.
Thanks! I just started a Shop on Dawanda which is a European copycat of etsy and you answered exactly the questions That crossed my mind in the last couple of days.
I'm curious Liz, have you converted your personal Pinterest account to a business account? I'm debating doing this because my personal account is, well, personal stuff and I thought it might be weird to mix my random boards with a "my products" type board, all under the tile of my shop rather than my name. What have you done?
Thanks for the helpful information! I'm going to try to use Pinterest to promote my new shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleBugsPretties
Thank you for such a valuable and clear post, Liz. I found you from a link on another blog. I opened my Etsy shop for Christmas 2012, and started using Pinterest in 2013 to see if it would increase my sales. It increased traffic, but the lion's share on my P. page were reposts. After reading #1, I am going to rewrite my descriptions on all my pins, and think this way when I pin each new item. I will show a little of the inspiration and excitement that I get to show in my Etsy descritions. Thanks SO MUCH for pointing that out! Why didn't we see that?
What I'm a little confused about is the sales. It sounds like you are saying tht we should not change the Title, to add SALE. So do we just change the price, maybe put the SALE part in the beginning of Description ( and photo, like you said) and then Esty will inform them?
Hi Cindy, thanks for your comment. I've updated #5 above. :)
Liz
Oh, that all sounds like so much work. But I'll do it 'cause if you can't play the game, you end up on the bottom of Etsy and we all know that's no fun!
Hi,
I too pin my products from my etsy shop to pinterest but I've mostly found that people repinning my stuff, are people who use it for inspiration (great) or worse, other etsy sellers pinning it to boards titled crafts to make and DIY etc. I'm currently debating whether or not to take myself off pinterest altogether over this, because it just seems so unfair and rude. Has anyone else experienced this?
Often when I do click through to Etsy, it's a hand-sewn product that isn't being made anymore - and for no good reason!? It would be easy enough to re-offer, usually, I think. If Etsy sellers hung out more on Pinterest and saw which of their products were becoming very popular as pins, they could make sure to add purchase info to the pins when they saw them (as comments) and keep more stock of that item on hand and enjoy the sales that would come of "waves of popularity" for their item on Pinterest. There might even be a job niche for someone (hang out on Pinterest and identify merchandise belonging to clients, notify clients that there might be surging interest in that item or "something like it", LOL!)
This is such great info. I've been wondering how to push my traffic from Pinterest. So far I've seen very little traffic, but I hope this helps. I love the idea of joining up with other shops and having a pin party or encouraging others to pin your products
I really love being a part of group boards on Pinterest. They are wonderful and a great place to share your products as well as look at products other people create. And many people look for gifts etc using those boards. I have seen my Pinterest traffic increase since I have pinned on group boards. They are easy to join for the most part but most have guidelines to follow. So be sure you are aware of the rules.
Hi Liz! I just found this post on Pinterest and clicked through -and boy, am I glad I did!! Your advices are great, but just checking your boards I could see the marketing genius you are. I´ve learned so much already that I can´t wait to revamp my whole Pinterest page following your example.
Thank you thank you thank you so much for using Pinterest for good!
This is a wonderful informative post. I have often wondered if being on Pinterest is useful. I know people go to my site for inspiration not always sales. I have stopped worrying about it. Just because they look doesn't mean I have new competition.
I love the idea of posting different times of the day. I never thought of that.
I think any opportunity to get my creations out there can only be a good thing.
Great article... thank you!
Excellent article, I wish I had discovered it a month ago. I am not new to Etsy but can use all the help I can get. Thank you my etsy shop name ccreative visions
Wow thanks so much for this info now I'm going to have go and edit all my etsy pins. I've shared this link with a friend who I know will also find this invaluable.
I was just wondering if you recommend pinning from Etsy or pinning from your computer and linking to your etsy shop?
I know it was ages ago that you posted this article, but I just wanted to say thank you since I've finally joined Pinterest and I found this article super helpful in giving me a better understanding of just what I had gotten myself into!
Great post . I especially like pointing out about different types of photos. I have changed my photos recently and I noticed increased traffic and sales. Try to replace them and notice any difference and find the ones attract most traffic.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/mum2befashion?ref=hdr_shop_menu
great article thank you. I love Pinterest and have seen some traffic from it but not sales. I am going to re look t my pins to see if I m doing all you suggest. Thanks
Thank you for all of the ideas! I have had an Etsy shop for a number of years now but have never kept many items in it as I work full time, am raising four kids and have sold my items in local shops as well. I have found that life is so much more fulfilling when I can create so I was looking into creating my own website to sell my items as it feels like Etsy has gotten so big, but I will definitely try some of these ideas! I do have a Pinterest board for my shop, but I could change the descriptions etc. thanks again! I appreciate it!
Thank you for all of the ideas! http://ALORJEWELRY.etsy.com
I have had an etsy shop for about a year (www.etsy.com/shop/digitaleffects) and am looking at using Pinterest to help increase traffic and sales. Thanks for these tips Liz! I found the info about making precise descriptions very useful, as i had always pinned my items from my etsy shop and didnt usually edit the default description, thinking if it linked to my shop it was sufficient.
I also like the idea of sellers having pin parties where they can help promote one another. if there are any present etsy groups who do this, i would be interested participating.
Thank you for the information! I just converted my personal Pinterest to a business account for my shop http://thecameragraphic.etsy.com. I wonder if its possible to some how re-title a pinned etsy listing to be more specific, and not hurt/change the original strategical title on Etsy.