How to Get More Etsy Sales Using Pinterest

As an Etsy seller, I use Pinterest every day to help drive traffic to my Etsy store. Pinterest is an incredible marketing tool for Etsy sellers and is totally free to use.

Promoting your Etsy shop using Pinterest isn’t difficult, and that is what we are going to be talking about today: a simple Pinterest strategy to increase your Etsy traffic and make more Etsy sales using Pinterest. An easy Etsy traffic strategy.

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There is a lot of information already written about how to use Pinterest to increase Etsy sales, and in this post, I’m excited to add to the conversation.

I’ve been selling art prints from my shop Dream Dash Designs on Etsy since July 2019. And marketing my art prints on Pinterest since then as well.

Although my shop is fairly new, I’ve seen some decent Etsy traffic from my Pinterest marketing efforts. I get about 20% of my Etsy traffic from Pinterest, which is significant. And I only work on my Etsy shop 2-10 hours a week, including marketing, so my “efforts” are not much work at all.

(May 23- April 23, 2020, traffic source statistics.)

 

My Etsy marketing strategies could easily be amplified for greater results, and we will talk about exactly how further into this article.

This article assumes you already have your Etsy shop up and running. If you have not set up your Etsy shop yet, you can check out this post which explains how to set up an Etsy shop, plus get some extra deep thoughts on selling art prints:

The Weirdest Thing about Selling Printables on Etsy (That No One Ever Talks About)

How to use Pinterest to market your Etsy Shop

Step 1- Create a Pinterest business account

Go ahead and create a Pinterest business account if you haven’t already. It’s free.

If you already have a personal account, you can turn it into a business account. Or you can create a separate business account.

You can follow the steps right here on Pinterest to set up your business account.

Step 2- Create your Pinterest profile

Upload a photo of yourself or your Etsy logo. Type in your profile name plus some keywords (more about keywords in a minute) about who you are or what your shop/brand is about.

Here’s my Pinterest profile as an example:

As you can see, the focus of my Pinterest account, (and blog and brand) is journal| lifestyle| blogging | art.

Go ahead and fix up your name and photo, as well as your personal description, according to your own personal and business focus.

Step 3- Create captivating Pinterest boards to gain organic followers

To start, build your Pinterest foundation. You should have at least 5-10 (or more) Pinterest boards on topics you like and topics related to what you’re selling. (I have 111, but have had Pinterest since the beginning.)

For each board, find 10 or so pins that are related to that board.

Going forward, you’ll want a minimum of 50 pins per board and 30+ boards. The idea is to make your account hoppin’ with cool content before you start pinning your Etsy items to your boards.

Ask yourself- if you came across your Pinterest account, would you want to follow it?

Gaining followers organically is a wise part of your long-term Pinterest marketing strategy and will help you to make more Etsy sales using Pinterest.

Step 4- Use proper keywords in your Pinterest board titles and board descriptions

What are “proper keywords?”

Simply put, keywords are search words/phrases that a Pinterest user is typing into the Pinterest search bar. Pinterest is a search engine.

Suppose a Pinterest user, let’s call her Jan, wants to look at vintage jewelry. So Jan types “vintage jewelry” into the search bar.

You will see secondary words pop up related to “vintage jewelry” – crafts, art, ideas, etc. Those words are all keywords and keyword phrases people are searching for related to “vintage jewelry”.

If you were on the other end of Jan’s search, selling vintage jewelry on Etsy, you would want to use these keywords in your Pinterest board titles, board descriptions, and pin descriptions themselves so your Etsy pins would be found by Jan.

Step 5- How to use Pinterest boards as part of your Etsy traffic strategy

I sell art prints on Etsy. My main Pinterest board for my art prints is called Art Prints from Dream Dash Designs on Etsy. Whenever I create a new art print, I pin it from Etsy to this Pinterest board first.

By pinning a brand-new pin of an Etsy listing to a relevantly keyworded board, I am telling Pinterest how to categorize that pin.

After pinning to my main Etsy board, I schedule my Etsy pin using the automated pin scheduler Tailwind to my other relevant Pinterest boards, including but not limited to inspirational quotes (for quote art) wall art prints, and Unique art prints, home decor, fashion, printables, and other cool stuff found on Etsy!

Multiple Pinterest boards for an easy Etsy traffic strategy

By having multiple related Pinterest boards, your pin has more places to hang out in your Pinterest account, and more chances of being discovered. Multiple related Pinterest boards filled with great content, including your own pins of Etsy products, is an excellent way to promote your Etsy store on Pinterest.

Make sure to pin regularly to your Pinterest account and build it up organically with great content, both your pins and other people’s pins. I’d advise against pinning the same image with same url to the same board more than once or twice. But you can make 4-5 different pins using different images but the same URL and pin each to the same board once.

Step 6- Join group boards and use them for marketing your Etsy shop

Once you have your Pinterest business account set up with properly keyworded Pinterest board title, board descriptions, and relevant pins, try to join some group boards.

But not just any group boards- look for properly keyworded group boards that are specific to what you’re selling on Etsy. You can also create your own group boards and invite others to join.

To join a group board, simply send a polite written request to the owner of the board. Sometimes it can take a while for the person who runs the board to get back to you, so be patient. Keep looking for and joining as many relevant and properly- keyworded group boards as possible. (Up to 10-15). A few general-topic group boards are fine, but aim for boards with specific-to-your-business keywords in the board title and board description.

Step 7- Pin regularly to group boards to market your Etsy shop

As you join group boards you can pin your Etsy pins to these group boards, allowing your pin “reach” to expand to many more people.

Make sure to be respectful of board rules that people set, and re-pin from those boards if required.

You can pin to your own boards and group boards easily by hand. Or, to save time and not have to keep track of your pinning so carefully, you can use the automated pin schedular Tailwind, which is what I use.

I use Tailwind for both my blog and Etsy shop and find it to be an indispensable tool. Tailwind will automatically pin your pins to all your boards and group boards at set times throughout the day that you pre-determine. That way you can be “pinning” regularly and getting your content/pins out there without having to be actually constantly pinning all day yourself.

You can try Tailwind for free for the first 100 pins, then it’s only $9.99/mo.

How to pin from Etsy to Pinterest

To pin an Etsy listing from Etsy to Pinterest, go to your Etsy site> edit shop> shop manager> marketing >social media. From there, you can share your Etsy listing to your Pinterest account or any social media account you set up. Easy peasy.

You can also…

Create an Etsy pin straight from your Pinterest account

Steps:

Click on red plus button at top right of page> Create pin or product pin.

Upload product image, enter product title, enter product description (use good keywords!) and enter the URL of your items Etsy page.

Pin your new pin to your most relevant Pinterest board first before scheduling or manually pinning to any other boards.

Using Tailwind Tribes to market your Etsy shop on Pinterest

Remember how I said my Etsy marketing strategies could easily be amplified for greater results?

With the $9.99/mo Tailwind plan, you get access to something called Tailwind Tribes, in addition to the other wonderful Tailwind features. You can join up to 5 tribes with this beginning plan.

The tribes are like Pinterest group boards in a sense. You add your pins and re-pin other tribe members pins to further your Pinterest reach even more. The difference between Tailwind tribes and Pinterest group boards is that Tribes require you to be a more vigilant team player when it comes to re-pinning other users’ content. Group boards don’t always require the same level of participation that tribes do.

You can pay extra (different pricing/plans exist) to have access to hundreds of Tribes via Tailwind if you wish. And you can share your content with VAST numbers of tribe members.

Tribes can be highly effective in growing your Pinterest traffic, and hence Etsy traffic. Tribes are a wonderful tool to make more Etsy sales using Pinterest. But the flipside is tribes can be time-consuming.

I used tribes for about 2 months and found them to be helpful for my blog and Etsy traffic, but I recently had to stop using them for time reasons during Corona quarantine.

I’m a full-time at-home mom of 2 kids with a blog, Etsy shop, and an Amazon product. I will literally go insane if I don’t take some things off my plate. If I had more time, I would absolutely continue to use tribes.

I do use and LOVE Tailwind for being able to auto-pin my pins. Tailwind has helped grow my blog traffic enormously.

What to expect using this Pinterest strategy for increasing Etsy traffic

Each case is going to be different, but with that being said, it’s important to think about your long-term goals. If you’re an Etsy seller who wants to market your art or Etsy products on Pinterest, then there’s not much to lose in using Pinterest, considering Pinterest is a free marketing tool.

Focusing on growing an organically popular Pinterest account with many proper keyword boards and relevant pins is the way to go. Over time, you should see more and more traffic to your Pinterest account. And as a result, increased traffic to your Etsy shop as you reach more and more people on Pinterest.

Keep in mind it takes time, more time than you may think, to grow any online business. That includes growing your Pinterest reach. So have patience, work consistently, and do what makes you happy.

Finally, Although I’ve tried to outline an easy Etsy traffic strategy using Pinterest, Pinterest marketing is a complex topic. There are many pieces to the puzzle. Please feel free to DM me on Pinterest or leave a comment below for any questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

I hope this blog post helps you to make more Etsy sales using Pinterest!

Wishing you the best in your entrepreneurial adventures!

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Selling Art on Etsy- How to Start Making Sales

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How to Start an Art Blog With No Tech Skills and Why You Need One

How to Start an Art Journal for Beginners

11 Creative Ways to Make Passive Income as an Artist