With more than 600 million monthly active users, Pinterest is a one-stop shop for connecting with consumers who are eager to engage with brands. From designing a home refresh to exploring new recipes, users turn to the free-to-join platform to inspire new ideas, refine existing ones, and plan what’s next. For businesses, this translates to reaching people who are actively seeking inspiration, researching products, and preparing to make a purchase.
Here’s everything you need to know about Pinterest and how a business account can help you connect with motivated, ready-to-plan consumers.
Step 1: Understand the benefits of Pinterest for business.
Unlike many other platforms, Pinterest content isn’t chronological, so it won’t get buried if your audience isn’t online when you post. Instead, it’s more evergreen and curated based on what your audience is looking for. With Pinterest, your content is more likely to reach an audience who is actively engaged and ready to buy.
Additionally, customer sentiment toward ads differs on this platform. Rather than seeing them as obtrusive, Pinterest ads feel relevant and improve the user experience. With a business account, you can run campaigns that inspire and drive conversions, better understand audience demographics and shopping habits, and explore marketing tools that support consumers throughout their shopping journey.
[Read more: How Consumer Brands Convert Online Views Into Sales]
Step 2: Set up your Pinterest Business profile.
If you’re setting up your first Pinterest account for your business, follow the steps below:
- On the Pinterest homepage, click the “Sign Up” button in the top-right corner.
- Click “Create a business account” found at the bottom of the pop-up window.
- Enter your email address and birthday, and choose a secure password. (Pinterest recommends using a personally identifiable email address rather than a generic business inbox to make it easier to track employee account access.)
- Select “Create account.”
Once you’ve created your account, you’ll need to establish your business profile. Fill in the prompts thoroughly (the more search engine-optimized information you provide, the more discoverable your account will be), then click “Next.” Lastly, select whether you want to run ads, then hit “Next” to begin exploring.
Converting personal accounts
If you already have a personal Pinterest account, you don’t need to sign up again; instead, optimize it by converting it to a business account. This option is great for those with an existing account, as it retains your pins and followers while unlocking features tailored to your business.
To convert from a personal to a business account, you must first set your account to public. From there, do the following on the Pinterest homepage:
- In the top-right corner, click “Log in.”
- Once you’ve entered your credentials and logged in, select the gear icon in the bottom-left corner.
- Click “Settings,” then “Account management.”
- On this page, you’ll find a section titled “Convert to a business account.” Click the “Convert account” button, then select “Upgrade” on the following page.
Just like the instructions in the from-scratch setup option above, you’ll need to complete the fields to build your profile, describe your business, and determine if you want to run ads. Once you’ve made your selections and entered relevant details, you can begin exploring your newly upgraded account.
Step 3: Choose board themes with the right keywords.
Once you’ve set up your account, you can create Pinterest boards, or folders for your collection of pins (posts). Board themes are largely dependent on the type of business you run, your engagement goals, and what your target audience is searching for.
Some topics to consider include:
- Behind-the-scenes or brand updates.
- Tutorials or demonstrations.
- Interest-based inspiration.
- Product or service use cases.
- Tips or checklists.
The keywords you choose when setting up your boards are equally important, as they drive search results across the platform. To find the most relevant ones for your business, type your keywords into the Pinterest search bar. The suggestions will give you insight into consumers’ search intent for your product or service, helping you fine-tune your approach.
If you aren’t sure where to begin with your theme or visual aesthetic, consult the Pinterest Palette to see the top colors of the year and Pinterest Predicts for data-backed insights into what’s popular right now.
With Pinterest, your content is more likely to reach an audience who is actively engaged and ready to buy.
Step 4: Create high-performing pins.
Pinterest is a discovery platform at its core. Understanding what performs well on Pinterest and current best practices can help you get more value from every pin you publish.
Explore different pin formats
Pinterest offers several pin formats, each of which can support different types of content:
- Static image pins are best for product spotlights, before-and-after images, and quick tips.
- Video pins offer an engaging way to share product demos, tutorials, behind-the-scenes clips, and any other process- or movement-based content.
- Carousel pins, which display multiple images or videos in a single pin, are an ideal fit for mini collections and product variations in one post.
- Idea pins, which are multipage, Instagram Story-style pins, are great for miniguides and other step-by-step content.
Use images that are easy to engage with
Use clean, high-resolution visuals with uncluttered layouts and a clear focal point to make your content more appealing. According to Pinterest’s creative best practices, vertical images (the recommended aspect ratios are 2:3 or 9:16) tend to perform better because they take up more space in the feed.
[Read more: Image Permissions: What You Need to Know Before Using Images in Your Marketing]
Make pins searchable with clear descriptions
Since people tend to treat Pinterest as a search engine, your pin descriptions should clearly explain what the viewer is looking at and why it matters. If you’re linking to a product page, guide, or blog post, the description should set expectations and match what the user will see after they click. Include keywords naturally based on what your customers would type into the search bar, and prioritize clarity over cleverness.
Add product context with Rich Pins
The Rich Pins feature automatically pulls additional details from your website, such as product pricing and availability, and displays them on Pinterest. That added context can help users make faster decisions, especially when they’re shopping or comparing options.
Step 5: Build a consistent posting and promotion plan.
Pinterest tends to reward consistency. Follow these tips to build a realistic yet effective posting and promotion plan.
Factor Pinterest demographics into your content plan
Pinterest users often browse with intent, whether they’re planning a purchase or just saving inspiration for later. Monitoring your Pinterest audience insights can help you shape content around whom your target customers are and what they’re most likely to search and save.
Post consistently, but make it sustainable
Instead of posting in bursts, aim for a schedule you can maintain week to week. Even a smaller number of pins posted regularly can build more traction over time than sporadic posting. Here are a few tips to keep it manageable:
- Repurpose your existing content into multiple pins. For example, one long-form blog post can be repurposed into several pins with different headlines, visuals, or shorter concepts.
- Refresh top-performing pins seasonally with new imagery, updated wording, or a new angle.
- Keep a running list of themes you can rotate through.
To streamline the posting process, tools like Tailwind can help you plan pins and stay active without manually posting every day.
Promote pins to expand reach
While organic pins can build long-term visibility, promoting pins can help you reach new audiences faster — especially for seasonal campaigns, product launches, or content that’s already performing well.
To get started, choose a pin to promote and a relevant landing page to link to. From there, you can set your campaign goal, audience targeting, budget and run dates, and measure performance over time.
[Read more: Leveraging Social Media to Grow Your Brand: Strategies for Small Business Success]
Step 6: Turn your pins into sales.
Here are a few practical ways to turn Pinterest visibility into conversions:
- Create conversion-friendly pin themes. Pins that help shoppers compare options or picture a product in context often perform well. Examples include gift guides, “shopping soundtrack” collections, exclusive drops, and vibe boards.
- Use Pinterest’s shopping features. Pinterest’s built-in shopping tools help businesses reach users already browsing with the intent to purchase. For product-based businesses, this can shorten the path from discovery to checkout.
- Send people to the right page. Match your pin to a landing page that delivers exactly what the pin promises (for example, a specific product, collection, or category). If someone clicks expecting one thing and lands somewhere generic, you’re more likely to lose the sale.
- Treat your best pins like templates. When a pin consistently drives clicks or sales, reuse the structure: similar visuals, a related headline, and a clear product focus. Small changes — like a new angle, collection, or seasonal hook — can extend the life of content that’s already working.
Step 7: Add Pinterest tools to your website.
Pinterest helps drive traffic to your website, but did you know you can also use your company website to drive traffic to your Pinterest? The social media platform offers add-ons, such as widgets and buttons, to help expand your profile reach by promoting shares and follows.
With Pinterest-provided codes, you can incorporate the following elements into your website:
- Save button. Website visitors can save your content to their Pinterest boards with one click, saving them the hassle of looking up your business’s Pinterest profile.
- Follow button. With a readily accessible follow button, pinners can follow your business on the platform and see your content regularly.
- Pin widget: If you have a high-performing pin, you can place it directly on your website to increase visibility.
- Board widget: You can show your visitors what your Pinterest offers by displaying an entire Pinterest board, up to 50 pins, directly on your website.
- Profile widget: By displaying your Pinterest profile on your website, you can show potential followers your most recent saved pins to help them better understand what you have to offer.
Collectively, these widgets turn your website into an extension of your Pinterest strategy, making it easy for visitors to engage with your content and drive long-term traffic back to your business.
Step 8: Measure what works with Pinterest Analytics.
Pinterest Analytics, only available to business accounts, helps you see how your Pinterest profile is performing as a whole. Here’s how to review your analytics:
- Log in to your Pinterest business account.
- Click the hamburger menu (top-left corner).
- Select “Analytics,” then choose “Overview.”
From there, you’ll see a wide range of metrics and a snapshot of the past 30 days. Here are the metrics to watch as a small business focused on growth and conversions:
- Impressions show how often your pins appear on the screen, helping you gauge brand visibility.
- Engagements & Engagement Rate indicate how compelling your content is through saves, clicks, and interactions.
- Saves & Save Rate are a strong signal of interest, since saved pins often lead to future action or purchases.
- Outbound Clicks & Outbound Click Rate are one of the most important metrics for small businesses, as it tracks traffic driven directly to your website.
- Pin Clicks help you identify which pins motivate users to learn more.
- Video views/average play time are, for video pins, metrics that reveal which formats and messages hold attention.
By regularly checking Pinterest Analytics, you can spot patterns, double down on high-performing content, and turn informed decisions into measurable business results.
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