How to Use Pinterest for Local Business
Can you use Pinterest for local businesses? If you’re asking yourself this question, it’s because you know the power of Pinterest for business. Pinterest is a visual search engine that has the ability to bring your business a ton of traffic. However, Pinterest has a global audience that reaches the United States and other countries across the world. The ability to reach different countries is amazing and can really help a business expand. But what if your business is local? What if you own a restaurant or a local brick-and-mortar business and you don’t sell items that can be shipped overseas or even to other states? If you have a business that is limited to your local area, you might be wondering if you can use Pinterest for local businesses. I’m here to teach you the pros and cons of using Pinterest for your local business, how you can use Pinterest for your local business, and some local Pinterest SEO.
Pinterest for Local Business Is Possible
Before I go into using Pinterest for your local business, I want to make it very clear that Pinterest marketing experts don’t all agree on whether you should use Pinterest for local businesses. Some Pinterest VAs (Virtual Assistants) don’t recommend it and others do. I honestly believe that while it’s easier to grow a digital business or a business that offers products that can be sold globally, you can still very much reach your local audience using Pinterest. Pinterest’s main audience is women in the U.S. that use Pinterest to plan their dinners, find fashion inspiration, learn to do DIY projects, improve their home decor, choose what they want their nails to look like, and more. With the use of Pinterest SEO, you can target these women who can find your business and want to visit.
What is Local Pinterest SEO?
When I say local Pinterest SEO, I am talking about search engine optimization (SEO) or using keywords in your Pinterest marketing strategy. If you’ve read my post on how to do Pinterest keyword research, you’ve already learned a good bit about Pinterest SEO. Making sure that you’re incorporating keywords that will specifically reach your local target audience is going to be extremely important in your Pinterest marketing strategy to grow your local business.
What does applying local Pinterest SEO look like? Well, if you own a realty business in North Carolina and you promote a blog post about how buying a house in 2023 is a great investment, you’re going to want to title that pin with keywords related to your location – for example, “Why buying a house in Raleigh, North Carolina is the best investment to make in 2023” or “Why Owning a North Carolina Home is Best Investment of 2023.” This reaches people searching in your area with those possible local-targeted keywords.
Optimizing Your Pinterest for Local Business
Now that I’ve talked about Pinterest SEO, let me dive a little deeper as to where you need to make sure you place these keywords. You’re going to want to make sure that your profile name and description have your location in them or a local keyword you want to use that’s related to your business. And adding your location or location-based keywords to your profile description is also going to help you be found by people specifically searching for you in your area. You will also want to incorporate your location and keywords in the following areas:
- Board Titles
- Board Descriptions
- Pin Titles
- Pin Descriptions
- Pin Text Overlay
Making sure that you really stuff your profile with lots of location words is going to help people…locate you. Keep in mind that when you incorporate keywords and location to your pin descriptions and boards, you don’t want to overstuff your copy with keywords and just have a long paragraph of keywords. Make sure it’s good copy explaining what the pin or board is about while incorporating some keywords into it. Just always make sure you DO incorporate those keywords.
If you want help optimizing your profile, check out my Pinterest Profile Audit Checklist. I give you a printable checklist, video tutorials, and go over how to set your website up for success – including how to verify your website, board covers, Pinterest SEO, and I even give you a free guide on how to create proper Pinterest pins. You can check it out below!
Pinterest for Local Business is Even More Possible with a Blog
If you’ve ever listened to me talk on the Marketing & Mindset Podcast or have ever asked me for Pinterest marketing tips, you’ve probably already heard me recommend having a blog over and over again for all businesses. If you want to grow your local business and reach your local audience on Pinterest, you’re going to want a blog. If you generally want to grow on Pinterest, having a blog is the way to go.
There are so many benefits to having a Blog on your business website. You’re welcome to read this post and learn all about the many benefits of having a blog for your business. But when it comes to reaching your local audience, a blog gives you a medium where you can create content specifically to target your local audience on Pinterest.
For example, if you are a realtor in North Carolina and want to find people on Pinterest that want to buy a house in North Carolina or are moving to North Carolina, a blog is a great way to provide value and information to those people.
Your blog can have articles on the following topics:
- Places to Visit in North Carolina
- The Best Cities to Own a House in North Carolina
- How to Buy a House in North Carolina
- The Best Restaurants in North Carolina
And the list of topics is endless! You’ll be able to write about so many different topics that people living in your area or moving to your area will be super interested in that leads them directly to your website. Once I’ve learned all about North Carolina from this blog that’s given me all this information about this town I am living in or moving to, who do you think I’ll turn to when I decide to buy a house there?
Here are some examples below of excellent location-based pins! These pins are obviously targeting a specific audience interested in a specific location. Your profile and pins should be this obvious so that Pinterest’s algorithm can easily recognize your location, your audience, and your content. Having location-based content on your blog will attract your local audience and allow you to get traffic and conversions. #nuffsaid
If I’ve convinced you that you need a blog at this point, but you’re completely clueless as to how to even start one, I suggest you take this FREE blog course and get started! A blog will not only help you gain Pinterest traffic, but you’ll be able to start getting more and more Google traffic as you grow your blog. #yourewelcome
Strategy for Pinterest for Local Business
Once your account is ready and you’ve got great local content for your target audience, you’re going to want to get your pins ready and start a pinning strategy. But first, you need to make sure you’re designing your pins correctly.
Pin Design
There are certain dimensions that your pins need to be in order for you to start getting good Pinterest traffic. If you just post images of any size, Pinterest won’t reward you with good traffic. Pinterest gives you all the dimensions you need to know for all the types of pins you can pin in this article. You’ll also want to make sure you design bold and beautiful pins that really pop out to capture your audience’s attention. I personally recommend Canva for designing pins! Canva has a FREE version that’s amazing and a pro version that’s even better – but you really only need the free version to create beautifully designed Pinterest pins. Canva also knows the proper dimensions for the different types of Pinterest pins so you don’t even have to write them down! Just go into Canva, click “Create a Design” on the top right, and then search for Pinterest and you’ll find all the Pinterest pin types you can choose from that are already perfectly sized for you! #yourewelcome
Once you know exactly how to design and create Pinterest pins, you’re going to need to learn a pinning strategy.
Pinning Strategy
Now, when it comes to how many pins you should be creating and how often you should be pinning. I can’t give you a full strategy for free. But, I can give you a general idea of what you should be doing. First of all, you’re going to want to create all types of pins. Create video pins, carousel pins, static pins, and idea pins. Create a different type of pin for the same link. Do this for several different blog posts or unique URLs to start. Do this for several months. After a few months, look at your Pinterest Analytics page to see what pins are performing the best. Did your static pins get more clicks to your website? Did your video pins? Did your idea pins get the most engagement? Analyze your analytics to determine how you will continue pinning. If your static pins got more clicks, you’ll want to create more of those! If your video pins are the ones getting more attention, then focus on creating more of those. Whatever is working, you’ll want to create more of it!
If you want to really dig deep into Pinterest marketing strategy, you can check out my Pin Like a Boss page and schedule a strategy call with me OR take the best Pinterest marketing course I recommend.
Pinterest Ads
Now, there is an option for paid advertisement on Pinterest for your local business. You can invest in a Pinterest Ad Campaign where you can choose the location of your audience and really target them directly. Pinterest will only advertise to anyone in your area and they’ll bump your pin so it gets a lot of traffic depending on your budget. Honestly, I don’t recommend paying for Pinterest Ads until you’ve really gotten your organic Pinterest marketing strategy working well, you know exactly what types of pins and designs are getting you the most traffic, and you’ve got a good landing page ready to convert whatever traffic the ad sends your way.
And this is excellent advice for Pinterest marketing in general – you want to make sure you’re sending traffic to blog posts that always have a CTA (Call to Action)!
You want to make sure you’re sending traffic to well-written and high-converting landing pages.
Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how much Pinterest traffic you get. If you’re not sending them to something that’s going to convert them or inspire them to go visit your business – then it’s a waste. Traffic is traffic but high-converting content is what brings you sales.
Ending Notes...
With a well-optimized account, proper Pinterest pins, and a solid pinning strategy – your local business can really begin to thrive on Pinterest! The most important part is that you’re attracting your target audience with those location keywords and local topics. Also, make sure you’re sharing your Pinterest profile with your current customers as well! Put up a sign that says, “Follow us on Pinterest!” or send an email sharing your profile with them with some pins to articles that might interest them. Your current customers are probably already on Pinterest and might share and save some of your pins to help them get even more traction on the platform!
Either way, I think it’s smart to use Pinterest for local businesses. It’s such a powerful visual search engine filled with people ready to discover your business. I hope that you incorporate this advice and start pinning away! And when you land your first local client through Pinterest, make sure to come back here and comment below to let me know all about it!
Happy pinning!
If you’d rather watch me talk about all of this instead of reading it, check out my YouTube video below!
Comments? Questions? Ask them below! I will answer as soon as I can 
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