Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share

Pin With Purpose

• Chief Empowerment Officer, Amy Vaughan

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Welcome back to The Power Lounge. In "Pin With Purpose," host Amy Vaughn engages with Pinterest marketing strategist Dana Joan Johnson, founder of Styled Pin Collection. Together, they explore how Pinterest can revolutionize strategies for creative entrepreneurs and business owners seeking an alternative to the relentless pace of daily social media posting.

Amy and Dana discuss Pinterest's potential as a visual search engine, emphasizing its ability to generate consistent, high-quality traffic to websites, content, and offerings. Dana shares her transition from the wedding industry to digital marketing, highlighting her dedication to sustainable marketing systems that prevent burnout. If navigating ever-changing social trends feels overwhelming, this episode provides practical strategies and valuable insights.

Tailored for both product-based businesses and service providers, listeners will learn how to repurpose existing content, optimize with effective keywords, and develop a Pinterest strategy that continues to deliver results over time. Additionally, Dana addresses common Pinterest misconceptions and explains the importance of clarity, consistency, and relevance in achieving pinning success.

Dana Johnson brings a unique perspective as a former wedding professional turned educator. Through The Styled Pin Collection, she empowers creative entrepreneurs with strategic, on-brand Pinterest content. By focusing on simplicity and authenticity, Dana helps businesses enhance their visibility and traffic without the constant pressure of daily social media engagement.

Join this conversation to refine your Pinterest strategy and drive meaningful results for your business.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
01:58 – Pinterest: Beyond Aesthetic Inspiration
04:06 – Pinterest Strategies for Wedding Planning
09:38 – "Timeless Wedding Content Strategy"
11:38 – Educational Content Drives Quality Leads
15:14 – "Maximize Impact Through Repetition"
19:12 – "Unbranded Searches and Content Strategy"
19:53 – Empowering Consumers Through Value
26:24 – Content Refresh and Repurposing
27:49 – Maximizing Pinterest for Existing Content
31:24 – Effective Visual Communication Strategies
35:33 – "Encouragement to Speak at Conferences"
37:26 – Twitter's Marketing Challenge: Unrelated Trends
41:00 – "Year-Round Barbecue Marketing Strategies"
46:08 – "Show Your Face in Marketing"
46:56 – "Upcoming Master Classes Announcement"
49:34 – Outro

Quotes:
"Work smarter—create evergreen content that delivers lasting value."- Amy Vaughan

"Strategy beats hustle. Plant the right seeds to ensure your business grows long after you're done."- Dana Joan Johnson

Key Takeaways:
Pinterest is a Powerful Search Engine, Not Just a Social Platform
Strategic, Sustainable Marketing Beats Social Burnout
Evergreen Content is Your Secret Weapon
Keywords (and Simplicity!) Unlock Pinterest Growth
Repurpose, Schedule, and Simplify
Educate and Empower to Inspire Trust
Measure What Matters: Beyond Impressions
Pinterest’s Future: Visual Search & Year-Round Opportunity

Connect with Dana Joan Johnson:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-m-johnson/
Website: https://ddvirtualmanagement.com/

Check out PROJECT 300:

PROJECT 300 Website: https://www.project300.co/

PROJECT 300 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-300-llc

PROJECT 300 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/project300llc/

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome to our weekly Power Lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughn and I am the owner and chief empowerment officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections. You can join the movement at togetherindigitalcom Today. I'm thrilled to welcome Dana Johnson, a Pinterest marketing strategist who has changed how we think about sustainable digital marketing. As the founder of Styled Pin Collection, dana is creating a monthly membership that empowers creative entrepreneurs with strategic on-brand Pinterest content that drives results. I love it.

Speaker 1:

Creative, business-minded Gosh, we're all going to be friends, aren't we? After transitioning from the wedding industry to education, dana brings a refreshing perspective on digital marketing that prioritizes sustainability over burnout. At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by the demands of daily social media posting, Dana is offering a compelling alternative, leveraging Pinterest as a visual search engine that delivers high quality, evergreen traffic directly to your business, offers, content and email lists. What makes Dana's approach particularly valuable is her focus on creating marketing systems that work for you, not the other way around. She specializes in helping service providers, product-based businesses, build lasting visibility without the constant pressure to show up on social feeds every day. Dana, we're so delighted to have you here with us to share your expertise on all things Pinterest and beyond with our community. Welcome to the Power Lounge.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, that was quite the introduction, and I love it too.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, we're thrilled to have you here and again. Many, many alignments again. As, like a former agency creative and now a business owner, I just think I love how creatives approach business right, Because it's not just about the pretty things, it's like how do we make space for, and optimize our time to be able to make things nicer, more fun and more pretty? So I love, love, love how smart you are with not just what you do in the social media space, but how you're doing your business. It makes a lot of sense and I love that this became our topic, because people are probably scratching their head going what Pinterest? Many people still view Pinterest as primarily a social platform rather than a search engine. What was your aha moment? That sort of changed how you approach Pinterest marketing? Because I love this insight.

Speaker 2:

So I feel like I have a couple like it took a few aha moments for me to be like, oh, I need to really like, lock in and hone in on this strategy. But one of them was I realized Pinterest wasn't just a place for pretty things. It wasn't just for what am I cooking this week or how am I entertaining my children. Because when I was really using Pinterest the most, I was a stay-at-home mom and trying to figure out how to entertain my children and educate them in a fun, like hands-on way, and so, of course, I turned to Pinterest for that. Yeah, clients find non-traditional ways of marketing. That wasn't just social media, because I primarily work with creative business owners and especially those in the wedding space.

Speaker 2:

Well, in 2020, wedding shows went up in smoke. Your primary lead source of getting in front of a bunch of wedding couples planning their wedding was gone. Like, how are we going to figure that out? How do we pull them to your website if you can no longer attend these shows? So I started looking and figuring it out that Pinterest is a search engine. It's built for discoverability, and that was another aha moment. Like duh, when I did weddings, I asked my couples for their Pinterest boards so I could visualize what they were talking about for their big day, what type of vendors they were looking for. So I had created this LinkedIn course just in my ebbs and flows of being an entrepreneur and tested the things that I learned about Pinterest and I made a sale within like a few days, I know.

Speaker 2:

I was because I'd only done like a free masterclass, I'd done some little research and I was like all right, let's test out these strategies and see if they actually work. And it did, yeah. So I was like all right, that's when it hit me Social media, because I posted on social media and I made no sales. So social media is fun, but it's social. It's meant to connect and engage, but people aren't on there to buy. I mean they do buy.

Speaker 2:

Obviously people buy, but they're not there to buy. They're not there to discover they're. They do buy. Obviously people buy, but they're not there to buy.

Speaker 2:

They're not there to discover they're there to be entertained. So if you're lucky enough to entertain them towards buying, great. But if you're not, well you need another platform. Pinterest is one of these platforms that rewards consistency and searchability. So if you're honing in on those keywords, that is how you can scale and build your visibility without having to chase algorithms, learn a do, dance move or anything else that comes with being on social media, Right Cause it does.

Speaker 1:

It feels like you're constantly jumping through hoops. Like you said, I'm trying to keep up with the API changes, trying to track the trends. It can get really exhausting and so you've built your business around helping entrepreneurs escape that social media, that sometimes inevitable right Social media burnout. Could you share a little bit about your journey from kind of wedding you did a little bit allude to it before, but like wedding professional to Pinterest strategist?

Speaker 2:

Pinterest strategist, yes. So I love celebrating life events and I have always been that friend that planned the things and made stuff happen Like it wasn't ever just oh, let's go to dinner. Oh no, let's do a whole dinner experience, let's do it at home and have a weekly game night with fun recipes and whatever. I was that friend. So I got a degree in wedding and event management and where you know, creativity is in high demand. But that also leads to burnout, because now you're forced to get creative as opposed to creating space for you to sit with it, really dive into what's trending or where your couples are leaning into and what is unique about them. If it's forced, it's exhausting and it's no longer fun. So I was managing social media and admin work for my clients and it just felt like we could never keep up with what was going on.

Speaker 2:

Like carousel styles change what hashtags, what's this, what's that. But I also was irritated for my clients because they spend 12 to 18 months designing these luxury level either a styled editorial or a wedding and it disappears in 24 hours Like that's a slap in the face for all of your hard work, late nights and blood, sweat and tears.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So when I noticed that Pinterest was a place to drive traffic to wedding content, one organically cause I don't like paying for anything if I don't have to to wedding content one organically, because I don't like paying for anything if I don't have to.

Speaker 2:

But two, it almost helps you hack the algorithm because you can link to your reel, you can link that carousel and give it that longer shelf life. And that's what really made me dive wholeheartedly into it, because I was trying to offer both still being an admin because it was safe, and then offering Pinterest because you need that. You don, and then offering Pinterest because, like, you need that. You don't know you need it, but you need it Right. And it was learning that ability to almost hack the algorithm of linking directly to the content that you worked so hard to create. Yeah, I was like that's it Done. I'm the unapologetic pinner and I'm telling everyone that they have to be on here to get that consistent brand visibility that we need, because those in the creative space mostly don't have repeat clients. You need a fresh wave of new ones and Pinterest is the way that. One is the platform they're going to to plan their wedding anyway, so let's bring them to you.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Let's dig in a little bit more to Pinterest and its algorithm, because it is a little bit different and user behaviors are quite different from platforms like Instagram or TikTok, which is where I think a lot of marketers probably spend most of their time depending on their product or service. So what are some maybe fundamental mindset shifts that marketers would need to make when they're thinking about developing a Pinterest strategy?

Speaker 2:

I think the biggest shift is you're not looking to go viral. Yes, there isn't really an instant gratification Terms I've been seeing lately is like a slow burn or a slow build. It's about sustainable growth and you're looking to build like momentum. So Pinterest is the game of search discoverability. So it's not like Instagram or anything where you're hoping to get thousands of views and likes and then hooking them. You're showing.

Speaker 2:

This is about creating touch points, sharing your knowledge and expertise, showing off your galleries. So evergreen content is huge. These timeless trends, these no matter if it's this year, 10 years ago, 10 years in the future, couples are going to have very similar concerns and overwhelms about planning their wedding, and you can create that content that leads them to you and gives them that confidence of oh, this is a great idea, I can do this wedding, or I need her to help me, him help me have this wedding that I keep dreaming about. It's also a place for long-term planning and batch scheduling, and it's less about showing up daily and more about creating resources. That your ideal audience will keep searching for.

Speaker 1:

So almost like building like your own content library and letting it live on Instagram, on Pinterest, as I see I'm just so used to talking about Instagram that lives, you know, kind of there's, like you said, that evergreen content which can be so, so valuable. And, like you said, when it comes to like looking at it as a search, and I mean I would honestly caution against any client or individual ever trying to sell something as potentially viral, because you know viral doesn't necessarily get you your intended goal right. It's just it always drove me nuts, even like 15 years ago, and clients would be like we want a viral video. And I was like, but what do you want to achieve with the viral video? If you want more sales, then you probably don't want a viral video, because it's viral videos don't necessarily equate to sales.

Speaker 1:

We had a really great podcast episode with Kenya, kelly Gosh. It was probably sometime last year and she is like amazing on TikTok. You should definitely check her out and follow her. She's got a great newsletter and whatnot and you know she talked about an example of a law firm that came to her and was like we want to be TikTok famous and she says do you want that or do you want more client leads? And they said, well, we want more client leads. She's like I can make you a viral, I can make you viral, but I can't guarantee you it'll get you qualified leads on the phone calling you to represent them.

Speaker 1:

And so she created something that was a little bit more educational. And so she created something that was a little bit more educational and it resulted in over 126 phone calls to the office. That resulted in, I think, like 60 new potential clients, and it's like that's the kind of viral I want to be. I don't know about the rest of y'all, but it's. It's funny how we just get so caught up in like the instant fame that that has potential to like be when you're on other social media platforms. I think it's all the more reason to support what you're saying and not creating that Pinterest. You know very visually based content that's educational and evergreen. It's just literally sitting there working for you long after you've done the work, and I think that that's so great.

Speaker 2:

It definitely. I've always been someone that leans towards quality over quantity. So if it takes you, if you want to dive all of your time, energy and effort into one quality blog post, one quality email opt-in to nurture them, or one quality podcast episode, then I call it splicing and dicing and then dissect it into multiple different things. Now you're able to target different people on different platforms, but you're not working from a place of. I need to figure out how to be on all 7,000 platforms that there are right now. I already don't want to do that. That already sounds exhausting and decision fatigue, and I'm not going to move forward on anything. So when I work with my clients, that's what I tell them let's focus on evergreen content, really good quality, and then how can we divide it up onto the various platforms? But you only get to focus on this one thing, and so for wedding planners, it's the wedding that they're working on right now. Let's make this the best wedding you've ever done, and then let's share it in 500 different ways.

Speaker 1:

I love it. That's super smart and I'm with you on the quality over quantity, especially with the amount of AI generated content that's out there, right? Marketers are like, oh no, it's going to take my job. It's like, no, actually people who know how to use AI well are going to be the ones that take your job and like that's how you and it's not going to help other people market better, it's just going to show people who don't understand marketing that they don't understand marketing when they try to use AI as a sub plant for that, versus like that intentional, well thought out, insightful work. You know, again, I love AI tool as a tool for augmenting and supporting. Use it every damn day.

Speaker 1:

I'm not afraid to say it, I'm not afraid to say it, but I agree, like I think, that there's just this a mass of and there always has been, you know, for the last 15 years of just all of this content. And so, yeah, I am definitely a proponent of one evergreen to slicing and dicing and maximizing and really like, if you do that in a quality way, I mean, you are really getting some bang for your buck. When you think about it as well from, like an efficiency and cost effectiveness standpoint, that too.

Speaker 2:

I didn't think about the cost effective. I was just like Well, I focus on energy costs. I have too many things going on behind the scenes. I don't want to recreate 500 things. I don't have one day long shoot.

Speaker 1:

You're going to shoot a 30 second TV ad, like let's shoot 60 and like let's take time to hire in a still photographer, so somebody is walking around and getting you know photos for your ads and billboards and whatever else you need and social media posts, and then we're going to take that 60 second and cut it to a 30, and then we're going to cut it to a 15, and then we're going to cut it and put it into something that can have captions so we can run it as a reel on instagram. Like, really like, why spend money? You're recreating something over and over and over again?

Speaker 1:

because not only that, but you're creating bank brand consistency right because every time they see that campaign it's like, oh, it's consistent. I, I saw this on it feels familiar. And then with the way we are as consumers right, we got the memory of goldfish. We're getting a million messages thrown at us a day and as marketers, we get tired of our own messages. But people have to hear it six, seven times before they even stop and take notice. And so, yeah, this is why I love what you're doing, dana, and it makes so much sense, you know, to kind of stick on the topic of viral viralness, because it is a thing right on Pinterest there's, there's businesses getting lucky with like viral pins. What's your, but your approach emphasizes, like strategic sustainability. You know, what are some other things that we can touch upon, although I know we went down that rabbit hole a little bit. What else does truly sustainable Pinterest systems, like marketing systems, look like in the work that you're doing?

Speaker 2:

So that is a great question and I can go over it again because again we. I think the last statistic I saw was it's, on average, seven or up to 12 touch points before someone actually works with you, which is that's a lot of touch points 12 touch points before someone actually works with you, which is that's a lot of touch points.

Speaker 2:

So a sustainable system working with me or really anyone that I recommend is four parts a strong foundation. So starting with a Pinterest business account, which is free we love free again and then optimizing it for your ideal audience. So you want to have those keywords kind of trickled in Tell who you are, what you do and what you're passionate about, and go ahead and have your website linked. Your social media is linked. Anything else that you have in there you can link into it. But then also think of the boards that you have. This is your portfolio. These are like little shelves that people are shopping in your store, basically. So what are your ideal audience couples looking for? Are they here for an outdoor tent wedding, luxury outdoor tent wedding? Or are they looking for fun workout clothes for a plus size woman, like these are things that it's going to be different for each person, and so you want boards that reflect that, and then the description of the board will again have those keywords in them.

Speaker 1:

I love it. You're going to dig into keywords here more in a second, but first I wanted to back up and talk about like for service-based businesses in particular what types of content tend to perform best on Pinterest and how can they connect that performance to actual client acquisition, as people are kind of listening and they don't know necessarily what they need like specifics other than it could be very broad.

Speaker 2:

So educational content of, like checklist, tips, faqs or visuals of your work. So using a service-based provider in the the health and wellness space. How to fit in micro workouts as a busy mom of five, I don't know. It's off the top of my head. But if you're listening, and this is something you offer, look into that, or how to choose your wedding photographer. Five design trends for branding in 2025. I've rebranded my entire business for Pinterest management on Pinterest.

Speaker 2:

Love it but those are the type of things. So educational, inspirational content will always win, because people are searching, and another statistic that really hones in for me was 96% of searches are unbranded, meaning they know they need help with whatever it is that they're needing help with whether it's a life change, a getting married, going on vacation, surviving summer, launching a business or anything like that but they don't know exactly who they need to work with. They don't even know, maybe even what checklist would make their life easier, and so that's where you can, that's where the key of content being searchable and linking it to something valuable, and then you're going to lead them to your website, where you have more control over the relationship and those touch points.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Yeah, something that's like really value and needs based for that person. Again, if you're kind of thinking from the consumer side of things and not looking at it as advertising per se, like what you're saying, it's so inspired. I mean I could even see, like banking clients, you know, going out and creating like this checklist for, like, how is your financial health? You know, how are you planning for your like five top five things you need to be planning for your financial future, or anything like that.

Speaker 1:

It's like so many people just overlook the opportunity to empower the consumer and through empowerment comes that sense of like, trust and loyalty and ultimately, when they have to make a decision, like you just said, you've managed and created a relationship by providing value, you know, without a necessary like exchange of money right away. And now they see you as a potential trusted partner and all you did was create a little checklist and put it out there. And now they see you as a potential trusted partner and all you did was create a little checklist and put it out there. And I again, my digital marketing brain goes down such a rabbit hole. It's like I could map out like all the different needs and then like then I, then you can create like your pillars of content that you're creating based on those needs and that could also be informed by search. What are people looking for when it comes to banking needs and issues?

Speaker 2:

I like to take it a step further with clients and then map out the funnel or like the web I don't even want to call it a funnel, it's a web so they get to the checklist. But on the checklist now you can link here's my top three blog posts or podcast episodes and then from there on your show notes of the podcast, you're going to have linked to another opt-in and just keep it going without feeling overwhelming, like it's a natural progression and you just do it step by step yourself, so you're not feeling like I have to create 10 things at one time. No, you don't focus on the podcast. That will make this one thing, but then we reverse, engineer it and repurpose those things on Pinterest so that you have people going to it because you created it. So now we need to have people find it. Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1:

You're giving me so many ideas. Oh my gosh, this is fun. Yeah, anytime you want to go deeper and learn out more, bring it. This is the place for it, all the time.

Speaker 2:

All the time, all the time.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's talk about keywords again. They play a pretty critical role in Pinterest visibility. Could you walk us through your process for searching and implementing keywords that will drive traffic?

Speaker 2:

Yes. So my process is simple. Again, I try not to overthink anything or make it overwhelming, because simple but powerful for the win. So just dive into the pinterest search bar to explore terms your audience might already be typing and it's almost like google and see what else pops up and that's what people are working for. So look at those suggested keywords the autofill autofill I think that's the wrong. That's what p Pinterest is showing you, what's already trending, without you even diving deep into analytics and Pinterest predicts or anything like that.

Speaker 2:

So you want to plug those things into your pin titles, descriptions and board names and then cross-check that with the Pinterest trends tool, which you get access to through the Pinterest business account that you set up, and align that content With seasonal spikes.

Speaker 2:

So and this is where I feel like the timeless slow burn comes Every December Really probably in October, but every fourth quarter Everyone is already starting About vision, work and their goal setting and where they're going to go For the next year. So, having that content, you might need to tweak one or two things, but pins that you do last year will pop up this year because people are still searching for that. They're always going to want to make themselves better in some way, professionally, personally, what have you so already having pins there? Make sure that your content is going to be seen, but then you can create new pins on the same stuff you've already made with what may be trending from the trends tool. Is it women, is it whatever you know? Diving into that part to tweak it to make sure that it's discovered again and again?

Speaker 1:

I love it that's so smart. Again, it's just taking that evergreen content. I love the idea of building upon it, optimizing it, updating it Again. Just work smarter, not harder, right yeah, and so to go full circle with the sustainable system that is.

Speaker 2:

The second step is repurposing content you already have. There is not a business I feel like out there right now that doesn't already have some sort of like content bank, whether it is your top performing reels and carousels from Instagram. Use that to start with. Don't even make something new, right, or blog posts or a newsletter that you can turn into a blog post. It could be if you were a guest on a podcast. I know in the show notes is going to be your information, so even funneling them to a guest spot will help you, and then you can batch, create those pins and schedule them in advance, again saving you more time.

Speaker 1:

Love it. That's so great, so smart. All right. So a lot of the folks who are listening and, by the way, live listening audience please feel free to drop questions in the chat, if you have them, for Dana, we're more than happy to answer them while you're here. We do this podcast for you. That's why I want you all here when we're recording live, so if there's anything I'm not touching on or that we're missing, you get the chance to ask. All right. So, on behalf of them missing, you get the chance to ask. All right. So, on behalf of them, I know a lot of our members and women who are listening are probably juggling multiple marketing platforms already. How do you recommend that they integrate Pinterest into their existing marketing use of ecosystems, possibly without adding to their workload too much, if possible?

Speaker 2:

I hear that, so I might be one of the few people that might actually say this, but I would never recommend you stop being on other platforms, because you need to be where your people are.

Speaker 2:

And so for many of us that could be LinkedIn. For many of us, that could be on Instagram or, and wedding planners are on there a lot. So I most of my marketing minutes, are on Instagram because that's where my people are. I need to pull them to Pinterest, but for wedding pros and creatives, they're on this one but they're also on Pinterest. So Pinterest works best when it compliments what you're already doing. I don't I feel like I've said this 10 times already, but repurpose what you already have. So have a blog, repurpose it into pins. Dissect that blog post into 10 different pins. I love it.

Speaker 2:

Does it? Is it from five years ago? I need to be refreshed. We'll then do a quick search in the search bar of what's trending based on the topic of the blog posts, update it a little bit and repurpose it again. Um, run a. If you have a podcast, turn those episodes into visual content, especially if you're not wanting to show your face. So, like I have a podcast, you do not see my face, so I take the audiograms and tie it to a video. Pin and repurpose that. Do you have galleries of? Even if you're product-based, how many product pictures do you have? Give those longer lifespans on Pinterest. Create pins for those and leave them to your storefront your individual product links or a mixture of the two. Then batch it, design those pins monthly and use a scheduler to schedule it out. You can use Pinterest native tool, which again is in the business account, or you can use something like Tailwind and you can, en masse, create pins and schedule them out like three months at a time. That depends on how much time you actually have.

Speaker 2:

But, I typically help my clients that are in the pin it forget it, or the styled pin help them get a month worth of brand visibility in less than two hours. So it's honing in on what works and getting it done, and then you can, like, wipe your hands and be done with it until next month.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, and I think what you really caught out there was that it's it's just a matter of using your time wisely, leveraging the content that you currently have, and so it's not like you're getting. You're not saying reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. We're saying take what you have and make it work for Pinterest, based on some of the advice that you gave earlier. So I think that that makes a lot of sense and it makes me so excited to see and hear what some of our folks will be doing and sort of like opening that door and bringing content back onto Pinterest. Allie, one of our listeners, has a great question Do you find that service-based businesses have much success on Pinterest versus tangible items? I think that's a really fair question.

Speaker 2:

So I will admit that I focus more on service-based businesses versus product. But as I go through Pinterest and just seeing what's available and like learning through Pinterest Academy cause, I try to do that every Friday so I stay up to date.

Speaker 1:

Love it.

Speaker 2:

Both do extremely well. Um, there's things called I don't think they're called idea pins anymore, but that's the best way. They're called an idea pin and you can now click on, like the shirt that the model is wearing, and it will show you various places to purchase that. So product-based is still going to do really well, but service-based does good too. I was looking at the analytics for a travel planner that I had. We parted ways for a couple months because of personal reasons, but then she came back and said let me dive into your analytics.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I haven't pinned for her in five months I had to look at what month we're in. And she still has a thousand monthly views coming to her content. That's great. I haven't made new content for her, so that strategy worked. So I think hopefully that answers the question. I think both do extremely well, just the strategy that you utilize is going to slightly differ.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was going to say it brought to mind. For me, the only time I've used Pinterest for product was was when I worked on Febreze, and for us it was usage. It was all about like creative usage type of things, like ways to use Febreze, hacks on how to leverage Febreze for, like, your stinky teenagers room, like all those kinds of things that people ate that up. So, like the more creative that we could get with like usage to be like what you said, educational and inspirational or even aspirational, I think is kind of the way to go. Don't just put a picture of your product up there and assume people are going to buy it. Make the content useful, make it helpful, help it like make it to where it's solving a problem for them. And then, yeah, it's such a good win.

Speaker 1:

I think that's some of our most like. Quote unquote viral pins were our second, like our second day gene uh hack of just literally for bruising your jeans. Like nobody does that, doesn't do this already. But I think people felt seen when they saw it. They were like, oh my God, I do that. I will wear jeans for a whole week because I just Febreze them every day.

Speaker 2:

You know, I love that so much.

Speaker 1:

Yep, I think they were hardcore relating. So if you're not giving them a new idea on usage or a creative use case, you know at least kind of help them feel like they're being related to and you kind of let everybody know that it's okay, we wear our jeans the second day and we just reprise them rather than wash them. All right, so your membership, the Styled Pin Collection it provides, as I mentioned in the bio earlier, monthly Pinterest content. What have you learned about what makes pins truly effective from creating for so many different industries?

Speaker 2:

Clarity wins hands down. I love it. No, myself included. I'm like, if I go on a website or a blog, I'm like what?

Speaker 1:

am.

Speaker 2:

I doing here? What am I trying to get to? Or I sign up for something and I don't understand what's happening, like y'all should have thought this through. So the most effective pins have clear headlines, strong visuals and easy to read fonts. So making sure that they you know the image will probably be the first thing that they notice. So you want your image to be strong, clear and like representative of what it is that they're looking at.

Speaker 2:

But then the headline needs to hook them with the outcome or the similarity of what it is that they're looking at, but then the headline needs to hook them with the outcome or the similarity of what they're looking for. Then consistency is going to build trust. So when your brand style is easily recognizable we kind of talked about this earlier people are more likely to click. So in the style pin they're meant to be plug and play you can easily swap out the colors, fonts and images to match yours so that, no matter what platform they discover you on, they know oh, this is consistency. This is Amyvon. This is Dana.

Speaker 2:

This is whoever. I have seen where pin content leads me to a website that does not match the pin content. I'm like I need to get off of here. I feel like I'm looking at spam and I'll quickly get off and I will not go back. And then relevance matters. Pins tied to real-time search trends or evergreen needs consistently will perform best, like that educational content, and I've seen I mean this will work across many industries, whether it's wedding pros, digital coaches, health and wellness, whomever like. That is going to be the three things that you need to focus on.

Speaker 1:

I love it. That's great advice. Well said, allie. Thank you for the question too. We appreciate it. Keep it coming If you guys have more. We've got another question here actually two questions and then we're going to get into the fun little rapid fire power round. In case you guys have any other questions that we have plenty of time. If you want to jump in, all right, let's talk about every client's favorite. What's the ROI?

Speaker 2:

How do you help?

Speaker 1:

clients measure the true impact of their Pinterest strategy beyond just impressions and or saves on Pinterest.

Speaker 2:

So I focus first on visibility impressions, because that lets me know my keywords are working either for myself or my client I love it.

Speaker 2:

If it's not showing up in the feed, yep, well then we have a problem. Yep, they're not going to click there, no one's going to convert because they're not being found Right. So that's the one that I focus on, the first. But then after that, it's clicks, outbound clicks. Are people clicking to go to your site? Are they going to your landing page for the opt-in and then? Are they then signing up for it? Are they booking a call? Are they purchasing that product? Is your email list growing?

Speaker 2:

Pinterest, like I said, is a long game, but it's one of those platforms where your content can continue generating leads six months after you publish it. So that's powerful ROI and that's why I recommend, like, don't check it weekly, check it monthly, give it time to work and give it time to look through. But those are the things that I recommend looking for when I'm working with clients. That's what I focus on is impressions, pin clicks. So they didn't just see it, but they liked it enough or it piqued their interest enough to open the pin, and then they go to where we wanted them to go.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's my Pinterest focus, but then on a client base or service provider, are they then taking action? So if they're going to your website or the landing page and they're not following through, then not that this is where like my bread and butter services, but I will help take a look at the copy or anything on that landing page.

Speaker 2:

Maybe something's not lining up, like I said if your pin content doesn't match that maybe that's the red flag and we need to take a look at it and I'll help you, or I will recommend someone who can help you better, depending on what the service is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it All. Super, super smart. You know what I was just thinking, dana, you know how? So Dana's a member of our Together Digital community as well. Now and I think it was you I posted and shared that I'm going to be speaking at Content Marketing World and I know the speaker applications are closed, but I, just before we move on to the next, like last few questions, I really want to encourage you to apply to speak next year on this, because I think too many content creators we are so like shiny object syndrome and chasing, chasing and all the talks are AI and TikTok although TikTok side down a little bit and I just think this has been such a good, refreshing reminder of, like, the value of, like you said, quality content, using the right platforms, approaching it, looking at the right KPIs and really providing and creating value versus noise into the space that is the internet for brands. I really do, I want to encourage you and I'm going to follow up with you and find out if you do apply.

Speaker 2:

I think I did email them or like I couldn't figure out like where the speaker application was. It wasn't like easily. So I messaged him like hey, I have recommendations for speakers for next year and I'm just waiting on a response. But if you have someone to connect, I know the organizers.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to hook you up, girl, I'm going to hook you up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, absolutely yeah, and I know that they've done all their picks for the speaking this year and I will show you exactly where it is next year so you can apply to speak, Cause I do think there'd be so much value in that conversation again. And I just love throwing it back to some of these platforms again, because we get so shiny object syndrome. We kind of really forget, like the truly valuable platforms that we have still within the space that we can, you know, really use. And again, like you're not saying you have to create all new content for it, it's just take what you have and leverage it in a way that's creative and useful and helpful.

Speaker 2:

And again.

Speaker 1:

I love the set it and forget it stuff. Man, I used to be on an always on team for Twitter yes, I'm still calling it Twitter and I always will but it was just like we had to literally sit there every day at the beginning of the day and look at the news and look what was trending on Twitter and try to kind of infuse the two to talk about fabric softener. And I'm like nobody gives a shit about fabric softener on Twitter. Now I will say that their brands have done a good job calling, talking to you with Miss Wendy, like Wendy's and things like that that have really made good use of it, but it's really for like entertainment purposes, right? Is it driving more sales to Wendy's? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. It's definitely keeping on top of mind. But yeah, that's as a creative that was was. It was a fun challenge but it was exhausting.

Speaker 1:

So I this all appeals to me so much it's healing the wounds of my past always on life.

Speaker 2:

So I have avoided Twitter or X or whatever, for at all costs I do not have an account. I do not want an account.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you won't find. I mean, you'll find an old page of ours on there, but I give it no love, None whatsoever. It's a lot to keep up with. It's moving too fast for me. I'm, like you know, I don't know getting old in my old age. I guess All right, Looking ahead, how do you see Pinterest evolving as a marketing platform, and what should businesses be doing now to position themselves for some of those changes?

Speaker 2:

that maybe, if we haven't kept up with Pinterest, might be coming around the corner. Pinterest is leaning more into shopping tools and visual search.

Speaker 2:

Like I was saying, you can click on like one photo and click on the pants, the shoes, the whatever and go directly to that. But so it opens up affiliate options. I love that. I'm super excited about the continued investment, again on evergreen content and SEO, because that is what makes your job as a creator, service provider, product business so much easier. To lean into those things of what are they searching for. Let's not do a song and dance. If you want to do that, great. But you don't have to because you're doing the market research of what are your people looking for and you're answering that with focus, keyword pin content, experimenting with the idea pins for storytelling and building that connection similar to other platforms. But now they can like your talking bobblehead, but it's like oh, they like my mic, they can click on this mic and go get it, they can click on my shirt and go find it and building content that educates, inspires and solves a problem.

Speaker 2:

So, I think looking ahead and how someone should position themselves. Don't wait. Think looking ahead and how someone should position themselves. Don't wait, like, if you want to be ready in front of face and easily discovered in Christmas, because you're a product based business and that's a big month for you, you need to get your systems in place now so that you can be positioned to benefit from what's coming.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I can't wait to introduce you to some of my business owner friends as well that are in like the food and beverage space and all those kinds of things. So they're all very seasonal and I. One of the strategies we talked about was making some of those things that get deemed seasonal year round by kind of having fun and playing with the content and pushing it outside of that. It was a barbecue business and she says it's so hard for us and I was like dude, there are people who would eat barbecue year round. You see guys out there, even ladies sometimes, out there smoking some ribs and it's 20 below. Like are you kidding me? Like there are people who would rather have a rack of ribs than a turkey on Thanksgiving. Like you could have so much fun with it.

Speaker 2:

My husband is one of those people.

Speaker 1:

So it my husband is one of those people, so it was just like this whole limiting belief of like barbecues only for summer. So our business is always going to languish every time of year, but summer and I thought now I'm marketing some good, solid marketing and positioning could actually really help shift that. So I'm going to have to introduce you to Kristen at Sweets it Meets. She was a guest on our Together Marketing Rescue podcast, which allows small businesses to come and share. Like you need to listen to that too.

Speaker 1:

There's some good episodes where small businesses come in, share their biggest pain points and then we try to help them come up with ideas and strategies on how to solve those pain points with marketing. And then our members will pitch them their business and services as a way to help them find the right fit and partners based on their actual needs, versus trying to go for some big agency there. They're going to pay a ton of overhead and they can't really afford it anyway. So it's helping small businesses and small business marketing service providers kind of match up and have the opportunity to work together and it's just.

Speaker 1:

It's been such a fun project and such a fun like objective for a podcast. So if you haven't listened to it yet, definitely check out the together marketing rescue. I've got two other amazing co-hosts on that and we've interviewed let's see an event services and event planner, so she'd be a great one for you to talk to. Spark. And then the barbecue business another catering business magnificent morsels. She's going to be like I don't know how to explain it she. We joked on the episode. We're like morsels. She's going to be like I don't know how to explain it she. We joked on the episode. We're like you're going to be black Martha, cause she like has her like kitchen, she has her restaurant Now she has cookware, she has a spice line and so trying to figure out, like, how to position herself. It is like she's going to take over the world. I love crystal so much. She's a dear friend.

Speaker 2:

I'm happy that they just come and get advice.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, and they're so open and vulnerable because it's like we're all small business owners so we know, like, the pain points. But we know and live and breathe marketing and like. But she knows spices and cooking. You know, I'm not that great of a cook and I use her spices to make my food taste better, but like, yeah, it's just so amazing. And then there was another, who was I just thinking of? Oh, the cookie Davis Cookie Company. That would be another fun one for you to talk to as well. But yeah, I could just see how, in all of these businesses, how leveraging Pinterest is like an evergreen marketing tool, could just be so amazing. So I'll make sure I send you the link to all those episodes after this as well.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'll happily dive into those.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're fun and, yes, I'll happily dive into those. Yeah, they're fun and they're all good peeps. You know all amazing folks. All right, I'm going to go ahead and go into our power round of questions to get through. But again, audience, if you have another question, we've got a few minutes we could definitely squeeze it in, so don't be shy. All right, what is one Pinterest myth that you're on a mission to debunk?

Speaker 2:

mission to debunk that you do not have to create content daily.

Speaker 1:

Yay, no strategy is much better than hustle any day. I swear to God Preach, girl, preach, it's so true. All right, the most surprising business niche that you have seen succeed on Pinterest men's fashion.

Speaker 2:

Nice, I think. Well, primarily, it is a woman focused platform, for obvious reasons, but who's shopping for the? Guy's clothes? Well, that too. So most people assume pinterest is for wedding dresses or recipes, kids clothes. But men's style guides capsule, capsule, capsule, wardrobes, wardrobes, wardrobes, there we go.

Speaker 1:

I'm a fan of that. I love grooming content consistently is starting to perform really well.

Speaker 2:

You should reach out to look good too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they used to be a client of mine. I don't think any of my old clients are still there, but we should get you to hook up with Gillette. That's great. We used to try to do a lot of styling content. I worked on Pantene and Gillette and and you know what's really sad now that I think back on it we didn't really leverage Pinterest for any of those. I think maybe Pantene for, like hairstyles and stuff, but otherwise missed opportunity. Oh well, their fault, not mine.

Speaker 2:

Send it my way. I'll do that.

Speaker 1:

Right, all right, fill in the blank.

Speaker 2:

The best Pinterest strategy is like gardening, because you plant the right seeds, give them time and watch your efforts multiply long after you stepped away.

Speaker 1:

Love it. I love how prepared you are for all of this too. So, great, you have a kind right here.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker 1:

One Pinterest feature that most marketers underutilize.

Speaker 2:

I would say video pins and that's myself too. I'm going to call myself out because I don't like putting my face on video a lot or ever if I have to, which is why Pinterest works really well for like introverts that want to remain faceless. But video pins are amazing for storytelling and repurposing your short form content from Instagram or TikTok, for that matter. So it helps you boost your visibility but then create that more on one time without having to create that one time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's great, I get it. But you know, after this, our amazing Heartcast Media team is going to put together a bunch of little video shorts for you and they're going to share them and it's going to have your beautiful face on it. It's, it's, it's, it's exposure therapy. I feel you.

Speaker 1:

I don't love being in front of rooms or on camera. In fact, I can't even see myself right now. I just hide myself, view pretty much the whole time. I can just see your lovely face, but people love faces, right? Research and marketing and marketing shows us that, like we, we look for faces in our marketing and advertising. So I would say, just, you know, that's my little love and nudge for you is that you've just got some great ideas, thoughts, opinions and a lovely face to go with it. So don't don't be too shy. Awesome, all right, friends. Well, it looks like we don't have any other questions from the audience, so we'll go ahead and wrap it. Dana, thank you so much for this. It's been such a pleasure having you on with us. Really enjoyed our conversation.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, it was fun. I will always geek out about some sort of content strategy.

Speaker 1:

Right, and I will say, if you all want to geek out some more and you just can't get enough of Dana, she's going to be back in the form of our Together Digital Masterclass. So, those of you who are members, if you know it or not, every month we have an hour and a half long masterclass that is a deep dive into different aspects of leadership and self-worth, but then also marketing and advertising and digital and technology, and so Dana's going to be coming back and joining us later in the year for evergreen content, strategies that sell. That'll be our October. This one that we have coming up in June is all about walking in your truth and finding your own individuality, authenticity and strength. So, like these masterclasses just really range, but I am super excited for your masterclass. I kind of wish it was sooner, but you know it'll be October before we know it.

Speaker 2:

I know I feel like summer just started and yet tomorrow it feels like it's going to end.

Speaker 1:

I know Right, absolutely. Now that the whole mayhem, may, december is over, we can all take a deep breath and hopefully go into our long weekend and get some some rest, cause I don't know about y'all, but this month kicked my butt.

Speaker 2:

The beginning of the month was good, the end of this month between my husband and I we do have five kids and there was back to back end of year parties and ceremonies and we had to divide and conquer and I was like I like yesterday was the first full day of not doing that, it was first day and conquer.

Speaker 2:

And I was like I like yesterday was the first full day of not doing that, it was first day of summer and I was like thank God, I can just sit and do nothing, right, I want to sit on my porch read my book, and I can't remember the last time I did that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you got to look at the member Slack, the May-Sember little video another facilitator sent me because we were talking about this insanity and it's just so you're going to feel it. It's so spot on, especially with the five kids. Oh, my God, I don't know how you do it, lady, don't know how. Well, I do know how you do it. Process.

Speaker 2:

My calendar is color coded and looks like a bag of skills exploded, but it's fine and it's going to work out.

Speaker 1:

It is. You're doing amazing. Keep it up. All right, everyone. Well, we'll close it out there. If you're interested in joining the masterclasses or getting into our members, only Slack, check out togetherindigitalcom and check it out the options we have monthly memberships, annual memberships, memberships for students and then even foundation granted memberships if you need the help. So, with that, we'll close it out and we'll be excited to see you all here again, hopefully next week, as we have some more fantastic conversations on all things digital in life. Until then, keep asking, keep giving and keep growing. We'll see you next week. Bye, bye, bye.

Speaker 2:

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