How to Set up a Pinterest Business Account and Optimize it for Success: The Complete Guide

Hey there!

Looking to grow your business on Pinterest? You‘ve come to the right place.

As an avid Pinterest user myself, I‘m going to walk you through everything you need to know to create a Pinterest business account, optimize your profile, make high-converting pins, and track your performance.

I‘ll share plenty of data, expert opinions, and my own experiences to make this the most helpful guide possible. My goal is for you to become a Pinterest marketing pro!

Let‘s get started.

Why Every Business Needs a Pinterest Account

Before we dive into the setup steps, I want to share some stats that highlight the immense opportunity Pinterest provides for businesses:

Pinterest has over 450 million monthly active users. That‘s a huge audience!
It‘s one of the top 5 social media platforms, alongside giants like Facebook and Instagram.
72% of weekly Pinterest users say it helps them decide what to buy, according to HubSpot. That‘s serious purchasing intent.
Products on Pinterest drive 2x more monthly site traffic than Facebook or Twitter, reports Tailwind.
46% of weekly Pinners say Pinterest helps them discover new brands – that‘s a new potential customer base!

See what I mean? For any business, Pinterest provides a way to connect with buyers during the discovery and research phase of their purchasing journey.

And that‘s not all. Once you upgrade to a Pinterest business account, you unlock even more powerful features:

Pinterest Analytics: Get actionable data to improve your performance and learn about your audience.
Pinterest Ads: Highly targeted promotional options to get your pins in front of potential customers.
Rich Pins: Enhanced pins that stand out and drive more engagement.
Business Tools: Exclusive access to e-learning courses, success stories, trends data and expert tips.

Converting to a business account takes your Pinterest presence from basic to advanced. Let‘s get into the step-by-step process.

How to Create a Pinterest Business Account

If you already use Pinterest personally, it‘s a breeze to upgrade to a business account. And creating a brand new one is straightforward too.

Here are the options:

Converting Your Existing Personal Account

This option allows you to easily transition your current Pinterest presence over to a business account.

Here‘s how to do it:

Open Pinterest and click your profile icon in the top right corner.
Select Settings from the dropdown menu.
Click on Convert to Business Account below the Account Management section.
Pinterest will explain the benefits of a business account – click Upgrade at the bottom.
Enter your business name, website URL, and account admin details.
Pick your main business category, objectives, and describe what your business does.
Agree to the Terms of Service and click Get Started.

That‘s it! Your personal Pinterest account is now a business one.

Creating a Brand New Account

If you‘re new to Pinterest, starting from scratch is easy:

Go to business.pinterest.com.
Click Create a Business Account.
Enter your email and create a password.
Fill in your name, preferred username, website, etc.
Pick your business category, objectives and describe what you do.
Agree to the Terms and click Get Started!

In just a few minutes, you‘ll have a new Pinterest business account set up.

Once you complete either process, you unlock all the advantages mentioned earlier. Time to leverage them for growth!

Next let‘s talk about optimizing your new profile.

Optimizing Your Pinterest Business Profile

You want your brand‘s Pinterest presence to appear professional, establish authority in your niche, and attract your ideal audience.

Let‘s go over some best practices to polish your profile:

Complete All Bio Fields

This gives viewers key context about your business.

Profile Picture: Use your logo or headshot.
Name: Your official business name.
Username: Include your brand name so you‘re easily searchable.
Website: Link to your main site to drive traffic.
About: Share your story, values and what you offer. Aim for 60-100 words.
Location: Helps connect you with local followers.

Don‘t leave any bio sections blank – complete profiles perform better in search.

Create Keyword-Optimized Boards

Boards allow you to organize your pins around specific topics and themes. Target keywords in your board titles and descriptions.

For example, if you sell art supplies, boards could include:

Watercolor Painting Tips
Easy Acrylic Painting Tutorials
DIY Canvas Art Projects

Use your most important keywords to help Pinterest understand each board‘s focus.

Follow Relevant Accounts

Connecting with industry influencers, similar brands and potential customers helps establish credibility.

Pro tip: Search keywords related to your business and follow the accounts that rank highly in results. Their content resonates with the Pinterest community.

Interact with other accounts by commenting on and saving their pins. This signals to Pinterest that your business belongs in their niche.

Be Active!

Pin high-quality content daily to stay top of mind.
Post a mix of original pins from your blog, repins from others, and product pins showcasing your items.
Share pins across multiple relevant boards to expand reach.
Use all available characters in pin descriptions to incorporate keywords.

Maintaining an active presence keeps your brand discoverable in search.

These profile optimization tips will help you stand out on Pinterest and build an audience tailored for your business.

Now let‘s get into pin creation best practices.

Creating Pins That Convert

With over 5 billion pins on Pinterest, simply getting seen can be a challenge. Applying these pin creation tips will help your content engage and convert viewers:

Use Stunning Visuals

Eye-catching visuals are critical on such a visual platform.

Showcase products against clean, simple backgrounds.
Use vibrant colors that make images pop.
Incorporate high-quality lifestyle photography.
Ensure images are at least 1000px on the shortest edge.

Better quality photography leads directly to more repins and engagement.

Craft Clickable Headlines

Your pin headlines make the all-important first impression.

Front-load them with keywords users are searching for.
Keep them short, clear and action-oriented.
Ask intriguing questions to spark interest and clicks.
Use power words like "Unforgettable" or "Innovative" that pique curiosity.
Include numbers like "10x Faster" as they grab attention.

Write Robust Descriptions

The pin description provides crucial context.

Summarize what the pin is about in 1-2 concise sentences.
Work in target keywords and phrases naturally.
Add a clear call-to-action like "Shop now" or "Read more".
Insert relevant #hashtags and emojis.

Descriptions give search engines more clues about your pins‘ topics.

Link to High-Quality Landing Pages

Send traffic to a targeted product, blog post or special landing page.
Use UTMs to track Pinterest conversion rates.
Ensure your site is mobile-friendly – most Pinterest users are on mobile.
Showcase content that aligns with each pin visually.

Strategic linking is key for driving the right type of traffic.

Applying these best practices will make your pins stand out from the crowd. But how do you know what‘s truly working?

That‘s where Pinterest Analytics comes in…

How to Leverage Pinterest Analytics

Analytics allows you to unlock insights to refine your Pinterest approach over time.

Let‘s explore some of the most valuable reports:

Traffic Sources

This shows where your profile views and website clicks originate from – Pinterest search, home feed, topical feeds, etc.

Use this data to: Identify your best sources of quality traffic and double down on optimization to further increase their conversion rates.

Audience Insights

Gain intel on your followers‘ demographics like age, gender, locations, languages spoken, and interests.

Use this data to: Fine tune your content and visuals to better resonate with your target audience.

Most Clicked Pins

Find which of your pins are driving the most traffic to your links.

Use this data to: Uncover your top-performing pin content types and recreate similar pins. Promote top pins further with Pinterest Ads.

Earned Impressions

This tracks impressions from non-paid sources like repins, search and more. Growth indicates greater relevance.

Use this data to: Diagnose issues if you see a steep decline in impressions. Figure out which content resonates and make more of it!

Monitoring Analytics provides the insights needed to continually optimize your approach.

Now let‘s explore some scheduling tools to save time and effort.

Top Pinterest Scheduling Tools

Creating fresh daily content is demanding. Scheduling tools allow you to plan pins weeks or months in advance with just a few clicks.

Here are some excellent options:

Tailwind

Tailwind is the leading Pinterest tool trusted by over 4 million users.

Their Smart Scheduler automatically calculates the best times to pin for your audience. It‘s based on over 1 billion pins worth of scheduling data. Pretty neat!

You can drag-and-drop to schedule pins in their calendar or use their Chrome extension to pin posts as you browse the web.

Tailwind also offers robust analytics to track engagement across your pins and boards. Their reports provide actionable data to improve your performance.

"We rely heavily on Tailwind. The platform allows us to easily keep our account active and growing while working on other important projects." – Kaleigh Moore, Head of Content at CuraCup

Buffer

Buffer pioneered social media scheduling over a decade ago. Their intuitive calendar and browser extensions simplify planning and queuing up your Pinterest posts.

They also have image creation tools to design beautiful, on-brand pins that match your visual style. This helps save time and effort while maintaining post quality.

Buffer‘s analytics allow you to learn about your audience and track engagement over time.

"We publish 100% of our Pinterest content through Buffer. The ability to analyze what content resonates and schedule far in advance is invaluable." – Randall White, Digital Marketing Manager

Later

Later offers powerful visual content scheduling optimized for Pinterest.

You can easily plan and schedule pins weeks in advance and collect helpful analytics within their platform.

Later also provides access to a huge library of commercial-friendly, copyright-free images. This makes visual pin creation a breeze.

"We switched from Buffer to Later for the image library integration. Having beautiful photos at our fingertips has improved our pin engagement tremendously." – Laura Rodriguez, Social Media Manager

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most widely used social media management platforms. Their Pinterest integration allows you to schedule pins, manage team members, and track performance – all from one dashboard.

If you already use Hootsuite for other platforms like Facebook and Instagram, it may be the ideal option to unify your reporting and workflow.

"As a solopreneur, I need an all-in-one solution to manage everything from one platform. Hootsuite allows me to plan and schedule content across every channel which is invaluable." – Melissa Horton, Blogger

The right scheduling tool saves you time while ensuring consistent pin publishing. Test different options to find the best fit.

Now let‘s pull everything we‘ve covered together.

Executing a Complete Pinterest Strategy

Whew, we‘ve covered a lot of ground! Let‘s do a quick recap:

Set up a Business Account: Unlock crucial analytics, advertising, content tools and more.
Optimize your Profile: Establish credibility and share what makes your business unique.
Curate keyword-focused Boards: Organize your pins around specific topics to improve discoverability.
Engage with your Niche: Follow relevant accounts to build community and authority.
Create High-Quality Pins: Use compelling imagery, headlines and descriptions tailored to the Pinterest audience.
Link to Targeted Landing Pages: Drive traffic to pages designed to convert visitors into customers.
Leverage Analytics: Identify your best content types, audiences and opportunities for improvement.
Use Scheduling Tools: Maintain consistency while saving time and effort.

By implementing each step of this process, you‘ll be well on your way to Pinterest marketing success.

But don‘t stop here! Continually test new strategies and iterate using the data to grow your presence over time.

The Sky‘s the Limit with Pinterest

The opportunity Pinterest provides for businesses is truly unmatched.

Where else can you connect with millions of buyers as they look for products to purchase?

By taking the time to create a polished, optimized profile and compelling content, you can build lasting brand awareness and drive sales.

It does require effort to perfect your approach. But the benefits Pinterest can provide are well worth the investment for your business.

Want to chat more about pioneering your Pinterest marketing strategy? Feel free to reach out anytime! I‘m always happy to help fellow entrepreneurs succeed.

Here‘s to your Pinterest success story!