Pinterest Marketing for Online Business: A Beginner’s Guide
Last Updated: January 9, 2026
Ready to use one of the most powerful marketing tools online today? Welcome to your Pinterest marketing for online business guide!
Pinterest is an underrated visual search engine that is also one of the top drivers of website traffic online.
If you learn to use Pinterest effectively, you can drive targeted traffic to your website, products, and offers.
Honestly, it can be a game-changer to get in front of people who are actively looking for what your online business or blog offers.
Today, I’m going to dive deep into exactly how to use Pinterest to market your online business.
What I’m going to teach you are the foundational pieces to a solid Pinterest marketing strategy.
These are not ‘get quick traffic’ tactics – I believe in doing the work to see long-lasting results.
Just in case you aren’t sure about doing the work, let’s take a look at some of the reasons you should focus on Pinterest as part of your business marketing plan.
➝ Increased website traffic.
➝ Grow your email list.
➝ Get more sales of your products.
➝ Connect with potential clients.
➝ Increased business visibility.
➝ Position yourself as an expert in your niche.
➝ Have more people engage in your community.
All of the above is possible when you use Pinterest correctly.
Let’s dive into how to use Pinterest to market your online business.
**Make sure to sign up or convert your Pinterest account to a business**
Grab my FREE Pinterest marketing strategy guide here.
There are 5 Pillars of Successful Pinterest Marketing
DISCLAIMER: Your success on Pinterest will look very different than someone else’s success.
Pinterest results vary, and that’s just a fact, so make sure to leave any comparison at the door.
There will always be variables and nuances to success, but these five pillars of Pinterest marketing are the foundation that drives success.
Related Read: How to Market Your eCommerce Business on Pinterest
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #1 – A Keyword Strategy
You MUST have a keyword strategy before marketing your business on Pinterest.
If I’m being honest, in my years in Pinterest marketing, I see most business owners drop the ball when it comes to researching and using keywords.
Pinterest is a visual search engine where users go to learn more about an idea they’re interested in, solve a problem, or be inspired.
Keywords are the lifeline to your Pinterest marketing strategy.
Without them, it’ll be more challenging to get your content in front of the right people.
You don’t want your pins tagged with the wrong information—a disaster is literally in the making if that happens.
Related Read: How To Find Keywords to Target on Pinterest
To start with Pinterest SEO, brainstorm all the words and word combinations someone would use to find your products, services, and offers.
Your goal is to build your business’s Pinterest keyword bank.
That means adding important search terms to a spreadsheet so you can refer to them whenever necessary.
Please do your research once and then access it when you need it.
Here’s where to use your keywords:
➝ Account title
➝ Account description
➝ Board titles and descriptions
➝ Pin titles and descriptions
➝ Pin text overlays
➝ Website content and copy
Did you see that last point? Use your keyword bank to sprinkle relevant search terms throughout your content.
Pinterest is like Google; they crawl your content, so discovering keywords ON your website/blog means your results will improve.
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #2 – An Optimized Pinterest Business Account
As we saw in Pinterest marketing pillar #1, keywords make Pinterest go around.
Now that you have keywords describing your business and offers, it’s time to optimize your account.
Optimize is a fancy way of saying to use keywords everywhere on your account.
Everywhere seems a bit general, so make sure to include keywords in these areas of your Pinterest account:
➝ In your account title and description.
➝ Board names and descriptions.
➝ Pin titles and descriptions.
➝ Pin text overlays.
Spend time optimizing your account BEFORE you start pinning.
Related Read: How to Create the Best Pinterest Boards for Your Business
Want to grow on Pinterest but don’t have time to learn? Check out my Pinterest marketing services.
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #3 – A Content Marketing Strategy for Every Part of the Customer Journey
No matter what type of online business you own, you need a solid content marketing strategy for every part of the customer journey.
Why?
Imagine driving traffic to your website and expecting the users to know exactly what you want them to do or why they should keep caring about your content or business.
If you don’t have a content marketing strategy, your efforts on Pinterest will fall flat.
It won’t be because Pinterest doesn’t work.
It’ll be because you have nothing in place to capture or nurture the traffic.
Since Pinterest is a search-and-discovery platform, it works best at the top of your funnel to drive visibility and awareness.
But if someone lands on your website and it’s just a picture and a brief product description, they will click away—probably not what you planned.
If the user clicks on your website and sees more than one lifestyle image for your product, along with a description and FAQS answered, I bet they will stay for much longer and might even convert.
All this is to say that Pinterest users need to be warmed up – the goal is to attract, nurture, and convert.
You must write content to get people into your ecosystem and keep them there.
I recommend sitting down to map out your content.
PRO TIP: Use your keyword research to inform your Pinterest content strategy. You have what people are searching for right there at your fingertips, and using your keyword research will also prevent you from creating content for the sake of creating content.
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #4 – Eye-Catching Pinterest Pin Designs That Get the Click
Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, your pin images (aka your ON Pinterest content) are an essential part of your overall Pinterest marketing strategy.
The images you use in your pin designs must be relevant to the content piece.
You can and should use a text overlay to tease users into clicking your website to learn more.
Here are some pin design tips to keep in mind when creating pin images:
➝ Use the recommended 2:3 aspect ratio or 1000 x 1500 pixels – the sizing Pinterest prefers.
➝ Use good-quality photos in your pin designs.
➝ Use fonts that are easy to read.
➝ Use properly aligned fonts.
➝ A clear call to action that makes your ideal person want to click to find out more.
➝ Good use of white space to get the user’s eye to go where you want it to go.
That covers static images as part of your image strategy, but another important part is ensuring you use all pin types in your Pinterest marketing strategy.
The other pin formats are:
➝ Video pins
➝ Carousel pins
Let’s quickly define what each pin format is:
VIDEO PINS—Video is becoming even more popular on Pinterest and might very well represent the future (I think I’ve heard video is the future for my entire 10 years running an online business, haha!).
Creating video pins that tell the story of your content is a smart way to include in your Pinterest image strategy.
CAROUSEL PINS—Do you have products? Carousel pins are perfect for showcasing what your product does with images that show it in action. If you have a product with different colors, you can let the Pinterest user see the options.
Want help crafting your Pinterest marketing strategy? Click here to get the FREE guide.
Related Read: Pinterest Marketing for Beginners
Check out my pin design portfolio – I can design pins for you.
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #5 – A Pinterest Marketing Workflow for Consistency
Like any other platform, Pinterest wants you to use the platform consistently to grow.
Optimally, you will want to pin at least once per day.
There is no magic number of pins to pin per day.
Some of the Pinterest accounts I manage see growth, pinning 1 per day, while others pin 10+ per day.
It will come down to how much content and time you have to work on your Pinterest strategy.
So, how can you consistently pin your fresh content and pins to Pinterest?
Use a scheduler like Tailwind. Spend an afternoon scheduling your pins for the week (or the month if you’re really good!).
Pinterest also has a native scheduler.
It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it still allows you to schedule pins easily (and it’s free!).
Your consistency strategy goal is to pin on Pinterest daily to keep your account moving.
You can pin only your content or third-party content while you create your own.
There is no magical ratio of how much other content to pin compared to your own. It depends on a few things.
To get started, make sure to be active on the platform daily.
Wrapping Up…
This post is a great way to learn how to use Pinterest to market your online business.
You’ll have a solid Pinterest marketing strategy once these five areas work together.
Now, I should mention that Pinterest is not a get-results-overnight platform.
Results can take 6-9 months, and in some cases, a year.
You can run a promoted pin ad to boost your results faster, but having an organic marketing strategy is a smart move, so don’t worry about how long it will take.
Think of it as an investment in your business that doesn’t depend on ad dollars to work.
Did you know I offer Pinterest marketing services? Don’t want to do all the work? Let us take it over! Check out my Pinterest management services.
