The 5 Pillars of a Pinterest Marketing Strategy That Keeps Working
Last Updated: July 16, 2026
For the last decade, I’ve been building Pinterest strategies and, in that time, I’ve watched the platform change, evolve, frustrate, and reward the businesses that get the fundamentals right.
These businesses are the ones who stay the course long enough for their pin archive to grow while staying close to the foundational things that make Pinterest the platform it is – a visual search engine.
This post is about those Pinterest fundamentals.
There are what I like to call 5 pillars that go into a Pinterest marketing strategy that keeps working for years.
If you run your Pinterest strategy on them, the platform becomes a reliable, sustainable marketing arm that drives traffic, discovery, and visibility, ultimately leading to leads, sales, and revenue.
When I first started in the Pinterest marketing world, I was writing a blog but needed a way to grow my readership. Enter Pinterest. I grew my blog’s traffic to over 100,000 monthly sessions using many of the same strategies I’m about to share with you.
Also, I still run a niche website generating consistent revenue from content created years ago. I’ve helped bloggers, service providers, course creators, and e-commerce brands do the same.
Here’s what your Pinterest foundation should look like.
When these 5 pillars are working together, here’s what becomes possible for your business:
➝ 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.
Let’s get into the pillars.
Grab the FREE Pinterest marketing strategy guide here.
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #1 – A Well-Optimized Pinterest Business Account
Everything starts here.
Before you pin anything, your account needs to be set up so Pinterest knows what your content is about and who it’s for.
This is the signal layer, and if it’s vague, everything you do on top of it will be harder than it needs to be.
After a decade of building Pinterest strategies, I can tell you that a poorly optimized account is one of the most common reasons businesses don’t see results.
They’re pinning consistently, creating good content, and still wondering why nothing is moving. Nine times out of ten, the foundation is the problem.
Here’s what a well-optimized Pinterest business account actually looks like:
➝ The account name should include a main keyword alongside your business name. Using keywords that reflect what your content is about and what you do is a strong signal to Pinterest, helping the algorithm understand your account. Here’s an example: Elaine Timms | Pinterest Strategist | Pinterest Marketing – you can see what I do and what my content will cover, written in a way that appeals to humans and the bots.
➝ The account description also needs to use keywords. Write it for humans first using the language they would type into the search bar. Make sure you’re clear, with as many keywords woven in that focus on what you do and who you help.
➝ Pinterest boards are like mini archives that house parts of your pin archive (ie. the pins leading to your content). When you pin to a board, you’re adding that content to the collection of pins found on the board. Using a keyword as a board name helps Pinterest connect who to show that content to when they search for it. For example, I’ve named my own boards as ‘Pinterest Marketing’, ‘Pinterest Marketing Strategy’, ‘Pinterest SEO’, and so on.
➝ Your board descriptions are where you weave in supporting and related search terms to give Pinterest an even fuller picture. Aim for at least 2-3 keywords woven naturally into every board description.
How many boards do you need? There’s no magic number; it depends on your content and your niche.
I recommend creating 2-3 boards per content category. If you have three content categories, start with 9 boards and build from there as your content library grows.
One more thing: use a photo of yourself, not a logo. Pinterest users are looking for people and ideas they can trust, and a real photo builds that connection.
Get this foundation right, and every pin you create has a better chance of being understood, distributed, and discovered by the right people.”
Related Read: How To Create Pinterest Boards for Your Business
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #2 – A Content Strategy That Supports the Full Customer Journey
No matter how well your Pinterest account is optimized or how consistent you are, the growth you’re hoping for will fall flat if the content you’re driving traffic to isn’t doing its job.
This is the pillar I see skipped most often because most people don’t have their content mapped out so they can see how it works together to move someone from discovery to becoming a client, customer, or subscriber.
Pinterest can drive people to your content all day long, but if that content doesn’t meet them where they are in their journey and guide them toward a next step, the traffic means nothing.
Here’s how I think about it after a decade of building Pinterest strategies:
Your content needs to support every stage of the customer journey.
Pinterest users aren’t always at the beginning of their journey. Some are discovering you, others are researching options, and a few will be ready to buy to solve something.
A strong content strategy makes sure you have something valuable waiting for all of them.
Let me show you what this looks like in practice.
I worked with a wedding planner who targets newly engaged couples who are starting to plan their wedding.
A lot of couples don’t know where to begin, what’s involved, or how much it’ll cost, but they’re on Pinterest looking for inspiration and ideas.
At the top of the journey, content should attract them by answering their initial search intent: where to begin when planning a wedding?
Offering a free checklist of everything they need to keep in mind as they plan gets them onto your email list, which means you can nurture them.
In the middle of the journey, emailing them your blog posts, guides, and inspirational content helps them imagine their wedding and start to trust you as someone who understands what they need.
At the bottom of the journey, your content converts them. They’re overwhelmed, they know they need help, and you’ve been showing up consistently with exactly the right information. Your service page, your packages, your process- they’re likely ready to see what you offer.
Every piece of content you create should have a place in that journey.
Here’s the part that makes Pinterest powerful for this approach: once that content is pinned, it doesn’t disappear. It circulates.
A blog post you wrote two years ago can bring someone into your business today, if it’s optimized and pinned strategically.
This is why I recommend building what I call a content library before you start pinning.
Go through everything you’ve already created — blog posts, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, service pages, sales pages, freebies- and log the URL, the title, the funnel stage it supports, and the keywords it targets. What you’re building is your content archive, and you might be surprised to find you have more to work with than you realized, along with a much clearer picture of where any gaps are.
Those gaps become your content creation roadmap. Fill them, pin consistently, and you’re not just driving traffic; you’re building an archive of your expertise that keeps working.
Once you know what content you have and where it fits in your customer journey, the next step is to ensure that content is presented in a way that stops someone mid-scroll and earns the click. That’s where your image strategy comes in.
Related Read: How Pinterest Turns Content into a Business Asset
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #3 – A Pin Image Strategy That Earns the Click
Pinterest is a visual search engine, and that second word matters as much as the first.
I have designed 1000s of static pins over the years and can tell you that yes, it’s visual, which means your images need to be strong. But it’s also a search engine, which means those images need to work hard to be found, stop the scroll, and get the click.
Those are three different jobs, and a strong pin image strategy handles them all.
Let’s start with the basics.
Pinterest prefers vertical, 2:3 aspect ratio (or 1000 x 1500 pixels) pin images because they fill the most real estate in the feed without getting cut off.
I’ve played around with varying sizes, but highly recommend keeping any images vertical.
Beyond size, here’s what actually makes a static pin work:
Use an image that represents the content and what the person will find when they click through. If the image has nothing to do with the content, it creates a disconnect and erodes trust.
Plus, Pinterest scans the entire pin image to read not only the text overlay but also the imagery.
The text overlay is where your keyword research and search intent meet.
Think about who you’re trying to reach with this particular pin and what they’re searching for.
Someone searching for a solution uses different language than someone looking to learn how to do something, even if both pins link to the same piece of content.
This is why creating multiple pins for every piece of content is important – it helps you capture people at different parts of their journey, while also building your pin archive that keeps circulating and working for you.
RELATED READ: How Pinterest Search and Discovery Works
The next step is making sure to use fonts that are easy to read – especially on mobile.
I love testing a pin’s readability right on Canva (yes, this is where I design all the pins) by reviewing them in “grid view” – if I can’t read the text overlay clearly, it’s too small, or the font is too decorative – I’ll change it out for a font that’s clear.
You’ll also need to use a lot of white space because it allows the eye to process what’s on the pin. If the pin is cluttered or too busy, people will keep scrolling.
Using white space directs the eye to what matters.
I also love including a call to action if it makes sense. Sometimes it’s as simple as ‘read more’ or ‘save this.’ Telling someone what to do next increases the likelihood that they’ll do it.
Now, let’s talk about pin formats because your image strategy isn’t just about static pins.
What I’ve written above is for static pins, which will be your primary traffic drivers. These are the pins that rank in search, get saved, and send people back to your website, products, and offers. The majority of your pin creation effort should go here.
Video pins perform well for impressions, but they won’t be your strongest pins for clicks. So, repurpose your video content into vertical pins to expand your reach and build your pin archive with different content styles.
Carousel pins are powerful for product-based businesses. They let you showcase multiple images, colors, or use cases within a single pin. They can also work well for content creators who want to walk someone through a process or a list. If you create carousels on other platforms, try repurposing them to Pinterest.
The smartest approach is to lead with static pins and add video and carousel formats to your content library as your confidence grows.
A strong pin image strategy that helps an account grow relies on more than a single format, but if you choose one, always go with static images, as they are what Pinterest users expect to find.
Want help crafting your Pinterest marketing strategy? Click here to get the FREE guide.
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #4 – A Keyword Strategy
Keyword research is my fav and definitely the pillar I see businesses consistently drop the ball on.
After a decade of building Pinterest strategies, I can tell you that keyword strategy is the single biggest lever you can pull to improve your Pinterest results. Get it right, and everything else gets easier. Ignore it, and you’re essentially building in the dark.
Here’s why it matters so much.
We know that Pinterest is a search engine, and like any other, it runs on keywords, which means the words people are typing into the search bar to find content, ideas, products, and solutions.
Keywords are the bridge between what your ideal person is looking for and the content you’ve already created.
Without keywords, Pinterest has no way to understand what your content is about or who to show it to.
Even if you create the most beautiful pins, your content won’t be found if your keyword strategy is weak.
With keywords, everything changes. Your pins start appearing in search results. Your boards start building authority around specific topics. Your content starts reaching people who are actively looking for exactly what you offer.
So how do you build a keyword strategy for Pinterest?
It starts with research and using Pinterest to tell you exactly what people are searching for.
Here are the methods I use and recommend:
The guided search bar is your starting point. Type in the words your ideal person uses to describe their problem, goal, or interest. Pay attention to what appears in the dropdown — those are the terms searched most often. Hit enter and look at the bubbles that appear — those are qualifiers people use to refine their search further, and they’re often highly searched terms worth noting.
The alphabet method takes it a step further. Type your main keyword followed by each letter of the alphabet and record what Pinterest suggests. You’ll uncover keyword combinations you might never have thought of on your own.
The next thing to do is to hit enter and scroll down until Pinterest serves you “related searches”. This is helpful for finding terms you might not have thought of and for understanding how Pinterest groups search terms together.
Pinterest Trends shows you when specific keywords peak in popularity so that you can plan your content and pin it well with enough lead-up to the season. This doesn’t apply for evergreen topics, but if you have seasonal content, Pinterest Trends is a must.
The Pinterest Ads Manager keyword tool shows you keywords, related terms, and estimated search volumes – don’t worry, you can access it without launching an ad. Set up a campaign, get to the keyword manager, enter your terms, and use the data to build out your list.
This might seem like a lot of steps, which is why I highly recommend creating a keyword bank that houses all the relevant search terms you find.
(PS. When you’re collecting keywords, only mark down the ones that are relevant to your content and business, not every single thing that’s searched!).
Your keyword bank spreadsheet becomes the foundation for your entire Pinterest strategy.
Organize it by topic and funnel stage so you can see at a glance which keywords attract people just discovering your niche and which attract those closer to taking action.
Do your research once, build it properly, and refer back to it every time you create a pin, write a board description, or plan new content.
Now here’s where your keyword strategy connects to everything else in this post.
Keywords tell Pinterest what your content is about, but search intent tells you how to use those keywords in a way that actually resonates with the person searching. We know that people looking for a solution use different language than someone focused on an outcome, even if they end up needing the same thing.
Understanding that difference is what separates a keyword list from a keyword strategy.
Bringing it all together: when your keywords are woven throughout your account, your boards, your pin titles, your pin descriptions, and your text overlays, Pinterest gets a complete picture of what your content is about and who it serves.
Using keywords is what gets your content indexed and distributed. It’s also what builds your pin archive over time, and keeps your content circulating and working.
Related Read: How To Find Keywords on Pinterest
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #5 – A Consistency Strategy That Builds Your Archive
Consistency on Pinterest doesn’t mean posting every day or churning out content constantly.
It does mean showing up regularly enough for Pinterest to know your account is active.
The accounts that grow steadily year over year are the ones that pin consistently and let their archive build and compound.
To me, that’s what consistency really builds: your content archive.
Every time you add a pin, you build the archive, and also your chances of being discovered by someone looking for what you do.
The thing is, the archive doesn’t grow overnight, but once it does, it becomes one of the most valuable marketing assets in your business.
So what does a sustainable consistency strategy actually look like?
Start with one pin per day.
This is where I recommend everyone begins — it keeps your account active, gives Pinterest enough signal to start learning your content, and doesn’t trigger the spam filter that can slow new accounts down.
From there, expand to 2 pins, then 3, and so on.
Don’t batch-create pins, upload them all, and then go quiet. Pinterest loves accounts that are consistently active over time.
To make consistency easier, use an approved Pinterest scheduler.
Tailwind is my go-to recommendation — you can batch your scheduling in one sitting and have pins go out consistently without being on the platform every day.
Pinterest also has a native scheduler built right into the platform, which is a great starting point if you’re new and don’t want to invest in a more robust scheduler just yet.
One more thing on consistency: don’t check your analytics every day, especially in the beginning. Pinterest takes time to learn your content, and the early numbers will not give you any dopamine hits if you’re looking at them daily.
Check your key metrics — impressions, engagements, saves, and outbound clicks — once a month. Track them in a spreadsheet so that you can see any patterns.
Give it three months before you review to see if anything is working. Most accounts take at least a year of consistent performance before they deliver the results business owners are looking for. So pack your patience and trust the process.
Those are the 5 pillars of a Pinterest marketing strategy that keeps working.
1) An optimized account.
2) A content strategy that supports the full customer journey.
3) A pin image strategy that earns the click.
4) A keyword strategy that drives discovery.
5) A consistency strategy that builds your archive over time.
All of these pillars work when they’re working together.
Using these as part of your Pinterest strategy will help you grow a real marketing channel that supports your content and business.
Over my time as a Pinterest strategist, the accounts that have had the most success are the ones that have laid the foundation correctly and stayed consistent long enough for the archive to do its job.
If you’re ready to build a Pinterest strategy that keeps working, here are a few ways I can help:
Want to know if your current Pinterest foundation is set up correctly? Start with a Pinterest audit.
Ready to hand your Pinterest marketing off to an expert? Check out the Pinterest management services.
Want your Pinterest foundation built strategically with guidance? Check out the Pinterest account optimization and build service.
Happy Pinning! 📌
Related Posts You Should Read
- The Ultimate Guide To Pinterest Marketing For Bloggers
- How To Decide What Boards to Create On Your Pinterest Business Account
- The Most Asked Pinterest Marketing Questions Answered
- How To Find Keywords On Pinterest
