If you’ve been selling crafts for any length of time, then you’ve likely figured out the more eyes you can get on your products, the more you can sell. There are definitely ways to pay to get more traffic to your craft shop – Facebook Ads, Pinterest Ads, etc. – but it’s always best to first get the most free traffic possible.
Pinterest is one of the best ways for you to get free, organic traffic to the crafts you’re selling. Not only that, but it’s also an awesome resource for market research that can help you to come up with new craft ideas.
Read on to learn what you need to know about Pinterest if you’re a craft seller – both for increasing sales and gaining intel about your target audience.
How to Use Pinterest to Increase Traffic to Your Craft Shop
Your number one goal from Pinterest should be to increase the amount of free traffic you get to your products. And there are many ways to accomplish this, such as sending people straight to a craft product page, to a craft category page, to a blog post (if you blog), or even just by selling to them right from your Pinterest profile.
Before we move on, note that I’m going to assume that you have a Pinterest profile, and boards with pins. If you do not, then definitely check out this free beginner’s guide to setting up your Pinterest account.
Here’s what you need to know in order to increase your traffic from Pinterest:
#1: Identify Your Highest-Converting Crafts to Sell
Let’s be honest – it’s unlikely all of your crafts are big sellers. And that’s okay! Part of selling crafts (and selling anything, really) is figuring out what people want by trial and error. However, you don’t want to waste your time sending traffic from Pinterest to products that don’t typically convert well for you.
Instead, identify your highest-converting products (not highest-costing, but the highest-converting) to send people to. These will be the products you’ll mold your Pinterest strategy around.
#2: Identify Your Target Audience
Who is going to be buying these products? You can figure this out in a few different ways.
First, if you capture emails from people who buy from you, consider sending out a survey afterward to find out a bit more about who the person is, and why they purchased your product.
A second way to find out who would buy your products is by installing analytics on your website to get some information on your visitors’ demographics. Two great and free demographic tools are Google Analytics and Quantcast.
#3: Research Your Keywords
Pinterest is actually a search engine, much like Google, and has its own set of keywords for you to research. You want to take both your product information and your target audience information, and use it to come up with keyword phrases for your pin descriptions.
Ask yourself these three questions to start the keyword brainstorming process:
- What would my target audience be searching for where my craft would be the solution?
- What do people call my craft (think about variations and synonyms)?
- For what occasions would people need or want to purchase my craft?
Once you brainstorm for just a few minutes, start plugging your keyword phrases into the top of the Pinterest search bar. Pinterest will then populate a section of keywords underneath, and you can click on those to see keyword phrases actual people are searching that can lead to your product.
You don’t need to guess here, you just need to spend some time on the platform researching keywords.
#4: Create Compelling and Keyworded Pins
You’ll need to create compelling pins using images of your products, people using your products, and of your target audience’s lifestyle. Here’s much more information on how to keyword your Pinterest pins, as well as how to create compelling images.
Once you’ve got all that going, you’ll also want to dive into a pinning strategy, like this one.
#5: Sign Up for Buyable Pins
Did you know that you can get approved to sell things directly from Pinterest? As in, the buyer does not need to come to your store, but can instead just purchase your crafts from the Pinterest platform?
You’ll need to have a Pinterest Business account (you can convert from an personal account to a business one here – or you may just want to start a whole new account with great keywords targeting your audience).
You’ll also need to house your products on a platform that enables you to use Buyable Pins, such as Shopfiy and BigCommerce. Here’s where you can learn lots more about this feature.
Use Pinterest to Research Your Target Audience’s Craft Needs
One other thing you need to know about Pinterest that many people may not is the abundance of market research you can do on your target audience. By getting to know your target audience better, as well as your market, new craft creation becomes easier. Not to mention, you can also pre-validate your idea to an extent instead of just throwing spaghetti on the wall to figure out what will stick.
Market research ideas:
- Browse Your Industry: Using the Pinterest search bar, spend some time searching for various craft ideas on Pinterest. Find the more popular craft categories by clicking through on some of the pins and seeing how many repins they have received. This should tell you more of what people like.
- Browse Like Your Target Audience: Search for problems that your craft might solve (even if it’s as simple as “hostess gift ideas”) and see if there are any gaps in the search results. Meaning, are there craft ideas that solve that particular problem people are searching for?
- Dig Through Your Pinterest Analytics: If you have a semi-established account that already attracts your target audience, then dig through your Pinterest analytics to find out what your audience likes. Click on “Analytics,” then “Audience Insights.” Under “Compare,” you can compare your own audience to regular Pinterest users and see the interests of your potential customers. Can you find any clues for new crafts they might like?
Pinterest can not only drive more traffic and sales to your crafts but can also be a stash of information to help you create new crafts and products in the future. Take the time to get this right, and you could open up a world of free, organic traffic to your paid offers.
–By Amanda L. Grossman
