How to Set Up a Pinterest Business Account

Setting up a Pinterest Business Account For Your Blog

You may have heard that Pinterest marketing is a powerful way to promote your blog or business. But where do you start? In this post, we’ll look at how to create a brand new Pinterest Business Account and get started using Pinterest to market your blog!

This post contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here.

 

First, Why Pinterest for marketing?

Pinterest isn’t actually social media as some people would call it. It’s really a visual search engine. Millions flock to Pinterest every day to search for inspiration, creativity, motivation, and solutions to their problems.

Understanding how Pinterest can work for you is crucial to its effectiveness. When treated like a search engine, Pinterest can help get your content in front of loads of potential readers.

 

 

Is a Pinterest Business account free?

Yes! You can set up your business account and start creating pins that lead to your site immediately, for FREE!

 

How does a Pinterest Business account work?

Think of your Pinterest Business account as another mini website for your business. You create pins that link to your blog/website/product. When you create a new pin, Pinterest puts it out in front of your followers and people who have searched for related items. 

 

 

Ready to start? Not so fast!

Before we start, it should be noted that technically, you CAN start this process before you actually have a website. But I don’t recommend it. At all.

Why?

SO many reasons! After researching your niche and target audience, you need to come up with a name for your blog. Next, you’ll need to see that the domain name you want to use is even available. If it is, great!

You’ll also want to check all social media you plan to use for that blog name. How awful would it be to buy a domain name, start a blog with that name, and set up email accounts just to find out your blog name is already taken on social media?

Ummm, awful!

So don’t create a Pinterest business account until you actually have a website. If you don’t know where to start check out this post: How to Start a Blog (Almost) For Free

 

Okay, website in place? Sweet! Let’s do this!

 

Creating a Pinterest Business Account

Go to www.Pinterest.com and click the “Sign up” button in the top left corner. 

Please note, Pinterest changes its layout and appearance from time to time. These screenshots show where the buttons were located when I wrote this post. Button locations may change but the steps should stay the same.

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Next, click the “Create a Business Account” button at the bottom of the screen.

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Here you’ll be prompted to fill out your basic information.

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Fill out the info as prompted. You’ll also be asked what your business is about and what your specific goals are. For example purposes I’ll use the name “Fake Business Account”.

 

Once you’ve filled everything out you’re ready to start customizing your profile! This is what your account will look like at this point. Pretty boring so far.

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To make it yours, simply click the pencil icon in the lower-left corner.

 

Next, you’ll be met with this screen to edit your profile:

From here you can add a profile picture, business description, and more. Be sure to include some keywords in the “about your profile” section to help your account get found in searches. 

For example, my target audience is people (like you) who are wanted to make money from home. So my business name and description include related keywords:

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Claim Your Website and Apply for Rich Pins

Claiming your website lets Pinterest know that the pins you share are verified content from your site. Doing this will give you access to analytics to help you better understand how your account is performing.
Learn more here – How to claim your website on Pinterest.

When Pinterest approves you for rich pins, you’ll see extra information with your pins. Rich pins automatically sync info from your website to your pins. Not only do rich pins make your business look more professional, but they also tend to perform better and lead to more traffic.
Learn more here – How to create Rich Pins on Pinterest.

 

 

Create Boards

Next, you’ll need to create a few boards. Boards are where your future pins will live. Click the plus sign on the right and select “board”.

You don’t need a lot of boards to start. Keep them very on topic and relevant to your niche. I personally only pin to 5 or 6 boards and see great results.

 

Create a board name.

Tip: Stay very on-topic and simple. Do not use cute or clever names. Create board names based on the way people will be searching for them. Remember that Pinterest is a search engine.

For example: Say you specialize in gluten-free recipes. Don’t name a board something cute like, “Sweet Treats”. No one is searching for that. Simply name it “Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes”.

Don’t bother with the Date section. This is only to be used if you are posting things that will expire after a certain time.

Do not make the board a secret unless you want to work on the board secretly before publishing.

Learn more about Secret Boards in this post:
Unique Ways to Use Secret Boards on Pinterest

 

Create your board. Then, you’ll want to give your board a well key-worded description. Click on the 3 dots next to your board name and select “Edit board”.

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Fill out your board description to let your audience know what the board is about. And click Done.

 

Create Pins

Once you have created your boards, you can start adding pins!

To do this you’ll first need to design pins using software like Canva, PicMonkey, Photoshop, etc. The most popular choice is Canva because it offers a free membership with many templates and features.

Create your free Canva account HERE. It’s very straight forward and easy to navigate.

At the time of this post, the recommended pin size is 1000 x 1500 pixels.

To create a pin design from scratch in Canva:
Click the Create a Design button > Select Custom Size > Enter your Dimensions > Select Create New Design.

Done! Now you’re ready to design your pin.

Alternatively, you can get your feet wet with my 5 Free Canva Templates!
Simply change up the predesigned pins with your own titles and photos and you’re ready to go!

Design your pin and download them in Canva, png format preferred.

And now you’re ready to upload your pin to Pinterest!

Select Create Pin.

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Enter the URL for your blog post or website, fill out your title and description.

Again, fill this info out with keywords and search terms your ideal audience will be searching for. Select the board you want to save this pin to and hit publish!

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Ta-da! You’ve just created your Pinterest business account, boards, and first pin! 

Now you can continue to create pins for your blog posts or product pages and grow your Pinterest account. It IS important to follow Pinterest’s best practices and learn as much about the platform as possible. It changes often and so does what’s working.

To be sure you fully understand what you can and can’t do on Pinterest, have a read of their Community Guidelines – specifically make sure you comprehend their Spam policy.

 

 

If you really want to learn the inner workings of Pinterest, I highly recommend Pinteresting Strategies by Carly Campbell. To this day it’s the best investment I could have made for my business.

You cannot find a better, more in-depth course on Pinterest marketing. Also, it gets updated as the algorithm changes. So you never have to worry if it’s still accurate. 

Read my full review of the course and get a coupon code for it here: An Honest Review of Pinteresting Strategies

 

In Conclusion

I hope you have fun with your new business account. It’s important to remember that Pinterest marketing takes time. Don’t expect instant results. It can take weeks to months for pins to start bringing you consistent traffic. It IS worth it in the long run though.

Happy pinning! 

 

P.S. Did you know I offer custom services? If you want me to set up your Pinterest business account for you, contact me HERE!

 

Here are some additional Pinterest resources to learn more:
Common Pinterest Mistakes You May Be Making
How to Get More Pinterest Followers
Save Time With Pinterest Pin Templates

 

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Step By Step Guide: Creating a Pinterest Business Account For Your Blog

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Blogging Resources I love and recommend:

SiteGround – I use SiteGround as my web hosting platform and I love it. They are trusted by the owners of over 1,900,000 domains! It’s secure, fast, reliable, and the customer service is AMAZING! I’ve contacted them for help for a few reasons and received outstanding support. Learn more about SiteGround HERE.

Sendowl – I use Sendowl to sell my own digital products. Sendowl acts as the middle man between buyer and seller. They deliver your product and handle the payments for you. If you’ve got an eBook, printable, or service to sell, Sendowl makes it really easy and affordable. Learn more about Sendowl HERE.  

ShareASale – If you are interested in monetizing your blog through affiliate marketing, ShareASale has got to be one of the easiest ways to do it! They’ve got merchants for every niche looking for affiliates to promote their products. Learn more about ShareASale HERE.

Grammarly – I saw a huge improvement in my writing after installing Grammarly. It’s the World’s leading checker of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and plagiarism. The better your writing, the more credible you will seem to you readers. Did I mention they have a FREE version? Check it out HERE.