How to Set Up a Pinterest Business Account

Setting up a Pinterest Business Account For Your Blog or Website

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 Use 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 website, blog posts, services, etc. immediately – for FREE! 

 

How does a Pinterest Business account work?

Think of your Pinterest Business account as another mini website for your business. A way to attract new eyes to what you are offering.

You create pins that link to your blog/website/product. Each pin is like a tiny billboard for the information you want to share. 

When you create a new pin, Pinterest puts it out in front of your followers and people who have searched for related items. (More on coming up in searches momentarily).

If those pins are intriguing enough, hopefully, Pinterest users will click through to your site and fall in love with you and your brand!

 

 

Can I use my personal Pinterest account?

I get asked a lot if it’s okay to just use a personal account for a business. If you’ve already got a lot of followers on Pinterest and know those people would be interested in what you’re offering, it may be a good idea to start there.

BUT, you definitely want to convert your personal account to a business one.

Why? Because a business account offers way more tools and opportunities to grow as a business. You can claim your website (more on that later) and get the power of insightful analytics to understand what’s working and what’s not.

So whether you convert your personal account or start a new one from scratch will be a judgment call on your part.

In most cases, I recommend starting a brand new business account so it’s fully optimized for your business from day one.

IF you decide to convert your personal account, make sure you take the time to go through the steps outlined in this post when it comes to adding keywords and optimizing your profile and boards.

 

 

How to Convert a personal Pinterest account to a Business account

If you decide the audience you have on your personal account will be a good fit for your business and you choose to convert, Pinterest does make it easy to do so.

Simply click on the down arrow in the upper right corner, and select “Convert to business“. Follow the steps outlined by Pinterest and start updating your profile and boards.

 

Again, I don’t really recommend doing this but could be appropriate in ideal circumstances.

 

Ready to start Pinterest marketing? 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 want 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 Pinterest 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 the way people would search – “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, but don’t be afraid to experiment with pin size. Right now I’m having good luck with longer pins, sized 750 x 1550 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 and/or Carly Campbell’s free templates.

Simply change up the predesigned pins with your own titles and photos and you’re ready to go!

Sidebar: You may find this post about creating click-worthy pin titles helpful.

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, and fill out your title and description.

Again, fill this info out with keywords and search terms your ideal audience will be searching for.

Once more for the people in the back…think search engine, not social media.

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.

There are a lot of influencers out there trying to convince people that Pinterest is an easy side hustle to fill with affiliate links. Be aware that this is terrible advice and will likely get your account flagged for spam and shut down.

 

 

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 months for pins to start bringing you consistent traffic. It IS worth it in the long run though.

Focus on creating valuable content on your blog and eye-catching pins that make Pinterest users believe the answers to their questions are waiting for them on the other side of your pin.

Be patient and happy pinning! 

P.S. Did you know I offer custom services? If you want me to set up your Pinterest business account for you, or review a current account that may need some adjustments, contact me HERE! 

 

Here are some additional Pinterest resources to learn more:
Pinterest Marketing Traffic Hacks: What’s Working (2023)
Common Pinterest Mistakes You May Be Making
How to Get More Pinterest Followers
Save Time With Pinterest Pin Templates 

 

Save this post for later!

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

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