Pinterest is a visual platform that offers a user experience the other platforms don’t. Combined with your other marketing and social media efforts, it could provide the content balance you’re looking for. Here are ten tips to help you maximize your performance and engage your invitation audience.

Write a Good Business Description.

You have to describe everything about your invitation business in under 200 characters. Easy enough, right? You could easily write a thousand words. My suggestion is to choose wisely. When in doubt, use your websites’ Google Analytics to see what keywords drive traffic to your site. If you don’t know, Google Analytics is a freemium (free or premium options) web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It gives you a better sense of the demographics of people visiting your website and what keywords they are using to get there. You can learn how to add it to your website here. Dash those keyword phrases into your description. Keep it easy to read and concise. I’d also recommend adding that you are a local business as there is a big push to “buy local” as a new trend.

Inspire Your Followers.

Invitations are just one piece of the wedding and Mitzvah puzzle. The best way to inspire your followers and encourage them to follow your boards is to create themed boards. For example, Lemon Tree has various wedding boards including Rose and Gold Wedding, Traditional Wedding, Jewish Wedding, Chuppah Inspiration, Vintage Wedding, and many other boards because it helps the viewer tie the theme inspiration to the invitation.  Follow Lemon Tree on Pinterest and “pinjack” any and all of our boards. Don’t know what pinjacking is? Keep reading!

Title Your Boards With Keywords.

Optimize your boards for search engines along with Pinterest. The end result: you’ll get higher placement in results. It will also help you show up in local search results on Google on the front page and in Google images. You can “pinjack” other boards simply for inspiration or just to be a copycat. This means looking at your competitors boards and creating similar boards for your page.

Name Images Strategically.

You always want the internet to find your images through searches. The best way to ensure this is to name your images with keywords and hyphens. For example, if you had a pink Bat Mitzvah invitation and your store was located in Freehold, NJ, you’d title that image pink-bat-mitzvah-invitation-freehold-NJ. Avoid “stop” words in your names. Stop words are words such as in, of, about, with, on, etc. Google ignores these words and so they are essentially useless. You can find a comprehensive list of stop words here. In your image name, only use hyphens. Do not use underscores. You don’t have to understand all the in’s and out’s of SEO. You just need to understand your audience and offerings. That will guide you to appropriately name and describe your products and services.

Optimize Pinterest for SEO.

Content and SEO go hand in hand, regardless of the platform. Pinterest is no exception. Here are 9 fantastic tips to optimize your Pinterest presence for search. Some of these are repeated in the article, but I’ve listed them below to help you organize and increase your presence:

  • Choose an optimized company username (Austin Invitations – Invitation Design Studio)

  • Optimize the “About” section – What you sell, where you’re located.

  • Include links back to your website

  • Differentiate your boards

  • Speak your customers’ language

  • Use your pins’ descriptions wisely (keywords, keywords, keywords!)

  • Make sure the images you pin have descriptive file names and alt text

  • Incorporate hashtags

  • “Pinjack” relevant search terms and images (borrow from major competitors)

Do whatever it takes to ensure that your pins are findable, and include a reference link back to your website to drive traffic.

Don’t Get Caught Up on Pinterest.

This should be the golden rule for any business on Pinterest. You’ll just have to start pinning to find out what I mean by this. It’s really easy to get caught up in all of the inspiration, ideas, and options. Don’t lose sight of creating boards that reflect your business. At Lemon Tree, we focus on wedding themes, Bar and Bat Mitzvah themes, and font/calligraphy inspiration because those all tie into our invitations. Just like your other platforms, find a healthy balance on Pinterest. Curate boards that share information of interest to your target audience and boards that are about your invitation business.

Choose Image Dimensions that are Unique.

Just like an invitation, images that are a unique shape are more unique and appealing to the eye. Square and rectangular images are great and are the most pinned and easiest to pin, but skinny pins are the best way to go. Skinny pins are vertical pins. They are the most clicked-on images. This is because they require you to click on them so you can see the full size. You could create an invitation suite in a vertical graphic or even find some pins on Pinterest that match an invitation style. Here’s another idea; create a vertical graphic that outlines the problems with DIY and ordering invitations online. It will help spread the message and inform more brides, Mitzvah parents, and other clients about these issues.

Invite Other Retailers to a Group Board.

This is the best route for everyone reading this to grow a following faster. Collaborate on an “Invitation Inspiration” board, a “Stationery Showcase” board, or something similar that everyone can contribute to. It will help you and other retailers have a board with a larger following. It will also help retailers find and refer clients from other geographic locations.

Use Invitation Images from Your Website!

You already have images from your website (hopefully) – so use them! Make sure when you pin them, they have keywords in the title, the description, and alt text. These images should link back to your website. If you need help, you can take images from our website and link them back to your website. It will help your local search ability if you always include your city. For example if you post an image of pink Bat Mitzvah invitation and your store is located in Freehold, NJ, you could title your image “Pink Bat Mitzvah Invitation in Freehold, NJ”.

Vary Board Position With the Seasons.

Pinterest traffic is affected by seasons and holidays. It’s no different than the invitation industry. The great thing about seasonal boards (winter weddings, holiday cards, Jewish New Years cards, etc.) is that they can be revamped and reused each year. You can add new content each year as you see fit. But during the off season, take some time to educate people about the dangers and flaws of ordering online or DIY. This will prep people for wedding season and help them to make a better choice: a local retailer…and hopefully you! Either way, we can all work together to improve the industry and educate the consumer.

These tips are a handful to get you started. Try a few and keep your eyes on your account for a while. See what resonates with your audience best. Then you can adjust your strategy accordingly. If you have other questions, please email me.