Pinterest for business: how to set up and get started

The short answer

Pinterest suits businesses whose products or ideas look good in pictures and which people research before buying, such as home, food, fashion, travel and craft. Set up a free business account, claim your website, create boards named after what people search for, and publish vertical pins with clear titles that link to a matching page on your site.

Pinterest for business: who it suits and who it does not

Pinterest for business works when people look for ideas before they buy and when your work can be shown in a picture. In practice people use it to find ideas and save them to come back to, so it behaves more like a visual search engine than a place to chat with friends. Each pin can link to a page on your website, which makes it a source of visits that you can send somewhere useful.

It tends to suit businesses in home and garden, food, fashion, weddings, travel, crafts, education and similar fields where a person plans before acting. It also suits any business with teaching content that can be turned into clear step-by-step images, such as checklists and how-to guides.

It suits others less. A business with nothing visual to show, or whose customers are not planning online, may find the effort poorly spent. Audiences also differ by country and sector, so ask a few customers whether they use it before you commit time. Treat Pinterest as a medium-term channel. Pins need time to be found, so decide in advance how long you will test before you judge.

Set up a Pinterest business account in order

The steps below follow the order that avoids rework. Menus change, so confirm each step in Pinterest's current help pages.

1. Create the account. A business account is free, and Pinterest allows you to create a new one or convert a personal account. A linked business account lets one login manage both a personal and a business profile.
2. Complete the profile. Add the business name, a logo, a short description written in plain words that people would search, and your country and language.
3. Claim your website. Pinterest says you must own the domain and be able to edit its source code, which usually rules out shops on marketplaces you do not control. Its listed methods are verification through Google Merchant Center, an HTML tag, an HTML file or a DNS TXT record. A DNS change can take time to take effect. Claiming connects your pins to your account and gives you analytics for pins published from your site.
4. Decide on the Pinterest tag. It is code on your website that lets you measure actions after a click and build audiences for ads. If you do not plan to advertise yet, you can add it later. Where tracking raises consent questions in your country, ask a lawyer or check your regulator's guidance first.
5. Create your first boards and pins.

If your online shop runs on a platform that connects directly with Pinterest, the platform's documentation may offer a shorter route. Check the current instructions for yours.

Boards and keywords: how people find your pins

Pinterest is searched with words, so the words on your boards and pins decide whether anyone finds them. Pinterest's own guidance asks creators to use relevant keywords in pin titles and descriptions, and in board titles and descriptions.

Name boards for what a person would type, such as "small garden seating ideas" or "wedding table flowers", not "our work" or "inspiration". Add a short description with the same plain terms. Start with a few boards that match your main products or topics, and put several pins on each before you share the profile. An empty board makes a poor first impression.

Think of each board as a topic page. If you sell several kinds of product, give each kind its own board so that people who like one are not shown everything.

What makes a pin work

A pin is an image or video with a title, a description and a link. Each part has a job.

Pinterest advises that the image, text and keywords in a pin should match the landing page. The words that invite a click or a save should be short and specific. The guide to writing a call to action covers wording that works for pins and buttons alike.

What to pin

Pin your own pages first: product pages, guides, recipes, checklists, galleries of finished work and answers to common questions. Each page can produce several pins with different images and titles, so you can see which angle brings visits.

Make your website easy to pin from. Put at least one good vertical image in each guide or product page, and give pages titles that describe their contents. A page with dull or missing images gives you nothing to pin.

Customer photos can be useful, for instance a finished room using your paint or a table laid with your tableware. Ask permission before using them and credit the person, as explained in the guide to user-generated content.

Avoid pinning only logos, sale banners or blank promotional graphics. They give a person little reason to save anything. A pin should be worth keeping even if the viewer never buys.

Turn visits into leads and subscribers

People arriving from a pin are often early in their planning. A hard sales page asks too much of them. Offer something that suits where they are: a related guide, a checklist, a sample or a newsletter sign-up. The guide to lead generation for small business covers how to choose an offer, and the guide to starting a newsletter explains how to keep in touch with people who say yes.

Make the landing page continue the thought of the pin. If the pin showed a small garden idea, the page should show that idea quickly, before any form or pop-up.

Posting rhythm and workflow

A steady pace is easier to keep than occasional bursts of activity, and no single number of pins suits every business. Choose a pace you can keep for months. Make pins in batches, for example a set for each new page, and spread publishing through the week using the scheduling options in Pinterest or another tool. Check the current documentation for what each offers.

Plan seasonal content early. People who plan holidays, weddings, gardens or events start looking well before the date, so pins for a season should go up ahead of it, not during it. Keep a simple log with the page, the pin title, the board and the date, so that you can see later which ideas were tried.

Measure what Pinterest brings

Pinterest's analytics for a business account report impressions, saves, pin clicks and outbound clicks, which are the core numbers in its help pages. Impressions show how often a pin appeared, saves show interest worth keeping, and outbound clicks show visits to your site. Claiming your website also lets you see how pins created from your site perform.

Then check your own results. In your website analytics, look at visits from Pinterest and what they did: pages viewed, sign-ups, enquiries and orders. Ask new customers where they found you. A pin with few clicks that brings serious enquiries beats a pin with many clicks that brings none. If pins feed an email list, judge those emails with the guide to email marketing metrics.

Paid pins, common mistakes and next steps

Pinterest sells advertising, and its tag measures actions after ad clicks and helps build audiences. Learn what works organically before you pay, because ads amplify pins and pages; they cannot fix poor ones.

Common mistakes include linking pins to the home page, using cluttered images, ignoring descriptions, leaving the website unclaimed, building too many boards at once and judging the channel after a week. If you would like help fitting Pinterest into a wider plan, the digital marketing service page describes what Liftup Technologies offers.

Related guides

• Digital marketing
• How to write a call to action that gets clicks
• Lead generation for small business where to start
• Newsletter how to start one
• Email Marketing Metrics Explained: What to Track
• Youtube for business how to start

Questions and answers

Is Pinterest useful for business?

It can be, if people research ideas before buying and your product or content shows well in pictures. Home, food, fashion, travel, craft and how-to topics fit well. A business with nothing visual to show, or whose customers do not plan online, may do better elsewhere.

How do I set up a Pinterest business account?

Create a free business account or convert a personal one, complete the profile, then claim your website. Add the Pinterest tag if you plan to measure or advertise, and create a few boards with keyword-based names. Pinterest's menus change, so follow its current help pages.

What does it mean to claim my website on Pinterest?

It is a verification step that connects your website to your Pinterest account. You must own the domain and be able to edit its code. Pinterest lists methods such as an HTML tag, an HTML file or a DNS record. Once claimed, you get analytics for pins created from your site.

What makes a pin work?

A vertical, clear image, a title with the main words first, a written description and a link to a page that delivers what the pin promised. Pinterest advises matching the image, text and keywords to the landing page. Save each pin to a relevant board.

How often should I pin?

Pick a rhythm you can keep for months, since a steady pace is easier to maintain than occasional bursts. Make pins in batches and spread them out, and publish seasonal content ahead of the season.

How do I measure results from Pinterest?

Read impressions, saves, pin clicks and outbound clicks in Pinterest's analytics. Then check your website analytics for visits from Pinterest and what those visitors did. Count enquiries and orders that mention Pinterest.