For businesses, getting more people to visit their websites is like opening doors to potential customers. It’s a big deal because more visitors mean more chances of turning them into loyal customers. And in this digital age, where competition is fierce, finding effective ways to drive traffic is key. That’s where Pinterest comes into play.
Pinterest is not just a place for pretty pictures; it’s a dynamic platform with the potential to supercharge your website traffic and lead-generation efforts.
In this article, we’re diving deep into how Pinterest can boost your website traffic and convert more leads. So buckle up as we explore how this vibrant platform can be the driving force behind your business success.
Understanding Pinterest as a Traffic and Lead Generation Tool
Unlike traditional social media platforms, Pinterest isn’t just a place to share updates or engage with friends; it’s a thriving search engine in its own right.
With over 400 million monthly users, Pinterest offers a vast pool of potential customers actively seeking inspiration, ideas, and solutions. It’s where users turn their aspirations into reality, making it an ideal platform to showcase your brand’s products or services.
Create a Pinterest Profile That Converts
Your Pinterest profile serves as the digital storefront of your brand. Creating a Pinterest profile that converts involves more than just selecting a profile picture and filling out a bio. It’s about strategically shaping your brand’s digital identity to resonate with your target audience and guide them seamlessly toward your offerings.
Use these tips for crafting a Pinterest profile that converts:
Bio and Profile Picture: Your bio should convey your brand’s mission and values, setting the tone for what users can expect from your content. Choose a profile picture that encapsulates your brand’s essence, making it instantly recognizable amidst a sea of pins.
Board Organization: Organize your boards thoughtfully, arranging them in sections that mirror your business categories. This makes it easier for users to navigate your content, increasing their likelihood of finding pins relevant to their interests.
Search Optimization: Incorporate keywords relevant to your niche in your profile description and board titles. This enhances your profile’s visibility in Pinterest’s search results, driving organic traffic.
Branding: Every pin you create and every board you curate contributes to your brand narrative. Maintain consistency in color schemes, fonts, and imagery to create a cohesive brand identity that resonates with users.
Craft Compelling Pins
Pinterest is a visual platform, and the importance of crafting compelling pins that stand out cannot be overstated.
To succeed in this visual platform, you need to focus on these key elements:
Visual Appeal: High-quality, eye-catching images are non-negotiable. They should evoke emotions or curiosity, prompting users to engage. Vertical images with a 2:3 aspect ratio work best.
Clear Headline: Craft a succinct yet enticing headline encapsulating the pin’s content. It should provide a glimpse of the value users will gain.
Descriptive Text: The pin’s description should elaborate on the headline, providing more context or details that pique users’ interest.
Call-to-Action (CTA): Every pin should have a purpose. Incorporate a CTA that directs users toward the desired action, whether it’s clicking through to your website or saving the pin.
Build Strategic Boards
Boards on Pinterest are like organized shelves in a library, helping users find what they’re looking for. They’re content categories that neatly group your pins, making it easier for users to discover and explore your offerings.
Imagine you’re a fashion brand. Instead of tossing all your pins into a single digital drawer, you can create boards like “Summer Styles,” “Formal Attire,” and “Accessories Galore.” Each board focuses on a specific theme, helping users quickly spot what appeals to them.
This strategic organization means that users into summer fashion can dive straight into your “Summer Styles” board, finding a collection that resonates with their preferences. This keeps users engaged and increases the likelihood of them following you, engaging with your pins, and visiting your website.
Leveraging Keywords for Pinterest SEO
Keywords are like signposts on Pinterest, helping people find what they want. They’re super important because they connect your content with users who are interested in it.
To find the right keywords, list words people would type when searching. For instance, if you’re sharing cake recipes, words like “chocolate cake,” “easy baking,” or “dessert ideas” would be a good start.
Pinterest’s search bar is like a treasure chest of ideas. Type in a word and see what comes up – these are the words people seek. Be sure to incorporate those keywords in your pin’s description, the title of your board, and even your profile. This helps your pins show up when people search. More searches mean more chances for people to see your pins.
Using pins to drive traffic to your website
Pins aren’t just pretty pictures. They’re your ticket to bringing more visitors to your website.
Here’s how to make them work their magic.
Pin with purpose: When creating pins, consider where you want people to go next. If you’re sharing a recipe, make sure the pin clicks through to a page with that recipe. It’s like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for them to follow.
Landing pages that wow: Picture this: someone clicks on your pin, and they’re excited to see more. Your landing page should be like a warm welcome, giving them exactly what they came for. If it’s a recipe pin, the landing page should have the full recipe, with some extra tips or stories.
Keep track of your pins’ performance: Check your data to see how many people click through your pins. This helps you understand what’s popular and what might need a little boost.
Ready to Unlock Pinterest’s Full Potential?
If you’re looking to harness the true power of Pinterest for driving traffic and generating leads, we’re here to help.
We specialize in crafting tailored Pinterest marketing strategies that align with your brand and goals. From pin creation to board creation and tracking, we’ve got you covered.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Use-Pinterest-to-Generate-Website-Traffic-and-Leads.png12602240Kathlyn Angeles-Timbolhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles-Timbol2023-08-30 10:06:442023-08-31 15:11:44How to Use Pinterest to Generate Website Traffic and Leads
One of the best visual tools to use on Pinterest is Infographics. Over the past few years, infographics have become a big deal. They are a great way to visually explain data to people. Not only are they easy to follow and digest, but they are also a powerful tool for capturing the attention of your target audience, teaching them some tips and tricks, and sticking with them long after they’re out of sight.
Let’s face it. Infographics just look at home on Pinterest. Be in on mobile or desktop, there is no denying that they fit perfectly on the Pinterest feed. And now, you’ll find thousands and thousands of infographics on the platform. So if you’re on those people or brands that are sharing infographics on Pinterest, then you’ll have to find a way to stand out. Otherwise, yours will be lost in the sea of content.
People can get too caught up in making an infographic, what data do you use, where do you find that data, how do you create the image, what colors do you use, etc. The list goes on and on.
We have created a 5 step system for you to follow to create the BEST infographics for Pinterest!
1 – Picking the right topic
Does it relate to your business?
What topics in your industry do people find interesting?
Is this topic something you are passionate about?
What data do you want people to receive?
Can you tell a story within the graphic?
2 – Be creative, funny, or useful
Can you get a reaction out of people?
Explain something to your audience that will resonate with them
Explain the data you want them to learn on their level
Will your image be shareable?
3 – Keep it simple
Have a simple and clean image
Keep your infographic to 3-5 points
Using text and images within your infographic
Have a good Call-to-action within the graphic, don’t give it all away in one image
4 – Look and feel
Make sure you are using clear fonts that your audience can read
Tie your infographic into your brand colors only use 2-3 colors per image
Put your sources on the bottom and your logo
Keep your infographic consistent with your brand
5 – Sizes and dimensions
Vertical is the way to go in terms of pins. Make your image longer rather than wider
The best dimensions for infographic Pins on Pinterest are 1000 x 3000 with a Pinterest Pin ratio of 1:3
Infographic pins should be no larger than 600 x 2400 pixels. Otherwise, they’ll get cut off.
Wonderful, now you know how to create your infographic, what it needs to look like, the things you should have and shouldn’t have, but now the BIG question is where do you get all the data?? I know as an entrepreneur I am always looking at infographics on Pinterest for our company and for our clients, I say WOW that is awesome, I want to create something like that. BUT where did they get the data, how do they know the key points they want to talk about??
As you can see there is a lot that goes into making just ONE image, right? This is a process. It’s really about finding that perfect topic that you really want to share with the world and being able to explain it in such a way that everyone gets it! You have to do your research with each infographic, make the process fun. As you think of these ideas for your infographics, keep a journal or word doc to start collecting your data.
Lastly, you may also want to consider Pinterest SEO. Not only will it help you drive more traffic to your website, but it will also help you improve your reach and ensure your pins are getting maximum results.
Conclusion
Remember you are always going to analyze your data and try to create a story with that data. Once you have your data, story, and image complete you can craft together a successful launch. Where will you place this image first? Each infographic needs to have your call-to-action, visually appealing, and clearly branded. Here are a few steps we recommend for a successful launch:
Write a blog post about your Infographic with the image within the blog content
Share to Pinterest, Google, Facebook
Make another image that is the correct size for Instagram and share it on Instagram
When you follow these steps to create the best infographics and implement our techniques in your data and design process you will be able to deliver an infographic that will resonate with your audience. An image that they will want to share and will build your brand.
If you need a hand in creating Pinterest infographics that stand out or need help with Pinterest marketing, please feel free to schedule a free 30-minute consultation call with us.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/How-to-Create-the-Best-Infographic-for-Pinterest.png12602240Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2022-02-16 10:39:352022-03-28 10:17:55How to Create the Best Infographic for Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual social network, so you might think that SEO doesn’t play much of a role here. I mean, nobody actually comes to Pinterest to search for content, right? After all, pinning stuff is what Pinterest is all about! But it turns out that Pinterest has a lot of SEO potential.
In fact, Pinterest users love to share links! When creating compelling boards and pinning tons of great stuff, you’re also sending traffic to your website.
Tons of businesses use Pinterest to drive more traffic to their website, but it’s not just about pinning pretty pictures. If you want your Pinterest pins to rank well in search engines, you need to make sure you’re doing SEO correctly.
So how can you use Pinterest for SEO? Read on!
Do keyword research to give you an idea of what users are looking for
Using the right keywords can help your content reach the right people. So before you get started, it is essential to do keyword research. Create a list of the top keywords in your niche, and use them to inspire your content calendar.
Recipes are a huge hit on Pinterest. Let’s say you’re a nutritionist or a blogger who focuses on healthy living. You might want to create recipes related to the keywords you found.
If you’re a fashion blogger or a clothing retailer, take note of the keywords related to your niche and then create different boards and pins for each season.
Optimize your Pinterest boards
You can optimize your boards by making sure they’re relevant to your blog content or business. So that when someone searches a particular topic, they will find you.
When optimizing your boards, be sure to use keywords that people would search for to find the pins associated with them. Also, make sure you have at least three boards with lots of pins on them. The more boards you have, the more traffic you will get from Pinterest.
Write thoughtful pin descriptions
Including detailed descriptions can help your pins perform better. This, in turn, can help improve your reach and improve your pins’ SEO rankings.
If your Pinterest content isn’t optimized for pinner’s searches, then you’re missing out. You have 500 characters for your descriptions, so make the most out of it. Provide some helpful information about your pin. Give your audience a preview of what they’ll get from your content: what they’ll learn, how it would benefit them, and a call to action. These small bits of information may be just what they need to click through to your site.
If possible, include long-tail keywords in your description. They perform better than single or 2-word keywords since they describe what people are looking for. Just be careful not to overdo it. Google hates it when you stuff keywords into your descriptions, and you’ll likely be penalized for it in search engine rankings.
Use keywords as hashtags
Even though hashtags are optional on Pinterest, they are still considered beneficial. For one, they help users quickly find the content they are looking for. Plus, it helps you quickly get your pins to the top of the search results page.
Only include relevant words and phrases that describe the content in the pin. Avoid using popular but irrelevant hashtags to get people’s attention.
While Pinterest allows users to use more than 20 hashtags per pin, we advise that you limit your hashtags between 2 and 8. Having too many hashtags will make your pins look spammy.
Optimize your website for Pinterest SEO
Linking your website to your Pinterest account is an excellent step towards a better SEO performance.
You can use Pinterest tags to determine what types of Pinterest content deliver the most traffic to your website and what kind of content isn’t working. Plus, it gives you an idea of what people are doing on your website after interacting with your pins. The data is collected and sent back to your Pinterest account, so you can use it to adjust your strategy accordingly.
It’s also a good idea to add share buttons to your product pages. This allows visitors to pin items from your website to their boards.
Final thoughts
Pinterest is a great way to connect with your target audience. It’s visual and social, so it lends itself well to highlighting your content or promoting your products. Whether you’re a blogger, an artist, or a retailer, you can use the platform to drive traffic back to your website and gain followers in the process.
Pinterest may seem intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll realize that it’s easy to navigate. If you need help with Pinterest marketing, please schedule a free 30-minute consultation call with us. We’ll help you leverage Pinterest SEO to ensure your pins are getting maximum results.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Pinterest-SEO.png12602240Kathlyn Angeles-Timbolhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles-Timbol2022-02-02 10:19:032022-01-28 10:37:59Pinterest SEO: 5 Tips to Make Pinterest Work For You
It’s important to think of Pinterest as a search engine, not just a social media platform. This means that people use Pinterest to find things they’re interested in, like your blog posts. Similar to a search on Google.
Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic back to your website and grow your blog’s brand.
Here are 5 reasons how using Pinterest as a blogger can help improve your blog’s SEO, bring in more traffic, and grow your audience.
Pinterest is a visual search engine –
People visit with the goal of reading and saving pins in mind. When you pin something from your blog, make sure to add keywords in the title and description so pinners can easily find it. For example, if you write about travel tips, you could use keywords like “travel tips” and “vacation ideas” when you pin. Also, remember to use hashtags, this helps tell Pinterest what that pin is about and allows pinners to find pins. Consistency is key. It’s important to be consistent with your pins. If you only pin a few times a month, people will lose interest and won’t follow you. Try to pin at least once or twice a day to see the best results. You can create templates in Canva where you can easily swap out the text and the images while staying consistent with your brand. This allows you to use those keywords and tips at the text overlay and have eye-grabbing images that make your audience want to click on your image and go to your website.
Utilizing Group Boards –
You may join groups where you can share comparable material. Group boards are a great way to increase blog traffic because they allow your pins to be seen by more people. When you join a group board, make sure that the topics of the pins on the board fit with your blog content. If you have a travel blog, for example, it wouldn’t make sense to pin recipes on a group board about fashion. Be sure to follow the rules for each group board, most of the time you will find those rules in the notes section.
Pinterest allows you to be creative with your pins –
You may use your SEO abilities and hashtags to target people who are interested in your pins on Pinterest. When you’re creating pins, make sure they are eye-catching and include text overlays that describe what the image is about. This will help the pinner understand what your pin is about without having to click on it. For example, if you have a blog post about how to pack for a trip, you could create an image with the title. Pinterest also allows different types of pins, you can create animated video pins, video pins of you giving quick tips, or even pin your Instagram square images. Rich Pins make it easier for users to get information from a website by displaying metadata right on the Pin itself. When a user saves content with metadata on your site, it will become a Rich Pin. There are four different types of Rich Pins: app, article, product, and recipe Pins.
Drives traffic to your website –
When someone pins one of your blog posts to their board, they’re essentially sending people to your website. This is a great way to increase traffic and grow your audience. Make sure the images you pin are high-quality so pinners will want to click on them. Going back to the consistency, this is where a tool like Tailwind comes into play, this allows you to pin up to 200 images per week to your boards and even Tailwind Communities. Each pin you put up should have an SEO-friendly title and description with a link directly back to the blog post. You can then monitor your Pinterest Analytics and your Google Analytics to see where the traffic is coming from. For each blog you post on your website, you should create 10-15 images per blog to pin to Pinterest.
Time Efficient Tools –
Tailwind is a service that works with Pinterest to help you manage your time and drive more visitors to your website. I was hesitant about this purchase for some time. I expected to just look into the free trial and then cancel, but once I started using it, I couldn’t stop. Tailwind is a social media scheduling software that delivers real results in less time. Boost the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts! Decide when to post on social media and how much engagement you want. A few bonus tips, you can use Tailwind to schedule to Instagram as well, you can also link your Instagram to Tailwind and post your images from Instagram to different boards on Pinterest. Tailwind will also allow you to create loop pins, these are great for your evergreen content that will always serve value to your audience, you put those pins in a certain loop that pins to the boards you want and over time it will automatically pin those out for you at the best times and days! This is a life-saving and time-saving tool! A must-have!
If you are ready to work with a team to do the leg work for you, meaning, create the images, pin them, write the description, and more, we are your team! We just launched a new blogger marketing program to help take items off your plate to give you as a blogger more time to write and less time worrying about creating images and social media strategy. Schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation today and let’s start increasing your website traffic!
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Wondering-if-Pinterest-is-worth-your-time-as-a-blogger.png12602240Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2022-01-26 06:00:232022-01-25 16:42:54Wondering if Pinterest is worth your time as a blogger?
Today, we will go through Pinterest, and we are going to do an audit on our account. So we have been working with Pinterest for a long time. We use Pinterest for many of our clients, driving traffic back to their website through a very strategic Pin strategy, posting to different boards, Tailwind communities, and different Pinterest groups, and also through promoted Pins. We were coming in to do this anyway to make sure we’re doing as we say to do. It’s one of those, “Do as we say, not as we do.” [chuckle] We want to make sure that what we’re doing with our clients, that we’re doing for ourselves as well. So as you’ll see, we are in our business Pinterest account. And when you come to your Pinterest account, you want to make sure that it is a business account. And you’ll see your home feed here. The reason why you want a business account is because of the analytics and the ads. So with a business account, there are also a few different Pins you can create. The analytics are very important because they will show you how many views you have each month on your Pinterest account. It will also show you what pins are being saved and have the most engagement, and your ads to promote those ads to drive more traffic back to your website.
Business Pinterest Account
We’re going to go to the business hub. And this is kind of the behind-the-scenes; this will tell you just a sneak peek of our analytics, which we’ll get to first. What our public profile looks like. So over here, on the right-hand side, you’ll see your logo. If this is a personal account you’ve been using, there should be an option that says “Switch to Business Account,” and that’s what you want to do. So a couple of things, you can change this header. You can have a specific header there as you have on your Facebook or your YouTube channel with your business name, what you do, your logo, things like that. We have it just set up to show our most recent Pins. So that’s more of a personal preference. This is a good space for that brand-building, we work with many different types of bloggers, so this may be a great area for your branded images with your mission or topics you cover. If you are a mom blog that works with kids ten and younger or just giving your audience a little insight into who you are, that’s a great place to have it.
Your logo or image here, your company name, and this all depends on your brand. Caitlin and I have branded Social Speak Network, so that’s our logo; that’s obviously what all of our social media is. But as a blogger, you may be branding your name, so this may be your name if you don’t have a business name for your blog. So it depends on what brand you’re using; that’s what would go here. And then your description, making sure it’s apparent what it is that you do. And then you’ll see we have only 635 followers, we’re following 129 people, but we have over 43,000 monthly views. That’s good for us. Pinterest is not a social media platform, It’s important to have followers, but you’re not banking on the number of followers you have on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. It comes down to your Pin strategy. That’s the most important piece.
So you’ll see that these are all the Pins that we have created and that we’ve put up on our account, and you’ll be able to see how many times they have been viewed, and these have just been posted this week, so there’s not a whole whole lot of views on them yet. You’ll see that the ones that we pinned a few months ago have many more views. So what I want to do is look at what the Saved button is, which will change our profile to show the boards that we have. Now, when you think you can click on All Pins, we’ve had 63,000 Pins. And there is a mixture here of what we want to do. We talk a lot about healthcare digital marketing tips. We have social media marketing for small businesses. We have SEO and blogging tips, social media management for bloggers, finding your target market, Instagram marketing tips, Facebook marketing tips.
Setting Up Pinterest Boards
Some of these boards like this one that only has 18 Pins, we have it pinned there for a while, so we can either move those Pins to another board or let that board go if we’re not utilizing it. With our SEO, you can see that we have 663 Pins there and 500 Pins in our healthcare digital marketing. So focus on the boards you’re going to be utilizing the most, and what’s important with those is that you have an SEO-friendly title, so search engine optimization. Remember, Pinterest is that search engine, so what is your audience looking for? Are they looking for how to find your target market? This is great because that is what this board says. And if you click onto the board again, we haven’t used that board a lot because we only had 16 Pins. Then the description. To describe what that board is about and what types of Pins people will be seeing on that board. And again, you want to utilize those keywords here as well.
You can add notes; if you post to a different group of Pinterest boards, they’ll have notes of those rules. That’s a great either way to utilize that Notes section. Doing your Pinterest audit, going through each of your boards, and ensuring that you have a keyword-friendly title, a description, if you click this Edit button, the pencil, this is… So here, I don’t have a description for email marketing, so email, maybe it should be, “Is email marketing dead? No. It is very much alive and works great. In this board, we will show you how to grow your email list and utilize email marketing for your business.” So email marketing tips, you can add a board cover. It’s going to pull up the Pins from that board, and you can pick which one you want, okay? Let’s see; we’ll do this one. Click done. And then if you don’t like that board cover, you can go back, click Edit, and then maybe find this one, and then that looks perfect.
You’ll have the name, the description, and then click Done, okay? So go through each of your boards and make sure that you are utilizing the space correctly. Here in our content marketing strategy, we have over 1700 Pins. But here on How to Build an authentic business brand, we only have 10 Pins. These tips can go into maybe our business tips, and we can get rid of that board. You can also have secret boards. We love using Pinterest to get ideas on what other people are pinning. So you can create a board here at the plus sign and click Board, and then this can just be Pinterest image ideas. Keep this board secret. So what this means is as you’re scrolling through Pinterest, you can save images to this board, but they will not show up on your profile, this is just for you to see as an admin, and then you can pull that board up and look at, “Oh, okay, this is what I liked about that image,” and… As you need. So, “Oh yes. Oh, I love how they did that. That’s perfect, I like that image. Oh, this is cute.”
Pinterest Images
Because you’re going to see, there are different styles to Pinterest images and different lengths, and the longer lengths work better. Here’s an infographic. This image here is slightly longer than this one, but it’s a little hard for me to read and seems a little cluttered. I may be more apt to click on this one because it’s cleaner. So look at what types of Pins you like, what images you like, and then save them to that private board so then you can get ideas when it comes time to create content, okay? So now you have these four Pins here in my super-secret board, and we are all set. So after you do the audit on your boards, you want to come over to your analytics. And I always just click on the overview. And now, with Pinterest, you also want to try different; Types of content. Images are number one. Try the square images. If you use Tailwind, you can link your Instagram to your Tailwind, and you can pin the exact images you’re putting onto Instagram on Pinterest. So that makes it easy to monitor those square images. Are they getting clicks?
If you pin them, you’ll need to change the link because they’re going to link back to your Instagram account automatically. If that’s where you want them to go, great, otherwise change the link back to your blog. As I said, the long images. And if you’re using Canva, Canva has a great tool to create Pinterest images at different sizes. So you can try different sizes, as I said but also get creative with your Pinterest templates of adding video into these templates. So that will help increase those user views because you can add your video to this image, customize the colors, add a different change of the content, and then be able to put that onto Pinterest. You would also just have animated images like this that say, “10 Great Places To Travel With Kids.” It stops the scroll on Pinterest. So as you use different types of content, you’ll want to monitor it in your analytics. Looking at your Pin’s impressions, you can look at engagements. And this is just going to be the last 30 days.
And then, and you can see okay, so on Wednesday, I had 85 engagements on our Pinterest account. That’s awesome. What about Pin clicks? We want to make sure we’re driving that website traffic to the right places. So we had 60 clicks on Monday, the 27th. Obviously, on Christmas, we still had 30 clicks, which it’s Christmas Day, and people are still on Pinterest, so Pinterest never sleeps. It keeps going and going. This is a great platform for you to be able to look at to say, “When is my audience on Pinterest, what days of the weeks?” And so that’s where you’re gonna wanna monitor your engagement, what are my top boards? Business tips and social media management for bloggers, we’ve had 5700 impressions, 56 outbound/inbound clicks, and this is no promotion, this is just organic, 31 saves, 111 pin clicks. So this is interesting to be able to see the difference between the boards, what’s working more, and what’s not. And then also here are…
Repinning Pins on Pinterest
Some of these are our original content, and many of them are curated content, meaning Repins from trusted sources, like pin, from CoSchedule, Social Media Today, Hootsuite, Buffer, etc. We look at Social Media Examiner Neil Patel, the people in our industry that we get our information from, and we’ll repin their boards, or their pins to our boards. And then many of them are, obviously, with our logo on it, this is our own. So it’s cool to see, okay, so this one here had 2500 views or impressions, but I can create an image similar to this with our branding and see if it gets even more views. So Pinterest gives you all of the data you need to be successful on Pinterest. Here we have 740, so 6.2% engagement on this pin, 2.2% engagement on that pin. So it’s good to know what people are clicking on, what images they’re finding attractive, to draw them to that, and so that’s really where we want to then focus on, okay, what about this post drew people to it, where it makes them wanna click, and keep going, because this pin was created August 27th, and this is the stats for December to this month, so it’s really cool to look at where… What’s working, and what’s not working.
Then the other part is, if you go back to your profile, you can promote some of the pins or as many pins as you want that you have put up, and this is where it helps drive that traffic to your website even more. So here’s why Pinterest is good at driving blog traffic, I clicked promote, and it’s going to bring me here: what is the destination URL you want, what is the daily budget, and how many days?
I think 84% of Pinterest is done mobile-y, so it’s important to see what it would look like computer view, but that mobile. So that’s what it would look like a computer, this is what it would look like mobile. Most people use Pinterest on their phones. So take time, go through your Pinterest account. If you need help figuring out what board names you should have, how you should be creating those pins, what that strategy looks like, let us know, we do have Pinterest management packages, and we are helping our clients with that creative process, but also more the time management process. If you’re using the right tools you can pin from anywhere from 25 times per week up to 200 times per week, if you’re utilizing the right tools, so… And that’s a mixture of organic content, pulling from your blog post, from your social media post, and then that’s also that repining, pulling from people that you know, and trust, that are like-hearted, and like-minded to your business, and being able to pin their pins to your boards as well.
If you need help, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com today, schedule a free 30-minute consultation, let’s get you pinning correctly today. Thank you so much, have a great day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Pinterest-Audit.png7201280Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2022-01-12 16:16:082022-01-12 16:16:08How do a Pinterest Audit
For most people, Pinterest is nothing but a big visual search engine. It is a platform users turn to when looking for DIY projects to tackle, put-together outfits to wear, or recipes to make. But a lot of people fail to realize that Pinterest also provides a great opportunity, not only for businesses but also for healthcare providers and organizations.
Pinterest isn’t the first platform you’d think of when promoting your practice, but it can introduce your practice to a whole new audience. Plus, it can help you drive traffic to your website, generate leads, and even attract new patients.
So if you’re still not using Pinterest for your healthcare practice, now is the best time to get started. Here are 6 ways to use Pinterest for your healthcare marketing plan.
Create pin-worthy images
Pinterest is an image-sharing platform. It is filled with appealing eye candy. So if you want to get gain some traction on the platform, then you need to create eye-catching and attractive images.
Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest’s images are tall and vertically-oriented. The ideal image size is 1,000 x 1,500px and an aspect ratio of 2:3. Also, including texts in your images can make a difference. Not only will it make your pins more enticing, it will also help users know exactly what your pin is about at a glance.
Educate your audience
According to Hootsuite, two-thirds of Pinterest users are women, and the majority of them are mothers. As moms, they are always looking for new ways to keep their kids healthy. If you’re a pediatrician, you can use the platform to educate them and promote healthy eating. You can share kid-friendly recipes, suggestions for making living a healthy lifestyle fun, or help moms identify health concerns in kids.
If you’re an OB/GYN, you can promote good breast health with pictures of what to expect during a mammogram. Or if you’re a cardiologist, you can create a pin on the importance of a stress test, and how to prepare for the said test. Simple pins like these can help take some of the anxiety out of such tests and would help your audience understand the importance of these tests.
Create boards centered around your specialty
Pinterest isn’t just about sharing your content and images. It’s an excellent platform where you can expand the idea of what your brand is.
Create boards that are centered around your specialty and make sure that it resonates with your audience. If you’re an OB/GYN, you could pin educational resources related to prenatal care, fertility tips, and gynecology information. If you’re a yoga instructor, you can create boards about yoga poses, yoga outfits, meditation, and healthy recipes.
The key is to create boards that interest your target audience. The more users engage with your content, the more likely will Pinterest see you as a great pinner. As a result, your content will be more visible in searches. Win-win.
Drive more traffic to your blog
Do you have an updated blog that you post content to? Pin your posts! Doing so can help drive traffic to your blog.
To capture the attention of your audience, the visuals need to stand out. It’s a great way to entice readers to click through your blog post. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t need to pin every blog post on Pinterest. Consider pinning blogs on topics that already have an audience on Pinterest.
To really maximize your pin’s potential, you also have to focus on your copy description. Provide enough information to entice a pinner to click through your blog.
The main goal is to draw people’s attention to your boards, get people to share your posts, and attract clients who are looking for your services. Keep these tips in mind when creating content for Pinterest. It won’t be long before you start seeing them coming to your website to find out more about what you offer.
See what topics are trending
One of the best things about Pinterest is that it gives you an opportunity to see and understand topics that are trending at the moment.
Pinterest acts as a search engine all on its own. Simply type in the keywords on the search bar to see what’s showing up on Pinterest already. Before you start creating pins and driving traffic to your website, it’s a good idea to look around on the platform to see what shows up. You can also check what your competitors are doing in the space.
According to Entrepreneur.com, pins related to trending topics see an average of 94% increase in click-throughs. Use the platform to find trending topics and use the information you gathered to position your products and services.
Promote your event
Pinterest might not get as much attention as compared to other social media channels. However, it remains to be a powerful platform for getting your content discovered and connecting with your audience. That said, this image-centric platform would be a great place for promoting upcoming events.
You can do this by creating boards specifically for your event. Make sure to include all relevant information, including the venue, behind-the-scenes photos, freebies, etc. Also, keep in mind that pinners are planners. In fact, 75% of pins are saved 1 to 2 months before an event. So make sure that you start pinning your event-related content months before the big day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/6-Ways-to-Use-Pinterest-for-Your-Healthcare-Marketing-Plan-blog.png1200800Kathlyn Angeles-Timbolhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles-Timbol2021-03-03 10:46:582021-03-01 14:32:266 Ways to Use Pinterest for Your Healthcare Marketing Plan
Today, I am going to be talking to you about using Search Engine Optimization strategies in Pinterest marketing. 2020 has created a very interesting landscape for business owners, and this is because we no longer have to stay focused on reaching clients in our local geographic area. Because of telehealth and platforms like Zoom, we can really look and start expanding and reaching people nationwide. Pinterest is a fantastic way to go about doing that because you aren’t necessarily going to reach people within your geographic location. Because of the use of Zoom, clients are used to working with people who really could be anywhere. They’re used to getting information from online, rather than going and sitting down with an individual. So 2020 has really created this landscape where even as a small business who really works with individuals locally, you now can really extend that net a lot wider, and Pinterest creates the perfect opportunity to do search engine optimization and reach the folks who are specifically looking for your product, your services, and your expertise. How Pinterest search algorithm works is it looks at four different top things:
The domain quality
The pin quality
The Pinner quality
The Topic relevance.
Let’s dive into these individually. The first item is domain quality, this is really to ensure that the websites that have pins coming from it are highly ranked in terms of Pinterest, so if you have never pinned before, if you’ve never claimed the website before, anything like that, Pinterest is less likely to show your pins to other users in Pinterest.
So how do you improve your domain quality in the eyes of Pinterest?
How to Increase Domain Quality on Pinterest
Well, the first thing to do is to convert your Pinterest account to a business account. This provides a lot more tools and resources such as the analytics and things like that, so there’s a lot more reason to do this. However, doing this well really just allow you to be more legitimate in the eyes of Pinterest as well. Once you convert your Pinterest account to a business account, you then need to claim your website, so this basically is like adding a verification emblem almost to your website to make sure that Pinterest knows that you are the one who’s actually creating the content on the site and then pinning it. And it’s pretty easy to do, typically, it’s just that HTML file that you load up through your file manager on your website, so you can do this via FTP or just logging into the C-panel of your hosting account, clicking File Manager and then uploading it to the root directory. Click a button on Pinterest, it’ll automatically verify your site.
Claim Website on Pinterest to Increase Pinterest SEO
The next item is, once you claim your website, you then have the opportunity to create Rich Pins, so when you are pinning, make sure that you are creating rich pins. We’ve talked about this in other episodes before, and the process for doing it, but let’s say you’re a dietician or nutritionist and you have posted a recipe on your website. The rich pin, then actually grabs the information from that recipe and showcases it directly on Pinterest. This helps having rich pins and information like this helps your pin to stand apart against others, it also it makes it so that that pin has more engagement in interactions. To increase your domain quality, we also recommend pinning often, so this helps you just create more engaged users, and then also Pinterest does reward people who spend time on their platform.
And then the last thing to increase the domain quality is to pin high quality content. So you want to pin content that will drive people to your website and get more interaction, the more interaction you get, the more Pinterest will recognize your domain. So the second item is the pin quality, so you want to make sure that the quality of your pins is high. The pin quality is really determined by the popularity of your pins and the engagement level of your pins, so you want to make sure when you’re pinning something that you have a nice title, for example, a title that somebody is going to want to click on to learn more, so you can try a lot of different types of titles on there, a lot of different types of image structure on there, but you want to make it so that when somebody sees your pin, they’re probably going to recognize that to you and click the pin because they know that they’re going to find the high quality content on the other side.
Use High-Resolution Photos on Pinterest with Text Overlay
We recommend for these pins to use a high resolution photo to make sure it’s either square or tall, so a two to three ratio is typically good, then use text overlays so that you have the title of the blog post or more compelling the information for why somebody should click it or save it. Then we recommend putting either just text on there that says your website URL or that has your logo on there, and that’s for that brand recognition. And then if you do have some sort of freebie or give away on your site, I also put a little snippet of text about that as well. And so when you do that, you can use variety of different tools. We often use Canva, but there are others out there to create different versions of this pin, and so as you’re pinning all of them, you’ll be able to see which ones are getting more engagement, then start making more that are similar to that.
Pinner Quality to Increase SEO on Pinterest
The next thing is the Pinner quality. Pinterest, again, likes people and accounts that are active on Pinterest, so you wanna make sure that you are active on Pinterest, so we utilize tailwind as a way to make sure that we are pinning and re-pinning other popular pins, and then you also need to create fresh content. On most networks, there’s a variety of different types of users, there are some users that just sit back and launch, there are other users who are creating content, and then there are other users who both create and share content. So that’s the type of user you want to be on Pinterest, and so when you are pinning, you need to make sure that you pin things to correctly categorize boards, and this just shows your audience as well as Pinterest, that you have some sort of strategy and rationale behind the things that you are pinning.
Use Pinterest analytics to determine which pins are trending, then you can create more pins for that blog post, for example, or pin similar pins to it. And so this is something that we highly, highly recommend doing on Pinterest. The next thing is the topic relevance, and so your goal when you are creating a pin should be to have pins that relate to other pins that are being searched for and re-pinned, and then one way to do this is to do a search on Pinterest and see what specific keywords and phrases are coming up, then you can look at pins that are coming up for that. If you find that some of them aren’t really related, that might be a great opportunity to create a blog post and a pin that does directly relate to there.
Increase Your Pinning Topic Relevance on Pinterest
Now, one thing that we recommend doing is having either a similar image, which graphically Pinterest will recognize as being similar, but then also making sure that you’re utilizing the right keywords in your description as well as in the link and the text and everything surrounding the pin, so that Pinterest really sees that your pin is related to that other pin. To find these keywords, again, just make sure that you are utilizing Pinterest search feature and just start typing in items and it will, just like Google’s, it will come up with recommended searches that other people have done and that are popular on the network. Another place to optimize for these keywords is in your business name, your profile, bio, and then also the specific boards and descriptions that you have on Pinterest.
All of these things working together can help you to increase your Pinterest search engine optimization. And because Pinterest is really a visual search engine that we’ve talked about in the past, it can be one of the top, it can quickly turn into one of the top traffic sources for your business as well. So as we close out, I wanted to give just a couple of more ways that you can make your website a little bit more Pinterest-friendly. So after you have claimed your website and enable the Rich Pins on there, make sure every blog post that you write has a variety of different pins loaded into the content and pinnable content, you can then also add a plug and if you’re using WordPress to enable share buttons, so somebody can quickly easily click the Pinterest share button and pin the image.
Consider Adding Prompts in Text to Pin Now and Read Later
You can also even add text near different parts of your content that say something along the lines of “Pin it now for later”, and this is a great way to get other people to pin it because maybe they don’t have time to read a 10,000 word blog post, so by adding these pins within the content, or pictures within the content with “Pin it, save it for later” text report, you’re just reminding people that they can, in fact, click to pin and save the blog post so that they can come back to it later. Additionally, the last thing that I want to also say is, if you have something like an e-commerce store, typically, we always recommend having the product images, the square. Sounds good, right?
If you think in the lens of Pinterest, you might want to actually play around with having those vertical images, so the 2 x 3 ratio, and so these vertical images of your products might potentially help you rank higher on Pinterest, so you have the picture gallery of all the pictures, just try loading them in different size and see if more people start pinning them. This is something that we are starting to play with for our clients who are utilizing Pinterest and have something like a Woo Commerce or Shopify shop.
Thank you so much to tuning in, and I hope that this gives you some insights into how Pinterest can help you drive more traffic to your website, now that 2020 has really opened up the geographic landscape for the people that you can help. I look forward to seeing you next time on The Social Speak Network podcast.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/pinterest-seo.png12602240Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2020-09-16 13:09:272020-09-16 13:14:55Pinterest SEO in 2020
Pinterest is one of those tools to build that website traffic, and a lot of people think of it as maybe not a tool that’s right for their business. Often, they think it’s just for recipes or interior design, which yes, it is used for that, but think of Pinterest as a visual search engine.
If your target audience is mostly women 35 to 65, Pinterest’s demographics are your target market! It’s time to see how you can use Pinterest to grow your business!
Pinterest for business
Pinterest is a great tool to use to get people to your website. And you think about when they go to Google what are they typing in? Especially moms, they’re going to Pinterest and they’re searching for different things.
I want to show you what a Pinterest business account looks like, and a tool that we use to manage our Pinterest. It’s really important to have that consistency and that strategy behind, “What are you pinning?” And so, this is where that digital marketing strategy that we’re always talking about comes into play.
Looking at what blogs are you writing. If you’re writing one blog per week or maybe two blogs per month, and they are the longer cornerstone blogs, each blog can have four to six images for that one blog, and you can pin those to Pinterest with links back to your website.
Difference between a personal and business account
Let me just dive in and show you a little bit about Pinterest. If you go sign up and create a Pinterest account, it will ask you if you’re business or personal.
Here we have our Social Speak Pinterest account, and this is the business account. I wanted to show you our profile.
Get access to the analytics dashboard
How you know that it’s a business account is because it will have analytics here. We have a little over 170,000 monthly viewers, which is pretty good for us. We really have worked hard on building our Pinterest account probably about the last year and a half.
We didn’t really take it too seriously before and now we’re seeing that traffic to the website really increase from what we’re putting on Pinterest. That’s a really good thing.
Set up an account with your business name
With a business account, you can set up your account with your business name. Here, we also have our logo. You can change your header images to a different static image. I always have the latest pins for our Social Speak board.
You could have in here a link to your website, a little bit about who you are and what you guys do, and then the most important thing is your boards.
Getting Started: Pinterest Basics
Create a board
You want to think of your boards as those keyword phrases. When you’re putting together your boards, it’s important to look at what are those key topics that you want to be talking about? So, you can have as many boards as you want. I always recommend starting with between five and seven, because you don’t want to be so overwhelmed. But as you continue to grow you’ll always be adding a new board, and so that’s okay, too.
We have different boards for different things, and these can be very specific. Obviously, content marketing strategy is our number one board with almost 800 pins. That and the health care digital marketing tips, those are our two main focuses.
It’s important to make sure that when you are creating a board that you are filling out the description. You want to make sure that you have the title of the board, the description of the board – fill out those blanks that Pinterest provides you. If people search for content marketing tips, then you are more likely to be able to show up here. That’s how that works.
Find and pin content
Now what I like to do is I like to follow certain brands and companies. For example, I really like CoSchedule. They put out some great content. We also utilize Sprout Social. They put out great content.
You can go-to activity and see what pins they have, the latest pins they’ve had. And then, you can either save them to the board that you want, or you can go into Tailwind, which I will get to in just a second.
I like to make sure that you know which brands you want to follow so you can re-pin from them. I love the image, and I think the content’s great. I’ll just click onto that image and look at the website, make sure that it’s something that I want our audience to click through to.
Track your performance to see what works
The most important thing is going to your Analytics. And again, this is just something to look at on a monthly basis. I always go to the overview, and then I look at the impressions, the total audience, the engagement. Any time this number is up, that’s a good thing.
In the past 30 days, we’ve had over 200,000 impressions which is up 36% from last month. We had 178,000 total audience engagement.
The number of engagements on your pins includes saves, close-ups. People that had either clicked onto one of the pins we put up, re-pinned them or liked them. And then your engaged audience is the number of people who had engaged with your pin directly. Meaning that they had liked it, or they had re-pinned it.
You can go down here and look at your top boards, and then you can also look at your top pins. So, we’re seeing that people looking for YouTube sizes and “Seven easiest ways to create Instagram content.” These are our top two pins that we had re-pinned, and people are finding them on our account and re-pinning them.
It’s good to really look at what content is working, so then you can make sure that you are utilizing that data to put more of that content out.
Why you should use Tailwind for Pinterest
Pinterest Automation
Pinterest can be sometimes a little bit of a time consumer. What we’ve used is this app called Tailwind.
Tailwind actually connects to your Pinterest and your Instagram. This is a paid program. It’s only $14.99 a month, I highly recommend it because this allows you to schedule pins out.
What this allows me to do is schedule all of my Pinterest posts for the month if I want to. I’ll just click on a pin, then hit Add to Queue, and it’s going to automatically put it into my queue where it feels it needs to go.
Post inspector
What’s really cool about this, when you are on Pinterest and you click just onto the Home button, it doesn’t tell you how many times this pin had been re-pinned, but on Tailwind it does. So this has been re-pinned 115 times. And again, sometimes things will come up that are not aligned with your business, and that’s okay. You just scroll past them, but you can look to see which ones are getting more pins.
For example, I click on Instagram Strategy. Tailwind shows that this was re-pinned 341 times, and it’ll tell you that it’s 299 times on Pinterest and 42 times on Facebook.
Smart Schedule
With Tailwind, it organizes your posts based on when your audience is on Pinterest, and when you are getting the most engagement. That’s the one thing I love about Tailwind is it’s easy to be able to find that content. You can see the source right here. You can pick as many boards as you want, and then if you don’t like the content, if you don’t like those posts, you would just click More Suggestions, and more suggestions will come up.
Tailwind just helps keep everything organized. And that’s what I really like because it saves you time and it gives you the post that you’re looking for, it gives you the data on what the popularity is, and it also just helps with the Auto-Schedule.
Smart Loop
The other thing you can do with Tailwind is what’s called a smart loop. Now, this is great for your blog posts that are your cornerstone blogs, meaning those are 2000 plus blogs.
We’ve already used our 250 smart loops and what that means is it will pull all of these blogs that we’ve done from a year, two years, three years ago, and it’s going to keep populating them. So it will automatically schedule those out into our plan, and because I’ve said I want these blogs to be scheduled to these certain boards, it will do that.
Schedule Instagram videos
I highly recommend utilizing Pinterest and Tailwind together, you can get the most benefit out of your Pinterest account. You could also publish videos on here as well, that’s a great tool because videos are awesome on Pinterest, and it’s just a great way to really monitor what’s working.
Analytics
On your Google Analytics, you would be able to tell how many people have come to your website from Pinterest. That’s a great way to monitor those analytics.
Is your social media marketing strategy sorted out?
If you need help with creating this strategy for your Pinterest account and utilizing Tailwind and just elevating your digital marketing strategy as a whole, we do offer a free 30-minute consultation. That allows us to get to know what your goals are, what are you struggling with, and what are you wanting to accomplish with your digital marketing. And then we can put up a plan together moving forward from there.
We also just launched our online VIP community, and that’s a monthly membership that allows you to see different handouts, tutorials, trainings on all different things in digital marketing. It’s a great starting point if you are wanting to do things on your own. If you really need help with that next step with your digital marketing strategy, go to socialspeaknetwork.com and click on the “Contact Us” button for a free 30-minute consultation. If you have any questions, please let us know.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Pinterest-and-Tailwind-Blog.png315560Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2020-06-03 10:57:462020-06-04 18:19:29Pinterest and Tailwind Blog
In today’s podcast, we talk about how Instagram and Pinterest play an important role in your digital marketing strategy.
Some people may overlook these two platforms thinking either they are for a younger crowd or their target market is not using these platforms, but that’s not true. Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms and Pinterest is being used as a visual search engine, it’s just like Google but all pictures!
I highlight the following points:
Tips & Tricks to utilize Instagram to it’s fullest potential
How to Upload videos to Instagram and Pinterest
Tools to help maximize your Pinterest efforts
00:00 Speaker 1: Hello. Welcome to the Social Speak Network Podcast. I am your host Amber Irwin, and in today’s episode, we are gonna be covering tips four and five, which were Instagram and Pinterest. And I wanted to go over these two together because they really compliment each other in your digital marketing strategy. So, I wanted to show you a tool that we use for Instagram and Pinterest, and really when you’re figuring out that strategy with each of them. So, let’s talk about Instagram first. Instagram is… Instagram and Pinterest are both visual… So with Instagram, links do not work in your content, the only link that you have in your profile is in your bio. There’s a couple of tools like Linktree, that link will be in the bottom, that you use, which is a free tool that allows people to click on to that. So I think ours is Linktree/Social Speak. And, we have multiple links on that platform, so we have a link to our website, to our blog, to our YouTube, to maybe…
01:12 S1: We have different offers up there. So Linktree’s a great free tool to use to be able to have multiple links in your bio. Because otherwise you’re always saying ‘link in bio’, and you have to make sure you’re changing that out. But if someone’s looking through your Instagram account and you’re talking about one product but that link’s not there anymore, it gets a little confusing. So using a tool like Linktree and having a link to different products or services or blogs you’re talking about is a good idea. With Instagram… There’s a couple of different aspects of Instagram that I want to talk about. First is consistency. Just your news feed and with this is… You’re going through and these are just normal posts that are being put up. So this is just as you scroll through your news feed, these are your normal posts, square images that you’re putting up.
02:09 S1: A couple of added benefits to Instagram that you really wanna take advantage of is Instagram stories and Instagram TV. So when you’re doing a video on your feed as just like a normal post, that video can only be one minute long. When you’re doing Instagram stories, those videos are a 15-second long. So, Instagram TV (IGTV) can be 10 minutes, so take advantage of that space. You’re gonna have a different audience on Instagram compared to Facebook or… If you’re using Twitter or LinkedIn. A lot of our clients get a better response from Instagram than they do Facebook, just a different crowd, different algorithms as well. So with your Instagram account, you wanna make sure you have that strategy. And our tip one was creating that strategy. So, in that strategy, you should have put together, what are those topics you wanna talk about? What videos do you want to do? And, it gets a little tricky with Instagram because you can do your videos horizontal, just make sure you’re in the middle of the screen because if you’re talking like this then… So make sure you’re just in the center of the screen when you’re doing them.
03:33 S1: Vertical videos work the best on Instagram, so sometimes you are recording for dual purposes, so sometimes I’ll set my phone on my computer vertically and record from my phone and my computer, and then the one that’s on my computer, I upload to YouTube and Facebook, the one that I’m using on my phone, I upload to Instagram. So it just kind of depends, you gotta figure out what works best for you. But taking advantage of Instagram stories… And… Hey, we are the first ones to say, “We were really good at doing Instagram stories for a while and then we stopped, and we were seeing… That’s where a lot of those kinds of behind the scenes, the real-time information is great with Instagram stories; it really allows your audience to see who you are as a person and as a company. It’s great if you did an Instagram take over.
04:29 S1: So maybe you have a different employee each week or maybe a couple of times per week, take that Instagram account over, do some behind the scenes, talk about who they are, what their expertise is; just a fun way to really just let your followers know who you guys are as a company. So that’s a great way to use Instagram stories. They only see it for 24 hours, so if you don’t highlight that Instagram story, it’s poof! It’s gone in 24 hours. So a lot of people will use this Instagram stories area as event promotion or specials like, “Only for 24 hours, we’re gonna have this special. So when this video’s gone off Instagram, that special no longer exists. Get in with your membership today, get in with this exclusive offer.” So people love Instagram stories for that. And when you highlight them, if you go to an account and you see these circle icons, these are highlighted stories.
05:32 S1: And you can have different themes. So based on what you do, if you’re a wellness center and you do chiropractic massage, maybe you do holistic medicine, or naturopathic medicine, these will be different so called boards. And you can highlight different stories at any time. So, once you create these boards… Or these… I’m gonna call ’em boards. Once you create these boards, we have one for core values, for business tips, Instagram story tips, just tips for you. So as we do different stories, I can highlight them to go back to these different boards. And so, it kinda helps people know what it is we do. And especially in that coaching space, it’s important for people to know maybe you have a personal life. Maybe if you’re a wellness coach, you have exercises, eating guides or eating tips, whatever that is. So take advantage of that for your audience to kinda go and get those resources.
06:39 S1: So you have your news feed, you have Instagram stories and you have your Instagram TV. So using all of these pieces allows your audience to really engage with you, and the key to this is just being consistent. So whether you’re posting every single day, three times a week, four times a week, figuring out that schedule. And then with Instagram, direct messaging is really a big thing, so people are commenting or asking questions, making sure you’re responding to them within 24 hours. Have your notifications on or have the team you’re working with make sure that they’re checking those notifications and those messages. Sometimes you’ll get ones that are spam, and you know they’re spam, but other times people are just asking questions. You can use an app called Repost, and this allows you to re-post content from other accounts giving them credit; so that if you’re running out of ideas of, “Okay, what should I be talking about?” then you can use Repost, and it’s just like sharing an article on Facebook, but you’re sharing that post from their account.
07:54 S1: So with Instagram and Pinterest, as I said, they’re both visual, so the biggest thing is making sure that people know what they’re looking at so each image is clear, if you’re having content on it, and let them know what the post is the about. And so moving into Pinterest, being able to utilize the images that you have on Instagram on Pinterest as well. So cool fact with Pinterest, you can upload square images, you can upload the vertical images and videos to Pinterest. Think of Pinterest less as social media and more as a visual search engine. I think it was 65% of women search Pinterest for their needs, whether it’s medical, home, DIY; that is their search engine, that’s their Google. And I say, “Yes because I’m always on Pinterest searching for something, whether it’s content ideas, social media tips, home tips with activities with my daughter, wellness tips as far as we used to do to make our own soap, how do you do that, essential oils, whatever it is, Pinterest, you can find everything on there.
09:17 S1: So Pinterest is that visual search engine. And I want to talk to you about a tool we use that’s called Tailwind, and I’ll put a link to this below, but Tailwind… And I wanna show this to you… Tailwind is a really cool tool that we use. It is a paid tool; this is one tool that we do pay for, it’s $14.99 a month, but this allows us to schedule Pins to Pinterest. And what it allows us to do is with Pinterest, you wanna make sure that you are… You always have Pins going out, anywhere from three to eight to 10 a day; you definitely want that rotation continuing. And so with Tailwind, it will actually monitor to know how many posts you should have each day; some days based on our traffic, based on our audience, we have more than other days. And so the weekends, the beginning of the week are a lot heavier, for us, than the end of the week. And so Tailwind creates this process for you and different times.
10:41 S1: So Pinterest, again, it’s like a Google machine, so people are on there in the morning, they’re on there late at night. And so Tailwind calculates when your audience is on Pinterest, and they schedule those Pins to go out, which is super-cool. The other thing that I love with Tailwind and Pinterest is if you’re blogging, you write this awesome blog, you create your images, you pin it to your board, you put it on your social media, but then what? Like you’re writing a blog each month, but each blog is good to repurpose content; you can create what’s called these Smart Loops, and this… What does is you tell Tailwind what images you want to be… Like we have 230 active Loops right now, which means we have a ton of different images, all from our blog, that will continue to be posted, and that they’re posted to different boards, so they’re always being reused because we’re always gaining new followers.
11:53 S1: So with Pinterest, it’s not necessarily about growing your followers to thousands and thousands like it is with Facebook and Instagram, but it’s more about creating that content that people want to share, and the end goal with Pinterest is really to increase that website traffic, that’s the key, is that website traffic. And by using a tool like this, it allows you to see what are the most popular Pins, what are people clicking on, what are they liking, who’s re-pinning what, so it allows you to really dive into those analytics. And so using Tailwind is a great tool, and it keeps us organized. This is… We do this once a week, and then Pinterest is done; you’re already making those images for your blog, and so if you have… If you’re doing lead generation, and you have a content upgrade, you wanna make sure that you’re creating those images around that; so this is just a good way to be able to help you take your Pinterest account to the next level.
13:05 S1: The other thing why I like talking about Instagram and Pinterest with this is a couple of things; with Tailwind, you can link your Instagram account to Tailwind. So if you’re really, really good at posting to Instagram… We have some clients that are posting every single day, and that’s valuable content. You can click Schedule from Instagram, it’s gonna link to your Instagram account, and it’s gonna pull up all of the posts. So this makes it easy to make sure that all that amazing content that you’re putting on to Instagram also can be shared to your Pinterest account with the right boards and making sure that audience sees it as well. So it’s so easy, all you have to do is click Schedule, you pick the board that you want it to go to, and bada-bing, bada-boom, you’re done.
14:08 S1: This is why I really like Instagram and Pinterest together because they do complement each other. That content that you are sharing to Instagram can easily be shared to Pinterest. So, being able to use a tool like Tailwind, and I will put a link in the description with that so you can see that as well, but having a strategy for each of those is really important and then being able to track your analytics with where that traffic’s coming from. So you gotta think of it like this, with Instagram and Facebook it really is… Let’s just stick with Instagram and Pinterest. Instagram is really about getting the engagement, getting the likes, getting the comments, getting the [14:55] ____ messages, and building those relationships. You may not get a lot of website traffic from Instagram because of how the platform is made. You can’t share an article on there and have a link in the content, and people can’t click through to that.
15:13 S1: As I said in the beginning, you have Linktree where you could say, “link in bio.” They click on that and then go to that blog post. You’re not using Instagram for website traffic; you’re using Instagram to build those relationships. Pinterest, you’re using to drive that traffic to your website. You want people to see your blogs. You want people to click on to them. You want them if you have a website that has product on there, whether it’s digital product or physical product, you wanna be pinning all of those images with the right description, with the link back to that page to Pinterest because as people are searching, especially in the health and wellness industries, because if people are searching for essential oils for better sleep, kids’ fever, or whatever it may be, and you have a line and you keep pinning, this is a resource so people are able to click on it, buy it. I’ve bought so many things off of Pinterest because I follow this person; I look at what they’re pinning. I go to their website. I cyberstalk them. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what we do.
16:31 S1: So, using Pinterest to the fullest potential is huge. And the other piece with Pinterest is using it as a resource for your audience. And what I mean by that is you’re gonna have multiple boards for your business, so you’re gonna have a business account, you’re gonna have your… Like for us, we have email marketing tips, Facebook marketing tips. You’re gonna have all these different boards, and thinking of those boards as keywords, what are people searching for, and how can you use them as a resource for your current audience? So I always like to use Home Depot, for instance, has a really good Pinterest account because they have backyard ideas, bathroom lighting trends, bathroom project ideas. So, they make this a resource for their audience. And I love that because if I’m always going there, it’s a trusted source, I wanna be able to go and see, “Okay, what can I use to redo this as a DIY?” They’re putting this resource here for me to look at and then all I have to do is click on that, “Oh, and they have it in store. Oh, that’s so cool.”
17:58 S1: So if you are a wellness practice, you wanna create your boards based along your services, but then also think of, what are your clients asking you, what are their needs, what are they searching for, and how can you create a board that is a resource for them? And that content that’s on those boards doesn’t have to be all original content. The content that’s on our boards, we did not write all of that content or make all those images. A lot, I would say 70% of our pins, are re-pins. So we have sources like CoSchedule, HubSpot, a couple of other sources that we love, that we get all of our information from that we wanna share. So having those sources that you’re already maybe sharing on Facebook or you’re going to for your own information, see if they have a Pinterest account, start re-pinning their stuff. So that’s really what Pinterest is about, is that sharing platform.
19:03 S1: So, I hope that in this podcast, that made sense with the Instagram and Pinterest, how they work together and how they really tie in to your overall strategy because they’re both really important to have, and that’s why we focused a lot on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for our clients because I really think that you’re being able to touch all areas of where your audiences are at online. So, if you need help with identifying what these strategies are or how to use Pinterest or Instagram for your business, please let us know, schedule your free 30-minute consultation today; we would love to help you discuss that strategy, those ideas and get you Instagramming and Pinteresting right away because I know once you start doing it, you’re gonna be able to see the results and be able to utilize them as tools for your practice. So, if you have questions, let us know. Please remember to subscribe on either Podbean or iTunes for our podcast. We have a weekly podcast to help you organize your digital marketing life. Until next time, we will see you guys later, and remember, head over to socialspeaknetwork.com and schedule your free consultation today. Have a great day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/How-to-use-Instagram-and-Pinterest-for-your-Wellness-Practice.png800800Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2019-09-03 08:00:152019-08-22 19:48:43How to use Instagram and Pinterest for your Wellness Practice
As doctors, you tell patients all the time that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Although we often use this axiom when referring to health, we believe that it also applies to your marketing strategy.
Knowing how to market health care services is important, even if you’re happy with your current patient volume. With so much information available online, patients no longer feel the need to visit clinics or hospitals near them. They can easily switch health care providers anytime. The last thing you want is to find out your patient database is nearly empty.
You are not guaranteed to keep up your patient volume forever. Having a planned medical marketing strategy will help keep your brand at the forefront of people’s mind.
Here are some tips on how to market health care services and grow your practice.
Referral marketing
Doctors and other medical practitioners aren’t entirely clueless on how to market health care services. In fact, many of you have been using this marketing strategy for years.
In order to make referral marketing work for you, you have to unleash your inner extrovert and put yourself out there. Make sure you get some face time with physicians, massage therapists, yoga instructors, health coaches, naturopathic doctors etc. These people can be great resources for referrals.
Professional referrals are based squarely on sound relationships. Patients, health care professionals and their staff will only refer someone they trust – someone they feel is the best. You have to make them feel comfortable about you – both as a health practitioner and as a person.
Referral marketing is not just about getting more people through the door. Rather, it’s an ongoing process of finding, attracting, and retaining patients.
Establish or enhance your social media presence
Social media marketing requires a lot of time and effort, and we know that time is something you may not have in abundance. But the benefits of social media are simply too great to ignore.
Advertising your practice on social media can help new patients find you with less effort on your part. It also allows you to connect with other professionals and your patients.
Devote the time to make daily updates and postings. Publish content your audience would be interested to read. Share some tips to educate patients. Share relevant information about your field of knowledge. By educating your audience, they will see you as a helpful doctor who is invested in keeping them healthy.
You don’t have to manually post all your social media content. There are lots of tools out there that will automate your social media publishing and scheduling.
Focus on branding
When we think of a brand, big companies such as Coca-Cola and Apple often comes to mind. As a medical practitioner, you can’t create your brand, can you? Of course, you can!
A brand’s identity is how a business wants to be perceived by its audience or customers. It is how you are currently perceived as a medical practitioner.
Having a strong brand allows you to build a positive image that makes people expect a certain level of quality from you. It helps people trust you and makes them want to work with you. Ultimately, branding can help increase referrals and expand your practice.
Professional website
Today, more and more people are using the internet to research treatments and find health care practitioners of all kinds. They’d want to learn more about you before making an appointment.
If you don’t have a website, then you’re seriously limiting your visibility online. It will be difficult for potential patients to learn about you and your practice. This puts you at a disadvantage.
Having an up-to-date professional website allows you to represent your brand the way you want it to be. Plus, it allows you to easily communicate with potential and existing patients about new services and offerings. Ultimately, it reduces the amount of time your staff spends on the phone by providing basic information and answers to commonly asked questions.
Final thoughts
For decades, medical professionals have gotten by without spending time and money in marketing and advertising their practices. Living in the digital age, having no online presence is simply not an option.
The internet has changed how people experience health care. They would turn to the internet to research health-related topics and treatments, and even shop around for health care practitioners. If you know how to market health care services, then you’ll find that there are lots of opportunities to grow your practice and reach new patients.
The Social Speak Network Podcast recently went into more detail about digital marketing for health care services, as well.
Top 10 Tips to Increase your Digital Marketing Presence in the Health & Wellness Industry
In this podcast episode, Social Speak Network co-founders discuss 10 Tips to Increase your Digital Marketing Presence in the Health & Wellness Industry. Over the upcoming weeks, we will be diving into each of these in more detail.
1) Social Media Strategy
2) Facebook Ads
3) Facebook Groups
4) Instagram
5) Pinterest
6) Blogging
7) Lead Generation
8) Videos
9) Podcast
10) Email Marketing
Watch the Episode
Read the Digital Marketing for Health Care Services Podcast Transcript
00:01 Caitlin McDonald: Hello and welcome to the Social Speak Network podcast. I’m one of your hosts today, Caitlin McDonald, and we’re also joined by Amber Irwin.
00:10 Amber Irwin: Hello everyone.
00:12 CM: In this episode, we’re gonna be talking a lot about tips to increase your digital marketing presence in the health and wellness industry. So we work with a lot of different businesses and organizations in health and wellness ranging from Pediatric centers to massage therapists, nutritionists. And they’re always asking, how can we increase our digital marketing, how can we increase our exposure online, so that we’re reaching the right target market? So today, we’re gonna be going through the top 10 tips to increase your digital marketing presence. And then over the course of the next few months, we’re gonna be diving into each of these more specifically. So either Amber and myself, will be really focusing on one of the tips moving forward, and this episode really is designed to be an overarching strategy, that kind of paints the picture for the next few months.
01:07 AI: Exactly. So let’s dive into the first thing that will help you have a clear direction of where you’re going. And that is having that strategy, whether it is just a social media strategy or a digital marketing strategy, again, with that overarching picture of What do you need to do? So, having a content calendar. With social media, and really, digital marketing as a whole it’s… Consistency is key, and if you don’t have that content calendar and that organization of what you need to do and what you need to prepare for, it’s easy to forget about it and not do it. So having a calendar, knowing how many times to post with social media is really important, because sometimes… The other day, we had somebody say, Gosh, three times a week seems like a lot. I think it should just be one time a week and we’re like “No.”
01:58 AI: So knowing your audience, whether that’s every day, maybe it’s just during the week or maybe your audience is on social media more during the weekends, so knowing your audience and knowing when to post and then also what platforms to use. So we’re gonna be talking a little bit about Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, but there’s also Twitter and LinkedIn. So knowing where your audience is playing is really important, so Caitlin, why don’t you talk to us a little bit about the Facebook ads and Facebook groups.
02:27 CM: Perfect. So Facebook is one of those networks that we all wanna forget that it’s there, but we can’t forget that it’s there. [chuckle] And over time, it’s been more and more important to have an actual advertising spend. So you’re not only paying somebody just to manage the account and post the three times or more per week, you also then have to spend money on Facebook in order for those posts to be seen. And so over time, these ads have gotten more and more complex as well, so it used to be that you could just click and boost a post, and now what you have to really dive in and create an ad that’s specific for one segment of your market versus another.
03:14 CM: So let’s say you have some services that are more tailored towards women, or moms, or another section that’s more tailored towards baby boomers or children. You need to create different ads and different audiences for each of those so that you’re really speaking towards the networks they are. Now, in terms of the budget for Facebook ads, really this depends on your service. I think the most important thing here is to pay attention to those key performance indicators. So how much is each lead costing you? How many leads are then converting to schedule a follow-up appointment? And of those follow-up appointments, how many folks are then coming in for secondary services, sending referrals and things like that? So we currently have ads running for some companies where the cost per lead is $20-$30, we have other ones where it’s less than a dollar, closer to 50 cents per lead.
04:16 CM: And these are converting at the same ratio of lead to then signing up for services. However, the person who’s paying $30 per lead is completely fine with that cost, because their service is more money in general. Then there’s the next part of Facebook groups. Now Facebook groups are a great way to find your target audience, in communities that are already formed and it’s also a great way to create a community around your own services or offerings. So, we recommend joining groups and so this could be the admin on your account or the business owner. Maybe someone on the Board of Directors, joining groups on Facebook that align with your target market’s interests and posting on there, commenting, sharing articles that you’re writing and everything like that. And then also having a group that you manage for your own organization that just provides a little bit more information. So that your target audience can continue learning and building that trust with you and you building the trust with them so that when it’s time to come on in for that next appointment, they know where to turn. Amber, do you wanna dive in now to some of those other social media networks?
05:39 AI: Yeah. So let’s talk about Instagram first. So, Instagram is… A lot of people, this… Instagram’s a little overwhelming, I think. People don’t necessarily understand it or they’re… And most of the time, it’s just images and videos. You can’t put a link in the content. You could put links in your stories if you have over 10,000 followers. And below in the comments, I will put down a free tool. That’s called Linktree and that allows you to have multiple links within your profile, within your bio area there. So you have a link to your blog, you have a link to maybe a special offer, your YouTube channel, etcetera. So I’ll put that in the comments below. But Instagram stories are really important to make sure you are doing… And these are fun for… Maybe it’s a tip of the day, behind the scenes, introducing a new practitioner.
06:34 AI: These are just quick 15 second clips, or you can do images too. And they only see it for 24 hours. So this is a great way, if you are… If you have an event, if you are having a special on products, maybe it’s a blowout sale on just inventory you have in the office. This is a great way to just have those stories be more like your VIP area. You can track the analytics on those, so it lets you know how many people watched each story and who those people were. So then another step is follow up with them with a private message of saying “Hey, I saw you liked our story. Are you interested in our products? Or if you have any questions, let us know.” So it’s really about building that relationship.
07:16 AI: Instagram TV is really important. These are for your videos that are anything over a minute, because remember, on your News Feed, your videos can be one minute long. And on Instagram TV, they can be up to 10 minutes long. So taking advantage of that. And what Instagram TV has started to do is any time you upload a video to Instagram TV, it now gives a one-minute clip on your News Feed. So before, we would upload a video and then create a post about it, and now Instagram does that automatically for you. So you can have a cover photo in that, you can have a title and a description and put, “Hey, check us out.” What’s that call to action? So, “Sign up today on our website, check us out on YouTube.” So it’s important to make sure that you’re using all of the bells and whistles that Instagram has for you.
08:06 AI: The more you use… So, on Instagram stories, the more if you are doing like a mention, if you’re doing a gift, a hashtag, a sticker, the things that they already have there for you, they like that. And so, you show up more in the algorithm. It’s kind of silly, but they love it, so do it. And then obviously, the hashtags for Instagram. So make sure you’re doing your research. The one thing I love about Instagram is if you type in a hashtag, it’s gonna tell you… Like, if you search for a hashtag, it’s gonna tell you how many people are talking about that hashtag. And then you can also follow that hashtag and see everyone that’s mentioning it. So, it’s good just for that research.
08:47 AI: Competitors, what are they talking about? What posts are they putting up? What engagement are they getting? And then for you to be able to create content for your audience and see what people are wanting to know about. And don’t always use the same hashtags. ‘Cause a lotta times, you’ll see the exact same hashtags in the exact same order on every single post. Do not do that. You’ll see formatting where it’s the post, three dots, and then hashtags. You can have, we usually say, between five and 10 hashtags per post. And then in the comments, if you do a first comment, you could have up to 30 hashtags. So hashtags play an important role in Instagram.
09:28 AI: So from Instagram, I wanna move into Pinterest, because Pinterest… These are both very visual platforms. And Pinterest, I really think of Pinterest as more of a visual Google. This is really where, if your target market is women, mothers, you have to be on Pinterest because this is where we’re finding our information. Whether it is, is this normal? To home remedies, to stretches, to work outs, to… Whatever it is to home interior design. This is where women are finding the majority of their information. So Pinterest, use it as a resource for your clients.
10:08 AI: If you look at, I’m just gonna throw out Home Depot. I think Farmer’s Insurance does a great job. They organize their boards as resources for their audience. So they have home gardening tips, they have like organic plants. They have all these boards that their audience really wants to know about. And so, using Pinterest as a resource for your clients helps build that value and that relationship. The other thing Pinterest is great for is building traffic back to your website. So, Caitlin’s gonna be talking a little bit about the logging and lead generation. And Pinterest is a great way to build that audience back to… Or that traffic back to your website and creating the right images.
10:52 AI: So again, in the comments below, I will put a really cool tool. Secret, a tool that we use for our clients and it makes Pinterest… It’s amazing. It really helps drive the traffic to your site, it helps you organize and schedule your pins, and it gives you suggestions based on your search history of what you should do. So Pinterest, it’s… I think that it’s something that is just a really great way… If your clients are asking a question and you have what we call power partners or a list of people that you recommend, you can pin from them too. So you can just have a board that says, “Resources” or “Referral partners,” and start pinning from their website to that board. So it gives your audience one place to go, it makes it easy and it’s, again, driving that traffic back to your website and your power partner’s website. So, that is Pinterest for ya.
11:49 CM: Awesome. And Amber mentioned this, but Pinterest really is like a search engine, which brings us to blogging and search engine optimization. And so starting… I guess this isn’t one of the points that we’re really diving into specifically, but I do wanna bring it up. One thing that’s important to remember with search engine optimization, is that there are a lot of other places that your website can be found or your organization can be found besides just your website. So yes, you want your website URL to show up and be kind of in the top 10 results on Google, however you can have your Pinterest boards and your pins show up in Google. You can have your YouTube content, we’re gonna get into videos, but you can have your YouTube content show up in the top 10 points of Google, your directory listings.
12:42 CM: All of these things really work together to help boost your website, but also just boost your overall brand presence online. So really keep that in mind as you’re working on search engine optimization, that it’s not just about doing one thing, it’s about doing a little bit of everything in a very smart way. [chuckle]
13:06 CM: So let’s jump into blogging. Blogging is one of our favorite tactics when it comes to boosting your presence in digital marketing and in the digital world. And basically, what this means is creating a well-written article and publishing it on your website. Long gone are the days where you can only write a post of 350 or 750 words. These articles should be a lot longer, meaning, between 1500 and 5000 words, and there are tools to figure out what’s the best length for a specific topic. And they should include lots of different types of media such as videos, Pinterest pins, little snippets of text that are easy for somebody to click and tweet. And so, you wanna make it as easy as possible for this blog post to then be shared to different networks.
14:05 CM: So our typical process for writing a blog or an article includes starting with that keyword research. So here, we like to focus on what are the main things that people are looking for if they want to come in and book an appointment with one of your specialists or physicians? So what are the top concerns that they have? What are the symptoms they have? What are the main questions that they have? From here, you can research what people are actually searching for online. And there are a few ways to do this. One of the easiest is just pulling up Google and starting to type in whatever that topic is, and Google will actually put in there related search terms, they are the phrases that people are really using. And so that’s a great thing to put into Google, or excuse me, into your blog post.
15:00 CM: Then, after you have kind of the idea of what that topic should really be… And as I’m doing the podcast episode specifically about this, we’ll talk about some of those tools that our company uses for it. [chuckle] But we won’t get into that now, because I could go on and on about that. But the next thing that you do after you have that basis of the keyword research is actually creating a blog outline. When I create a blog outline, sometimes, I’m already up to 500 or 750 words, and I haven’t written in an ounce of content. All I have are the headers and the sub-headers and a couple of little bullet points under each of them. So it makes writing a longer blog post a lot easier in the long run.
15:43 CM: After this, it really, as we mentioned is about formatting it and then sharing it. And so one of the good ways to share it is to have some sort of call to action in there as well, and so this brings us into the lead generation part of your website presence and digital marketing. And so, for lead generation, we always recommend having some sort of content upgrade or offer that you’re promoting, and so each of the blog posts that you write can then include a little snippet about that content upgrade or call to action, as a way to entice people to take the next step about learning more about your business and organization. For this lead generation piece, we always recommend having really valuable free information or free content that somebody can then gain access to. This could be a resource library that’s just for your subscribers, or it could be something like booking a free consultation as well.
16:46 CM: Both of those work tremendously well in health and wellness. And then, in order to actually collect the names and email addresses, we recommend setting up a landing page, and you can do this just on, let’s say, a WordPress website or a tool like LeadPages or somewhere else, where you collect their name, email address and sometimes phone number, you can play around with kind of conversion rates there, have them download or gain access to whatever it is, and then sign them up for your email newsletter. So we’ll jump into email newsletter later. But we brought up video a couple of times, I [chuckle].. With blogging and social media and everything. So, Amber, do you wanna jump into videos?
17:30 AI: Yeah. So I love that blogging is growing into this so much more than just contact. In a blog, like Caitlin said, you’re gonna have a lead magnet, you’re gonna have an image, you’re gonna have that Pinterest image, so you can pin that back to Pinterest, and you’re gonna have videos. So I… You’re really touching every type of learning, whether they’re kinesthetic, visual, audio. Because with videos, people, and a lot of times, people will watch videos without the sound, so captions are really important, because whether they’re at work or they’re just in a place where they can’t hear, their kids are running around… Whatever it is. So videos are a great way to really allow your audience to get to know who you are.
18:16 AI: And these videos can be on… Again, it goes back to that content calendar that you’re gonna be putting in place the first step. Because, maybe you have a tip of the day in your blog post, whether you have it broken out in different sections, you could have a video for each section, so it just maybe goes into a little bit further detail or showing them how to do something so they can read it and they can see it. And they can put it together based on how they need to. Maybe it’s recipes are really great for videos. So videos are just such an important piece of your digital marketing. And there’s a few things that you’re gonna do with these videos once you have them. Obviously, you’re gonna upload them to YouTube, and when you have them onto YouTube, there’s… And I’ll get in more like Caitlin said… As you go into these videos more in detail, we’ll give you all the tools that we use.
19:05 AI: But with YouTube, you’re gonna wanna create playlists and there’s a lot of little things that you could do with your videos to make sure that they’re getting seen more. So, YouTube is gonna be your hub. From that, you could put them into your blog post, you can upload them to Facebook into these groups that you’re gonna be a part of, but then also onto Instagram TV. So a couple of tips when you’re doing videos. When you’re doing an Instagram TV video, have your phone vertical. When you’re doing a… Most of the time, if I’m recording a video for YouTube, I’ll just have it from my computer or turn your phone horizontal. So it doesn’t matter, even if you do a video vertical for YouTube, YouTube… There’s no more black bars, they have the image back there, so it looks really good, but having these videos on all of your platforms is really important because, again, it just… It brings that name to face and you’re able to answer questions. A lot of times what we see with pediatricians, they will get questions, they’ll take notes of weekly questions that they’re getting from their patients and then at the end of the week, they’ll do maybe an FAQ Friday and they’ll answer some of these questions that the parents had or they’ll talk about a topic.
20:23 AI: So again, it’s listening to what your audience is looking for and asking for and doing those videos around their needs. And this is, again, where those Facebook groups come in, because you can do videos just for that group, based on those questions that are coming in, so you can get really intimate with your clients and then you have ones that are just for YouTube that anyone can view. So, videos are really important, and again going with the videos, taking it a little bit further with podcasts. So Caitlin, let’s talk a little bit about podcasts before we kind of wrap it up with the email marketing piece. Podcasts are hot right now, but everyone wants to do one. What are, how do you start your own podcast and what are a few tips people should know?
21:12 CM: Yeah. So with podcasts, the process is a lot easier than you might think. There are hundreds, maybe not hundreds, but there are a handful of free podcast, kind of hosting companies, or ones where it just costs under $10 per month to sign up for it. We use Podbean. There are a bunch of other ones. With Podbean, we also can hook it up to iTunes. So our podcast is on iTunes. And it’s something that, as long as you’re being consistent, it just provides that extra little piece of personality behind your organization. So, it’s a great place to take the content that you’re sharing in those videos and turn it into a podcast episode.
22:00 CM: It’s also a great way to interview people. So let’s say, you have 10 physicians on staff, go through and interview each of them on anything from kind of giving a little bit of a personal background to who’s in your practice through to their specialities. If you’re an health and wellness coach, reach out to other health and wellness coaches who might have a slightly different perspective and having this podcast and being the interviewer automatically positions you as an expert and also gives you a great ideas for what to do for your own practice if you ever are stuck finding clients, let’s say, or with… Maybe one regimen isn’t working for a client, you always… It always works.
22:45 CM: So tap into the knowledge of the people that you’re interviewing, and see what else they recommend, any other solutions that they recommend kind of turning to. So it’s a really fun, easy way just to have a different piece of media that you can share on your website, and then it also provides a great basis for blog posts. So, [chuckle] you do the podcast episode, you record it for YouTube, you upload it to Podbean or wherever, to iTunes, so then you can share that, you can share the video and then you’d make a transcription of it using one of the many softwares that are available online and you have a full blog post kind of without doing any work that then goes on your website, helps with that search engine optimization and provides a different type of content to share online as well. So podcasts are hot, they’re one of… It’s one of the growing, quickest growing avenues online for marketing your business and practice. So I say jump on the bandwagon, give it a shot.
23:55 AI: Exactly, and then once you have your blogs and your podcast, then that kinda comes into that email marketing piece. And email marketing kinda plays two roles in your digital marketing because you’re gonna have, whether you have weekly updates. We do a weekly digital marketing email or a monthly newsletter and so I’ll talk a little bit about those monthly newsletters and weekly emails, and then, Caitlin’s gonna talk a little bit about how that email marketing plays a role in your lead generation with the automation piece. So when you have and again, everything comes down to consistency. So when you are creating all this content, you can kind of see how it’s this little spider web and how everything connects, but your website is your hub of where everything lands and so, your whole goal is to have everyone, have all these resources back to your website. So email marketing, whether these are patients, people you’ve met at events, people that signed up for your lead generation, you wanna make sure that now you are communicating with them, whether that is weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, it doesn’t matter, as long as you pick what you’re gonna do and commit to it.
25:09 AI: So the worst is you get an email. I signed up for something, I’m so excited. I get that intro email, I love it and then I’m like, “I haven’t heard anything from them. What’s going on?” So making sure that you have that plan and you know what they’re talking about. So again, your newsletters are gonna be more content that’s just for them. So again, this can be a video that’s maybe just an FAQ video. Asking people to join your Facebook group, giving them tips, maybe it’s finding other articles of resources that you have approved that you want to send out to your audience. So, really, it’s tips giving a lot of value, that’s where people… You’re gonna keep them reading. And then at the end you would have your links to your blogs, you would have your links to your social media, but really come up with original content for your newsletter. So Caitlin, how does email marketing play a role with lead generation?
26:07 CM: Yeah, absolutely. So with lead generation, and as Amber just mentioned, somebody is really excited. They just signed up for whatever resource or free consultation that you decided to offer as that content upgrade, and now you need to make sure they know who your organization is and that they… So, know, like and trust you. And so, email marketing and creating automated email campaigns for that first two weeks of your relationship with this new prospect is really important. And so, we recommend not only having that weekly or monthly newsletter, but also having an automated email campaign that every new subscriber’s signed up to. And so with this, you’re trying to be educational, you’re trying to provide even more content that’s gonna benefit this prospect. And then, over time throughout those first two weeks, you can introduce some of your services, you can have a video in there, interviewing one of your physicians or the person that this individual might see.
27:19 CM: And your goal really is to get them to trust you enough, to want to sign up for one of your paid services, or come on and schedule that initial meeting with you. Because, just because somebody signed up for the email list doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily ready to take that next step. So having this email marketing is something that’s really easy to create and have play in the background, and continue building that trust so that you don’t have to sit there and email or call every single new sign up. So, it really helps with getting people to know, like, and trust your brand.
27:55 AI: Yeah, I love it. So as we said, over the past following weeks… Or upcoming weeks, we are gonna be going into more detailed tips and tricks on each one of these points, so you have a better understanding of how it can work for your business and why it’s so important to your digital marketing strategy, because really, it seems like a lot, but they all flow together. So you can’t just do one piece without doing another piece, so we’re gonna show you why and how to do each of these. Until next time, we will see you guys later, if you have any questions, comments, please let us know and we look forward to chatting with you on our next podcast.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Podcast-Youtube-Image-amber-and-caitlin-1.png7201280Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2019-07-24 17:22:552019-09-06 13:36:19How to Market Health Care Services Plus the Top 10 Tips for Digital Marketing in Health Care