How to Set up Your Brand Photography Business on Pinterest
why should be using pinterest in your brand photography business
As photographers, showcasing our work and attracting potential clients can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. However, with Pinterest going nowhere anytime soon, promoting our brand photography businesses has become more accessible and engaging than ever before.
Pinterest isn't just another social media platform; it's a visual search engine designed for sharing inspiring images. For brand photography businesses, it offers a unique opportunity to connect with a broad audience actively seeking inspiration for their next shoot.
By crafting visually appealing pins and optimizing your content, you not only showcase your photography skills but also attract followers who resonate with your work. Plus, you might even draw potential clients into your funnel if you've got a compelling freebie on offer.
Pinterest plays the long game, so don't worry if you're not yet set up, we can fix that with this handy guide where we're walking through each step so you can grow your organic reach with purposeful and strategic Pinning.
The best part about why it outweighs instagram and facebook is that once you get started, pins will continue to perform for YEARS, because it's more like google than the other sites, meaning, great, optimized pins will show up in search results even if you didn't post them that day (like IG).
So, let's get you all set up step by step!
1. set up your business profile
First things first, get your business account up and running or switch your personal one to a business profile. Remember to keep personal boards private if they don't relate to your business (you can do this by clicking edit in one of your boards and checking the secret box.
By creating a business account, you gain access to valuable analytics, audience insights, and marketing tools that can help you track the performance of your pins and understand your audience better.
2. optimize your name & bio
Choose a profile picture that stands out. I always advise my clients that smiley eye contact with the camera is great for establishing connection, trust and recognition, so you could do that or opt for your logo if you prefer. You can create a custom banner in canva, choose one of your best images, or let Pinterest grab one of your recent pins for you.
To be more discoverable to potential clients, make sure to optimize your account with a name that includes searchable keywords and create a clear profile description that explains about you, your business, and your ideal clients. You've got 500 characters, so add keywords to help you get found.
Use your brand name as your Pinterest handle if you can - best to match it to all your other social media platforms.
3. get that website claimed!
Claiming your brand photography website ensures that you're capturing all the pins and clickthroughs generated by your content. And you'll gain access to valuable analytics that will help you adapt your pinning strategy! You'll see what's viewed, clicked, and saved the most. Ideally we want people clicking through to our website to get them closer to our work or in our funnel, so that's the key analytic to aimf for!
Pinterest also will give priority to pins created by a website's owner, so claiming your website can improve the ranking of your pins in search results as well - win win!
Here's how to do that:
click edit from your profile
go into claimed accounts
under websites, click claim
copy TXT record
add code into the DNS records on your site - head here for more detailed steps
4. create relevant boards
Create discoverable boards that your ideal clients are likely searching for. Don't just call "brand photoshoots" - get more specific!
Destination Branding Photoshoots
Female Founder Branding Photoshoots
Earthy Goddess Vibe Brand Photoshoot Inspo
When adding descriptions to your boards, incorporate relevant keywords without overloading them. I find that it's nice to keep the descriptions in a fairly casual tone.
Pinterest allows up to 500 characters for each description. While these descriptions won't be visible to Pinners when viewing pins in their feeds, they play a vital role in determining topic relevance according to the Pinterest algorithm.
Crafting great descriptions not only helps your pins reach the right audience but also boosts their visibility in search results. Plus you can add a CTA in the description for them to find your website, follow you on social media, or download your freebie (but sadly it won't be an active link...).
You may also want to try engaging with the boards of people who are your ideal clients
5. prep your blog and website
Take some time when deciding which images to include in your blog post to resize them (you can do this when exporting from lightroom or using a tool such as shortpixel), and rename them. This is great not only for improving your own site's load time and therefor overall SEO, but is great for your pins.
Try naming the images the same as the title as the blog post. Some experts say to pop a hyphen in between each word and remove any of the little words in between.
At the bottom of my blog posts I create a pin so people can pin directly from my blog article if they fancy it! Pins saved directly from your website, or rich pins, rather than repinned from your Pinterest account, hold higher value in Pinterest's eyes.
Rich pins are organic and will pull info from your website straight to your pins (like the title, info, and author). But here's the deal: you gotta have a business account and claim your website first, so get that done before you start pinning!
5. get to pinning
Consistency is one of the hardest parts to starting out but once you start to see literal thousands of monthly views, the inspiration should keep you going!
focus first on pinning your own work
aim for pinning 1-5 pins each day with new photo, title, and description
get those keywords in the filenames to help your images get found
install the Pinterest extension for chrome to make it easier and quicker to pin directly from your website
stick to the recommended size for your pins - 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000x1500 pixels
pin to relevant boards - the more relevant the board, the greater chance of it ranking
link your pins to intriguing pages on your site or blog
you can open up the pinterest search bar and see what people are searching for - add these keywords to your descriptions
describe your pins conversationally, without chopping it up with commas
avoid duplicating posts
seek out the best time of day to pin in your analytics and test what timings work best based on that
video content as started to be prioritized to see how you can incorporate that into your strategy to gain traction - try slideshows or even repurposing content you shared to IG or tiktok if it can bridge that gap
6. check trends and see what others are doing
By analyzing successful accounts and viral pins, you can adapt your strategy as needed.
You may also want to look into what's trending so you can create content users are actively searching for. Pinterest Trends reveals top search terms across various regions and countries. It's a great resource for finding keywords that can help get you seen. By tagging your content accordingly, you can boost its relevance and reach.
You can also glance into past trends as well.
And if you want to refine your search even further, you can filter by interests, keywords, age range, and gender. It's all about diving deep into the data and uncovering the insights that matter most to you.
7. BONUS: use pinterest to plan shoots with your clients
Not only is pinterest a great way to get found and funnel traffic over to your blog (and hopefully onto your email list as well), but it's a great way to get an idea of your clients' visions for their branding photoshoots. Make sure in your client welcome pack that you take some time to detail the steps they need to take (in case they're a newbie) to pin their inspiration and how to get that to you. You'll want to make sure that they title it with their name or business...can't tell you how many boards named "brand shoot" have been sent my way!
Remember, Pinterest is not just a social media platform—it is a visual search engine that can propel your photography business to new eyes. So, start pinning and see what happens!
If you need help with anything in your brand photography business, reach out to discuss a 1:1 mentoring session where we can dive deeper into a range of subjects related to your business.
Are you looking to improve your brand photography?
I know it's overwhelming to know where to turn for advice on how to grow your brand photography. That's why I've created the ABCs of Brand Photography Mini-Course. It's bitesized and packed with useful information that will help you elevate your confidence in delivering an incredible client experience!
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