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Demystifying Pinterest - how to get your wedding business in front of thousands more couples! · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

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  Becca: With over 478 million active users and 378 million wedding
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  related searches every year.
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  Pinterest offers a huge opportunity for you when it comes to
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  marketing your wedding business.
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  If you've always wanted to understand Pinterest or just want to understand
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  how you could be doing it a little bit better than today's episode
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  is going to be perfect for you.
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  I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker, and blogger.
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  And you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
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  I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
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  examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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  If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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  and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
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  love, then you're in the right place.
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  Let's get going with today's episode.
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  If I were to ask you why you don't currently use Pinterest in your
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  wedding business, I expect you'd give me one of the following answers.
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  First of all, perhaps you just think it's really confusing.
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  You don't understand how to use it, perhaps you know how to use it to plan
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  your house out or to use it for personal reasons, but just don't understand how
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  it's ever going to be used for business.
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  Or the second reason is you probably just don't have enough time.
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  Well today, I'm going to be sharing with you three reasons why you
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  should be using Pinterest and three top tips to help you use the.
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  The first reason why I think you should be considering Pinterest in your
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  wedding business is because couples are on there and they're on there in
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  there hundreds and there thousands.
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  Not only are they on there planning their wedding, using boards and dream wedding
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  boards, but it's also one of the first places they go to plan their wedding.
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  In fact, I know that lots and lots of brides and grooms out there actually
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  start planning their wedding on Pinterest before they've even got a ring on their.
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  Now for most of you, you want to get in there early in the process,
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  especially if you're a venue, a wedding photographer or wedding planner.
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  You want to get to people right at the start when they're first engaged and
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  Pinterest offers you that opportunity.
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  Why?
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  Because it's where people start their.
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  If you ask any of your couples that you're currently working with at the
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  moment, if they have a Pinterest board, I guarantee a huge percentage of them will.
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  They use it to plan out ideas, to look for flowers, to look for
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  suppliers, to look for ideas.
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  And there's just a wealth of content on there.
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  It's the perfect place for planning your wedding.
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  So if it's the perfect place for planning your wedding, why wouldn't you want your
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  wedding business to be promoted on there?
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  And after all it's free.
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  The second reason you want to be using Pinterest in your marketing is
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  because unlike Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest actively encourages
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  its users to leave the Pinterest platform and go over to your website.
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  Now, your website is where you're going to make sales.
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  Social media platforms.
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  are like your shop window.
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  It's the place where people are walking by and they see what you've got to offer.
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  And then they come into the shop and that's when they come to your website.
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  So the idea of Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, all of these things, isn't to
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  sell directly on the platform, although that sometimes happens, but it's actually
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  to get people to come into your shop or come over to your website where you
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  can do a much better job of selling.
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  Now links on Instagram and Facebook drive me crazy.
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  They probably do to you as well.
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  Facebook just doesn't like links at all.
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  It really will penalize your post if you put.
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  Instagram.
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  Well, we all know about Instagram links.
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  You can't even put a link on Instagram in your post.
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  You have to say, go to my bio, to click on the link.
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  And it's a right faff.
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  The reason Facebook and Instagram do this is because they don't want
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  people to leave their platform.
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  They want their users to stay on there for a long time, and they want you to
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  keep yourself and your content on there.
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  This is why I like Pinterest though, because Pinterest does the opposite.
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  Pinterest is actively encouraging its users to click on your pictures
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  and your products and your services, and come over to your website, your
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  Etsy store or wherever it is that you're pointing them to find out more.
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  This is a great opportunity for you to get more organic traffic over to your site.
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  The third reason you should be considering Pinterest in your wedding
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  business is because so many other people don't know how to use it.
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  If I go on the Pinterest platform and look at wedding venues and wedding suppliers,
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  so many people are doing Pinterest wrong.
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  They're using Pinterest.
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  Like you would use it as a user, but not like you would use it as a business.
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  So if you do Pinterest correctly and you follow my tips or take
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  my courses or whatever, Then you can stand out from the crowd.
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  Some of my clients are doing an excellent job on Pinterest and getting people
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  over to their website, getting people to read their blog and making sales.
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  So if you can understand how it works and demystify it with my help, then
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  I guarantee it will be easier for you to stand out from the crowd.
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  So there's the three reasons why you want to be thinking about Pinterest.
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  Number one, because brides and grooms are on there and it's the first
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  place they go to plan their wedding.
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  Number two, Pinterest actively encourages its users to leave the site and come
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  over to your website, which is where you can sell to them more traffic to your
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  website, more chance of making a sale.
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  And the third reason is because it's a really good secret
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  in the wedding industry.
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  And so many people are using it wrong.
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  If you can use it right, you can stand out from the crowd.
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  Now I've shown you that Pinterest is a really powerful tool.
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  I'm going to give you some actionable tips and advice to
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  help you use the platform better.
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  The first thing I want to share with you about Pinterest is the most important
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  piece of information you are going to need to demystify the platform in your mind.
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  Instead of thinking about Pinterest as a social media site, start
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  thinking about it as a search engine.
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  We tend to lump Pinterest in as a social media site.
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  People say to me, yeah, I'm on all the social media platforms.
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  I'm on Facebook.
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  I'm on Instagram.
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  I'm on Pinterest, but just stop for a moment.
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  Do you go to Pinterest to be sociable?
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  Do you go there to like your friend's post or to comment or to
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  do anything of a social nature?
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  No, you don't.
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  You go to Pinterest to search, to search for ideas, to search for information.
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  That's why it's much more helpful to think about Pinterest as a search engine.
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  In fact, Pinterest is much more of a similar platform to Google image search
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  than it is to Facebook or Instagram.
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  So if you change your thinking about the platform, all of a sudden
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  it starts to become less of a.
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  Think about how a customer is using Pinterest, they're going to the platform.
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  They've got an idea of something they're looking for.
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  Perhaps they're planning a yellow themed, sunflower wedding, and they're going into
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  Pinterest and searching for sunflower themed wedding stationary, sun flowers,
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  themed flower arrangements or whatever it is they're using it as a search engine.
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  Pinterest is then giving them loads and loads of images.
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  That they can choose from where they can go and get more inspiration, click on the
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  images and go through to that suppliers.
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  So when you start realizing that that's how Pinterest works, it makes sense
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  how you can use it as a business.
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  It's just like being found on Google.
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  It all runs on keywords.
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  Keywords are the core of what Pinterest is all about.
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  There is no point having lots of pretty pictures on your Pinterest account.
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  If you're not using keywords, why?
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  Because without the keywords, no one will.
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  Like I just said, people are going onto the platform and searching.
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  So if you're someone that has a whole stationery suite with a sunflower theme,
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  don't just upload the pictures onto Pinterest and call them stationary,
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  make sure you're using the word sunflower themed or yellow themed,
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  stationery ideas for your wedding.
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  And then people will be able to find.
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  Now, when you think of it like a search engine, it helps you to understand.
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  And the other thing it helps you to understand is that it doesn't matter
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  whether or not you've got any followers on Pinterest, because unlike Facebook
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  and Instagram, where the content is served predominantly to your
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  followers is not the same on Pinterest.
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  Why?
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  Because it's a search engine.
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  So anyone can go and search for something that you have, and you can
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  pop up in the search results and they don't have to be following you as
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  long as you're using those keywords.
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  Keywords are essential across Pinterest and there's loads of places where they
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  matter keywords matter in the name of your profile in the bio, on your profile, in
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  the name of your boards, the name of your pins, the descriptions you give the pins,
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  the descriptions you give the boards, the way that you link to your website
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  and the words on your website as well.
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  Key words.
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  Everywhere.
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  So if you want to be good at Pinterest, you need to be good at keywords keywords.
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  Don't need to be complicated.
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  Think like your customer, what would your customer be searching
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  for to find what you offer?
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  They're not going to be searching the jargon words.
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  They're going to be searching.
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  General woods.
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  So for example, if they're looking for a wedding dress for their
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  wedding, they're probably not going to be searching the name of the
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  designer or the style of the dress.
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  They're going to be searching something like a sweetheart,
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  neckline, ivory, short gown, like.
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  You see what I mean?
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  They're not the expert, they're the person looking for the ideas.
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  They've got ideas in their head and they want to find them on Pinterest
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  and find where they can buy them.
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  From.
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  In fact, my sister, when she planned her wedding, found her wedding dress
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  via Pinterest because all of the gowns and the dresses she was searching
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  for kept coming up and linking back to one dress shop in London.
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  So that's where she went.
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  And that's where she got her dress from.
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  It works, but you have to be using those keywords so that your ideal
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  customers find you for those.
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  The second really important thing that you need to know about how to use Pinterest.
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  Well is all about links now, earlier on, I spoke about how
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  important links are on Pinterest.
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  Why?
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  Because Pinterest actively encourages people to leave the Pinterest platform
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  and come over to your website.
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  Now, when you add pictures with their descriptions as a pin onto
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  Pinterest, it is vitally important that you always always have a
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  website link attached to that image.
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  Never just upload all the pictures of your work from your computer and add them to
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  your Pinterest profile without a link.
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  And here's why.
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  If today I go ahead and add a picture that I've made of a bouquet
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  of flowers to my Pinterest account.
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  If I just add that picture to my profile as a picture, give it a great title, but
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  don't put a link as soon as someone else finds it, reshares it, or repins it.
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  All of a sudden that picture has lost its attribution.
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  Back to me, it's now just a picture of a beautiful bouquet of flowers,
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  and nobody knows where it's from.
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  Now.
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  My picture could then be circulated across Pinterest,
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  thousands and thousands of times.
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  And when people click on it, all it does is make the picture, get bigger.
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  Now as a customer, this is incredibly frustrating because if that customer
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  has found the perfect bouquet of flowers and they want to find out
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  who made it so that they can go ahead and book them for their wedding day.
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  Well guess what?
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  Without that link, they can't is just a picture.
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  As soon as it's left your profile, as soon as someone else shares it
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  to their profile or shares it as a favorite to their board, then it's
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  lost it's attribution back to you.
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  However, if you make sure when you upload that picture, you add a link to your
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  website, ideally your website, or if you don't have a website, your Instagram
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  page, then every time that picture gets reshared and reshared thousands of times
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  across Pinterest, your link stays with it.
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  So it doesn't matter if it's shared 50,000 times each time it's shared,
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  when someone clicks on that picture, it still comes back to you and your website
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  because you're the original poster.
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  So it's absolutely essential.
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  You always, always, always have a link on every single post that you pin onto.
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  Pinterest.
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  Please don't make the mistake of not having a link and just adding.
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  Now not only should you have a link on every single picture on Pinterest,
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  that link should be relevant.
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  Now the temptation is to just send everyone to our home page all the time
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  to add our homepage link to every single picture that we put up onto Pinterest.
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  But actually, again, that's not the best way to generate sales and that's not the
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  best way to please your customers instead of just sending everyone to your homepage.
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  It's really important.
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  You send them to a relevant place on your website.
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  Remember most of the time, they're not finding you via your profile.
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  They know nothing about you.
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  They've just come across one image of a product or service that you offer
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  that they want to know more about.
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  So they want to be able to click on that picture and find out more
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  about exactly what you can offer them and how they can buy it.
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  Just for a moment.
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  Imagine you're looking for a pair of bridal shoes.
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  You find the perfect pair of bridal shoes on Pinterest.
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  You want to go ahead and buy them?
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  So you click on the picture of the bridal shoes and it takes you to
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  a shoe website with 5,000 listings and it just takes you to their home.
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  Have you now got the time to go through all those listings to try and track
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  down those same shoes you just saw a picture of, or do you give up and go
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  and find a different pair of shoes?
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  Well, for most of us, we just can't be bothered.
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  We don't have the time to do that.
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  We'll just go and find them somewhere else.
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  However, now go back to the same scenario.
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  Imagine you found that perfect pair of bridal shoes.
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  You click on the bridal shoes and it takes you to a website page
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  where you can see the same shoes, the price, the sizing, and you can.
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  buy now.
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  You're much more likely now to make a purchase.
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  And it's the same with you and whatever it is that you're selling, if you send
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  people to somewhere irrelevant or just your homepage, they don't have the time
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  to look for the information they need.
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  You need to send them to somewhere very, very relevant on your
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  website with information about what steps they need to take.
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  Next.
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  There needs to be some kind of call to action on that page to book a
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  call or send an inquiry form or whatever your sales journey is.
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  So.
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  To conclude, make sure on that, that you have a link on every single picture that
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  you upload to your Pinterest account.
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  And not only do you have a link, but you also have a relevant link.
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  The third thing I want to share with you about Pinterest
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  is the important of niching.
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  We've already talked about how important keywords are
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  when it comes to the platform.
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  And I see the following two mistakes all the time.
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  When I look at wedding suppliers and wedding venues, Pinterest accounts.
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  So I'm going to share them with you so that you don't make the same mistake.
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  The first mistake comes when you come to naming your boards.
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  So I see loads of wedding suppliers and loads of venues with amazing photography,
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  all with links back to their website.
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  But when it comes to naming their boards, they've made a mistake.
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  They call them something like our weddings, our portfolio,
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  our best work, our work.
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  Now the problem with this is there's no niche and there's no keywords.
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  If I'm looking for something, there is no way.
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  If I'm planning my wedding, I'm searching for the words, my portfolio, therefore,
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  this is a complete waste of your time.
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  You have to remember that most people are never coming to your profile on Pinterest.
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  So although having the words, my portfolio makes sense.
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  If someone does land on your profile, you're damaging your chances
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  of being found by more people.
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  Instead of calling your boards of my portfolio, call them something with
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  lots of niche keywords in the title, because people are searching niche people
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  aren't just searching for wedding ideas.
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  They're searching for very specific wedding ideas, niches that do well
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  when it comes to Pinterest, are things around seasons of weddings,
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  color themes of weddings, different style themes of weddings, things like
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  boho or rustic or vintage or luxe.
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  The more specific you can get the better, because that is going to get you found.
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  It doesn't matter if you have loads and loads of different boards, all with really
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  specific keywords and keyword names.
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  And a lot of the boards have similar images on them.
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  That's okay.
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  It just means you're much more likely to be found again, think like a customer.
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  If you're planning a wedding, you're not just searching for wedding ideas, you're
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  going to be searching for something really specific wedding venues in Bedfordshire.
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  Wedding flowers in Scotland.
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  So if you want to be found for those terms, guess what?
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  You need to have boards with those names in the title and pins with
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  those descriptions in them as well.
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  You cannot be too niche on Pinterest.
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  So start thinking like a customer and don't waste your time by
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  having boards, which are called things like my portfolio and.
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  If you do already have a Pinterest account and you've already
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  made this mistake, don't panic.
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  You can go into your account and edit the name of your boards and
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  make them more keyword niche.
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  The other mistake I see in the wedding industry all the time is promoting
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  other people's work too much.
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  What do I mean by this?
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  Well, the first thing to note is that Pinterest does like it.
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  When you share other people's work on your Pinterest boards.
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  It thinks you're a better member of the Pinterest community if you do this.
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  So instead of only ever sharing about your work and talking about
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  your work, occasionally you need to share other people's pins to your.
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  Now, I'm not suggesting that you share your competitors pins.
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  So if you're a wedding florist, don't share other wedding florists work,
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  but if you're a wedding florist, then why not share some wedding
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  cars or some wedding venues or some wedding photographers work that way.
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  You're being a good member of the Pinterest community, but you're
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  not shooting yourself in the foot.
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  Now I understand that most people grasp the idea of this, but this
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  is when they make the mistake.
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  When it comes to their boards on Pinterest, they think, right.
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  Becca said to me, I need to make sure I occasionally share other people's work.
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  So what I'm going to do is I'm a wedding stationer.
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  So I'm going to create some boards, all about wedding stationery, and then.
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  I know what else my client likes.
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  They want to know about venues and hair.
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  So I'm going to set up some other boards.
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  I'm going to set up a board called wedding hairstyle, ideas, or wedding, car
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  ideas, nighttime, wedding, entertainment, ideas, all those different things.
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  Then they go ahead and pin those other people's pins to those relevant boards.
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  And they think they've done a great job because they know their customers
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  interested in that they're being a good member of the community and all
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  is well, except unfortunately it's not.
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  Why?
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  Because like I've said all the way through this episode, most people
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  will never come to your Pinterest.
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  So if you're a wedding stationer and you have a board all about wedding hair,
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  then your board about wedding hair may be being found over and over and over again.
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  But all you're doing is promoting other people.
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  There's no way for them to know anything about you and your stationery, because
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  how can you add pictures of your wedding?
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  Stationery it's will board when it's called wedding hair, it makes no sense.
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  So let's abandon that strategy and think a little bit.
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  Think back to what I said works on Pinterest, those color themes or
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  seasonal ideas or venue and location ideas instead of creating specific
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  boards for different parts of the wedding start creating themed boards.
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  So for example, you could have a board which is all about eucalyptus
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  themed, wedding inspiration.
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  That's something that's been on trend for the last couple of.
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  On that board, you can share your stationary collection,
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  which fits into that.
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  Perhaps you've got things that you're green, perhaps you've got things with
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  the eucalyptus theme on it, and you can share your stationery to that
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  board with links to your website, where people can go ahead and buy.
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  However, also on that board, you can then share hair, inspiration,
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  entertainment, inspiration, deck, or ideas, or anything else you want to,
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  which fits into the eucalyptus theme.
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  You can find them very easy, by just searching, Pinterest yourself, and then
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  adding some of those ideas to your.
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  Not only does that mean if someone is planning a eucalyptus themed
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  wedding, they're going to come across your board and they're going to see
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  loads and loads of great information.
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  It also means they're going to find you and your products.
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  You want to make sure your products are quite dominant on that board.
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  So have lots of your products and just a few inspiration ideas from other people,
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  but this is a much better strategy rather than putting all the other
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  pieces of the wedding on other boards and everything that you own on one.
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  You shouldn't create a board on Pinterest that doesn't have your work on it.
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  Otherwise it's a waste of a board.
• 20:35
  Every single board you create should always have some of your work on it.
• 20:39
  All of it with great keywords and all of it.
• 20:41
  With links back to your website.
• 20:45
  Hopefully, you've enjoyed this little overview of Pinterest that
• 20:48
  I've given you in today's episode, I've explained why you should do it.
• 20:52
  And I've given you three huge ways to help you understand the platform better.
• 20:57
  There's loads, more things that we could be talking about when it
• 21:00
  comes to Pinterest from making sure you have a business profile to what
• 21:03
  kind of pins do best on Pinterest and how to make more people click
• 21:07
  on your products and services, or come over and read your blogs.
• 21:11
  But we don't have time for that.
• 21:13
  The good news is if you're listening to this in real time, then I have a Pinterest
• 21:17
  challenge coming up very soon in June.
• 21:19
  And you can find out more about that in the show notes.
• 21:22
  If you're listening to this in the future then do go ahead and check out that link
• 21:25
  in the show notes still, because it may be that I've got another challenge coming
• 21:29
  up very soon that you can take part in.
• 21:31
  If you want to get going on the Pinterest platform or just want to
• 21:34
  reinvigorate yourself, cause you kind of neglected your account for a while.
• 21:37
  Then the challenge is the best way to do that.
• 21:40
  You can find out more from me and you can ask me your questions live too.
• 21:43
  So get involved.
• 21:45
  I'll see you next time.
• 21:50
  One thing I love about the wedding industry is the other amazing
• 21:53
  people you get to work with.
• 21:54
  If you want to meet like-minded wedding pros, just like you, then
• 21:58
  why not join my free Facebook community wedding pros, who are ready
• 22:01
  to come meet some new connections.
• 22:04
  Hang out with me and hopefully learn some things too, just search for some Facebook.