Confession time.
Until recently, I used to think of Pinterest as just another social media platform where visitors post pins of their recipes and favourite fashion or garden design tips.
Occasionally I might notice that an author pal had posted a link to a mood board for their latest romance project with photos of inspirational hero and heroines, locations and settings, or perhaps a collage of their latest book covers. But that was it!
After all, we already have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Why take the time to learn how to use another platform?
Well. Hands up.
I was totally and completely wrong.
Why Pinterest?
Pinterest has 250 million monthly users and 2 billion searches a month- worldwide and is growing fast.
Pinterest has an engaged active audience
Pinterest is not a social media channel. It’s a search engine in the same way as Amazon and Google as search engines – only Pinterest is visual. Your readers go to Pinterest with the specific intention of finding information or buying something to help them with a problem they are having or to improve their lives. Over 70% of the Pinterest audience are actively saving or clicking on pins they find rather than just browsing.
Pins on Pinterest get seen!
The half-life of a tweet on Twitter is about 24 minutes, a Facebook post maybe 90 minutes. A pin on Pinterest has an average half-life of about 12 weeks! A pin could be driving traffic back to your blog post or your Amazon book page for months. Forget the nonsense on Facebook where you have to pay for your posts to reach all of your followers. This is super valuable when it comes to building long-term traffic.
If you were looking for some way to promote your work and expand your reach – here it is!
The more I am finding out about it, the more I have come to realise just how powerful Pinterest can be – especially for authors who are actively looking to build their email list.
Where to begin
Consider how you build a list of engaged subscribers who are interested in your work.
For most authors, email list building is a 4-step process which goes like this:
#Step One. You create an irresistible “lead magnet” where you offer your audience something for free which relates to your books. These are also known as “reader magnets” or opt-in freebies which are perfect for that niche audience.
If you are a fiction author, for example, you could have a novella or short story that you can offer to your ideal reader. If you have created a series of linked novels, could you offer a free download of the first book in that series to a new subscriber?
As a non-fiction author, you know your topic in-depth and have a clear understanding of the kind of free offer your ideal reader would love to receive from you.
# Step Two. Once you are clear what you are offering, you send the reader to an opt-in form or landing page where they can subscribe to your list. You can create these very quickly within email service providers such as MailChimp and Mailerlite which have a free starter option. All you have to do is create the landing page within the email service, copy the URL and then link to that page.
# Step Three. The email service provider delivers your free lead magnet and sends a pre-written welcome email to your new subscriber.
# Step Four. You engage with your subscribers and create a win/win relationship for both sides.
There is no doubt that having an engaged email list of reader subscribers is essential, especially when you want them to support a new book launch.
The challenge is Step One – helping your ideal audience to find out about your offer.
In most cases, this will mean driving traffic to your website, a dedicated landing page or other site where you can invite them to subscribe to your email list.
This is where you can leverage the power of Pinterest to drive an audience to your offer.
Five ways any author can use Pinterest to build an email list:
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Pinterest makes it easy for you to build your author brand and link your profile back to your website.
You can create your own author business profile, Pinterest boards and pins and customise the styling and content any way you want.
Every pin and board has a link back to your website/blog where you can convert that traffic into email list subscribers.
Your author profile is the first thing a Pinterest user will see – so it pays to make it clear who you are and what you write about.
Be bold and clear when you describe your work and what you can offer. After all – you are offering something free which you know your ideal target audience is going to love.
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Create a Pinterest board with all your book covers.
Each book cover should be a separate pin with a link that takes them straight to your book page on Amazon or other online retailer. But in the description of that pin, offer your reader your lead magnet, which will take them back to your landing page.
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Pin your most popular blog posts to Pinterest and link back to your site.
Use your website stats to find out which of your blog posts are the most popular with readers and create a pin with the title of that post, linking it back to the blog post. This builds engagement and awareness of your work. Most readers will look around your website at the same time and spot your brilliant offer. You can also add a link to your opt-in page in the pin description if it is a good fit to the blog post content.
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Create a Special Pin just for this Free offer.
Post a pin linking back to your specific opt-in form on every board that you create. In order to treat Pinterest like a search engine, it’s essential to put keywords and keywords phrases in the pin description. The Pinterest algorithm will then share your offer with your ideal target audience who is searching for those keywords.
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Add a Pinterest Social Share option to your website and use Pinners to increase your reach.
Pinterest makes it easy for you to add a Pin to Pinterest button on your website/blog so that visitors to your site can pin your content to their boards on Pinterest for their audience to see. Alternatively add Pinterest as an option to the social share plug-in on your site.
Result? Free organic traffic back to your opt-in form.
Over the next few months I certainly plan to use Pinterest to build my email list – and ultimately sell more books. How about you?
Build your Author Platform, Email List and Sell more books with Pinterest Marketing.
Book Marketing today is more challenging than ever before.
Every author struggles with Discoverability – no matter how they are published.
That’s why I am excited to share with you the impact that the PINTEREST platform can have on your author business.
Don’t miss my Free Pinterest Platform Guide for Authors.
Once your Pinterest Author Platform is in place, you can focus on converting blog traffic into Email List Subscribers and sell more books!
