What not to do when pinning on Pinterest: The 13 biggest mistakes wedding pros make

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I am creating this blog because Pinterest doesn’t always get its due credit due to the immense information out there regarding social media platforms.

Although it may not have the excitement of TikTok or the massive user base of Instagram, Pinterest remains a crazy good lead-producing FREE platform that’s super effective for wedding pros and other service-based businesses.

Move Pinterest to the top of your marketing list to grow your wedding business

First, why listen to me?

It’s a good question.  We don’t have a ton of time running a wedding business and I know because I’ve been running a successful 6 figure wedding photography business since 2009.

I have grown and changed as Pinterest has and it STILL consistently produces the top traffic of all social media to my website (and I’m on Instagram the most).

So why am I harping on using Pinterest?

I know you’re thinking, “I’m using Pinterest” and I’m sure you are pinning your work and inspiration. You are also probably saving all the things for every project, personal and professional. 

But you may not be using Pinterest to its full potential! And before you think it, I know you don’t have time. I get it as I am a wedding pro.  So let’s jump in! 

Read below for the 10 things you should stop doing, to make Pinterest work better for marketing your wedding business:

1| Not Making Sure You Have a Business Account

It’s easy and free to set your Pinterest account up for business. And technically, a must, according to their terms of service.

This ensures you have access to analytics and analytics are the superpower to tell you to want people are searching for and help you with your wedding content.

Pro Tip:  You can save time and have me do all the work and show you how it’s done with my VIP Day!

2 | Not Claiming Your Website on Pinterest

Just creating a business account is not enough to help you market your business on Pinterest.  

Claiming your website gives wedding clients the chance to easily go straight to your website from your Pinterest Account.

It is also necessary to be able to have access to analytics (which I explained above is important.

3 | Link Your Pinterest On Your Website

As any savvy business owner knows, social media is key to engaging potential customers and building brand recognition. And those cute social icons in your website header or footer are a vital part of that strategy.

By linking to your Pinterest and Instagram accounts, you’re inviting brides to explore your content and get to know your style. Plus, it’s a great way to keep your work top of mind as they plan their big day. So go ahead and give those social icons a little love – they’re working hard to bring you new business!

This can be accomplished with a plugin for WordPress (or the like from other blogging platforms). 

4 | Save Button On Your Website

This is something that wedding pros miss a lot!  Ensure that you have pinned it or now called the save button to your website images. 

This encourages people that visit your website to save an image to their Pinterest board to remind them to do something or to use it for inspiration. 

This way, other people are adding your stuff to Pinterest which also spreads your information out further leading to typically increased traffic to your website. 

There are two ways to add a save button to your website photos. 

1. Use a plug-in. On WP which is my website, I’ve used social warfare, monarch, and easy social shares. You can use whichever you prefer visually. 
2. You can use the Pinterest Save Button. That link will take you to the development page on Pinterest and you’ll insert that code before the closing body tag. 

5 | Pinning All Photos From A Single Blog Post All At Once

As any pinning enthusiast knows, one of the best ways to fill up your Pinterest boards is to pin all the photos from a single blog post. After all, what could be easier than quickly pinning everything that catches your eye? 

Unfortunately, this indiscriminate pinning can often do more harm than good. For one thing, it can overwhelm your followers with too much of the same thing. In addition, it can make your boards look haphazard and unorganized. 

It’s best to pick your favorite 5-8 photos and pin them over time with the Pinterest scheduler or via a third party scheduler like Tailwind.  That leads me to my next mistake.

6 | Sticking To Images Only

It seems so weird to put text on images and not just pinning the beautiful images, however simply posting the image won’t get people to click, and clicking through to our website is the goal when using Pinterest to market your business.

You want to have text-overlay which is using keywords that describe your blog as text on the image.  This will encourage potential clients to click. 

EXPERT TIP:  Use different text-overlay (keywords) for each image you are using.  As an example, if you are posting a wedding at Fortino winery, use multiple keywords for text overlay like Wedding at Fortino Winery, Winter Wedding at Fortino Winery, or Morgan Hill Wedding at Fortino Winery.

7 | Ignoring The Location-Related Keywords

The biggest mistake wedding pros make is to not use location-specific keywords all the time.  Even if you photograph all over the world.  You want to use specific location-based keywords because wedding couples are searching for XYZ in their location.  

That’s just the journey of how a couple getting married searches online while planning their wedding.  Use this to your advantage to have your work not just be inspiration on Pinterest but a way to solve their problem of hiring a wedding vendor.

8 | Naming Everything Using Keywords

Did you know that everything from boards, to pin titles, to descriptions, to your Pinterest name, and even the actual name of the graphic image is searchable? I know crazy right?  So ensure that you use specific keywords for naming all those places.

Use a specific name of your Pinterest account to attract your ideal clients.  Use San Jose Wedding Photographer | Jen or Bay Area Wedding Photographer | Jen as an example.

Name your boards with keywords also!  If you want to have a board that you pin about wedding bouquets, don’t name it Wedding Insp or Flower Power, instead name it Wedding Bouquets.  Get straight to the point.  Or you can name it Wedding Flowers which you can include wedding bouquets, wedding table decor, etc. in the description of the board.

Don’t forget to create a board description.  Pinterest lets you create boards and name them without forcing you to create a board description.  Use the description to share all the things you’ll be pinning to the board.  In a human reading a paragraph way and not just listing keywords, keywords, keywords. 

9 | Not creating blogs consistently (fresh content)

You want to blog consistently (like weekly).  These can be weddings, engagements, or whatever you are doing for your clients.  You should also include education-type content.

Engagement season (which is Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day) is extra amazing for us wedding pros.  This is the time when the majority of couples get engaged.  

Whether you are a wedding photographer, Venue, Makeup Artist, etc., plan on adding educational content like “You’re Engaged, Now What” or “How To Pick a Wedding Date”.  These are a great start at the end of engagement season because people will be searching for that. AND don’t forget location-specific keywords like “How to Pick a Wedding Venue in San Jose”.

You want to pin all of this content in September as it can take two months for your pin to rank and spread in time for anyone searching in November at the beginning of engagement season.

PRO TIP: I know we are super busy during busy-season (when most couples get married and that will change depending upon where you live and the weather), but you should plan on doubling up on blog content during slow-season (typically October – January).  So double your content and drip it out when you are busy so you keep marketing your business even when you’re busy!

10 | Creating Only Static Pins

A lot of wedding pros only focus on static pins (the standard graphic image) on Pinterest.  You want to use all types of pins.  That means creating Idea Pins (formerly Story Pins which are like reels on Instagram).  

Links are rolling out but not everyone has them right now.  But the purpose of idea pins is to drive engagement, saves, likes, and follows.  Also note, Idea Pins are 40% more likely to get seen and video pins are 8% more likely to get seen.  

So, having a strategy for using all pins is super important.

PRO TIP: For each blog create 1 idea pin, create 1 video pin created by saving your idea pin and uploading it as a video pin, and 5 pins.  This will ensure you have 1 pin for each day of the week. 

11 | Not creating pins for popular blogs again and again

Since pins can produce traffic to your website over years (not just hours like on other social media), you want to ensure that you create NEW pins even for older educational types of content.

If you have a lead magnet (a freebie you use to get people on your email), make NEW pins every two or three months.

This ensures you continue to get traffic over years and continue to have pins to add to your Pinterest board.

PRO TIP: Each month when you view google analytics, create new pin graphics for each of the top 5 blog posts.  Google is telling you what is popular right now in your content so make new pins to take advantage of that.

12 | Not Strategizing With Your Boards

My advice to clients and thus to you is to ensure that you make any personal boards secret.  You don’t want Pinterest to take personal boards into consideration when deciding who to send your pins to.

Each month when looking at analytics, ensure that you review boards and make small tweaks with keywords to optimize them.  

There are 3 boards that you should have to start:

• A Board with Your Business Name.  You will be adding all your content to this board.
• A Board Titled FREE Wedding Advice or FREE Wedding Invitation Tips.  I use Free Wedding Planning Advice for my wedding photography business.  Use a name that will get you business.  Also adding your city will be helpful also like FREE Wedding Planning Advice for the Bay Area.  You will be adding all your blog and wedding education blogs to that board.
• You want boards that are around your core content.  If you are a wedding videographer you can have Wedding Videographer Tips and Wedding Cinematographer Advice or go with wedding planning as I do.  You’ll be adding your blogs to this board also.

PRO TIP:  Look up the top wedding pros in your specialty and see what boards they are using to help with inspiration for your boards.

13 | Not Being Consistent

Being Consistent is another mistake that wedding pros make.  We are all busy, but the key to driving the most traffic to your website and booking couples, you need to be consistent.  Whether you pin 1 time a day or 5 times a day, you want to be consistent.

I recommend my clients spend about an hour a week pinning.  Pin using the Pinterest scheduler which is free, but note that you are limited to only 30 pins and only up to two weeks out.

All of my clients use Tailwind so that they can spend an hour a week and bank pins so when busy season comes around, you have pins in the “queue” on tailwind then will send them out for you consistently at the day/time that works best for your account.

Need Help?

If you want help with marketing your wedding-pro business with Pinterest from a wedding pro who had used Pinterest since 2010, let’s chat!  

There are free resources and paid services and templates below. If you are unsure of which services would be best for you, you can schedule a free consultation here.

Free:

• My Youtube Channel
• Marketing Strategy Academy Podcast
• Instagram @jenvazquezmedia
• Wedding Pros Club on Clubhouse – I’m one of two admins for this 16.7K group
• Free Pinterest Resources (10 tools + other freebies)

Services:

• Done-For-You Pinterest Management
• Done-With-You VIP Day
• DIY Pinterest Strategy Academy
• 78 Pinterest Pin Templates
• Pinterest Audit + Strategy Call (including 1 week of Voxer Support)