Tip 6 – Create 3 to 5 pin templates that you can re-use for each handmade product

Tip number six is all about how to actually create pins quickly and efficiently. To do that, create 3 – 5 templates you can re-use for each handmade product. This will give you a good amount of pins for your business to play with, and because Pinterest isn’t a social media platform and isn’t chronological, those pins are going to stay on Pinterest for months and years to come. I still have pins that I created three years ago or more that are still driving hundreds and thousands of people to my website every month.

Don’t get overwhelmed though, if you’re just thinking about starting to use Pinterest and you have 200 handmade products in your shop and you’re like, “I am not going to design five pins for each of my products!” just focus on your best sellers. Don’t worry about the rest and moving forward when you do release a new product on Pinterest, start using those templates again. Let me show you an example of a craft business that I think is doing this really well: it’s an account for an Etsy shop called Tilly and Puffin run by a Tizzit HQ member, Sylvia, who makes embroidered felt ornaments. As soon as you look at this business on Pinterest, you can see that this account is cohesive in terms of the colors and pictures that are being used. But what is really interesting is how this small business is using different templates to show the handmade products and create tons of pins easily.

Instead of being overwhelmed each time your business has new items to promote, if you can create three to five templates that you can reuse and reuse and reuse each time you use Pinterest, you’re going to save yourself a lot of time and your sanity as well. You can use anything you’re comfortable with of course, but the best free and easy to use software has to be Canva. Canva has a lot of great free Pinterest templates, but you can also start a design from scratch. You can also purchase good looking templates from Creative Market.

Tip 7 – Join and use group boards to grow your business on Pinterest

UPDATE [current for 2024] Group boards don’t always perform as well as they used to when this article was written. Although some group boards are fantastic, other are just too broad and active to really serve your strategy, send the right SEO signals to Pinterest and make your pins be seen by more users. You should still consider joining group boards but treat them like your own: is it niche enough (avoid any “Etsy sellers of Pinterest” or “handmade sellers and lovers” type of group boards, these are WAY too broad to get you results)? are the pins I add to these board getting some love? If it works then keep using it, if not – it’s ok to not use group boards and you can be successful without them. 

The next tip is to join and use group Pinterest boards. Group boards are just like regular public boards, but instead of having only one person pinning to it, there are many contributors. Anyone can create a group board by inviting other people to join in and pin to the board, making it a collaborative/group board. What this means for you as a pinner is that you usually get more reach and visibility for your pins because those boards have more followers, which means that you get more repins, more clicks, more saves, more love and more traffic to your handmade business / Etsy shop. Pins on group Pinterest boards – if it’s a good group board – tend to perform better. That’s really something that you want to tap into, but remember to only join group boards that are relevant to your handmade products, craft business, or Etsy shop and to your customers.

Tip 8 – Use Pinterest consistently

Tip number eight is to use Pinterest consistently.. You can’t just go on doing Pinterest business for a couple of hours, start pinning like crazy, and then forget to log in for a few weeks… and then do that again. That’s just not going to work . Pinterest likes to see that you are using the platform regularly and that you’re adding and participating with new pins and by repinning other people’s pins consistently on the platform – which leads me to tip number nine.

Tip 9 – Use Tailwind (when you’re ready)

UPDATE [current for 2024] Since Pinterest has introduced its own pin scheduler, Tailwind is no longer as needed to save you time and energy. You can use the native Pinterest scheduler instead to plan your pins for a few weeks ahead.

Tip number nine is to, when you’re ready, use Tailwind to supercharge your Pinterest strategy. Just so we’re clear, Tailwind isn’t going to create miracles for your handmade business if you don’t have your Pinterest account sorted out before you start using it. You want to start with those eight first tips and make sure that you follow this advice and that you have a clear Pinterest  strategy in place before jumping into Tailwind.

Once you have that, Tailwind is going to help you in staying consistent and active on Pinterest without the need to log in to pin every day. It’s really a great tool that’s going to allow you to automate the process and to schedule in advance so that you’re much more hands off and you can reap the benefit of the platform (more traffic to your handmade shop) without the need to be so invested and committed to it. Tailwind is great! If you’d like to learn more about either how to set up your handmade business on Pinterest or, if you’re a bit more advanced, how to supercharge it with a Tailwind strategy I do have two full, in-depth courses with different modules and workbooks and checklists to help you with that. Click here to learn more.

That’s it! I hope it was helpful. I’d love to know: which tip was your favourite? Let me know in the comment below!