A social network to find ideas and inspiration, Pinterest is also a great medium to drive traffic and boost sales. And the same stands true even for your wedding photography business. Pinterest for wedding photographers has the potential to draw the attention of ideal clients and bring them one step closer to conversion. How? Just what we are here to explore in this Pinterest guide for wedding photographers. From the origins of the platform to developing a marketing strategy suited for Pinterest, in this article, we take a closer look at why and how this platform can be of use to your business. Let’s dive in to learn more about this dynamic platform.
Why Pinterest?
Launched in 2010 as an image search engine and photo-sharing application, Pinterest has come a long way to emerge as a means to look for content that inspires (whatever be the topic). Some people scroll through it on a daily basis to discover new ideas in their areas of interest. Therefore, making it a potent tool or medium for wedding photographers to put their work out there and reach potential clients, i.e., couples.
But that’s not all. It isn’t just how this platform works that makes it all the more intriguing to explore for wedding photographers, but also what these statistics indicate. Listed below are some Pinterest statistics that state just how influential this platform can be.
- Women aged 25-34 represent 29.1% of Pinterest’s ad audience.
- 76.9% of Pinterest’s global users are female.
- Advertisers can reach more than 200 million people on Pinterest.
- As of April 2022, Pinterest had a total of 433 million monthly active users around the globe.
- 89% of users are on Pinterest for purchase inspiration.
- 46% of weekly Pinners have discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest.
- 64% of Pinterest users described the platform as a place to find ideas, products, or services they can trust.
- 85% of all Pinterest traffic comes from the mobile app.
Note: Statistics are courtesy of Hootsuite, DataReportal, Pinterest For Business, and Omnicore.
3 Benefits Of Using Pinterest For Wedding Photographers
Most photographers have a highly optimized Facebook and Instagram presence (with hashtag strategies, boosting plans, etc.), but we can’t say the same for Pinterest with the same assurance. But we would argue that Pinterest for wedding photographers holds equal or even more potential to impact businesses. The reasons are as follows:
-
It’s a planning tool: It is the one channel that most brides utilize for the purpose of wedding planning. They create their own boards and search for inspiration from past weddings on the platform. That is often their goal while browsing Pinterest, whereas their goals in using Instagram and Facebook are more likely to connect socially with others they know.
-
It’s photo-centric: Pinterest is made for sharing inspiration in photo form. It is ideal for content creators and, as photographers, you are constantly creating beautiful and inspirational content. And what’s even better is that your photos are representative of the service you are selling. It is like Pinterest is made to sell what you have to offer.
- It’s made for exponential growth: Pinterest, unlike Instagram and Facebook, allows your photos that are saved even once to the platform to proliferate exponentially across that platform for years to come through endless sharing. Pins are often repinned hundreds and thousands of times endlessly across a wide network of people, most of whom do not even follow your profiles. In contrast, photos shared on Instagram and Facebook are primarily initially seen by your followers and then get buried in your feeds. By repurposing existing blogs, optimizing your Pinterest marketing strategy is a fairly low-maintenance endeavor compared with other social media channels.
Pinterest Marketing Strategy For Wedding Photographers
1. Create A Pinterest Business Account
Whether you are new to Pinterest or have been an existing user, it is important to have a Pinterest business account. For those who were existing users, you can simply switch it to a business account. To do so, simply visit the Pinterest For Business section, and click on the switch button to turn it into a business account.
However, if you are a new user, use your business email address, preferably with your own name to sign up. Then, click on Create Account, build your profile, add information to describe your business, and viola - your new business Pinterest account is set up.
Having a business account also unlocks the ability to run campaign ads. Moreover, it also provides access to additional features such as Pinterest Business Hub and Pinterest Analytics that help you track the performance of your pins.
2. Claim Your Website On Pinterest
As soon as you are done creating your business account on Pinterest, the next step is to claim your website to increase authority. Having a claimed account allows the scope of increased engagements. This also allows you access to Pinterest analytics that helps you learn more about how to improve your marketing efforts. All the more, it allows you to add a “Pin it” button to your images on the website so that readers can pin your images directly. To learn how to claim your website on Pinterest, give this article by Sandra S. Media a read.
3. Fresh Pins
There are a variety of Pinterest wedding photo ideas that could be used to create fresh pins. But are you utilizing them to your maximum advantage? Like any other social media platform, the Pinterest algorithm too favors fresher and newer relevant content. How can you add a creative angle to your previous pins? Or how can you introduce something new to what you often share? A refreshing take on your content creation strategy based on the latest trends or popular keywords can work a great deal in increasing the credibility of your account.
4. Create Video & Story Pins
Pinterest for wedding photographers isn’t just about promoting static content. It also allows you to tell inspiring stories in the form of short vertical videos. And vertical video format is not only trending but is here to stay for a long time. It allows the audience a snippet of the entire topic you are talking about or the story you are sharing, giving them a glimpse but leaving them intrigued enough to click on the website. This could help you in building more brand exposure as well as getting more views and saves.
Pro Tip: Repurpose your vertical video content for other social media platforms such as IG Stories, IG Reels, and TikTok to share on your Pinterest business page as video and story pins.
5. Include Text (Strategically)
Another crucial aspect of your Pinterest marketing strategy is to include text in an appropriate manner for your static as well as video content. We know that Pinterest is a highly visual-centric platform and therefore adding images for inspiration can be helpful. However, what can be more helpful is to learn when to include text to derive more traffic.
To give an example, think about conducting a Pinterest search for “backyard weddings” and scrolling through the search result. You might come across many images featuring different backyard wedding photographs. Among such results, you come across a post featuring a relevant image along with a short text stating - “backyard wedding inspo” or “backyard wedding inspo for spring”. This piece of content is more likely to draw your attention and stand out from the crowd. Since the text placement makes you aware of the content you might view provided you click on it, there is a high chance of you viewing it. Thus, having a better chance of improving your click-through rate.
6. Use A Social Media Management Tool
A social media management tool helps you optimize your social media marketing efforts by streamlining and automating the process, monitoring responses, and deriving the best solutions. Pinterest in itself is a vast platform, and for each of the metrics to make sense, it is crucial to closely monitor them. In addition to Pinterest Analytics, there are many other tools that can help you look beyond the data and actually understand it. Some of them include Tailwind, Buffer, Viraltag, ViralWoot, etc.
7. Focus On Consistency
Pinterest for wedding photographers can work well as long as they put consistent efforts. This stands true for any social media platform, but all the more for Pinterest. An important part of your Pinterest marketing strategy is to create that momentum of consistent content. If you are struggling with inspiration to create more, just search the platform for the respective topic. That’s where this platform thrives.
Suggested Read: ShootDotEdit Inspirational Pinterest Mood Board
Pinterest SEO Hacks To Keep In Mind
1. Optimize Your About Section
An about section of any Pinterest user can allow users to learn more about the account and its purpose. To increase your chances of getting discovered by a relevant audience, it is integral that you optimize your About section. This part of your profile should shed light on these 5 important things - who you are (as a business or business owner), what your business is about, how it helps clients, where you are located (operational region), and what clients can expect from your business. To further optimize for relevance, try including a relevant keyword in your bio.
2. Add Pinterest Save Buttons To Your Website
Adding “Pin it” or “Pinterest save buttons” to your blogs or website’s images allows users to easily pin the visual content that they would want to save on their saved pins section. Thus, increasing your website’s visibility to new users. This also provides an increase in the direct click-through rate for your website.
3. Give Your Board Keywords-Centric Titles
When people wish to search for a specific topic, for example, wedding photography, they type in the keywords (knowingly or unknowingly) for it. So if you photographed a wedding recently and want people to be able to discover it, name the board keeping in mind the relevant keyword. This will increase your chances of being discovered more by potential clients. On the other hand, if you simply name the board as per the session, for instance, Ron and Hermione’s wedding, you might miss out on utilizing its full potential of reaching your target audience.
4. Add Keywords In Your Pin Description
Keywords play an integral role in making your content reach the right audience. And so far, we have learned to add keywords in the “About” section and the board names. However, there is one more area where you can benefit from adding keywords - pin description. Pin description often provides an insight into the topic of interest. Therefore, making it a suitable place to include relevant searchable keywords.
5. Include Location-Related Keywords
Now a lot of people can scroll through searchers catering “wedding photography” or “wedding photographers”. How to make sure your content reaches the right audience? And more importantly, how to narrow down your content reach to people with a higher chance of conversion? The solution is to incorporate location-based keywords. This will filter your content’s reach to the most relevant audience.
6. Enable Rich Pins
Rich Pins are the additional information found above or below the image when clicked on a Pin. This additional information is automatically synced from your website. Therefore, the content in the rich pins gets automatically updated as per the website. Best of all, Rich Pins are free to enable and can be used by anyone. Product, Article, and Recipe are the three types of Rich Pins that you can put to use. Give this article a read to learn about how to enable Rich Pins for your content.
7. Be A Part Of Group Boards
Group boards are collaborative spaces where people pin related content to the same board. Think of them as Facebook groups. The agenda is the same - to bring a community with similar interests closer to finding each other and their work. Pining your content to group boards provides a better chance of making your posts easily discoverable.
Suggested Read: Does SEO Even Matter For Your Social Media Reach?
Photography Pinners To Follow For Inspiration
Wedding photographers everywhere are using Pinterest to both showcase their work and to find other creative ideas to incorporate into their images. We made a list of 10 Pinterest users to follow who can help you find inspiration for your professional wedding photography business.
1. WEDDINGS
A. STYLE ME PRETTY
The popular wedding blog, Style Me Pretty has a Pinterest page that is a treasure trove of current trends in the wedding industry. With almost 100 boards broken down into every aspect of a wedding you can think of - from hairstyles to cupcakes - it is a great wedding resource to follow. And since Style Me Pretty has over 6 million followers, chances are your brides are following them too.
B. WEDDING CHICKS
With over 4 million followers, Wedding Chicks’ Pinterest page covers more of the DIY wedding route. With projects and inspiration for wedding trends, it is a good page to keep on your Pinterest feed.
C. THE PERFECT PALETTE
Touted as “The Ultimate Wedding Color Blog,” Perfect Palette’s Pinterest page focuses on wedding inspiration driven by color. With boards titled “Yellow Weddings” or “Pink and Navy Wedding,” you are sure to find inspiration in any color palette.
2. PHOTOGRAPHY INSPIRATION
A. JEREMY COWART
Jeremy Cowart calls himself a “Photographer. Artist. Humanitarian. App Creator. Teacher.” Jeremy is active on all kinds of social media, and his Pinterest page is full of his own inspiration sources. It is a great look inside what he uses to create his own work.
B. MAIA MCDONALD – DESIGN CONUNDRUM
Maia McDonald is the Art Director at Rue Magazine and a freelance graphic designer. She runs the blog Design Conundrum, where she shares her picks of things she finds “beautiful or intriguing in life, mostly in design, fashion, food, photography, and illustration.” Her Pinterest page is followed by over 2 million users and is known as a resource for inspiration outside of photography for photographers and other creative professionals.
C. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
The official Pinterest page of the National Geographic Society offers a different way to view the incredible photographs National Geographic is known for. Updated often and with boards such as “Nature in Black and White,” it can be a welcome addition to your Pinterest feed.
D. LIFE MAGAZINE
Along the same lines as the National Geographic page, the Life Magazine Pinterest page is a valuable resource for photography references. Although it is not updated nearly as often as other pages, the images shared from the Life archives can be inspirational, especially for wedding and portrait photographers.
3. PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER TIPS AND TRICKS
A. PHOTOGRAPHER CAFE
Pinterest is not all about photographers, and The Photographer Cafe’s Pinterest page focuses more on the business of photography. With boards titled “beautiful presentation” and “the creative office”, this is a great page for going beyond inspiration in photographs (although it has that too).
B. PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER MAGAZINE
If you enjoy the Professional Photographer Magazine from PPA, their Pinterest page is a must-follow. It includes images from the print magazine but also showcases products and vendors.
C. ADORAMA
Adorama, a camera superstore located in New York City, may seem like a strange entity to follow on Pinterest. But they have created a page that encompasses everything from gear to education. You can find pins of the newest Nikon or Canon camera, followed by recommendations for Lightroom presets. Just like the store, the Pinterest page strives to be a source for all of your photography needs.
Further Read: Social Media Marketing For Wedding Photographers: An Overview
Social media is such an important part of your marketing strategy, especially when it places your images directly in front of ideal clients. So, what do you think - are you properly utilizing Pinterest for your wedding photography business? What is one thing you can do today to maximize Pinterest to help you attract and book ideal clients? After you look into your current Pinterest strategy, what other steps can you take to expand your reach on various social platforms? We hope this article helped you find the answers to some of those questions. And if you’re looking for some wedding photography business tips or inspiring photo ideas, don’t forget to check out our Pinterest!
Here at ShootDotEdit, we look forward to helping you expand your wedding photography business by keeping you up to date on the marketing and business tips as well as taking care of your photo editing. To learn more about how we can help, check our pricing plans.
Leave a comment