This is a guest post by Sonja Jobson, founder of Success Lab.
Fans and flowers on social media networks are a beautiful thing. Platforms like Pinterest allow us to reach brand new people that we might otherwise never have been able to reach. You get to share great stuff, interact with a MASSIVE audience, and grow your brand credibility all at once.
Pretty sweet, right?
But if you stop there – if you never try to take your social media connections to the next level (we’ll talk about what the ‘next level’ is in just a minute) than you’re missing out big time.
Pinterest doesn’t allow you to communicate with your audience in the most effective way (same goes for all the other social networks you use). In fact, when you pin something to one of your Pinterest boards, only a small fraction of your followers will actually see it.
Which is exactly why you need to be working hard to transfer your network on Pinterest over to your email list.
Once you have someone on your email list, you can communicate with them in a much more effective and profitable way for 2 reasons:
- Email is more personal than social media, and more of your recipients will see your message when sent to an inbox verses a social stream.
- You own your email list. Unlike Pinterest, nobody can “shut down” your email list or change the rules.
Today we’re going to go over the exact steps you can take to turn your Pinterest followers into email subscribers – and all you need to get started is an opt-in box for your email list, and an opt-in offer.
Step 1: Create an image for your free opt-in offer
You’re probably already aware that your opt-in offer is the content (or other type of gift) that you give people in exchange for singing up for your email list. Things like eBooks, guides, checklists, or video training series are popular.
The very first thing we need to do is create an image that represents your opt-in offer.
We’re going to use a free online tool called Canva to get the job done. We’re going to use a free eBook as our opt-in offer example, but you can use the same steps to create an image that represents any type of offer.
First, pull up Canva.com (register a free account if you don’t already have one) and select “Poster” from the template options:
Inside the Canva editor, we’ll design our poster to look like the cover of our eBook. We can choose a background, graphic elements, and text.
For our eBook example, we’re going to pick a plain colored background, a simple graphic that supports our eBook’s topic, and create text that displays our eBook’s title and author:
After you’re satisfied with your design, download it to your computer:
Step 2: Create an email opt-in landing page that your Pinterest followers will love
You could put your email opt-in box on your homepage and send your Pinterest followers there to sign up – but an even better idea is to create a dedicated landing page for your email opt-in.
Having a dedicated lading page will make it easier and more enticing for your visitors to sign up, and there won’t be any distractions to get in the way.
Your email opt-in landing page can be simple: create a separate page without any of your regular website elements (like a navigation bar or side bar). Include a headline about your opt-in offer, some copy to explain the benefits it offers, and an opt-in box where people can submit their email address.
(Hint: if you want a super simple way to make highly effective landing pages, check out LeadPages.net – not an affiliate link)
Here’s a sample of a simple opt-in landing page:
Step 3: Pin your opt-in offer image to Pinterest so traffic flows to your email list
Now it’s time to create a pin on Pinterest using our new opt-in offer image.
Head over to your Pinterest profile and click the plus sign in the upper right hand corner to create a new pin:
Follow the instructions to upload your opt-in offer image from your computer.
Choose a board for your pin and give it an enticing description. Make sure to tell people about the benefit your free offer will give them. For example, don’t just tell people to download your free eBook about buying a car. Tell them that they can grab your free eBook which will give them all the inside secrets to help them avoid overpaying for a car or driving home a dud. See? Benefits. You can also include a link to your opt-in landing page at the end of your description, but we’ll talk about an even more important place to put that link in a minute.
Once you’ve crafted a stellar description, click “Pin It”.
Now for the most important step: find the pin you just created and hover over it until a pencil icon appears in the top right corner:
Click on the pencil icon and an editing box will appear. In this box, there is a field where you can enter the source of your pinned image. It is super important that you put the URL of your opt-in landing page in this box so that your followers will be able to sign up for your list.
All done!
You’ve just created a pin that’s going to work overtime for your business. When people click on the image in your new pin, they’ll be shuttled off to your snazzy opt-in landing page and given the opportunity to join your list in exchange for your free gift.
For extra exposure, you can promote your new Pin on your other social network profiles like Facebook and Twitter. Then sit back, relax, and watch your Pinterest followers turn into email subscribers.
Your turn: what are your favorite list-building hacks? Share them with us in the comments below!
Sonja Jobson helps small business owners and entrepreneurs become incredible on the internet with smart, fun, authentic marketing. Join the free Success Lab for more business building content, live Q&A parties, and access to a supportive community of entrepreneurs.
Image credit: Twin Design / Shutterstock.com
