Pinterest case study: a marketer’s success story
It was January 2020, and the world was full of wonder. Back then, everything was possible. After all, we didn't yet know that face masks would become the accessory of the season, that Zoom dinner parties could ever be a thing, and that our mailman could become our next best friend.
It was then that I first met our protagonist - Sarah Long from Sarah Catherine Creative. Just like any other entrepreneur, Sarah was dreaming big. Imagining how her businesses would grow in the upcoming 12 months, how many new and marvellous clients she would get, and how she would absolutely kill at this business owner thing.
"I had seen lots of influencers talking about Pinterest and the results they were getting. I kept thinking that I needed to get involved in it, but it kept falling at the bottom of my to-do list," Sarah explained.
Well, it's a tale as old as time - or at least, as old as Pinterest marketing is. You, dear reader, are probably standing in these exact shoes Sarah was wearing back then. You've heard it all before how amazing Pinterest can be for your business, how it can grow your email list, how it can get you in front of your dream clients. But you're still not convinced.
Let me try and work on that by taking you on a Pinterest journey - Sarah's Pinterest journey to be exact. It's an eventful story that takes our protagonist to places she has only ever dreamed of. So, are you ready? Let's begin!
Chapter 1: The doubtful entrepreneur
As a marketing consultant, Sarah knows very well how important it is to diversify your marketing. After all, being dependant on a single platform to drive all the clients to your service business could be used as a textbook example of "putting all of your eggs into one basket". I know that, you know that, and Sarah knows that too.
But still, she wasn't quite sure if Pinterest was the way to go. Could it really make a difference? Is it worth the actual investment? After a few messages back and forth and a consult call, she was ready to go.
"After thinking about it, I'm ready to invest in myself & my business!" she wrote to me in a few days, and the adventure was about to begin.
Chapter 2: A promising beginning
They say that in life, there are no guarantees. Only opportunities and what we do with them. For Sarah, it looked like this particular opportunity was the right one to act on.
In the first 2 weeks alone, she got 167 people to her website from Pinterest. An incredible kick-off, best summarized by the message that I sent her: "Woah! This is going to be a great first month!"
Still, I was trying to keep my excitement at bay. I have enough experience to know that sometimes, things like this can happen: amazing jumps that take you to the stars, only to be followed by some gloomy flat lines.
Apparently, I didn't have to worry.
Chapter 3: Breaking records left and right
It was June 2020, only 3 months after I first published a pin to Sarah's Pinterest account, and she was about to get a surprise into her mailbox. The "You just got 1000 clicks in a month" gift I send to my clients after hitting this sweet milestone. (Yes, I can be lovely as that, but I can also ruin the surprise by not being able to find your home address and have to ask you for it. It happens.)
To be honest, the results caught me by surprise a little. It usually takes a bit longer to get to this point, so again, I was trying not to get my hopes up and thought "it will probably go down from here." Oh, how wrong was I.
Can you guess how long did it take for Sarah to hit her next milestone? Getting 2000 people to her website in a single month from Pinterest alone? 31 days. Yes, she doubled her results in 1 friggin month. What a nerve!
Epilogue: Sailing into the sunset
It's now been 10 months since Sarah and I first met, and I can't help but chuckle when I remember what she said during our consult call: "let's try this for a month or two, and see what happens." Well, we're still working together, so it seems that Sarah is pleased with the results.
I checked in with her when I started putting together this case study and asked her for her point of view. This is the first thing that she wrote to me: "Pinterest gave me the ability to let go of social media and get back to serving my clients or developing my skills. My Facebook and Instagram posts were being seen by 300 people a month at max, and rarely converted in any trackable way. With Pinterest, I know that it is THRIVING, and even better, it's bringing in real results. Instead of me counting likes and comments on Instagram, I'm seeing site visitors increase, email subscribers increase, and products sell."
But, because Sarah is an amazing human being, she didn't stop there.
"I made it a goal to get 100 more subscribers in 2020 - I had 80 at the beginning of the year. In the last 7 months, I got 200 new email subscribers. All from 1 blog post and 1 email sign up. That still blows my mind, and it's still getting new sign-ups each day. (When it comes to products) I've tried Facebook ads, emailing my list, social posts, all of it. What's converting right now is Pinterest."
Of course, Sarah knows her way around marketing. So it was only natural for her to mention a benefit, I haven't even thought of: "With the increased traffic, I've been able to run better targeted Facebook ads, and reach more of my ideal audience for freebie sign-ups and page likes."
"After we started working together, I've been able to meet my financial goals for 2020, and I still have 2 months of billable work to do. And even better, I'm more than halfway to matching my current 9-5 salary, and it's given me (and my husband) even more confidence as we talk about me running my business full-time."
