On the podcast this week, I am talking with my good friend, Erin Chase of $5 Dinners, about how she went about getting a million views for story pins on Pinterest. 

Now, before you roll your eyes about story pins, let me say that Erin and I had a very targeted conversation on how to use story pins in an overall Pinterest marketing strategy. 

We talk about:

* the types of pins you should use

* how to repurpose your content

* what your mindset needs to be going in

* why you might want to be an early adopter of story pins.

We also dive into how story pins are different than Instagram Reels and TikTok, and how to get into the mind of the pinner in order to find success with story pins. 

Before I jump in with Erin, let me remind you that if you head over to our website, we have a ton of free resources for you. You can download a free image guide and our Pinterest planner, plus sign up to receive our Start or Grow email series.

Using Story Pins on Pinterest as Part of Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy

 

Early Adoption for Early Success

Erin didn’t jump on the Pinterest marketing bandwagon until a full year after the platform opened. But one thing she didn’t wait on was trying Promoted pins for her business (aka Pinterest ads). 

Erin worked with a business partner to try Promoted pins almost as soon as they became available – they experienced some real success with them. Erin also spearheaded several successful promoted pins campaigns on her own. 

For Erin, the return on story pins has been even greater than her ad spend on promoted pins. 

She’s racked up over 1 MILLION views on her story pins in a short amount of time! That’s a lot of eyeballs on her content.

Early adoption is not for everyone. But for those who feel comfortable jumping into the deep end without a whole bunch of examples to follow, there can be some huge returns on that investment. 

Why Jump On-Board with Pinterest Story Pins Now?

When Erin first heard about story pins, she had the same reaction I imagine most of us did. 

With no swipe or click-through feature, what was the point?

Pinterest isn’t Instagram or Snapchat, so why bother with pins that don’t lead to clicks? Erin moved very quickly past that initial reaction. 

The reason she decided to invest in story pins early on was because of what she knew had happened in the early days of Pinterest as a platform. Those who started marketing on Pinterest when it was invite-only saw their accounts grow to millions of followers fairly quickly. 

Erin had seen that type of success with Facebook groups when they first came on the scene. She started a group as soon as groups became a thing. She grew several groups very quickly. So she decided to bank on the success of that same early adoption strategy with Pinterest story pins. 

Pinterest made it very clear that they were going to put story pins front and center on the platform, so Erin had nothing to lose and everything to gain by going all-in, early on.

How to “Hack the System” to Make It Work for You