August 25, 2025 • 22 mins
If you’ve ever felt like your content disappears faster than your kid’s snack stash, you’re not wrong. Instagram is amazing for connection (and I’ll always love it for that), but when it comes to longevity? It’s like building a sandcastle at high tide. Pretty… but gone in hours.
That’s exactly why I brought on Elaine Timms, Pinterest strategist and creator of the Evergreen Impact Method. Elaine knows how to take one piece of content and turn it into traffic that compounds for months… even years. Yes, years. While you’re busy doing school drop-off, squeezing in a client call, or finally finishing your coffee before it goes cold, your content could actually still be working for you.
In this episode, we’re digging into:
- Why Pinterest isn’t just recipes and DIY hacks (and why your business does belong there).
- How one pin can outlast an entire season of Instagram posts.
- The simple, realistic strategy Elaine teaches her clients (no “pin 57 times a day” nonsense).
- Why your content isn’t broken—it’s just not circulating.
- How to start using Pinterest without adding a mountain of extra work to your already full plate.
Mentioned In This Episode:
If you’re ready to stop creating content that disappears in a day, start here.
- 📌 Grab Elaine’s free starter guide: Pinterest Marketing Strategy Guide
- 📨 Get ongoing tips from Elaine: Evergreen Impact Weekly Newsletter
- ✅ Want someone to run it for you: Pinterest Manager Services
- 🚀 And if you want a clear plan so all your content works together instead of in silos, grab my Buyer Journey Content Map.
Your content deserves more than a day of visibility. And you deserve a marketing plan that fits real life.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sydney (00:00):
If you're not new around here, you know that I have been shifting the
(00:02):
way I teach content strategy because, while I love Instagram and it's really
great for connection, it's nevermeant to give you content longevity.
And that is exactly why I invited ElaineTims onto Mompreneur Mastery today.
Elaine is a Pinterest strategist andcreator of the Evergreen Impact Method.
She helps woman led businesses turnone piece of content into traffic that
(00:25):
compounds over months or even years, soyou're not stuck on the hamster wheel
of posting for 24 hours of visibility.
I am really excited for you tolearn from her in this episode.
(01:37):
before we talk about the evergreenimpact method, can you tell us a bit
about how you got started in this work?
Elaine Timms (01:43):
Yes, actually I started to dabble online in 2010 following a lot of
like the bro marketers because they seemedto really dominate the space at the time.
Quickly realized I didn't liketo follow them, so I started
paying attention to other people.
In the meantime, I had also started amom blog because once I became a mother,
that seemed like a logical choice.
(02:03):
And I learned everything that Icould about Pinterest from a lot
of different bloggers and justpeople at the time grew its traffic.
My blog I'm talking about, I grew itstraffic to over a hundred thousand
sessions and then I realized how much Iliked the strategy and I loved helping
people and the excitement that theysaw when they had traffic buildings.
So I sold my blog and I went all inon my Pinterest marketing business.
Sydney (02:28):
That's amazing.
I'm not gonna lie, I am an Instagramperson because for like personal reasons
when I was struggling postpartum, I foundlike a lot of great connection there.
So I love it that way.
But I am always so intrigued by Pintereststrategy for like marketing purposes.
So part of the reason Iwanted to have you on was.
(02:49):
Generally just to like pick your brain aswell as like, of course help my audience,
but I personally have so many questions.
was there a moment when itlike clicked for you that
Pinterest wasn't just helpful?
It was like a really great likevisibility tool for business.
Elaine Timms (03:05):
Yeah, it didn't take long because everybody was kind of sold
this idea that social media marketingwas an entire marketing plan, and I
was like sitting over there going, butno, but wait, what about Pinterest?
And it's often overlooked, butit didn't take long to also see
that people were burning out.
There was no shelf life to the contentand it was just a content creation,
like hamster wheel all of the time.
(03:26):
So I was like, wait a minute,Pinterest totally fits to give you a
shelf life and to avoid that burnout.
So that's kind of where I was evenmore passionate about the work
that I do, and especially when itcomes to moms and women that this
was actually sustainable for them.
Sydney (03:43):
How long would you say a shelf life of a pin is
Elaine Timms (03:46):
you know, it could be anywhere between a couple of
months into a couple of years.
I own another niche website andits traffic, its main piece of
traffic comes from a handfulof pins that I pinned in 2017.
I do go in and make sure to update thatcontent, but that's how long you're
looking at now, of course, you know that.
(04:07):
You know those pins can die off,but you're getting like a few
months as opposed to a few hours.
Sydney (04:12):
Right.
Yeah, I think I mean for me,because Instagram is like what I
do, I can get like a couple weeksor a couple months if it's like a
pinned post, but it's definitelynot as evergreen as Pinterest is.
So yeah, I'm always fascinated by thataspect, especially as like a busy mom
(04:33):
who has very little time for things.
To start growing likea Pinterest following.
Is there like a set numberof pins you should be like
posting a week or month, or.
Elaine Timms (04:46):
Right.
So right there you're not actuallythere to build a following.
That can come naturally and itwill, you will gain followers,
but that's not actually the goal.
What you're building is acontent library that compounds
in performance over time, so.
Great news is you don't need toworry about followers because
you can actually get traction.
(05:07):
And it just, you can simply startby pinning one optimized pin.
So optimized meaning using keywordsone pin a day and building your way up.
There is no magic number but I highlyrecommend that one pin a day saved
to your relevant boards, and thenjust using your Pinterest SEO is more
relevant to how many pins per day.
Sydney (05:30):
Okay.
That's good to know.
And I love that I talk aboutthat for Instagram as well.
Like there's no specialnumber of followers.
You just have to havelike the quality content
Elaine Timms (05:41):
E, everybody wants that number.
It's something I answer all the time, likeI'm not surprised to answer it again, but
it's just, it truly, it does not matter.
You can get lots oftraction with one pin a day.
Sydney (05:51):
Nice.
Good to know.
And how like.
deer pins have to be, oris it more SEO focused?
Elaine Timms (05:59):
It's definitely more SEO focused.
You of course want them to look good.
You know, but, you know, beauty'sin the eye of the beholder.
'cause I have seen some reallyugly pins perform well on
Pinterest for a really long time.
So who knows?
So what does that tell us?
That yes, aesthetics areimportant, but you're right.
Keywords are even more important.
So if you're answering what thatperson is searching for and you've
(06:23):
got your like search intent down,you're gonna get those clicks
Sydney (06:28):
Good to know.
What is one thing people keep doingfor visibility that just isn't
worth their time or energy, do youthink, when it comes to Pinterest?
Elaine Timms (06:38):
Worrying about followers just kind of spamming the platform
with their Instagram content withoutgiving Pinterest any sort of context.
Again, going back to those keywords.
That's a huge mistakerepurposing their reels.
It's a completely different audiencelike Pinterest, people are cold to you.
They're open to meeting you, but theydefinitely don't know who you are.
(06:58):
So those entertaining, more nurturingreels are not going to perform to the
degree that most people think they should.
Sydney (07:06):
Okay.
That's good to know.
Yeah.
'cause I've seen just from like followingrandom people on Instagram there, we'll
talk about how much traction they get justfrom sending their, like, or linking their
Instagram to their Pinterest account.
I'm like, I don't know ifit would work the same, but.
Elaine Timms (07:21):
There is some advice out there, some people that will tell you that
that's a way to diversify your length.
And I'm not saying notto test it for yourself.
Of course I'm always game for that.
But you know, in my experience and overmy client accounts, the pins that link
to Instagram don't get as much reachas, say, linking to your own online
real estate, which is more importantin my world than anything else.
Sydney (07:45):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
Do you think, because I like, again,I focus on Instagram strategy.
Is there a way to repurposeInstagram content to Pinterest
and have it be successful?
Elaine Timms (07:58):
Right.
So, you know, Pinteresthas these carousel pins.
I'm still testing those, so I don't havea complete amount of knowledge about
them, but it's great for repurposingyour carousels, just giving more context
in the pin description, and then makingsure that that carousel pin linked to
something that gives even more contact.
Because you're not there to entertain.
(08:20):
You're there to like, educate,inspire, help somebody, plan
a moment, something like that.
So they need more pieces to the story thanmaybe you're giving away on Instagram.
Sydney (08:31):
That makes sense.
Now when you mentioned links tosomewhere, would that just be
people linking to like long formcontent like blogs and podcasts or?
Elaine Timms (08:42):
Yeah.
Sydney (08:43):
Or could it be specific sales pages?
Elaine Timms (08:46):
Yeah, you can link to all of those.
So you've got lead pages, sales pages,landing pages, lead magnet pages,
blogs podcasts turned into blogs.
You can absolutely createpins for all of those links.
The, the idea of, you know, like myown strategy is to always be linking
to something that you own, that youcan control that doesn't go anywhere.
(09:08):
So ultimately, all roads leading intoyour business ecosystem and email.
List would be ideal.
Sydney (09:15):
Right.
And then I assume that wouldhelp with like more backlinks
to your website as well.
Elaine Timms (09:20):
Yeah.
And so yeah, if you're ranking pinson Pinterest, you're also able to get
found on Google because your Pinterestpins can get ranked on there as well.
So just, yeah, all aroundhelping you get found.
Sydney (09:33):
Pinterest often gets grouped in with social media.
Do you view it as or more likea visual search type of thing?
Because that's what Ialways kind of assume it is.
Elaine Timms (09:44):
Absolutely it is a visual search engine.
This doesn't mean that they haven't hadsome identity crisis over the last several
years and trying to keep up with, youknow, short form video content platforms.
But at the end of the day, what drivesPinterest is the SEO portion and just
the people that want to learn somethingand plan something offline kind of stuff.
Sydney (10:06):
For sure.
And now I've heard you say beforethat your content isn't broken,
it's just not circulating.
Can you explain what thatmeans and why it matters?
Elaine Timms (10:16):
So what that means is I find a lot of people create
like even a long form blog post.
They'll pin it once, or they'llpost about it on social media
once, and then that's it.
Like they don't even realize that youcan keep that content working for you.
So in terms of a Pinterest strategy,that's creating multiple pins
for the same piece of content,but perhaps that piece of content
(10:38):
covers off several different topics.
So it's making sure to target thosedifferent angles and keep the pins
circulating so that content now isworking harder for you as to opposed
you thinking you have to create anew piece of content all the time.
You could actually take that piece ofcontent, see that it's getting good
traction, create another like longform blog posts of a tiny section
(11:02):
from it, and now you have doublethe content circulating for you.
Sydney (11:08):
I love that so much as a very busy person who has very little
time to do things like repurposingcontent and is my absolute favorite.
So
Elaine Timms (11:17):
would love, like
Sydney (11:18):
to know.
Elaine Timms (11:19):
I'd love for people to flip the script and.
Like completely creating for socials,like create that long form and then
take that and go, what are thosetiny little snippets that people
would really enjoy on socials?
And then take it from there.
Like you do all the hard work first, butit's now sitting out there and then create
(11:39):
like, I just think it would create so muchease in people's lives, especially moms.
Sydney (11:44):
Mm-hmm.
For sure.
I love that.
That answered my nextquestion too, so that's good.
Yeah, you walk us throughyour Evergreen impact method?
Elaine Timms (11:55):
Yes, so that is my Pinterest powered visibility system.
I only have just started to pieceit together without realizing
I was doing this behind thescenes for clients all the time.
So the first thing is whatI call the content core.
So that's like identifying andorganizing your long form content
with however that is created for you.
(12:16):
So creating.
Also a content hub.
I like to grab all of the links,put them into a content hub.
That, from there I actually categorize itby content category, stage of the funnel.
So basically it's your organization piece.
What do we have to work with, right?
So then from there we're gonnado the platform positioning.
(12:37):
So what does that mean?
How are we gonna positionyou on Pinterest?
What keywords are we going to target?
What interests are we targeting?
It's creating up boards and youknow, creating a keyword bank.
Just so that you're telling Pinterest,Hey, this is what my business is about.
This is what my content is about.
So you're positioning yourself.
So Pinterest understands that.
(12:58):
And then again, it's that evergreencirculation piece that we just
spoke about is it's a long.
Game platform, right?
So Pinterest needs continual pins inorder to really start to understand
what the content piece is about and alsoto keep your content in circulation.
So this is the area where wecreate multiple pins per content
(13:20):
and we are actually, you know,targeting different angles.
You know, like, I'll give you a littlesmall example because this might fly
over some people's heads, but a gardeningclient, for example, and if they have
like a small backyard gardening layout,but that could also be like a tiny
backyard, that could be a balcony, right?
(13:41):
That could just be any small space.
And so that is where you're justgetting your pins circulating for
all of these different search terms.
And then from there, we wanna makesure, of course, that we're reaping
some of what we're sewing, right?
So you wanna make sure to have pinsthat are mapped out to your funnel.
So for example, going back to thegardening, if I have, you know, small
(14:04):
backyard garden, vegetable garden layout.
I have a couple of different options, butthen I have an email opt-in that says,
you know, here's your garden layouts fora small backyard in each growing zone.
Well, now all of a sudden thatperson's like, oh, okay, great.
Yeah.
Like, I definitely needto know that information.
Boom, they sign up.
Right?
So that's just like making sureto map out how can we get these
(14:27):
people into your ecosystem.
And then from there you're doingwhat I call the insight loop.
So you wanna make sure whatyou're doing is working.
So this is tracking theperformance of pins and boards.
It's identifying what's working andusing the data that you see in your
actual PIN strategy moving forward.
(14:47):
So that can be like making sure thatseasonal pins actually perform at
the season when they're supposed to.
Did it work?
Did it not work?
What's always in your top 20 pins?
What's another angle that we canuse to get even more traffic?
And so I'll cover off like themost important things to look at
during metrics are during metrics.
(15:10):
The most important Pinterest metrics totrack are impressions, saves, engagements,
and of course outbound click thatwill tell you a full picture of what's
going on with your Pinterest strategy
from there, it's, you know,rinse and repeat, add in the new
content just to expand your, yourcirculation and, and your gold.
Sydney (15:32):
Awesome.
I love having like a general frameworkfor things that makes it feel so much
more doable and less overwhelming.
I definitely feel you.
I somewhat recently kind of cameup with my five steps to sales
on like Instagram framework afterdoing it for literal years with
Elaine Timms (15:52):
I.
Sydney (15:52):
clients and like teaching other people.
And I was like, wait.
. Do you have a favorite clientstory where Pinterest became like
a huge visibility engine for them?
Elaine Timms (16:02):
I actually have like multiple clients right now where
it's like the main visibility.
But I'll tell you about a clientwhere I was like a little bit
iffy about taking them on.
I was like, wow, I don'tknow about this niche.
It was actually in the red light therapy.
Which I knew there were searches onPinterest, but just to see the amount
of traction they got on Pinterest wasjust like, whoa, like mind blowing.
(16:27):
So that's like actually one ofmy favorite stories to tell,
because I often get asked, well,you know, like Pinterest is just.
For like recipes or you know, likeDIY stuff, but it's, it's truly not.
And so I think at the end of theday, anybody that's listening needs
to go and check to see what's beingsearched within their niche, because
you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Sydney (16:50):
Yeah.
Definitely.
And what kind of results can peoplelike realistically expect and how
long does it take to see traction?
I know it's like a very
Elaine Timms (17:01):
Yeah.
Sydney (17:02):
kind of thing, but is there like a general
Elaine Timms (17:06):
So generally speaking, when I'm talking to clients and
they're interested and they're justtrying to determine whether or not
to come on is that growth trulyhappens at six to nine months.
Now, you will start tosee growth, but it's.
The growth that you're lookingfor, where you're getting a
pretty good amount of clicks.
Pinterest really understandswhat your account is about and
(17:26):
is trusting your content and yourwebsite and really pushing it out.
So six to nine months, buthonestly it can take up to a year.
But I don't want that to scareanybody because Pinterest is more
of like an investment, right?
So over time, you're gonna compound.
But again, after like three months,you're gonna start seeing the green,
you're seeing the bars all going up.
(17:47):
But yeah, you gotta be in it for at least,please give it like six to nine months.
Sydney (17:52):
Yeah, but it definitely seems like the payoff is there if
you're giving it that amount of time.
Knowing how evergreen those pins are,
Elaine Timms (17:59):
Right.
'cause if you gotta think of it,like you don't need to be camera
ready, you don't need to dance, youdon't need to do any of those things.
You have something that, like youwent and took a week's vacation
with your family and you wannaenjoy the beach with your kids.
Well, that's working in the background.
Right, and I know you can post on socialmedia too by scheduling it, but it's
just nice to know that it's just alwaysworking whether you're there or not.
Sydney (18:23):
Yeah, and like working for longer periods of
Elaine Timms (18:26):
Exactly.
Sydney (18:27):
That's, yeah.
Elaine Timms (18:28):
Yeah.
Sydney (18:29):
Right, and you've built a business that works around your
life, not the other way around.
What has been like the mostrewarding part of that?
Elaine Timms (18:38):
The most rewarding part is literally being able to design my days as
I want which was the goal from the onset.
Like I was never a personthat wanted my kids to go to
daycare and do all those things.
I wanted to be a present mom, so theability to, yeah, just grow it the way
that I wanted and keep it sustainable.
(18:58):
I've never worried about scaling and goingin on all of the strategies right off.
The business has really allowed mejust to grow the way that I want
and be present in my actual life.
And then as my kids get older,it's going to be interesting enough
and keep me going so that I cangrow it into whatever I want.
Sydney (19:17):
Yeah, definitely.
I the exact same way.
How old?
Your kids now.
Elaine Timms (19:22):
So they are eight and five and it's just, yeah, I
get to pick them up from school.
I get to be there, like if there's anassembly and one of them got an award
that happened a couple times duringthe school year, I can take, you know,
off at two o'clock in the afternoon.
Just that flexibility and freedom, likeyou can't, I don't know if there's enough
money in the world to replace that.
Sydney (19:43):
Yeah, for sure.
I love that.
My kids are almost five six and eight, solike very similar and being able to like
be there you know, those like random.
Stick days and likedoctor's appointments and
Elaine Timms (19:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sydney (19:58):
truly amazing.
My husband is also in themilitary, so we move a lot.
Elaine Timms (20:03):
Yeah.
Sydney (20:03):
to like stay home when we first move and get everyone like
acclimated and all of that is important.
Elaine Timms (20:10):
It's so nice, right?
Like, and thank goodness we have thatas an option in, in this day and age to.
Sydney (20:17):
yeah, for sure.
I remember, we kind ofhad that when I was a kid.
My mom worked like at a school, soshe had like summers off and stuff,
Elaine Timms (20:25):
Right.
Sydney (20:25):
it was still a little different being able to like completely
create your own schedule and behome and it's just 10 outta 10.
Recommend.
Elaine Timms (20:33):
after we record this podcast, I'm gonna go for a run.
Like what?
You know what I mean?
I couldn't do that in a nine to five.
And I quickly learned about myself whileI was in corporate before making the
transition that I just knew I couldn'tdo this for the rest of my life.
Like, I can't have a boss, a schedule,and you can only take this amount
of time for lunch and all of that.
So that doesn't work.
Sydney (20:54):
Yeah, definitely not for everyone,
Elaine Timms (20:56):
No.
Sydney (20:57):
for sure.
Now for the mom listening, who knows,Pinterest could help but keeps putting
it off, what would you say to her?
Elaine Timms (21:04):
I would say go on Pinterest because you're likely putting it up 'cause
you're not sure if it's going to work.
You don't think probably thatyour business belongs on there.
If I had to bet moneyon it, it would be that.
So I would invite them togo on and do some searches.
See what people are searching aroundand then get excited about it.
(21:25):
Go over to my website andgrab my free strategy guide.
It will give you an overview howeverything works and the important
things to get in place, andit's a great way to get started.
Sydney (21:37):
Perfect.
I was gonna ask about that next,so I will definitely have the link.
In the show notes for everyone to grab it.
And then can you just let us knowwhat your website is as well?
Elaine Timms (21:47):
Sure I can be found@elainetims.com
and from there you can check out.
I've got services, I just do DIY.
Services done for youservices at this point.
We'll see in the future ifI'll offer more but that's, you
can grab the strategy guide.
That will also mean that you'rejoining my Evergreen Impact newsletter,
where I share all of my bits and bobsand interesting pieces weekly ish,
(22:12):
and that's where you can find me.
Sydney (22:14):
Perfect.
I am definitely excited to check that out.
Thank you so much for taking the timeto chat with me about Pinterest today.
Elaine Timms (22:20):
Thank you for having me.
If you're not new around here, you know that I have been shifting the
(00:02):
way I teach content strategy because, while I love Instagram and it's really
great for connection, it's nevermeant to give you content longevity.
And that is exactly why I invited ElaineTims onto Mompreneur Mastery today.
Elaine is a Pinterest strategist andcreator of the Evergreen Impact Method.
She helps woman led businesses turnone piece of content into traffic that
(00:25):
compounds over months or even years, soyou're not stuck on the hamster wheel
of posting for 24 hours of visibility.
I am really excited for you tolearn from her in this episode.
(01:37):
before we talk about the evergreenimpact method, can you tell us a bit
about how you got started in this work?
Elaine Timms (01:43):
Yes, actually I started to dabble online in 2010 following a lot of
like the bro marketers because they seemedto really dominate the space at the time.
Quickly realized I didn't liketo follow them, so I started
paying attention to other people.
In the meantime, I had also started amom blog because once I became a mother,
that seemed like a logical choice.
(02:03):
And I learned everything that Icould about Pinterest from a lot
of different bloggers and justpeople at the time grew its traffic.
My blog I'm talking about, I grew itstraffic to over a hundred thousand
sessions and then I realized how much Iliked the strategy and I loved helping
people and the excitement that theysaw when they had traffic buildings.
So I sold my blog and I went all inon my Pinterest marketing business.
Sydney (02:28):
That's amazing.
I'm not gonna lie, I am an Instagramperson because for like personal reasons
when I was struggling postpartum, I foundlike a lot of great connection there.
So I love it that way.
But I am always so intrigued by Pintereststrategy for like marketing purposes.
So part of the reason Iwanted to have you on was.
(02:49):
Generally just to like pick your brain aswell as like, of course help my audience,
but I personally have so many questions.
was there a moment when itlike clicked for you that
Pinterest wasn't just helpful?
It was like a really great likevisibility tool for business.
Elaine Timms (03:05):
Yeah, it didn't take long because everybody was kind of sold
this idea that social media marketingwas an entire marketing plan, and I
was like sitting over there going, butno, but wait, what about Pinterest?
And it's often overlooked, butit didn't take long to also see
that people were burning out.
There was no shelf life to the contentand it was just a content creation,
like hamster wheel all of the time.
(03:26):
So I was like, wait a minute,Pinterest totally fits to give you a
shelf life and to avoid that burnout.
So that's kind of where I was evenmore passionate about the work
that I do, and especially when itcomes to moms and women that this
was actually sustainable for them.
Sydney (03:43):
How long would you say a shelf life of a pin is
Elaine Timms (03:46):
you know, it could be anywhere between a couple of
months into a couple of years.
I own another niche website andits traffic, its main piece of
traffic comes from a handfulof pins that I pinned in 2017.
I do go in and make sure to update thatcontent, but that's how long you're
looking at now, of course, you know that.
(04:07):
You know those pins can die off,but you're getting like a few
months as opposed to a few hours.
Sydney (04:12):
Right.
Yeah, I think I mean for me,because Instagram is like what I
do, I can get like a couple weeksor a couple months if it's like a
pinned post, but it's definitelynot as evergreen as Pinterest is.
So yeah, I'm always fascinated by thataspect, especially as like a busy mom
(04:33):
who has very little time for things.
To start growing likea Pinterest following.
Is there like a set numberof pins you should be like
posting a week or month, or.
Elaine Timms (04:46):
Right.
So right there you're not actuallythere to build a following.
That can come naturally and itwill, you will gain followers,
but that's not actually the goal.
What you're building is acontent library that compounds
in performance over time, so.
Great news is you don't need toworry about followers because
you can actually get traction.
(05:07):
And it just, you can simply startby pinning one optimized pin.
So optimized meaning using keywordsone pin a day and building your way up.
There is no magic number but I highlyrecommend that one pin a day saved
to your relevant boards, and thenjust using your Pinterest SEO is more
relevant to how many pins per day.
Sydney (05:30):
Okay.
That's good to know.
And I love that I talk aboutthat for Instagram as well.
Like there's no specialnumber of followers.
You just have to havelike the quality content
Elaine Timms (05:41):
E, everybody wants that number.
It's something I answer all the time, likeI'm not surprised to answer it again, but
it's just, it truly, it does not matter.
You can get lots oftraction with one pin a day.
Sydney (05:51):
Nice.
Good to know.
And how like.
deer pins have to be, oris it more SEO focused?
Elaine Timms (05:59):
It's definitely more SEO focused.
You of course want them to look good.
You know, but, you know, beauty'sin the eye of the beholder.
'cause I have seen some reallyugly pins perform well on
Pinterest for a really long time.
So who knows?
So what does that tell us?
That yes, aesthetics areimportant, but you're right.
Keywords are even more important.
So if you're answering what thatperson is searching for and you've
(06:23):
got your like search intent down,you're gonna get those clicks
Sydney (06:28):
Good to know.
What is one thing people keep doingfor visibility that just isn't
worth their time or energy, do youthink, when it comes to Pinterest?
Elaine Timms (06:38):
Worrying about followers just kind of spamming the platform
with their Instagram content withoutgiving Pinterest any sort of context.
Again, going back to those keywords.
That's a huge mistakerepurposing their reels.
It's a completely different audiencelike Pinterest, people are cold to you.
They're open to meeting you, but theydefinitely don't know who you are.
(06:58):
So those entertaining, more nurturingreels are not going to perform to the
degree that most people think they should.
Sydney (07:06):
Okay.
That's good to know.
Yeah.
'cause I've seen just from like followingrandom people on Instagram there, we'll
talk about how much traction they get justfrom sending their, like, or linking their
Instagram to their Pinterest account.
I'm like, I don't know ifit would work the same, but.
Elaine Timms (07:21):
There is some advice out there, some people that will tell you that
that's a way to diversify your length.
And I'm not saying notto test it for yourself.
Of course I'm always game for that.
But you know, in my experience and overmy client accounts, the pins that link
to Instagram don't get as much reachas, say, linking to your own online
real estate, which is more importantin my world than anything else.
Sydney (07:45):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
Do you think, because I like, again,I focus on Instagram strategy.
Is there a way to repurposeInstagram content to Pinterest
and have it be successful?
Elaine Timms (07:58):
Right.
So, you know, Pinteresthas these carousel pins.
I'm still testing those, so I don't havea complete amount of knowledge about
them, but it's great for repurposingyour carousels, just giving more context
in the pin description, and then makingsure that that carousel pin linked to
something that gives even more contact.
Because you're not there to entertain.
(08:20):
You're there to like, educate,inspire, help somebody, plan
a moment, something like that.
So they need more pieces to the story thanmaybe you're giving away on Instagram.
Sydney (08:31):
That makes sense.
Now when you mentioned links tosomewhere, would that just be
people linking to like long formcontent like blogs and podcasts or?
Elaine Timms (08:42):
Yeah.
Sydney (08:43):
Or could it be specific sales pages?
Elaine Timms (08:46):
Yeah, you can link to all of those.
So you've got lead pages, sales pages,landing pages, lead magnet pages,
blogs podcasts turned into blogs.
You can absolutely createpins for all of those links.
The, the idea of, you know, like myown strategy is to always be linking
to something that you own, that youcan control that doesn't go anywhere.
(09:08):
So ultimately, all roads leading intoyour business ecosystem and email.
List would be ideal.
Sydney (09:15):
Right.
And then I assume that wouldhelp with like more backlinks
to your website as well.
Elaine Timms (09:20):
Yeah.
And so yeah, if you're ranking pinson Pinterest, you're also able to get
found on Google because your Pinterestpins can get ranked on there as well.
So just, yeah, all aroundhelping you get found.
Sydney (09:33):
Pinterest often gets grouped in with social media.
Do you view it as or more likea visual search type of thing?
Because that's what Ialways kind of assume it is.
Elaine Timms (09:44):
Absolutely it is a visual search engine.
This doesn't mean that they haven't hadsome identity crisis over the last several
years and trying to keep up with, youknow, short form video content platforms.
But at the end of the day, what drivesPinterest is the SEO portion and just
the people that want to learn somethingand plan something offline kind of stuff.
Sydney (10:06):
For sure.
And now I've heard you say beforethat your content isn't broken,
it's just not circulating.
Can you explain what thatmeans and why it matters?
Elaine Timms (10:16):
So what that means is I find a lot of people create
like even a long form blog post.
They'll pin it once, or they'llpost about it on social media
once, and then that's it.
Like they don't even realize that youcan keep that content working for you.
So in terms of a Pinterest strategy,that's creating multiple pins
for the same piece of content,but perhaps that piece of content
(10:38):
covers off several different topics.
So it's making sure to target thosedifferent angles and keep the pins
circulating so that content now isworking harder for you as to opposed
you thinking you have to create anew piece of content all the time.
You could actually take that piece ofcontent, see that it's getting good
traction, create another like longform blog posts of a tiny section
(11:02):
from it, and now you have doublethe content circulating for you.
Sydney (11:08):
I love that so much as a very busy person who has very little
time to do things like repurposingcontent and is my absolute favorite.
So
Elaine Timms (11:17):
would love, like
Sydney (11:18):
to know.
Elaine Timms (11:19):
I'd love for people to flip the script and.
Like completely creating for socials,like create that long form and then
take that and go, what are thosetiny little snippets that people
would really enjoy on socials?
And then take it from there.
Like you do all the hard work first, butit's now sitting out there and then create
(11:39):
like, I just think it would create so muchease in people's lives, especially moms.
Sydney (11:44):
Mm-hmm.
For sure.
I love that.
That answered my nextquestion too, so that's good.
Yeah, you walk us throughyour Evergreen impact method?
Elaine Timms (11:55):
Yes, so that is my Pinterest powered visibility system.
I only have just started to pieceit together without realizing
I was doing this behind thescenes for clients all the time.
So the first thing is whatI call the content core.
So that's like identifying andorganizing your long form content
with however that is created for you.
(12:16):
So creating.
Also a content hub.
I like to grab all of the links,put them into a content hub.
That, from there I actually categorize itby content category, stage of the funnel.
So basically it's your organization piece.
What do we have to work with, right?
So then from there we're gonnado the platform positioning.
(12:37):
So what does that mean?
How are we gonna positionyou on Pinterest?
What keywords are we going to target?
What interests are we targeting?
It's creating up boards and youknow, creating a keyword bank.
Just so that you're telling Pinterest,Hey, this is what my business is about.
This is what my content is about.
So you're positioning yourself.
So Pinterest understands that.
(12:58):
And then again, it's that evergreencirculation piece that we just
spoke about is it's a long.
Game platform, right?
So Pinterest needs continual pins inorder to really start to understand
what the content piece is about and alsoto keep your content in circulation.
So this is the area where wecreate multiple pins per content
(13:20):
and we are actually, you know,targeting different angles.
You know, like, I'll give you a littlesmall example because this might fly
over some people's heads, but a gardeningclient, for example, and if they have
like a small backyard gardening layout,but that could also be like a tiny
backyard, that could be a balcony, right?
(13:41):
That could just be any small space.
And so that is where you're justgetting your pins circulating for
all of these different search terms.
And then from there, we wanna makesure, of course, that we're reaping
some of what we're sewing, right?
So you wanna make sure to have pinsthat are mapped out to your funnel.
So for example, going back to thegardening, if I have, you know, small
(14:04):
backyard garden, vegetable garden layout.
I have a couple of different options, butthen I have an email opt-in that says,
you know, here's your garden layouts fora small backyard in each growing zone.
Well, now all of a sudden thatperson's like, oh, okay, great.
Yeah.
Like, I definitely needto know that information.
Boom, they sign up.
Right?
So that's just like making sureto map out how can we get these
(14:27):
people into your ecosystem.
And then from there you're doingwhat I call the insight loop.
So you wanna make sure whatyou're doing is working.
So this is tracking theperformance of pins and boards.
It's identifying what's working andusing the data that you see in your
actual PIN strategy moving forward.
(14:47):
So that can be like making sure thatseasonal pins actually perform at
the season when they're supposed to.
Did it work?
Did it not work?
What's always in your top 20 pins?
What's another angle that we canuse to get even more traffic?
And so I'll cover off like themost important things to look at
during metrics are during metrics.
(15:10):
The most important Pinterest metrics totrack are impressions, saves, engagements,
and of course outbound click thatwill tell you a full picture of what's
going on with your Pinterest strategy
from there, it's, you know,rinse and repeat, add in the new
content just to expand your, yourcirculation and, and your gold.
Sydney (15:32):
Awesome.
I love having like a general frameworkfor things that makes it feel so much
more doable and less overwhelming.
I definitely feel you.
I somewhat recently kind of cameup with my five steps to sales
on like Instagram framework afterdoing it for literal years with
Elaine Timms (15:52):
I.
Sydney (15:52):
clients and like teaching other people.
And I was like, wait.
. Do you have a favorite clientstory where Pinterest became like
a huge visibility engine for them?
Elaine Timms (16:02):
I actually have like multiple clients right now where
it's like the main visibility.
But I'll tell you about a clientwhere I was like a little bit
iffy about taking them on.
I was like, wow, I don'tknow about this niche.
It was actually in the red light therapy.
Which I knew there were searches onPinterest, but just to see the amount
of traction they got on Pinterest wasjust like, whoa, like mind blowing.
(16:27):
So that's like actually one ofmy favorite stories to tell,
because I often get asked, well,you know, like Pinterest is just.
For like recipes or you know, likeDIY stuff, but it's, it's truly not.
And so I think at the end of theday, anybody that's listening needs
to go and check to see what's beingsearched within their niche, because
you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Sydney (16:50):
Yeah.
Definitely.
And what kind of results can peoplelike realistically expect and how
long does it take to see traction?
I know it's like a very
Elaine Timms (17:01):
Yeah.
Sydney (17:02):
kind of thing, but is there like a general
Elaine Timms (17:06):
So generally speaking, when I'm talking to clients and
they're interested and they're justtrying to determine whether or not
to come on is that growth trulyhappens at six to nine months.
Now, you will start tosee growth, but it's.
The growth that you're lookingfor, where you're getting a
pretty good amount of clicks.
Pinterest really understandswhat your account is about and
(17:26):
is trusting your content and yourwebsite and really pushing it out.
So six to nine months, buthonestly it can take up to a year.
But I don't want that to scareanybody because Pinterest is more
of like an investment, right?
So over time, you're gonna compound.
But again, after like three months,you're gonna start seeing the green,
you're seeing the bars all going up.
(17:47):
But yeah, you gotta be in it for at least,please give it like six to nine months.
Sydney (17:52):
Yeah, but it definitely seems like the payoff is there if
you're giving it that amount of time.
Knowing how evergreen those pins are,
Elaine Timms (17:59):
Right.
'cause if you gotta think of it,like you don't need to be camera
ready, you don't need to dance, youdon't need to do any of those things.
You have something that, like youwent and took a week's vacation
with your family and you wannaenjoy the beach with your kids.
Well, that's working in the background.
Right, and I know you can post on socialmedia too by scheduling it, but it's
just nice to know that it's just alwaysworking whether you're there or not.
Sydney (18:23):
Yeah, and like working for longer periods of
Elaine Timms (18:26):
Exactly.
Sydney (18:27):
That's, yeah.
Elaine Timms (18:28):
Yeah.
Sydney (18:29):
Right, and you've built a business that works around your
life, not the other way around.
What has been like the mostrewarding part of that?
Elaine Timms (18:38):
The most rewarding part is literally being able to design my days as
I want which was the goal from the onset.
Like I was never a personthat wanted my kids to go to
daycare and do all those things.
I wanted to be a present mom, so theability to, yeah, just grow it the way
that I wanted and keep it sustainable.
(18:58):
I've never worried about scaling and goingin on all of the strategies right off.
The business has really allowed mejust to grow the way that I want
and be present in my actual life.
And then as my kids get older,it's going to be interesting enough
and keep me going so that I cangrow it into whatever I want.
Sydney (19:17):
Yeah, definitely.
I the exact same way.
How old?
Your kids now.
Elaine Timms (19:22):
So they are eight and five and it's just, yeah, I
get to pick them up from school.
I get to be there, like if there's anassembly and one of them got an award
that happened a couple times duringthe school year, I can take, you know,
off at two o'clock in the afternoon.
Just that flexibility and freedom, likeyou can't, I don't know if there's enough
money in the world to replace that.
Sydney (19:43):
Yeah, for sure.
I love that.
My kids are almost five six and eight, solike very similar and being able to like
be there you know, those like random.
Stick days and likedoctor's appointments and
Elaine Timms (19:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sydney (19:58):
truly amazing.
My husband is also in themilitary, so we move a lot.
Elaine Timms (20:03):
Yeah.
Sydney (20:03):
to like stay home when we first move and get everyone like
acclimated and all of that is important.
Elaine Timms (20:10):
It's so nice, right?
Like, and thank goodness we have thatas an option in, in this day and age to.
Sydney (20:17):
yeah, for sure.
I remember, we kind ofhad that when I was a kid.
My mom worked like at a school, soshe had like summers off and stuff,
Elaine Timms (20:25):
Right.
Sydney (20:25):
it was still a little different being able to like completely
create your own schedule and behome and it's just 10 outta 10.
Recommend.
Elaine Timms (20:33):
after we record this podcast, I'm gonna go for a run.
Like what?
You know what I mean?
I couldn't do that in a nine to five.
And I quickly learned about myself whileI was in corporate before making the
transition that I just knew I couldn'tdo this for the rest of my life.
Like, I can't have a boss, a schedule,and you can only take this amount
of time for lunch and all of that.
So that doesn't work.
Sydney (20:54):
Yeah, definitely not for everyone,
Elaine Timms (20:56):
No.
Sydney (20:57):
for sure.
Now for the mom listening, who knows,Pinterest could help but keeps putting
it off, what would you say to her?
Elaine Timms (21:04):
I would say go on Pinterest because you're likely putting it up 'cause
you're not sure if it's going to work.
You don't think probably thatyour business belongs on there.
If I had to bet moneyon it, it would be that.
So I would invite them togo on and do some searches.
See what people are searching aroundand then get excited about it.
(21:25):
Go over to my website andgrab my free strategy guide.
It will give you an overview howeverything works and the important
things to get in place, andit's a great way to get started.
Sydney (21:37):
Perfect.
I was gonna ask about that next,so I will definitely have the link.
In the show notes for everyone to grab it.
And then can you just let us knowwhat your website is as well?
Elaine Timms (21:47):
Sure I can be found@elainetims.com
and from there you can check out.
I've got services, I just do DIY.
Services done for youservices at this point.
We'll see in the future ifI'll offer more but that's, you
can grab the strategy guide.
That will also mean that you'rejoining my Evergreen Impact newsletter,
where I share all of my bits and bobsand interesting pieces weekly ish,
(22:12):
and that's where you can find me.
Sydney (22:14):
Perfect.
I am definitely excited to check that out.
Thank you so much for taking the timeto chat with me about Pinterest today.
Elaine Timms (22:20):
Thank you for having me.
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