Pinterest Marketing for Photographers
Is Pinterest good for photographers to promote their business? Oftentimes photographers use Pinterest as a source of inspiration for themselves but don’t consider the impact of the platform for their businesses. Let’s walk through how to use Pinterest marketing for photographers and how you can set it up for your own studio.
Is Pinterest useful for photographers?
Besides being an endless source of inspiration, Pinterest and photography go well together because of the visual nature of the platform. Since Pinterest is a visual search engine photographers would find the platform to be a great place to showcase your work. From using it as a portfolio to niching down in your local area. The great thing about Pinterest is the domain authority of the platform often lends itself to showing up in Google search results as well.
Other ways Pinterest is useful to photographers:
- Turn your photos into search friendly content
- Use it as a portfolio for current and future clients to see your work
- Collaborate with other professionals like wedding planners to gain a wider reach
- Drive traffic to your website to build awareness of your studio
How to use Pinterest to promote your photography?
Now that you know how Pinterest can be useful to you as a photographer let’s get into how to use the platform in a practical way. To use Pinterest to promote your photography you need to get out of simply sharing your photos off the cuff and being more strategic about it.
You need to get into the mindset of your ideal client. How are they looking for you?
Optimize Your Profile First
If you already have a profile in place that’s okay just follow the steps ahead to get your business in a position to be surfaced when your pinners search for you.
Start with finding your keywords for Pinterest and using them to optimize your profile.
These keywords might be phrases that target your style of photography, your locations you shoot in, techniques you use, audience specific keywords, niche photography phrases and more.
For example, you’re a newborn photographer. You might use phrases like:
- Newborn photography
- New York City newborn photography
- Minimalist newborn photography
Take your keywords and use them on your profile for board titles, board descriptions and potentially your bio if those are the phrases you want to be known for on Pinterest.
Next move on to your display name on your profile. This space can be used to place an additional keyword phrase that will help users to find you when they’re searching on Pinterest.
Focus on the main topic you want to be known for on Pinterest. For example, you’re a wedding photographer in New York City. Find the keyword phrase that matches that on Pinterest and use it in your display name like the example below.
Lastly, you're going to optimize your Pinterest bio. You want to use the space to tell your audience who you are and what you do using your keywords. For example, the photographer in the example below.
It’s preferred if you use longer keyword phrases so instead of elopements use New York City elopements.
Don’t worry about using hashtags or links in your bio as they are not clickable. You should also avoid using dates as this is often a place that is overlooked when updating your profile.
Lastly, when naming your boards don’t use your brand name, letters or numbers that aren’t necessary or any odd characters. Just use your keyword phrase to make it as easy as possible to be found.
Create your Pinterest pin strategy
Now that you have your profile ready to move into your Pinterest pin strategy. Creating pins for your photography sessions is just the start. As a photographer, you’ll also need to create (or outsource) blog posts that help you get discovered by your ideal clients.
You can do this by:
- Creating blogs for each photography session
- Writing blogs for your niche photography type
- Writing blogs for your local area
- Writing guides for your clients to use
- Writing blogs to explain photography styles
You can then turn all of these into Pinterest pins. This allows you to capture more of an audience that is searching for you but doesn’t know what they want just yet.
Portfolio vs blog posts for each event
Most photographers create a portfolio on their websites and add their photos into those portfolios. This is great but you can do more and be found more widely if you use an SEO-friendly link for each client.
That’s where a blog post really can help to rank you on Google and beneficial for Pinterest. You can detail the shoot in your blog using great keywords and pinners will find it super useful, likely saving it for consideration later on.
Ideal Pinterest Pin Sizing
Pinterest pins come in a variety of sizes. Don’t be afraid to mix it up as long as you use proper keywords on your titles and descriptions.
Pin Size Best Practices:
These are given to us in the video format in the Pinterest article but these are great for both videos and image pins.
2:3 - 1000x1500
9:16 -1080x1920
1:1 - 1000x1000
4:3 - 1024x768
5:4 - 1080x1350
Should you use video pins or image pins?
Simply put, yes you should use both but there is a method to using video on Pinterest. You want to use video in a way that stops the scroll but is also serving your pinner value. They’re not really looking to be entertained on Pinterest but looking for ideas, inspiration and things to do, buy and try.
If you want to use video on Pinterest as a photographer you may want to lean into a few types of content.
Behind the Scenes
Showcase a shoot if you have the ability to do so. Show how you pose your subjects, how you style them before photographing them. Showcase how you use props or set up a scene.
Before and After
You can mix together your behind the scenes content you get with the after shots once you’re done editing.
Animated Collages/Slideshow
Showcase your portfolio with each client as an animated slideshow.
Tips & Tricks
Turn your tips blog posts into video pins by making a video showcasing the content in a visual format. For example, you have a family shoot in the fall and you write a blog post on how to choose outfits for a fall shoot that don’t clash. Turn those tips into a video using your photos or video from the shoot.
Location Highlights
Showcase locations without giving away the exact details about where to find it (if it isn’t publicly known already) and what you can do with those locations.
Using Pinterest Trends as a Photographer
Using Pinterest Trends isn’t just for crafters and food creators. There is a sizable audience interested in photography on Pinterest. On this platform photography falls within the art category and 91% of all Pinterest users are interested in art and of those 76% are interested in photography.
That’s a large number of people interested in your subject. So visit Pinterest Trends and use your filters like what you see in the example below to find trends and create pins with them.
Pinterest trends are keyword phrases you can use in your titles, descriptions, text overlays as well as for boards and board descriptions.
Long-term Success on Pinterest
The best results on Pinterest come from a strategic keyword plan, consistent content creation, and giving the platform time to grow with you. While overnight success is rare, especially in photography, the long-term rewards can be significant. Pinterest is a slow burn, but it’s worth it. Every pin you create has the potential to drive traffic for months, even years.
Set realistic expectations and focus on building a strategy that resonates with your audience. And remember: if your Instagram strategy isn’t converting leads into clients, simply repurposing that content for Pinterest won’t work miracles. Instead, use Pinterest as an opportunity to rethink, refine, and reach new audiences. With patience and purpose, you’ll build a presence that keeps paying off.