Wedding Pros: How to Generate Evergreen Leads & Book More Weddings With Dana Johnson

0:00:00 – Heidi Thompson
What if Pinterest could be your next best evergreen lead source, not just right after you post something, but bringing you leads all year round? That is what we’re talking about in this episode.

0:00:15 – Intro
In a world where wedding professionals are struggling to market and grow their businesses, one podcast brings together top experts and actionable strategies to help you build the wedding business of your dreams. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

0:00:52 – Heidi Thompson
Hey there, my friend, welcome to the podcast. I am your host, Heidi Thompson. I help wedding professionals of all different kinds make their marketing easy so they can book more weddings with the clients they love working with, and build a business that gives them freedom and flexibility. And build a business that gives them freedom and flexibility. And today I have a great interview for you. It is with Dana Johnson, and she has developed this fantastic process for herself and for her clients to turn Pinterest into this evergreen lead generator, this machine, this evergreen lead generator, this machine.

Pinterest is really interesting because I think we think of it in the social media bucket, but it’s really not. It’s a search engine and anytime we can index things in a search engine, we can be found long after we’ve created that content. It’s not like when you post something on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok and it’s kind of gone and irrelevant after a little while. Pinterest is really unique in the way that it works as a visual search engine, but also because of how huge it is and really always has been in the wedding industry. So let’s get into this interview with Dana Johnson, where she is going to take you behind the scenes on how she creates Pinterest strategies for wedding pros.

Today, I’m joined by Dana Johnson, who is the founder and lead strategist behind Styled Pin Collection, which is a service that helps wedding pros and creative business owners streamline their Pinterest marketing and grow their brand visibility. It has been a minute since we’ve talked about Pinterest here on the podcast. There have been a lot of things that have changed. I think a lot of people still don’t fully understand how to make use of Pinterest for their wedding businesses, so, dana, I’m really excited to have you here. Thank you so much for being here.

0:02:59 – Dana Johnson
Thank you for having me. I feel like it’s been forever just getting us together, so I’m thrilled to chat with your audience about Pinterest and I will always get on the soapbox of sustainable traffic to your wedding business. So super excited.

0:03:13 – Heidi Thompson
Well, let’s dig into that sustainable traffic piece, because I think that’s the really interesting thing about Pinterest, because Pinterest gets lumped in to social media and it’s kind of not.

0:03:30 – Dana Johnson
No, it is not. So. One of the, I think, biggest mindset shifts and I’ll be honest, even for myself, because when I did wedding planning a hundred years ago, it feels like I also use Pinterest with my couples to like really dive into this, the vision that they had, and I treated it like a social media platform, almost like Instagram. But light bulb moment, several years later, it’s actually a search engine. I am typing in a search bar what I’m looking for for my couples, or they’re searching for a certain aesthetic, brand, vibe, what have you, and they’re not just aimlessly scrolling. There’s intent there. So Pinterest is not a social media platform. It works more like Google. So for wedding professionals, this can be a huge advantage for them. The content that they’re creating, the stunning work that they’ve put their you know sweat, blood and tears in their expertise, their editorial ideas.

Those can help them get discovered because of the keywords that they’re using. They’re creating these weddings based on the research of real couples.

0:04:47 – Heidi Thompson
That’s a really interesting mindset shift If you think about it more in kind of like the SEO side of things, because you do have the keyword optimization that you can do and, like you said, the intent is different. People aren’t just scrolling Maybe they are scrolling a little bit on Pinterest but they’re also doing a lot of very specific searching. I’m curious, like what sorts of things do you see your clients’ couples searching for? Is it specific aesthetics that they’re looking for? Is it ideas for different things?

0:05:29 – Dana Johnson
So I, you can use the Pinterest trends tool to see what is trending in the last week, month, even the quarter really, for what’s currently trending and then kind of what they Pinterest predicts will be trending in the upswing, because some things are cyclical, like engagement season. Those months are when they are engaged and then they start actively planning the wedding, versus. It’s just a big dream and they might have five boards dedicated to it. So powerful things that do well on Pinterest are seasonal trends. So, no matter what the aesthetic is, it’s going to be tied to fall, winter, indoor, outdoor garden, like those seasonal trends.

Or evergreen topics like wedding planning, timelines, how to stay in budget, showcasing your unique style those are things that, again, no matter who the couple is and what their dynamic starts with, they want to be able to show their unique style, whatever that style is. So that’s an evergreen topic that will always, in my opinion, be something that will be searched for and that’s where you use the strategic keyboards of using, like timeless bridal bouquet. That is evergreen. But what does timeless mean to you? What does timeless mean to bride A or bride C or whatever? That’s where you get to add your unique spin on it first start working with someone.

0:07:02 – Heidi Thompson
I’m really curious what do those beginning steps look like? How are you putting that strategy together for them? Because it, you know, very much like Google. It’s this whole wide, open platform and there are so many directions you can go in. There’s so much you can do with it. How do you get started and get your clients focused so you can get them results?

0:07:32 – Dana Johnson
I always do a deep dive into their like brand blueprint. Basically, I want to know, not just you know their ideal couple, but how do they talk, how do they plan with their couples? Are they very high-touch, Are they more logistics? And you only pop up in the last six weeks. I want to dive really deep into your branding assets, your target audience insights, any other data that can really get to know who you are and then tailor the strategy that way, Because a pin strategy for I don’t want to say just an event manager, but an event manager is going to be different than a luxury wedding planner who does destination weddings. So once I get those identity assets, then I conduct research into the identifying trends, keywords and competitor strategies and outline a content plan that’s unique to them with design, pin or pin designs, captions, a posting schedule, all of that. Captions, a posting schedule, all of that.

0:08:45 – Heidi Thompson
I love so much that you start from that point. I talk about this and I have been talking about this for like 12 years and I will never shut up about it. Your ideal client drives everything. Who you want to attract, who you want to stand out to, drives everything. There’s no magic thing you can share that will just, you know, book you a bunch of random clients. It has to speak specifically to what your person wants and what they’re looking for, and I think, more than ever, you have to very clearly stand out. Those are the people I’m seeing be very successful, are the people who really understand their ideal client. They know what they care about and they make their marketing about what they care about. So I’ve told a million stories on this podcast about this, but basically none of us just know this.

Anytime we think we know it, myself included we’re at least a little bit wrong and that’s why I always take, you know, my members and the Wedding Business Collective through a process of talking to your best clients, and I follow the same process, because we’re just so close to our businesses Like it’s really, really difficult to know what’s going on in our clients’ heads without speaking to them. So I’m a huge proponent of basing everything on that. I’m so happy you said that, because it’s not just about, okay, let’s go pin a bunch of pretty pictures because, okay, pinterest is full of pretty pictures. That doesn’t mean it’s going to attract the right person and get them to actually, you know, go to your website and take any sort of action. And I’m sure you see this all the time from people who are maybe, like I’ve tried, you know, using Pinterest and that was their. I was gonna say strategy is not really a strategy, it’s just kind of doing stuff on Pinterest. Do you see that a lot?

0:11:10 – Dana Johnson
do you see that a lot on it? So, yes, but from my point of view, what I’ve recently encountered, actually, with a current client of mine it’s a wedding planner they are they have been trying to break out into the luxury wedding market for almost two years now. A lot of it was mindset shifts and we had to get some hurdles, like they were afraid of raising the rates and then, you know, not making money in this. So we worked through all of that and I finally got them to agree Like let me do your Pinterest, please Let me handle this, cause I actually have been working with them since I launched as just a virtual assistant going on five years ago. So I’ve been with them for a long time and they’ve stuck with me through my transition into Pinterest marketing and was my guinea pig. So I love them to death.

But there, with the shift, I only focused on Pinterest. I’m not doing any of the other admin things, and so it’s not just pinning a bunch of pretty pictures. I am pinning their most recent con like galleries and content that does showcase the elevated design work that they’re capable of. However, what happens is they are clicking, people are clicking. Their outbound clicks have increased tremendously in the last three months with dedicated effort, but their website does not reflect what’s on Pinterest. So what I see a lot of times, and that’s why I started with when I get a new client, we dive deep into your brand so that you, we map out a cohesive experience and you’re not just pinning amazing luxury level pin content. And then they get to your website and it looks like you just do rustic barn weddings, which there’s nothing wrong with rustic barn weddings. It’s just not sending the same message. So then they’re not going to book you for a coffee chat, even though they went to your website, because what they’re looking for isn’t showing up the entire step of the way.

0:13:17 – Heidi Thompson
That is a really good point. That disconnect happens a lot and I think it’s just one of those things. We’re so close to it it’s hard to see, without having someone else help you with it, to be able to see. Oh, this is why you know they’re coming to your website and they’re not taking the next step. You know it’s not. You know that you’re not sharing the right content on Pinterest or whatever. It’s the fact that it’s not cohesive, like you said, it’s not, it doesn’t match. And any of us, when we, you know, click on something somewhere, we go to the website. If the website looks dramatically different, if it’s not aligned, we immediately get, like you know, red flags of like oh wait, this isn’t what I was looking for, I must be in the wrong place. So then they leave.

0:14:10 – Dana Johnson
Yes. So it’s a no brainer to start with strong photography, using high quality, uncluttered images to showcase the details. It’s the details that always shine. You know, like the beautiful floral arrangements, how the tent wedding comes together. What have you? But you want to stick with that brand aesthetic. So whatever colors, fonts, imagery that you use on Instagram, pinterest, facebook and wherever else you’re putting it, it needs to show up in all the places that you’re sending people.

0:14:46 – Heidi Thompson
These just show up in all the places that you’re sending people. Yeah, that is really, really important, because even the best you know social media strategy or search strategy in the world is going to fall apart if, when they get to your website, it’s like that oh, I wasn’t expecting that. You know, you can’t, you can’t overcome that by, you know, posting more.

0:15:04 – Dana Johnson
Yeah, Like where’s the rest of the gallery that I just enjoyed looking at?

0:15:10 – Heidi Thompson
So I’m curious what sorts of things are you pinning? And when I say that I mean like, where are you directing people? Are you pinning things from blog posts and really focusing on like okay, here are different images from this specific wedding. How are you doing that?

0:15:32 – Dana Johnson
So I direct them to a variety of places. The main one is going to be the individual either blog posts or galleries that are set up like a blog post. A lot of photographers will do this. I know I have wedding planners in the past that the top of the blog is who the vendors were. So they have the backlinks and then it’s really just a gallery of highly optimized images with the right metadata descriptions. So no matter where they search, they’re going to get to this gallery. So I’d like to send them to one of those two places.

Pinterest now has well, not now it’s been a thing, but in the last six months they resurfaced.

You can link your Pinterest to your Instagram and it will, if you’re not careful, will funnel all of your Instagram reels, posts and everything onto your Pinterest feed, which can or cannot be a good thing, depends on how you put it up. But you can link individual Instagram posts. So to not recreate the wheel, if you have already worked with an Instagram manager and they have all your funnels taken care of from Instagram, link the posts to you from Instagram on there. Change the graphics so that it aligns with Pinterest like specifications, but link it to the Instagram post so they can see more, scroll through your profile and see more information or what other creative work you’re doing. And then there’s the link in your bio and it’s going to take them to wherever it is that you want to have more control over that connection, whether that’s signing up for your newsletter, grabbing your how to plan a destination wedding guide or best photography poses for your bridal portraits I don’t know. I’m making this up right now.

0:17:37 – Heidi Thompson
No, I get what you mean.

0:17:38 – Dana Johnson
You have control of that. If we’ve learned anything in the last seven days with social media, something can be shut down, and so you want to get your ideal clients from the platform to where you have more control over the communication and interaction as quickly as possible.

0:17:55 – Heidi Thompson
So for your clients is the goal for a lot of I’m sure you do a wide range of different campaigns, but are a lot of the pins leading to a place where they can see more of the gallery, see more of that wedding, and then the next step from there is to get on their email list.

0:18:20 – Dana Johnson
It depends on what the goal is. So if you’re more of like a coach or consultant, yes, I would say get on an email list, but for most wedding planners it’s to book a call and like, get that conversation started over coffee and chat with them one on one Gotcha one-on-one Gotcha.

0:18:43 – Heidi Thompson
So I imagine, when you’re working with people and they have these galleries, they have these blog posts, you’re making a very clear call to action to hey, if you want to have a wedding like blah, blah blah people that you just read about, click here to schedule a call read about.

0:19:09 – Dana Johnson
Click here to schedule a call. Yes, so when you lead couples to galleries, the primary goal would really be to showcase your work visually and then to highlight the portfolio to attract those ideal clients From there you’re wanting to directly, you’ll have, like, a call to action or, especially if it’s a blog or gallery, on that individual one on your website, while they’re scrolling a pop-up can pop like literally pop up. I hate pop-up to pop up, but with a call to action of dreaming of your wedding day, book a call or do you love this? Check out this other gallery. Like you can send them to another touch point along the pipeline.

0:19:52 – Heidi Thompson
I love that. Do you have a preferred tool you use for those?

0:19:57 – Dana Johnson
So most of the time I use the native pin scheduler to utilize. Tailwind is like the number one pinning tool and I have dabbled in it a little bit, but my clients currently don’t need that extensive tool um tools and resources for tailwind. But tell, I highly recommend tailwind. If well, I take that back.

I do have a client but we do community engagement for her and she has her tailwind on lock and she has like six months worth of pinning content already done I was in the but that is the platform that you can utilize, that you take the trends and things that you’re seeing and you can set up your pinning to do one to five pins per day for up to three to six months. It’s crazy how long you can do that.

0:20:52 – Heidi Thompson
What sort of frequency are you seeing work well at the moment? Because I know since Pinterest has been around, it has gone way up, way down, kind of all over the place.

0:21:09 – Dana Johnson
I hear there’s so much back and forth. Of course I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong thing. So if you have nothing but time, I would say aim for five to 15 pins per day to begin with, but that is overwhelming and I would never expect someone in the middle of a busy wedding season to make time for that.

0:21:32 – Heidi Thompson
Right.

0:21:32 – Dana Johnson
So, realistically, I say one to three pins per day. The main thing is starting with quality over quantity and then creating a mix of like new images or blog links and repinning your existing high performing content. So, looking at the analytics, see what’s attracting the best of your ideal clients and making more content like that and leading them there.

0:22:10 – Heidi Thompson
So if you have a gallery or a blog post, you’re sending people to. How many pins would you say on average, you have that are leading to that? Because I think people can maybe fall into the trap of thinking, like, well, I pin this one image and it goes to this one link and that is done.

0:22:23 – Dana Johnson
Oh, um, so they do. Pinterest does prioritize new unique content, so creating new pins with fresh visuals and titles is what you use for the same URL. You don’t have to have a new URL for everything. So if you are promoting a blog, I can talk today. If you are promoting a blog, then I would recommend creating three to five unique pin designs for that one blog post. I know other creatives that will do up to 10 unique pin designs for each blog post and do one per day or one every other day, and then the next day will be to a different location. That sort of thing.

0:23:09 – Heidi Thompson
I think this can sound overwhelming, but you’re listening to this. I want you to think about this for a second. Like, think about this for a second, because what this means is that one blog post that you wrote is actually going further and doing more work for you, and you’re not having to constantly. You know it’s not one pin per blog, so you’re having to churn out blog posts like crazy. You have this one blog post. You can use it in a multitude of different ways. So I think when we kind of shift thinking into that and, like you said, that kind of evergreen way of looking at things, it becomes a much more sustainable strategy.

0:23:58 – Dana Johnson
Yes, I think one of the biggest hurdles with any business owner, but especially those in the wedding industry, is overwhelm shot by this, by someone else, by other Pinterest pros, but really you’re creating fresh pin graphics but you’re not creating more blog posts. You are like I said, your one blog post can make 10 pins that month. So, for instance, I have a wedding, a luxury travel planner actually, and I write her blogs for her. She gets two blogs per month and then I make graphics for them and she gets. She’s on a light schedule, so she gets one pin per day, unless we just have extra, and then she might get two per day, but I do 10 pins per blog post and then each month, because she has old blogs, I will circulate those so that she gets 10 new pins, but it’s on a blog post that I did three months ago. It’s still going to drive traffic to our website. So in a way, you’re creating new content, but you’re also repurposing the content you’ve already created.

So all that people that you have from content creators at your weddings you can use to create video pins to still lead to that wedding gallery that’s on your website.

0:25:31 – Heidi Thompson
I love that, because when you really yeah, when you think about like okay, so you’re putting the work into this core piece of content, whether it’s this gallery page or it’s a blog post that I get can feel overwhelming. If it’s like, okay, now I’m going to do another one and another one. And I’m not saying don’t ever write new blog posts, but if you can make the stuff you’re creating work harder for you and go further and continue to work for you month after month after month, that’s amazing. And I think that’s definitely something very different about Pinterest that, like you said, very much puts it more in that search category than social, because social posts die, but Pinterest has a long life.

0:26:28 – Dana Johnson
You don’t need to spend hours every week on Pinterest If you are in a busy wedding season and you have to go down to only adding one blog or one gallery to your website a month.

Adding one blog or one gallery to your website a month, you can still take a previous one or one that was published in a magazine and repurpose that specific and be done with it. You also since you mentioned the longevity you work so hard to create these events and if you’re just putting it on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, that content disappears after 24 to 48 hours. That’s a lot of work to just see, poof and go away With the keywords and things that we work through with the brand blueprint. Your content can last six months or longer, especially those cyclical, evergreen content, ideas of, like the timeless bridal bouquets that’s going to be around forever and you have the content that’s already on your website, whether it’s this year, two years from, two years before now, two years into the future, like you’re going to have something that resonates with timeless wedding bouquets and you can use that to your advantage.

0:27:51 – Heidi Thompson
That longevity is awesome because we hear about it from an SEO perspective and, you know, with search on Google, but this is very much the same thing and I really think you know, if you take anything away from this, that mindset shift is huge, just a huge opportunity. Yes, this is yes. So I’m curious how do you tailor what you’re doing on Pinterest to attract local clients? Because that’s something I’ve heard people struggle with in the past when they’ve tried to, you know, build up an Instagram strategy for themselves, is they are. You know, they’re getting views, they’re getting pins or repins, they’re getting traffic, but it’s not the people that they necessarily want to be attracting, given they work with a local market.

0:28:53 – Dana Johnson
So I want to tie that back to keywords and using them strategically. So I would recommend incorporating location specific terms, naturally, into your pins, your boards and the descriptions of all of those things to improve the visibility in local searches. So pin title example would be romantic wedding venues in your city region. Wedding venues in your city region state, however it is that you want to market, that it could be timeless wedding ideas for input, set season for your city. Like you want to just highlight the aspects of your location.

0:29:38 – Heidi Thompson
That makes sense. So we’re not going in there just being like timeless bouquets, because that’s literally anybody anywhere.

0:29:47 – Dana Johnson
Yes, that’s way too broad, yeah. And then so, taking that a step further from the pin title, with your descriptions going along with the romantic vibe, highlighting the local aspects of perfect for couples planning a modern, romantic wedding in Charlotte, north Carolina, because that’s the closest metropolitan city to me, board names could be dedicated to best Charlotte wedding vendors. And then that’s where you open up a whole other can of collaborative worms with working with other wedding pros and pinning each other’s content and sending traffic.

0:30:25 – Heidi Thompson
Let’s talk about collaborative worms. I want to talk more about that.

0:30:29 – Dana Johnson
I just made that up. I’m glad that worked.

0:30:35 – Heidi Thompson
So tell me I mean, obviously repinning people’s stuff. You’re doing some of the marketing of their business for them. How are you collaborating? How are you working with, maybe, the vendors that your client loves to work with, or what are some ideas that you could use in order to make this maybe a little bit more of an organized thing?

0:31:02 – Dana Johnson
So, since you’re already using images from weddings or events that you’ve worked on locally to connect with the couples for inspiration, what you can do is again in mostly the captions is you can tag the venue or the vendors that are going to be found in the full gallery. So you’re still leading them to your website and the gallery or blog post, but you can tag that vendor’s Pinterest profile in there. So, yes, they’ll click on the link to go to your website, but they also have the capability of going to that business’s profile and looking at their work on Pinterest, and hopefully they have an amazing profile as well. If not, you should refer them to me and like that’s the biggest way. You can have community boards where you’re pinning each other’s stuff in there. Those are hit or miss in the industry too. I think they work best with other types of bloggers, but I have heard that you know wedding industry professionals have their own group boards where they can help boost and amplify their reach by repinning others’ content within that board.

0:32:16 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, that’s something that I mean. I haven’t done much with Pinterest in quite a while, so I know a lot of things have changed, but that was something at one time that was. An incredibly popular strategy is using these group boards in a collaborative way to kind of have everybody amplifying everybody else’s. And then, because they were so active, they were easy to find in search. You know, if someone’s looking, like you said, for Charlotte weddings, well this best Charlotte wedding vendors group comes up and they can find all of that content. I would think that would require an element of kind of orchestration and moderation among like, hey, everybody, let’s all do this, you know.

0:33:13 – Dana Johnson
I think what was happening was, potentially, someone wasn’t participating or they were Pinterest started deprioritizing these boards and search results just because it was almost like a spam, yeah, and getting the same thing at the same time, too fast and not strategically, and so it was hurting more than it was helping. So it was hurting more than it was helping. So I think if you do it in a mindful way, it can be beneficial, but I don’t. It’s not at the top of my recommendation list. Just because I don’t want to add one more thing to your plate, let me remember to pin in this specific board and to make sure that everyone else is doing it too. Like you have enough to manage, let’s not add.

0:34:02 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, having to manage a bunch of people on top of that is like oh no, no, thank you yes, I think there’s so many other things I’d rather do, but tagging people such an easy way to collaborate and like, pull those other people in.

I’m curious what are the kind of overlooked parts of Pinterest that you see wedding professionals maybe not even realize are an option and not pay enough attention to, whether it’s like the analytics or optimizing the bio or board strategy. I mean, I’m sure there’s a million different things, but I’m curious what comes to mind.

0:34:45 – Dana Johnson
I definitely think the board optimization is important and I don’t. A lot of people focus on the pin title and description and that’s. That’s well and great. But taking it a step further and optimizing your boards to serve as the backbone of your Pinterest profile will be beneficial, because if you lead someone to your Pinterest account, it’s the boards that they’re basically going to see first, and then they’ll go in there to see your pin graphics. That’s if you are sending them directly there, I mean they might search and then they’ll find your pin and then hopefully they find your boards. But if you are working with a new bride or couple and you send them your pinterest account, that’s where I say board optimization. So you want to use keywords that your audience is searching for on the board titles and then add the keyword rich descriptions to help clarify a little bit further what each board offers and improves the searchability of your account.

0:35:55 – Heidi Thompson
I’m sure asking this question is kind of like asking you how long a piece of string is, but how many boards should people be aiming to have, because it’s kind of like an infinite thing.

0:36:11 – Dana Johnson
I aim on the side of minimalism. I don’t like being overwhelmed when I’m looking at stuff. So I feel like a sweet spot is 10 to 15 boards and then when you feel like one is no longer relevant, switching it up or swapping it with something else, Because I mean, I’ve been on accounts and they have endless boards. I’m like I’m not going to scroll that far down. I want like a one-pager resume of the amazing things that you can design and create and how you’re going to solve my life of planning a wedding.

And I don’t want to scroll very far to do that. So I say 10 to 15 boards is a great starting place.

0:36:56 – Heidi Thompson
Well, that’s good news, because I’ve definitely seen those profiles too and it’s like scroll, scroll, scroll still. And then it’s just like where do I start? You know what’s okay. So if you could categorize the types of boards one of your clients has, he tells a little bit about those, like are there some that are about the aesthetic? Are there some that are about like for a planner, like more logistics? How are you coming up with and breaking down the individual board topics so that they’re really focused on the goals of that particular client and align with their brand?

0:37:47 – Dana Johnson
So I would recommend creating a comprehensive profile. So when you connect with your couples, how are you doing that in your conversation? So, like with mine, I start with branding. So I do have like one of my boards is called the business of weddings and any kind of logistic marketing something. Something is going to be in there. But then I have one called trending on the aisle. So when I find things that I’m drooling over aesthetically and inspired by, even though I don’t plan weddings, I put it in there. Over aesthetically and inspired by even though I don’t plan weddings, I put it in there.

So I would say aesthetics and inspiration would be a great category or pillar to include. So you would focus more on the visual inspiration to capture the attention of couples, whether that’s wedding color palettes, seasonal wedding inspiration, various wedding themes and styles, especially if you’re. You know, I know some wedding planners. They’re luxury wedding planners but their style, their theme is mostly tent weddings and that’s a whole vibe in itself. Venue specific inspiration. So outdoor weddings versus chic city wedding venues, that sort of thing. Are you into the multicultural destination? So you want to have aesthetics and inspiration surrounded around that topic and pillar Logistics and planning. I just feel like that adds all the peace of mind that a newly engaged, possibly frantic bride is looking for. So wedding planning checklist, day of coordination tips, timeline, logistics, vendor spotlights to show that you do know the right people to bring together, to bring their grand vision to life. And then the obvious floral and decor, fashion and beauty. Like you know, design and creativity and style is going to be super important in my opinion.

0:39:51 – Heidi Thompson
I like that. That gives a picture of like, what does a well-rounded board strategy look like? You have things like the styles, seasons, but you’re also incorporating all of these other areas without it being super overwhelming, because, I mean, for any expert in weddings like you could talk about anything for years. You know there’s so much to all of this, but I don’t know what exactly makes sense to do, and I’m sure you see that all the time, with people who you know want to make use of Pinterest but maybe feeling a little lost, like they don’t quite know where to start.

0:41:00 – Dana Johnson
I think having that balance, too, helps to attract engaged couples in whatever phase of planning that they are, cause not every engaged like newly engaged couple, is like I’m immediately going to hire a wedding planner, no matter how grand of a wedding they think they have in mind, some of them still go into it thinking I can do it all on my own. So you don’t catch them at that phase. You catch them maybe one to two months in and they’ve maybe found their venue, but now they’re overwhelmed with the 5,001 questions that come from the wedding venue of who’s doing this and what’s happening over here and who’s in charge of this. And then they’re like, oh, I need someone else to do this. And you catch them at a different phase of their planning and so, having those variety of inspiration, the practicality and like the authority of how to choose XYZ wedding venue or how to hire, how to pick seasonal blooms for whatever the case may be, you position yourself as a go-to expert and they’re going to be confident in you before they even book a call.

0:42:11 – Heidi Thompson
Love the way you’re thinking about that. How are you using the analytics that Pinterest gives you? Because I’m not even up to date on what they give you at the moment, so I’m curious how that informs what you do and you know what sorts of things you do more of and less of, because we want to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

0:42:36 – Dana Johnson
I love. Well, I love and I hate it. It’s almost like looking at the stock market. Sometimes I’m like, oh man, it’s all working and then if I see a dip, I’m like what’s happening? But Pinterest analytics is a powerful tool for any professional, but to understand how your content is performing I mean, that works on any platform. But utilizing the data allows me to make better informed decisions so I can continue to boost engagement, increase that website traffic and, ultimately, the big goal of attracting more potential clients to their website.

So what I look for is detailed information about the audience, demographics and interests so you’re able to see the gender and age of who you’re targeting. Are you targeting more brides or grooms? Are you targeting other wedding vendors? What locations are they? Knowing where your audience is can help you tailor your pins. If you are trying to be more local but your pin content is pulling people from two states away, then we need to hyper-focus on your local keyword strategy and creating boards based on your region with wedding trends specific to that area. You can also see what your audience is interested in. So anyone that’s liked your content, pinterest will let you know what other topics that your followers are interested in, so you can use this to diversify your content with ideas like venue inspiration or honeymoon destinations or whatever that it is that they’re interested in.

When you’re tracking pin performance, we look at impressions, which is how often your pins are shown to users it kind of just shows up on their feed Then engagements, which are the clicks and saves and how often they’re interacting with it. So it’s not just oh, it popped up, but did it catch their attention to where they opened it. And then the outbound clicks is when someone clicked to leave Pinterest and go to wherever it is that you’re leading them. So to me, identifying the best performing pins is a mixture of those things of is it being seen period, is it engaging enough or attractive enough to get them to open it up? And then, is it adding enough value that they’re wanting to go to your website or your blog to learn more about the content that’s on the pin?

0:45:10 – Heidi Thompson
that makes a lot of sense and I love that they give you that information about, like, what else are they looking at, what else are they interested in? Because then you don’t, it’s a guess. Then you can get the kind of cheat code of what else you should be creating. And I’m a big fan in general of letting data guide your decisions, because then you don’t have to guess things, you don’t have to make it up. It tells you right there oh, we’re not attracting enough people that are in our state. Okay, now I know what very specific change I need to make.

0:45:47 – Dana Johnson
I love how clear that can make things yes, I think, like I said, it’s fun to watch it, but sometimes, if you like, if you do see a dip, then you got to really figure out what’s going on. Like what season are you in? Is it high engagement season, where more people are going to be searching, or is it we’re in a wedding season and the number of people getting engaged has gone down? So how can we tweak that and meet them, no matter where they are in their journey? I think regularly reviewing these insights helps you keep your Pinterest strategy working, no matter what season of wedding planning you’re in.

0:46:25 – Heidi Thompson
I love that. Tell me a little bit more about the people that you work with, like who’s a good fit to work with. Someone like yourself that’s going to really take over this Pinterest strategy from creation to implementation, this Pinterest strategy from creation to implementation.

0:46:54 – Dana Johnson
So I love working with creative business owners and wedding professionals that are growth oriented and understand that organic marketing, especially Pinterest marketing, is a long-term effort. So they value that sustainable business growth and aren’t looking for the next viral thing. They understand the importance of consistent, evergreen marketing strategies that drive results over time and kind of compound on to each other. They’re not necessarily looking for quick fixes. I want to build a solid foundation for each business owner that I work with. I want to create pin designs and strategies and workflows that align with their unique style and the vision that they have for their business five, 10 years down the road.

0:47:40 – Heidi Thompson
That’s a really important mindset to have anytime you’re working on something that is search based. You know Google, seo, pinterest, like this stuff takes time. But when you really shift your mindset to looking at this is you’re building assets that compound on each other so you’re not constantly chasing, you know, the next viral post for Instagram or TikTok, if we get to have that. You know it’s, it’s slow and steady, it’s sustainable, but it yields those evergreen results. And I, too, I’m a very big fan of you know, let’s build these pieces that compound so you get more out of them as it goes than you initially put in. So if anyone’s listening and they’re like, hell yes, dana, I need to talk to you. Where can they go to find out more about you?

0:48:49 – Dana Johnson
to find out more about you, so you can find me on Instagram at danisdesknc. I also have my own podcast called the Unapologetic Penner, which is also on Instagram, and anybody that wants to learn more about me and connect. I mean.

I created the style bin collection specifically for those overwhelmed wedding professionals Like they’re. The templates are designed to make on-brand pins quickly, so if they’re busy and they only have an hour, they can bust out a whole month worth of content for their Pinterest account with ease, and my inbox is always open if they have questions.

0:49:26 – Heidi Thompson
Awesome. I will make sure to link to all of that in the show notes, but thank you so much for taking the time to break this down for us. I know Pinterest is one of those things that, like it’s always been important in the wedding industry, but it has ebbed and flowed and shifted over the years, over probably more than a decade or almost a decade that it’s been around, and I love your way of looking at this as this way of building sustainable, evergreen traffic and leads. That is just beautiful. We don’t get enough of it. So thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.

0:50:11 – Dana Johnson
Thank you for having me. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing all these tips, so I can’t wait to see hopefully can’t wait to see what your audience creates on Pinterest, even if they just want to DM me their Pinterest account so I can be a nerd and look at their stuff.

0:50:26 – Heidi Thompson
Definitely do it. Go head over to Dana’s Instagram. I’ll be sure to link to it in the show notes as well. Dana, thanks again. I really appreciate it.

0:50:36 – Dana Johnson
Yeah, thank you.

0:50:38 – Heidi Thompson
I hope that’s given you some ideas of what Pinterest can do for you that maybe you didn’t fully realize, and also shown you that it doesn’t have to be this huge thing. You know. It doesn’t have to be that you’re pinning a crazy amount of pins every single day in order for this to be something that works for you. I am going to link to everything we talked about and Dana’s links over in the show notes for this episode, which you can find at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/304. And I would, of course, love to hear from you.

I love talking to listeners in my DMs over on Instagram, so I would love to hear what you thought about this episode. Is this something you’ll try for yourself? Is this something you found interesting? Are you interested in working with someone like Dana to implement this? Whatever it is that’s going through your head? I would love to know. So send me a DM. I am evolveyourweddingbusiness over on Instagram and I can’t wait to hear from you. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in today and I’ll speak to you again very soon.