CASE STUDY: MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH 3 VIRAL PINS

 
a Wild Co. crew exclusive.

At this point, I know we’ve ALL read (and read, and read) blog posts about how to get traffic back to your site through Pinterest.

Traffic means numbers, and sales, and a larger audience.

I’ve read my fair share of these articles, too – I want traffic, just like everyone else – and most of them include the usual strategies: make sure your pin is attractive, use a scheduling tool to pin at the right time of day, and participate in Group Boards to expand your audience.

Hell, I’VE written posts that include those strategies – and it’s all great advice. The problem is, while the “how do I get traffic?” question is an easy one to answer, actually making it a reality is tricky.

Ultimately, funnelling Pinterest traffic to your site comes down to: having your pin go viral.

That’s it. There is no guaranteed strategy, or combination of things that will ensure a piece of your content takes off.

My past personal experience includes:

 
Trying, and trying, and TRYING, and burning myself out. To be frank, at one point, I burned out enough to give up. And then, a year later, the right person pinned a piece of my content, and suddenly, I was dealing with thousands of new visitors.

Between Fall 2016 and Summer 2017, I’ve had three different pins (and three different pieces of content) go viral.

There are things I did consistently between all three pins, and things that were wildly different between them. As I had more content go viral, the easier it became to intuitively lean into the things that were working.

In this case study, I’ll walk through each of my pins, and tell the story behind how each one went viral:

PIN #1: THE SECRET TO MY PINTEREST SUCCESS

PIN #2: HOW TO GET RID OF STUFF WHEN YOU’RE REALLY REALLY BAD AT IT

PIN #3: THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL GARAGE SALE

First, I’ll break down what each pin (and corresponding post) was about. I’ll also include some hard statistics from my analytics account. After, I’ll show you what the consistences – and inconsistencies – were between all three pins.

Pin #1: THE SECRET TO MY PINTEREST SUCCESS

Originally posted on March 21, 2016
Started going viral in mid November 2016

In this post, I covered the tool I found makes the biggest difference in my Pinterest growth: Tailwind. This post includes affiliate links, but it was NOT sponsored by Tailwind. After the post went viral, my affiliate income shot up over the course of about three months, and has stayed consistent since.

PIN #2: HOW TO GET RID OF STUFF WHEN YOU’RE REALLY BAD AT IT

Originally posted on November 17, 2016
Started going viral in early March 2017

This post is about the emotional attachment we have to our physical belongings, and how guilt and shame can lead us to hold onto (literal) baggage. Told you all three posts were about totally different topics!

PIN #3: THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL GARAGE SALE

Originally posted on my old domain in 2015
Reposted to my new domain on March 6, 2016
Started going viral sometime in 2015

Now here’s the weird one. This post was originally written and posted on the domain I had prior to Wild Co (then Modernette.ca, a lifestyle blog that I ran from 2011 to 2014), it was one of three posts I moved over.

This one is an interesting story, because it ALSO went viral while on its original home at Modernette.ca. I don’t have the stats and numbers for that domain any longer (#RIP), but you can still see the pin directing to the old link here. So far, the pin linking to the defunct Modernette.ca has approximately 4,000 repins.

Here’s the interesting part: this pin went viral twice, on two separate domains, with very little promotion on my part.

The funny thing is:

I spent a year writing content I thought would go viral. Wanna know how many of them are included in the three pins above? Zero!

Now, here’s my list of consistences between all three pins:

  • There were at least four months between publishing to my blog, and when they began to gain traction.
  • I pinned all of them to my blog’s Pinterest board first.
  • Using Tailwind, I took advantage of the Interval Pinning feature to schedule each post to relevant Group Boards three months at a time.
  • All 3 post/Pin images were heavily branded (same font, logo, voice).
  • I looped each pin using BoardBooster.
  • The posts themselves are about 2,000 words long.
  • My writing is very clear and concise: no long-winded personal tales before I get to the promised content.
  • Each post is broken down into sections, with clear subheadings.

And here are the ways the pins were different from one another:

  • As I mentioned above, the three topics were not related.
  • The pins drew completely different audiences and demographics.
  • One was a Promoted Pin (#1), while the other two were not.
  • Only one included a free opt-in (#3), while the other two did not.
  • Two posts (#1 and #2) included affiliate links.

So, the great Pinterest war rages on 💥

 
…and I’ll continue to document my experiences with it! If you’d like to receive an email when I release future Pinterest content, you can opt-in below 💪

My major business goal for the end of this year (and all of next!) is to cut down on the sheer number of opt-ins and email buy-ins I’m creating. I don’t know about you, but I’m ​exhausted​ and 100% over having to “sell” my email address just for one little spreadsheet or .pdf file.

If you choose to opt-in, you’ll receive a quick note from me when I have something new and Pinterest-y for you. But I won’t withhold ~the good stuff from you if you don’t.

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