Explore the Possibilities of Pinterest with The Impact Map

For book creators and sellers, the dream of reaching more readers and selling more books is always top of mind. But Pinterest offers something deeper than just sales—it’s a platform that helps you connect with your audience in a way that educates, inspires, and delights. Success here isn’t about quick wins; it’s about strategy, audience understanding, and building a lasting presence. That’s where The Impact Map comes in.

Pinterest: A Unique Opportunity

Unlike traditional social media platforms, Pinterest is a visual search engine. While eye-catching graphics are essential, the real power of Pinterest lies in discovery—helping people find solutions, inspiration, and ideas. And when they do, your website becomes the next step in their journey.

For Pinterest to work its magic, your site needs more than just the basics. It should be a rich, welcoming space that encourages visitors to return, offering valuable content that answers their questions, solves their problems, or sparks their imagination. That’s why building a Pinterest presence begins with understanding how your web content and strategy can align.

Introducing The Impact Map

The Impact Map is more than a starting point—it’s an opportunity to gain clarity about how your books, programs, or services might resonate on Pinterest. Whether you’re simply curious about the platform’s potential or ready to take action, it provides a clear, thoughtful plan tailored to your unique goals.

Here’s how it works:

• Schedule a Fit Call: A conversation to explore your needs and whether The Impact Map is right for you.

• In-Depth Interview: We spend 90 minutes diving into your content, goals, and target audience. It’s a collaborative process aimed at uncovering opportunities.

• Personalized Impact Map: Within a week, you’ll receive a PDF detailing strategies to help you connect with your audience and achieve your objectives.

• Follow-Up Review: A one-on-one session to discuss the findings and ensure you’re ready to implement the plan.

Whether you’re an indie author, a small press, or a publisher with a marketing team, this process is adaptable to your needs. The Impact Map isn’t a commitment to long-term services—it’s a resource to help you make informed decisions about how Pinterest can support your work.

Building Authority with The Impact Map

At its core, The Impact Map is about building authority and trust on Pinterest. It provides clarity on how your books, programs, and services can resonate with the platform’s audience. Here are a few ways it helps:

1. Discovering Your Audience

Pinterest’s potential goes far beyond traditional audiences like teachers or parents. Through The Impact Map, we explore unexpected niches—whether tied to your book’s themes, seasonal trends, or academic connections.

2. Strategizing Content: The Power of Organic and Promoted Pins

Pinterest success often comes from a thoughtful mix of organic and promoted pin strategies, each offering unique benefits:

• Organic Pins focus on building a natural, long-term presence. These unpaid pins are crafted to engage your audience over time, teaching Pinterest’s algorithm how to index your content and connect it with the right users. Organic strategies ensure that your content stays relevant and discoverable, making them ideal for evergreen topics like educational resources or timeless book themes.

• Promoted Pins, on the other hand, provide a way to amplify your reach quickly. These paid ads help you target specific audiences, boosting visibility for time-sensitive campaigns like book launches, holiday promotions, or special events. Promoted pins blend seamlessly with organic content, making them an unobtrusive yet effective way to drive traffic and engagement.

When used together, these strategies reinforce one another. Organic content builds a foundation of credibility and relevance, while promoted pins accelerate your visibility, introducing your work to new audiences who might not have discovered it otherwise. The Impact Map outlines how to strike the perfect balance between the two, ensuring your Pinterest strategy works effectively for your goals and your audience.

3. Optimizing Boards

Boards are the foundation of a Pinterest platform. The Impact Map outlines how to create keyword-rich, audience-focused boards that enhance visibility and connect with user searches. Thoughtful board optimization ensures your content not only gets noticed but stays relevant over time.

4. Maximizing Web Content

Pinterest thrives on robust web content. From landing pages and book lists to blogs and opt-ins, The Impact Map analyzes how to leverage your website effectively, ensuring it supports a strong Pinterest presence. Pinterest loves depth, and your site’s content plays a crucial role in building your platform’s success.

A Tool for Clarity and Direction

One of the most valuable aspects of The Impact Map is its flexibility. It’s a resource that provides direction—whether you’re new to Pinterest or already building a platform. There’s no obligation to continue collaborating with us. Instead, it’s about offering insight and guidance, empowering you to make decisions that align with your goals.

This approach makes The Impact Map particularly beneficial for smaller indie publishers or individuals curious about Pinterest’s potential. It’s also a welcome addition for publishers with established marketing teams who want to fine-tune their strategies.

Why Pinterest Matters

Ultimately, The Impact Map is about more than selling books. It’s about creating a space where your audience can discover, connect, and engage with your content. Pinterest’s evergreen nature means your efforts can continue working for you long after a pin is posted. For book creators and sellers, this isn’t just a tool—it’s an opportunity to build something lasting.

If you’ve ever wondered how your books, programs, or services might resonate on Pinterest, The Impact Map offers a thoughtful starting point. Let’s explore the possibilities together.

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Evergreen Pin Power in Action: A Case Study

We hear the term “evergreen” tossed around a lot when it comes to promoting books, programs, and services on Pinterest. It sounds important—maybe even a little exciting—but what does it really mean for authors like us? How does evergreen marketing actually work, and why is it such a game-changer?

For me, the idea of evergreen marketing is THE reason authors should consider building a vibrant presence on Pinterest. Every time we at Pin Lit create fresh campaigns for our clients, we approach them with the goal of crafting a lasting, evergreen presence, using their content as the foundation. This process takes consistency, creativity, and a solid strategy—but trust me, the effort is absolutely worth it. Let me show you what I mean.

Currently, we’re partnering with a client to build a pre-publication platform for an exciting new nonfiction baseball book titled OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABE, set to release four months from now. The first step any savvy Pinterest marketer takes when introducing a new release is to establish fresh boards inspired by the themes, topics, and main ideas represented in the book.

When creating board titles, it’s best to use search terms your target audience is likely to type when looking for content. For this project, we’ve chosen titles like US Biography Books, Baseball Books, and 1900s American Baseball History Books. These targeted terms ensure the book connects with its ideal readers from the start.

Once the board is created on Pinterest, the next step is to “optimize the board.” To do this, simply type the board title into the search bar and hit Enter. If the title resonates well with Pinterest’s search algorithm, the screen—or “feed”—will fill with pins that share a common thread.

Here’s where it gets exciting: the pins that appear at the very top of the feed are the highest-ranking ones for that topic. Think of them as the gold stars of the group—pins that are performing well and aligning perfectly with your board’s focus.

Once Pinterest displays the pins it thinks best match the search, the next step is to add 20 to 30 of the most relevant pins to the fresh board. This process serves two important purposes: it helps Pinterest understand how to index the author’s new content within the board, and it gives those high-ranking pins a little extra love by repinning them. Win-win!

While optimizing fresh boards for OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABE, I was thrilled to see a pin for a previous client rank as a high-performer in the search results. The best part? This pin, promoting her nonfiction picture book biography about Yogi Berra, was originally posted back in July of 2021! That pin is over three years old and it’s still going strong!

This is evergreen marketing in action. That pin—and all the others we created to promote her books—will continue to work for her as long as she maintains a presence on the platform.

This is the magic of evergreen marketing on Pinterest: it’s not just about creating content; it’s about building a presence that keeps working for you over time. Whether it’s a new release or a beloved backlist title, Pinterest has the power to connect your books, programs, and services with readers long after the initial campaign.

So, what’s stopping you? Start planting those evergreen pins today and watch your efforts grow!

Ready to explore how Pinterest can work for you? Let’s connect and make it happen.

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Pin Lit Marketing is the premier Pinterest strategist for books, blending literary insight with unmatched expertise in captivating young readers. Your new audience awaits! Sign up for a Fit Call today!

Adventures of a Debut Author - Where to Begin?

As luck would have it, this week I had the great pleasure of enjoying a phone conversation with one of the most delightful individuals I know – Andrea Cascardi. I first met Andrea when she was working as an agent with Transatlantic Literary Agency. I was serving as Regional Advisor for the Austin SCBWI chapter at the time. She was an esteemed guest during one of our most awesome annual conferences. As an RA, you relate with agents and editors on a personal level all the time. Getting to personally know Andrea was a sheer pleasure, to be sure.

During our phone conversation, Andrea and I chatted about successful marketing strategies for debut authors. Like many others, I wonder . . . what avenues are most effective in spreading the word about our books – blog tours, paid publicists, social media marketing, and speaking engagements? Where does a debut author start?

According to Andrea, one the most effective ways to promote your book is to connect with community – be it on the local level, a professional level such as with SCBWI or library associations, and/or through social media. She said to go out and personally meet local booksellers and librarians. Sure, let them know that soon there will be a book to buy. But let your intention be get to know one another. Become genuine friends.  Not what’s-in-it-for-me type of friends. The real deal.

Andrea said that people want to be invested in a writer’s success. They love being a part of grassroots campaign supporting an individual and a project they believe in. By reaching out and connecting in this way, we’re giving a community the opportunity to do just that.

She also said start early, well before publication. Don’t wait until you’re holding the book in your hand. Let the process of genuinely connecting with others begin right away!

I can do that.

Speaking of connecting, this week author pal and former SCBWI RA Erin Dealy shared a blog thread about debut authors from her website. The thread title is What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Book. In it, she toys with a pregnancy theme. It’s fun, clever, and insightful! Check it out.

So, the debut author tip of the day is to reach out to others in a genuine, friendly, and personal way locally, professionally, and in cyber space. Build authentic relationships. Also, don’t wait until publication. Begin today!