Thursday Press #75: I busted my ass... 😳
[6 APR 2023] how to prevent your own Pinterest slip & falls
It was 5 p.m. on Monday and I had 18 minutes and counting to decide if I was going to impulse attend the first soccer game of the season for my local queer sports league.
See, my hope, dude, was that I could sneak up on my occasionally paralyzing social anxiety by making a last-minute decision to go to the game, thereby skipping over the days of anxious anticipation
It's kinda like how Victoria would try to stay out of Alice's visions in Twilight, k?
If I've given you whiplash with the switch from sports to Twilight reference, remember that I am a multi-faceted person and I'm telling you the story of how I totally wiped out in public, so do me a favor and keep reading.
It had been raining for basically a week prior to this game, and the field was decidedly soggy. Not ideal conditions for a soccer novice in regular-degular sneakers.
One second I was happily jogging down the field, and the next I found myself firmly planted in a mud puddle
I had totally busted my ass.
In front of at least two dozen basically strangers that I hoped to become friends with.
If I had told 5 p.m. past-Sarah that, she never would have left the house.
But she had, and I'm going to thank the rush of endorphins for shielding me from feeling any sort of lasting embarrassment. That, and the fact that one of my new friends did the same thing not 5 minutes later.
My mud-encrusted leggings weren't the end of my soccer woes, however.
It wasn't until I got home and the workout high faded that I realized I had rolled my left ankle and my right arch was killing me.
Note to self: injuries take a lot longer to heal at 25 than 10 (the last time I played soccer seriously) 🥴
There are a lot of reasons my body started screaming at me after this first game.
I didn't stretch or warm up properly, this was basically a new exercise that I wasn't prepared for, and umm, I don't know when to call it quits when I'm having fun.
Oh, yeah, and I was also in the total wrong pair of shoes.
So when the next Monday rolled around, I drove myself to the closest sporting goods store and returned home 30 mins later with a brand spankin' new pair of cleats.
Bestie, I can't even beGIN to explain to you what a difference it made.
Yeah, I got a few blisters because I didn't break in the shoes first, but my feet stayed firmly planted on the ground, with no twists or slips at all 🤩
Having the right equipment made a WORLD of difference in my comfort and confidence.
Did it magically make me better at soccer? No. I still overestimate the length of my legs and duck when a ball rockets toward my head. 😅
But with the right equipment (and a thorough stretching routine), I've avoided most of the pitfalls of my first impulsive foray into soccer
& today I'm sharing how you can do the same with your Pinterest account
BELOW THE FOLD
I'm gonna be honest, I let out an evil laugh worthy of Maleficent when I realized how I could connect this story to Pinterest.
I would've told you just for the sake of telling you because literally my first thought was “at least it'll make for a good newsletter story” but with the ANALOGY?!?!?! Stop. It's too good.
SooOOOooOoo, what does "having the right equipment" look like when it comes to Pinterest marketing?
There are a few different ways to look at it
One, the things you actually really definitely need to have if you want to make the most of your Pinterest marketing,
& two, the extra tools & resources that make it a lot easier
Let's talk about number one first
You should have these three things in place before you start marketing on Pinterest:
1. You need to have a website
I'm not going to beat around the bush with this one. You'll hear people say you can use Pinterest without a website, and while you can... that doesn't mean you should.
You'll see much better results when sending users to your website, both in terms of performance on the platform and in actual conversions
2. You need to be consistently publishing long-form content on that website
I don't care if it's blog posts, podcast episode transcripts, or repurposed YouTube videos.
Pinterest users are buyers, but they're also researchers. And for online service providers, you're going to need more than a sales page to get people to click and stick around.
My recommendation? 2-4 new posts a month.
3. You need a clear plan of action for users after they consume that content
We want your Pinterest traffic to convert to booked + paid dream clients, not just vanity metrics that don't do anything.
The best way to do this is with a too-good-to-not-grab lead magnet that funnels users to an email list you actively nurture.
Even if you're not there yet, it's important you have a plan for what you want users who land on your site to do. Here are some options for CTAs if you don't have an email list:
Link additional blog posts to keep them on your site
Encourage them to send you an email with their thoughts on the post
Ask them to follow you on IG!
Got those? Ready to start marketing on Pinterest? Great! Next, I'm sharing two resources to make it easy to keep up with:
Everything You Need to Do on Pinterest (& Nothing You Don't)
Pinterest Toolkit for Online Service Providers
While writing this email, I realize that I actually have quite a lot of stories of me falling.
From slipping down ice-covered stairs and tripping over a laptop cord to another mud-puddle incident that ended in my mom bringing a change of pants to school, I think I might just be a clumsy person in general…
I'm honestly not sure if even the best equipment in the world can keep me from tripping over my own feet, but at least I'm trying, right?
So if nothing else, let that be the takeaway today. At least you're trying! And I'm proud of you for doing it!