Trying to get more blog traffic this holiday season? Getting your holiday content on Pinterest early can help. You can learn how early you should be posting and how to make the most of Pinterest in this guide.
Every year when I tell fellow content creators to start planning and working on holiday content at least by July they are shocked. The thing is this is backed up by data and years of experience.
I’ve been blogging since 2008 and I’ve had a Christmas blog since 2018. This has given me a lot of years of seeing when people start seeking out Christmas content. What I have seen each year is a mini spike in holiday traffic in July. This is usually due to Christmas in July and Halfway to Christmas, both of which are becoming more popular. After that, I see things start to take off in September with people starting to pin and read more and more Christmas-related content.
Pinterest has also confirmed this with a recent webinar they hosted to encourage businesses to use Pinterest this holiday season. They recommend starting to lay the foundation for holiday promotions in July. While this is focused on brands and ads, this is still true for content creators.
So let’s talk about when you need to start pinning Christmas content, what strategies are working for me, and everything you need to succeed this holiday season on Pinterest.
Holiday Content on Pinterest
This Pinterest advice is focused on those who already have Pinterest accounts, if you haven’t started an account read my article How to Use Pinterest for Blogging first. It will help you get started. Now on to the holiday-related advice.
Why Should I Use Pinterest this Holiday Season?
First I want to share a few stats from the Pinterest Business webinar about holiday content and why you need to have your content on Pinterest.
- Pinterest has 518 million global monthly active users.
- 3 in 4 active Pinterest users are looking for ways to personalize their holiday celebrations.
- 4 in 5 on Pinterest are looking for new twists on holiday traditions.
- 66% more of Gen Z/Millennial (their largest demographic) Pinterest users said they celebrated more holidays and celebrations.
- Every 3 seconds a celebration is planned on Pinterest.
- There are 14.6 million celebration boards on Pinterest.
Those are some pretty convincing stats. It’s also why Pinterest is my top traffic source, especially during the holiday season. And this year it can be one of your top traffic sources as well and I’m here to help you make that happen.
When Should I Start Pinning Holiday Content on Pinterest?
It can take time for Pinterest to index and start showing your pins in the best places and we have to remember that Pinterest users are often planning when they are on Pinterest so at a minimum you want to start 2-3 months before the holiday you are pinning for. With Christmas, I recommend it even earlier because many users start planning for Christmas in September and often even earlier.
What to do Before Pinning Holiday Content
Before you even start pinning your holiday content there are things you can do to prime your account for the upcoming season. I like to do these things when it’s a bit slower during the late spring.
- Do a Pinterest Account Audit. You want to give your whole account a good look and make sure the boards you have all have good descriptions, you have all the boards you need, your account has keywords in your bio, your website is claimed, and overall things like good for the user.
- Make a List of Your Holiday Content. I keep a running list of all my content in AirTable, you can use any kind of spreadsheet. Having this list will help you see what you have and what you need to create.
- Make a List of New Content to Create. Start brainstorming what you want to create this year and make a list. I like to divide my list into two groups, the content that is my top priority and the content that I will make if I have time.
- Create New Boards. Do you have new boards you want to have for your content? Get them started now. Not sure if you want new boards? Look at your content and the content you are planning, do you have boards for all of it? Could you make some new niche boards? For example, I’ve had a Christmas drink recipe board for a long time but last year I noticed I had a lot of recipes based around hot chocolate so I created a Christmas hot chocolate board.
- Be Active with Pinning! I can’t stress this one enough. Don’t just go from never or rarely pinning to pumping out content. The best thing you can do on Pinterest is be consistent and you want to start that right away.
Even if you are reading this in Q3 or even Q4 you can still do these things. You may not see as many benefits this year but many of these steps will help you all year and they will also help you be in a better place for the next holiday season.
Creating Your HOliday Pinterest Schedule
Once you have done your pre-holiday Pinterest tasks you want to make sure you have a holiday Pinterest schedule ready. Knowing how much you want to pin will help you have an idea of how much content you need, how many pins you need, and if you need to start ramping up how much you are pinning now.
First, look at how much holiday content you already have and how much you plan to create. This will give you an idea of how many pins you can create. I recommend at least 3 pins per post. These pins use unique photos and titles and are spread out at least one week apart on different relevant boards.
Doing the math to see how many pins this is can help you see how often you want to be pinning. I recommend starting to pin a little bit of holiday content as early as June and slowly ramping up to sharing more starting in September. You want to make sure to have space in your schedule for some evergreen content as well so make sure to take that into account.
How to Schedule Your Holiday Pinterest Content
I make my Pinterest schedule using the content list I keep on AirTable (other spreadsheets are fine as well) and Tailwind to do my actual scheduling. The benefit of using Tailwind over Pinterest’s scheduler is you get a calendar view and you can pin further out.
Right now you can get 30% off Tailwind’s annual plans so it’s a great time to sign up and start using Tailwind.
Using my spreadsheet I keep track of when I last pinned my content and where I pinned it to. This helps me make sure I start with the oldest content first when I go back through my old content to create new pins. I schedule these pins in Tailwind.
Two hacks to make this process easier are to have some templates you use for your pins ready to go in Canva so you can quickly create new pins and use ChatGPT to create new descriptions and titles for your pins. Always be sure you check what ChatGPT gives you and edit it to be your voice and work for your brand.
Doing these tasks will help you take advantage of all that Pinterest has to offer this holiday season and boost your traffic and income this year. Don’t forget to also check out my other Pinterest resources as well as my Q4 resources.
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