How I Use Pinterest To Promote My Small Handmade Business
Pinterest has been part of my marketing mix for years, but I’ll be honest — my approach to it has changed a lot over time.
When I first started using Pinterest for my handmade jewelry business, I thought I needed to create beautiful custom pins, graphics, and elaborate designs for every product. But after experimenting for a while, I realized something important:
The simplest approach often works just as well — and takes a fraction of the time.
These days, I use Pinterest in a very practical way that fits into my normal workflow without taking hours out of my week. I consistently average 150-200,000 monthly impressions with around a 6% engagement rate. At its peak, I was averaging around 5-600k impressions per month. Oddly enough, though, my online sales haven't changed all that much.
Here’s what works for me.
1. I pin directly from my website.
One of the easiest ways I use Pinterest is by pinning directly from my own website.
I use the Pinterest Chrome browser extension, which lets me pin any image I see on a page. When I publish a new blog post or add a new jewelry listing to my website, I simply click the Pinterest button in my browser and pin one of the photos. I do have to go back and edit these pins to include the exact title, description & Alt text for each pin - which is quick & easy.
The great thing about this is that the pin automatically links back to the original page or product.
That means the pin becomes a direct pathway back to my website, whether it's:
- a handmade jewelry listing
- a sea glass art listing
- or a blog post from my Barb Macy Small Business Blog
It takes very little time and keeps my Pinterest account growing naturally over time. Photo size doesn't seem to matter much, either.
2. I Pin New Etsy Listings Using “Share & Save”
Another tool I use regularly is Etsy’s Share & Save feature.
Whenever I list a new item in my Etsy shop, Etsy makes it very easy to share that listing directly to Pinterest. This creates a pin that links right back to the Etsy listing. And, when I generate sales from these links, Etsy refunds a portion of the seller fees.
Since I already have decent photos in my listings, this is another quick way to create pins without any extra work.
For a busy small business owner, efficiency matters.
3. I Don’t Spend Time Designing Pins
A lot of Pinterest advice suggests creating custom graphics for every pin. I rarely do this.
That might work well for some businesses, but for me it simply isn’t worth the time investment.
Designing pins from scratch can take a lot of time, and in my experience it hasn’t generated significantly more traffic than simply pinning my product photos or blog images directly. I spend much more time refining my product photography than creating Pinterest pins.
So I focus on simple and consistent, rather than perfect and polished.
4. Pinterest Is a Long-Term Traffic Source
One thing I’ve learned about Pinterest is that it’s not usually about instant results.
Pins can take weeks — or even months — before they start getting traction. But once they do, they can continue sending traffic to your website for a long time.
Some of my blog posts and listings still receive visits from pins I created years ago.
That’s one of the reasons I keep using Pinterest: it’s a slow but steady source of traffic and sales.
5. Simple and Sustainable Is Better
Running a handmade business already involves a lot of work — designing, making, photographing, listing products, packing orders, and selling at markets.
Because of that, I try to focus my marketing efforts on strategies that are simple and sustainable.
For me, Pinterest works best when I treat it as something that fits naturally into what I’m already doing:
- Adding a listing
- Publishing a blog post
- Sharing new work
- Sharing "how to" videos
If I can pin it quickly while I’m already working on those tasks, then Pinterest becomes easy to maintain.
My Experience With Pinterest Creator Rewards
Back in 2022, I participated in the Pinterest Creator Rewards program, which encouraged creators to make original content for the platform.
During that time, I created quite a few “how-to” videos and tutorial-style posts related to my handmade jewelry business. These included things like behind-the-scenes looks at making jewelry, tips for vendors, and other small business content.
What surprised me most was how much traffic those posts generated.
Even though the Creator Rewards program itself eventually ended, many of those videos are still getting a lot of impressions, clicks and saves today.
That experience taught me something important about Pinterest: educational content tends to perform really well.
“How-to” videos, tutorials, and practical tips are exactly the kinds of things people search for on Pinterest. When someone is looking for an answer or trying to learn something new, Pinterest often acts more like a search engine than a social media platform.
Because of that, I’ve found that tutorial-style content continues to attract steady impressions over time, sometimes long after it was first posted.
Pinterest Is More Like Google Than Social Media
One of the most important things to understand about Pinterest is that it behaves much more like a search engine than a typical social media platform.
People don’t usually open Pinterest to see what their friends are doing. Instead, they go there to search for ideas, inspiration, and solutions. For my small business, following Pinterest Trends does not help me much.
They search for things like:
- handmade jewelry ideas & shopping links
- sea glass art & gifts
- how to sell at craft fairs and art festivals
- jewelry making tips
- vendor booth displays & ideas
Final Thoughts
Pinterest doesn’t have to be complicated to be useful.
For my handmade jewelry and sea glass art business, the key has been keeping things simple: pinning directly from my website, sharing Etsy listings, and letting Pinterest work slowly in the background over time.
It may not be flashy, but it’s a strategy that works — and more importantly, one that’s easy to keep up with.
If you enjoy behind-the-scenes posts about running a handmade jewelry business, be sure to explore more articles on the Barb Macy Blog, where I share what’s working (and sometimes what isn’t!) from our experience selling both online and at markets.