Interview with Alessandra Braun

Hey.

Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for joining me. I am here with Alessandra Braun. Today we're going to be talking all about Pinterest and how to use it in your marketing efforts. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Ali Bierk. I specialize in sales funnels and Facebook ads. And I think now is a great time to start thinking about diversifying your marketing efforts and just make sure that you're not getting all of your leads from one area. Because I just feel like some changes are coming and we don't know what those are yet. But things targeting ads, some of that stuff might be changing a little bit. So it's always a good idea to have multiple ways to get new leads into your business. And from what I understand, Pinterest is a really great way to do that. So if you want to tell us a little bit about you and your background, I would love to hear your story and how you got started in business.

Sure. Well, I actually started out as a. Well, I still kind of do as well, but as a psychotherapist. So I had an in person practice. I have my master's in social work. I had a full private practice. I lived in Los Angeles with my husband and we decided to make a big change in our lives and we moved from LA to a small island in Washington where when we got here, I had thought about opening a practice here, but it's really small community. I know I want to do some work in the community, but I decided I wanted to go online just because, you know, that. And it was really hard to say goodbye to all my clients in Los Angeles and I didn't want to do that. And I know that my family aspirations are to travel and see the world with our family and I want to not have to say goodbye to my clients when I do that. So I moved online and I worked primarily as a life coach over the last year, doing a lot of course, making a lot of courses. I just found that I really liked doing that like the teaching aspect of things and kind of the guiding aspect versus the one on one client work. And then I've moved more towards now teaching Pinterest because I'll tell you why. And then also working with moms. I now have two under two and I run my entire business at home without any help. So you may see someone pop in, the other one can pop in. But so now I am doing some life coaching stuff. I am going to create a membership program around journaling as well as Doing some coaching for moms in my new nap time CEO program. So I am really excited about that. But the reason why I am here talking to you is because of Pinterest. And so when I first decided to go online, I had no idea where to even start. Like, I didn't know anything about the online world. I'm like, now I'm like, kicking myself. I'm like, I should have been here for like 10 years because I've been in this space. I've been in, like, the helping space for a long time. But so I started watching webinars. You know what most people do when they start. You want to learn about things. And. And so I think one of the first ones I saw was about Pinterest. And I loved Pinterest in my personal life. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna start there. I'm, like, gonna pinpoint one thing. I'm gonna start there. I see a lot of potential there. And so that's where I kind of put my efforts in at the very beginning. And I have not really had to venture past that for the past year because, I mean, also you kind of get. I got a little lazy because I get leads every single day. I could probably really, like you were saying at the very beginning, you need to diversify right now. I mean, I do. I have been moving into Facebook and stuff like that. But yeah, so my. I found such great success with Pinterest right away that over the past year, I have. I've never gone a day without a subscriber on my email list. Even if I don't do anything on Pinterest, I sometimes will. You may ask questions about the general how as we get going, but even if I don't do anything in a month or two months on Pinterest, I'm still seeing leads coming in because the nature of Pinterest is that it's evergreen. So, like, you know, like ads, you know, that you set up, you can, you know, have a. Have a. You know, you can run them every day for the next three months, where.

I'm guessing your traffic from Pinterest is all organic and all for free.

Yes, exactly. So, yes. So absolutely. It's 100% for. You can do promoted pins. I've never done a promoted pin. I've never even looked at it. And so, yeah, so. So I've gone, you know, this last year and a half, have exclusive, exclusively used Pinterest to grow my list as a coach. So selling services, selling. Selling courses, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Wow. So, so you're still doing coaching and now you're teaching Pinterest and you're doing it house with your little ones.

Yes, 100%. And one just came up asking for. But I've given her two cheeses, so I just handed her an apple.

Yeah, gotta diversify, right?

Yeah, there you go.

Targeting everything. So I work mostly with different types of life coaches, whether that's health coaching or, you know, just different types of life improvement style coaching. So Pinterest in my personal life has been like, I want to decorate my house like this. I want this recipe. I want. You know, I think this color palette is pretty. I've never used it to like seek out services. So I'd love to learn more about like your experience with how you've drawn people in, like what kind of content you're using. You know, just. I'd love to hear how you got started using it and what your strategy was behind that.

Sure. So the common, well, one of the most common misconceptions is Pinterest is just for diying bloggers, recipes, workouts, whatever. That's not the case, but I totally get it because that's really like, I go through all the myths of Pinterest in one of my master classes and that's like my number. That's my number two. Pinterest. My number one is Pinterest is not a social. Right. Pinterest is not a social network. It is a search engine. So you're treating it like Google. And so that's, that's the underlying piece of your strategy. And so when it comes to content, it's creating content that your ideal clients would search for. So for example, my content that I, I only had a couple blog posts. So that's another thing. Like, you don't need to have tons and tons of content to get visible on Pinterest. I think I had four or five blog posts at the very beginning, and I grew my list from zero to a thousand within 30 days. So the type of content I had was unique to me in terms of, I call myself the Thrive coach. So I had some articles about thriving. You know, how to know you're thriving, how to know you're surviving, how to go from surviving to thriving. That was one of my, my checklist.

Was.

She now has a sticker and that came off the apple that I gave her. So creating content that is in alignment with who you are as a coach, it's just another platform. So think about what you do, your lives about. You can repurpose lives into Content that you put on Pinterest. So yeah, and then obviously you know, the whole funnel piece of it. You know, you have your content, then you have an opt in, then you lead them into your funnel. Right? Pinterest is just such a traffic engine. And so using your content, whatever content it is, you don't have to create new content if you have content already. That's why I love repurposing Facebook lives as content on Pinterest. Like, just like writing up a short little blog post. You don't have to be a blogger, you know, like you can just, you're already creating content. I feel like this is what I talk to a lot about, a lot about to the coaches I talk to is like you already have content. Like you don't need to be blogging, you don't need to be writing these like humongous posts. But it's key that your, your content is in alignment with your opt in, right? You don't want to like have this one piece of content and then random opt in. Like Pinterest traffic is cold traffic. Like you, I mean it's the same, same kind of thing a lot with ads too. You know, it's, it's cold traffic. You've got to do what you can to convert them. They're coming and reading a piece of content, make it really good, you know, like your content's got to be representative of you and what you can do as a coach and who you are and then leading them to, through your. I call it the Pinterest funnel. So like, you know, the pin is the first, first line of the Pinterest funnel or the first step and then you know, your content is the next step and then your opt in and then you're, you know, you're then your nurture sequence and then selling your products, right? So your content is whatever you're putting out there. So I mean like I have a masterclass that I just launched yesterday. It's called explode your list with Pinterest. And I actually, on the masterclass I show just like examples of some pins that you'll just see if you do a search. Just go into Google. Like think about like funnel. Like if someone wanted to try to find you, what would they search in the search bar? You know, like funnels, like funnel strategy, funnel marketing, whatever it is that people search, I don't know and see what kind of pins come up. There's going to be time, I promise you. There's going to be a ton. You already have all that kind of content so if you were to want to move that to Pinterest, it'd be super easy. Like, you wouldn't have to come up with, like, all this new stuff because you already have it, which I think is really exciting.

It's like, oh, I need to create, like, this whole separate funnel that's just content for Pinterest and just special images and, you know, like, speaks to that audience. But it's reassuring to think that you can just repurpose, like, what you're already doing. But I'm all about working smarter, not harder. And, like, if I can do one piece of content, that can give me six different pieces of marketing.

Yep, yep. The only thing that's unique is, you know, the pin. So you've got to create a pin that is, that speaks to your ideal clients, that showcases, you know, like, I mean, your pin wants to be representative of you and your brand. So that's just the next piece that you would have to add to that content, which you can do. And if you already start having templates, you can do it in five minutes. Like, it's not even that big of a deal.

Research wise, do you recommend, like, looking at what people are searching for? Like, do you have that ability on Pinterest to see how your audience is looking for you or you do? I used to do SEO for websites and I know there's a lot of keyword research that went into that. Is it the same process where you do the research and see, like, what people are searching for off of Pinterest and then make it work?

Hi.

Say hi.

Yes. So you can. So the cool thing about Pinterest is you can type it into the bar. So same like the thing like Google, like, when you start typing, you can see what people search. Same thing with Pinterest. So, like, if you. I do this tutorial, I do like a screenshot or like a screen share tutorial in my course of showing you exactly how to do this. But I can just tell you from. From my mouth. From my mouth. So if you type into the bar, you know, funnels, right? That's all you need to write. So you write funnels and you press, you know, enter. There'll be all these little keywords underneath it. So maybe it's funnel strategy, maybe it's funnel marketing. Maybe it's so you can start getting more specific and see exactly what people are searching for in Pinterest. So you can even keep going. You can do funnel marketing. And then it's like funnel marketing on Facebook, funnel marketing on Instagram, whatever. You know, like you can do exactly what you're talking about, like researching what people are actually searching for. She wants you to see her apple.

Do you with hashtags or do you like build it into your, like the content description that you're typing up or is it.

Yes. So Pinterest is all about. It has its own SEO built in. So you need to be using keywords and your pins in your descriptions. They newly started using hashtags. So you would use some. A couple hashtags. Not like 30, like Instagram, but just a couple. I usually use two to three and then kind of long tail keywords. So just like I was talking about, you know, funnel marketing for Instagram, funnel marketing for whatever. I don't know, I'm just throwing that out there off the top of my head. But like, you know, things, like things that I've done, like, you know, tips for managing anxiety or, you know, coping skills for depression, those kind of things like that. Like life coaches might be typing in or affirmations for depression. Affirmations for anxiety. One of my biggest posts is about affirmations. I still get. I mean, I get tons and tons and tons of traffic. I get, I get a lot of traffic from all of them that have been there for a while. But I would say that's probably my biggest just because people love that. And so my freebie has to do with that. And then I lead them, you know, through to other services and I know.

That it's well aligned with the rest. I think that piece is really important. Like, don't just give them a blog post that's not related to anything else that you're offering.

Exactly. I mean, because that, because ultimately you want to convert. You want your traffic to convert. So I see a lot of people say, oh, I get a lot of traffic from Pinterest, but can you not block my head with that? It's like the witch from.

Yeah, it looks so big. What's the snow white right in front of the camera? And it looks just gigantic. Right.

So what was I just saying? Oh, converting. I see a lot of people say, oh, I get a lot of traffic from Pinterest, but it's not. I'm not. My email list isn't growing or. Well, it's like, okay, well then there's a disconnect there. You know, you want them to land on your page. I talk about, specifically in my course, I talk about optimizing your page for cold traffic. So letting them get to know you, letting them get to know your stuff, making sure. They know that they can opt in somewhere, you know, just really optimizing it for the cold traffic and it being in alignment with you and your opt in and all that kind of stuff. What? You can go watch Horsey. I'll put it on.

Have you noticed any correlation between like people that sign up for your list and become clients down the road? Like, is it really high quality leads that you're getting? Because I know some people with ad targeting you have to be careful about the type of, you know, ad that you're setting up because some people are known for just collecting freebies and some, you know what I mean? Like, yes. Quality traffic that you're noticing from Pinterest versus other stuff.

Yeah, so there's, there's a little bit of both. Right. So I do a lot of weeding. So during my fun I have a lot of people that'll buy, you know, just, you know, that my lower price courses and then, you know, funneling the people that are more interested into the higher price stuff. So, so it's not like I grow my list from, you know, say I got 10 subscribers today. Not all 10 of those are going to be high ticket clients. That's just not what's happening. But maybe one is, Maybe one is someday. I don't know my, I don't have my exact conversion rates because I haven't calculated that. But it is, it is a, it is a wide range. But they are there. You just have to speak them. Right. People that are looking, the people that are there for a reason and the people that are just looking for a freebie, they're gonna get there, they're gonna get there. You're gonna start pitching their products and they're gonna leave. Okay, fine. But there are, there are the people in there that you can be talking to and you can be nurturing and just like, you know, I know that you probably do through your funnels, it's the same kind of thing. So, so you do have to do your weeding because there's gonna be, you know, the type of people that come, you can't, you can't like target, you know, the certain or things like that that you can do with ads. But this is also free traffic. So you just need to be just doing a little bit of extra work in your, in your, your sequence afterwards.

Okay. So as far as like, what's getting their attention, have you noticed certain types of images working well for leading people to a blog post and then into an opt in?

That's a good question. One of My strategies is multiple pins per piece of content. And so I feel like the reason why I do that is because certain people are attracted to different ways of wording. You know, like people, people that like. For the example, my affirmations post, my two that I made, this was before I started doing like five and six for each one, so I could probably even up it. But I had two. I had affirmations for every day of the week or month. And then affirmations to improve your mindset. So some people like the idea of just every day, you know, something they could do every day versus other people are more in tune with the mindset piece. Right. So making, you know, my strategy is to diversify that so to have images that are in line with what you're saying. So like my, my mindset one was like a person on a really high rock and they were like, woo, you know, and then, you know what I mean? Like, it's just finding images that are on brand with you that are just like, you know, something totally random. And then I also, after I started at the very beginning, I started doing different posts as well with like smaller words or just like normal text, like trying to see which ones are liked the most. And I see traffic from all of them, to be honest, you know, I feel like it might as well do that with. When you have the masses in front of you. So if you're wanting to use mindset in one of your. You want it like. But maybe there are some people that don't know that word yet, or they're not in tune with that yet, but they like this daily thing that you're talking about. But then you get to educate them on the power of a positive mindset. You know what I mean? So being able to, to kind of, yeah, blanket it with these different images, these different, the different copy kind of things like that.

Okay, so funneling them down, like giving them a lot of options and then one blog post to click through to one option.

Exactly. So all those pins go to the same piece of content. Content has, you know, the same stuff in. Exactly.

Yeah, I can see why it would work really well. So as far as like your own personal experiences, what do you have, like percentages of how much your list grew when you started using Pinterest?

Well, the thing is, I have only used Pinterest.

Oh.

Yeah. So like I said, when I first started, I maybe had like 40 people on my list because I had just started and they were like friends and family and just like random people. I don't even Know, if I had that, I maybe had 12. Yeah.

Yeah.

And then when I started Pinterest, I saw, you know, I actually have an image as well on this. I think it's in my group, too. But also on this masterclass, the exposure list, I went from, you know, zero to a thousand. I got a thousand subscribers and my first 30 days.

Wow.

While I was, you know, doing my Pinterest strategy. So I have to caveat it, and I say it's. Oh, it's in my first 45 days, because I had, like, 13, 20 subscribers in my first 15 days. But once I started utilizing Pinterest, actually doing the strategy behind it, and that's what I think people get caught up with, is they go on Pinterest and they pin something and that's it. Like, they. They're like, okay, I pinned it on Pinterest. Like, okay, but, like, what strategy did you use? There is a strategy. It's not complicated. It's not hard. It's not. Like, there's, like, maybe a little learning curve, but it's not. It just is intimidating because to some people, it's a whole new platform. Right? Yeah, that's. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it can be really intimidating or something.

Or maybe that's Instagram, I don't know. Just, like, the different sharing and it just seems like a totally different beast that I wasn't ready to jump into. But the way you're describing it makes it sound super simple and easy to get started with.

It is. It is really simple. It's just knowing the strategy and the pieces that are important in the strategy. So once, you know, once you're starting to pin strategically versus just kind of throwing it out into the Pinterest universe, then you'll see more traffic. You know, Pinterest has group boards. Group boards are where you see a lot of the action. I always talk about. Pinterest is not about your followers. I only have, you know, 2,800 followers, and there are people that have, like, tens of hundreds of thousands of followers. Right. But I still get a great amount of traffic every day and a great amount of subscribers every day for my business. I mean, yes, if I wanted to scale and I want 100 subscribers every day, I need to be doing something different. But right now, I don't need that because it's working for me. But by utilizing group boards, Group boards are where you can kind of utilize the followers of the masses. And it's just knowing that. It's knowing that there are these different pieces that go into the Strategy and that once you know the strategy, it's just super simple. And honestly, it's a set it and forget it model. Especially if you use something like Tailwind or. I haven't used board Booster yet. I'd like to experiment with it just to see once you can just. You can spend an hour or two a month and that's it. Yeah. And like, even I often do three months in advance and then I don't. Then I often forget about it. I'm like, oh my gosh, I haven't done anything for months. And I don't notice because I go into my convert kit and I see subscribers coming every day. So I don't notice. Like, oh, I must not be pinning right now because I don't have any subscribers. Not for me.

What a good strategy, though. So tell us a little bit. We have a link that we're going to be sharing along with your presentation. So tell us what we're going to find when you click to that link.

Sure. So I just released a masterclass called Explode youe List with Pinterest. So in this masterclass, I am going to walk you through the exact steps that it takes to grow your list with Pinterest. So I go through a couple of the myths. Like, it's not a social media outlet and it's not just for bloggers. Those are the myths I'm giving away. But then I walk you through the steps that it takes to utilize Pinterest for your business. I think there's eight. And then the extra one was like use Tailwind. So there's nine. But I walk you through and show you exactly what it takes to use business. Use Pinterest for your business. In this master class, it's. Yeah, it's about, about an hour. And then you also get. I mean, I'm turning it into an evergreen thing so you get an option at the end. If you say all the way to the end, you get a special gift if you want to take it a little bit further and grab my pintraction course.

Okay, that sounds wonderful. So make sure, if you're watching this on the replay, make sure that you grab the link and check out her masterclass. I'm going to. Because I know I need.

It.

Sounds like a great. Just like a really good way to repurpose what I'm already doing instead of thinking that it's like a whole different thing that I need to find time for sounds.

And you don't need that much time, though. Just. Yeah, I mean, I feel like there's a little bit of. At first, just because there's that little, like I said, that little bit of learning curve. But when you get things set up and I feel like you're. Especially you. You already have the mindset of, like, okay, what keywords and things that I need to be using. You already probably have that all in your brain. So it's probably just knowing what to do with it and then setting it up, and you're good to go. You know, it's just that little piece, that little step to the knowledge.

For free. That sounds amazing.

Yes, for free. That's why I want. It's like, this is free traffic. Free people in front of you. Like, I had a $5,000 launch. I mean, that's great for me. All traffic from Pinterest, you know, like, just come 100% free. I did not use any ads. I didn't pay anything. I. Nothing.

It's not like spending 10k in ads and then having $5,000 launch and then you still add money. I mean, not. That's obviously not my goal for people, but. But when it's all free, like, you're not gonna have that little undermining voice. Like, am I gonna break even? Like, you already know that you're. It's all profit. Yep. Yeah.

Yes.

Yes. That's huge. Well, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Thank you for having me, everybody.

And hopefully they will click through and start using Pinterest.

All right, so great. Awesome. All right. Thank you.

All right, I'm gonna.