When it comes to marketing their businesses, most home stagers default to using Instagram. And while Instagram is a great platform for connecting with people and showcasing your work, it’s not as effective as Pinterest for generating leads or driving traffic to your website. Pinterest is not a social media platform the way that Instagram is. Instead, it’s a search platform and a place people go to get inspired or find solutions. That difference makes Pinterest marketing for home stagers seeking more website traffic and qualified leads much more effective. In fact, it may be the most underused marketing tool available.
In this episode of The Social Stager Podcast, I sit down with Pinterest marketing strategist Annie Russell. Annie has spent years managing Pinterest accounts for small businesses and is an expert on the platform. In this episode, Annie breaks down exactly how Pinterest marketing for home stagers works and why the way most people use it isn’t helping them get leads or grow their business.
Pinterest is Not a Social Media Platform
One of the biggest mindset shifts Annie shares is this: Pinterest is not a social media platform; it’s a visual search engine. This makes it much more like Google than Instagram. People on Pinterest are not there to scroll aimlessly. They open the app to search for something specific, plan a project, or find a solution.
That key difference changes everything about how home stagers can market their business. On Instagram, your content is all about stopping someone’s scroll. On Pinterest, you are meeting someone who is already looking for what you offer. The content you post on Pinterest needs to reflect that difference, and it starts with your strategy and approach.
Pinterest marketing for home stagers is not just about posting pretty photos. If you want it to be effective and actually bring in traffic and leads for your business, you have to use it correctly. This means having a keyword strategy and using those keywords in everything from your bio to pin titles and pin descriptions so your content can be found. Annie calls keywords the foundational element of every Pinterest strategy, and I couldn’t agree more. Without them, your content will not be found, no matter how beautiful it is.
Pinterest Marketing for Home Stagers
I’ve talked about the benefits of Pinterest marketing for home stagers both on the blog and in other podcast episodes. One of the key benefits of Pinterest marketing is that it can drive traffic to your website for months and even years after you’ve added your pins. Compared to Instagram, where your content disappears from followers’ feeds after just a few days, Pinterest is an exceptional marketing tool for any small business that wants to generate consistent traffic and leads.
And if you’re a stager who has never used Pinterest before, Annie has created a great resource to help you get started. She’s put together a list of 200 home staging keywords for you, ranked by search volume. This resource will help you get your pins found on the platform, so you start getting traffic to your website.
Pinterest Mistakes Stagers Are Making Right Now
If you’ve been using Pinterest and not seeing results, there are a few reasons why that might be happening. Three patterns come up consistently when Annie works with small businesses that are not seeing results from their Pinterest marketing.
No Keyword Strategy: Posting beautiful images without optimized titles and descriptions that include the right keywords keeps your content from being shown. Pinterest needs those keywords to understand what your content is about and who to show it to. Your pins exist, but they are invisible on the platform.
Treating Pinterest Like Instagram: Auto-publishing your Instagram content directly to Pinterest may seem efficient, but it bypasses the keyword layer entirely. This approach delivers your content to Pinterest in an Instagram style and to an audience that is not using the platform that way. Pinterest users are very different from Instagram users, and your content should be tailored for that.
Posting Seasonal Content Too Late: Pinterest content takes 45 to 60 days to be properly indexed and distributed by the algorithm. If you are posting fall staging tips in September, you are already too late to get found for fall content. Annie recommends planning Pinterest content three to four months ahead. You can use the free Pinterest Trends tool to see exactly when your topics peak in search volume.
Does Pinterest Work Without a Blog?
This is the question most stagers ask me, and the honest answer is yes, but with some qualifications. To get the most out of Pinterest marketing for home stagers, you need a meaningful destination to send traffic to. The best option? Your website. Can you send them just to your portfolio or services pages? Yes, but you can only send so many pins to the same destination before Pinterest flags the pattern and either limits reach or marks your account as spam.
A blog changes the game for home stagers. One blog post can support ten or more pins, each with different angles and keywords, all linking back to the same piece of content. Over time, that compounds. Annie has a client whose organic Pinterest traffic drives 26 times as many website visits as her Instagram account does monthly. That is the power of Pinterest marketing for home stagers.
Does that mean you need to become a full-time blogger? No, you don’t. Two posts a month, planned intentionally around what people are actually searching, is enough to build real traction. In the Social Stager Club, we do keyword research each month and map out blog articles for home stagers so that you can create thoughtful blog articles that you can then turn into Pinterest pins. If you’re doing it on your own, you can do Pinterest keyword research to help you know exactly what to write about.
If you have been creating thought-leader content for your home-staging business, this is exactly where Pinterest amplifies that work. Inside the Club, I teach stagers how to create blog content around their projects and expertise, making the Pinterest strategy Annie recommends much easier to execute.
How to Start Marketing Your Staging Business on Pinterest
If you are setting up a Pinterest account for the first time, or refreshing one that has not been performing, Annie’s starting point is simple. Start with your keyword research first. Then add those keywords immediately into your account name and bio.
Your account name does not have to be your business name alone. It can also include a keyword phrase. Your bio should include 3 – 5 keywords that reflect what people are searching for in your niche. Implementing this step alone puts you ahead of most stagers currently on the platform.
Download Annie’s 200 home staging keywords here so you aren’t starting from scratch. This resource will make it easy for you to get started marketing your home staging business on Pinterest.
Resources Mentioned in this Podcast Episode
Pinterest Keyword List (download it here).
Visibility to Growth Checklist (what you need before you start marketing).
Leads on Repeat: A 12-week program for businesses that want to learn how to generate leads on repeat for their businesses using paid ads. Club members get a $500 discount off the program, which starts June 1st. Learn more here about the program.
Affiliate disclosure: I am an affiliate for Leads on Repeat, which means I earn a small commission if you join through my link that I give Club members. I only ever share things I genuinely stand behind.
Connect With Us
The Social Stager:
- Instagram: @socialsavvystager
- Instagram (Club): @thesocialstagerclub
- Website: socialsavvystagers.com
- Join The Social Stager Club: socialsavvystagers.com
Annie Russell:
- Instagram: @annierussellmedia
- Website: annierussellmedia.com
