Using Your Blog + Pinterest to Share Your Products [Holiday Sales Graphics Series Part 1]

marketing + sales

Welcome to our three-part Holiday Sales Graphics Series, where we’re sharing our best tips for visually showcasing your amazing products during the holiday season.

Whether you sell physical products or digital ones, online courses, or web-based services, these tips are going to help you create magazine-worthy, on-brand graphics that will get your offers in front of more holiday shoppers this year!

To help you take action even faster, we’re also sharing our entire collection of FREE gift guide Canva templates. Use the form below to get immediate access, so you can take what you’re learning and start creating on-brand graphics for your holiday content right away.

We’re kicking off the series by talking specifically about using your blog and Pinterest to get your products and offers in front of more holiday shoppers. Let’s dig in!

Prefer to watch and listen than read? We’ve got you covered — just hit play below!

Why leverage your blog for your holiday sales promotions

The way that we create and consume content may be constantly changing, but one thing’s for sure: the popularity and influence of blogs aren’t going anywhere!

According to Semrush, 46% of people take recommendations from bloggers into account when making purchasing decisions. And when you consider that half of all holiday shoppers turn to search engines for ideas on what to buy ahead of Black Friday, it makes more sense than ever to be creating blog content for your buyers to dig into!

If you want to make sure that your products and offers are getting in front of people at the exact moment they’re looking for them, it’s important to make sure that you’re showing up on Google, Bing, and other popular search engines. And while product descriptions and general website content can help, blog posts are the best way to consistently get new, fresh content in front of your potential customers.

What holiday sales graphics and content to post on your blog

The importance of sharing content on your blog ahead of the holiday season is undeniable… but what content and graphics should you be sharing?

The content ideas are truly endless, but there’s one recommendation that we come back to time and time again: gift guides!

Gift guides were initially made popular by magazines (we’re looking at you, Cosmopolitan), but in an era where we’re all searching for gift ideas online, their use on websites and in blog content is only getting more and more popular.

(Here’s a crazy stat for you: web traffic to product and gift review sites increased by an average of 690% in November and December last year!)

You deserve to get in on that action, friend! While we would all love a coveted spot on Oprah’s Favorite Things or Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Gift Guide, but you don’t need a ton of media contacts or a big advertising budget to get your products listed on a gift guide — you can create your own!

When it comes to creating gorgeous graphics for your gift guide blog post, don’t forget to download our free gift guide Canva templates.

In terms of the blog post content itself, be sure to include product descriptions, recommended gift recipients, and even some customer or client reviews to make your suggestions as compelling as possible.

Bonus tip: Team up with some of your business besties or affiliates and collaborate on your gift guide posts! They can share your products with their audience and vice versa. Having an outside party recommend your products can give you the added benefit of social proof.

Bonus tip 2: Don’t just rely on creating fresh content around the holiday season to get your products in front of shoppers. By updating your blog throughout the year, you’re more likely to leverage the power of SEO and have keyword-rich, easy-to-find content ready to go once your audience starts searching Google for gift ideas during November and December.

How to leverage Pinterest alongside your holiday blog content

Once you have an amazing gift guide (or two or three!) ready to go, the next step is to get more eyes on your blog post(s) — and one of the best ways to do that is to use Pinterest.

Not only are half of U.S.-based Pinterest users using the platform to shop, but the number of users shopping on Pinterest actually grew by an incredible 50% in the first half of 2020. Oh, and 82% of users are actively using the platform for purchase inspiration.

Long story short, your customers are absolutely using Pinterest to search for gift ideas!

The easiest way to leverage Pinterest is to include an image version of your gift guide within the body of your blog post. That way your readers can easily Pin that image (and your post) to their boards for future reference. To do this, simply take the PDF version of our gift guide templates and save it as a PNG image rather than a PDF.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can also include a separate, more traditional Pinterest-ready graphic inside of your blog post (either within the content itself or in the sidebar). If you’re feeling stuck for inspiration, check out our Pinterest Canva templates!

Bonus tip: Have you used Pinterest’s Story Pins feature yet? They’re incredibly popular, and you can easily create your own using the story gift guide templates included in our free collection! Here’s some more info on how to use this new(ish) feature.

Other ways to drive traffic to your gift guide blog post

Of course, Pinterest isn’t the only way that you can drive traffic to your gift guide blog post. You can also repurpose your content for:

Social media, including your Instagram feed and stories, Facebook page, and/or Facebook group.
Your email list. Be sure to let your subscribers know that your gift guide post is live and encourage them to forward it to their friends.
Paid traffic. If it’s in the budget, consider using promoted Pins and Facebook ads to get your content in front of new audiences.

You can also get more eyeballs on your blog by using SEO best practices. Some of our favorite resources for learning more about SEO include Neil Patel, Mariah Magazine, and Meg Casebolt / Love at First Search.

How to convert blog readers into buyers

Of course, the real goal with your holiday sales graphics and content isn’t just to get more blog readers; it’s to get more buyers! So, how do we make sure that we’re converting those readers into customers?

Step One: Make it easy for them to find your products

While beautiful graphics are what’s going to attract readers to your content in the first place, once they’re reading it’s important to make it incredibly easy for them to take action.

Be sure to include in-text links and call-to-actions in your blog post where relevant. If you’re choosing products from a variety of shops or websites, you’ll also want to make sure those URLs are obvious in your PDF and/or blog post graphics.

Step Two: Think of the long-game strategy

Not everybody who reads your gift guide blog post is going to be ready to buy right away. We recommend asking your reader to join your email list so that you can keep them updated on any of your holiday promotions, new product drops, and other news throughout the holiday season and the rest of the year.

The easiest way to do this? Create a PDF version of your gift guide (using our gift guide Canva templates) and include it in your blog post as an opt-in.

By asking readers to trade their email address for a full copy of your gift guide, you now have their contact information to stay in touch with them long-term!