191: How to Use Pinterest Trends to Create Evergreen Blog Content for Black Friday

Welcome to the systems and workflow magic podcast where I help small business owners transform from feeling scattered to becoming streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host Dolly DeLong, a wife, mom, believer, family photographer in systems workflow and launching educator. Now this podcast is your go-to resource for mastering the backend puzzle pieces of running a successful business.

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Dolly: 
Hi and welcome back to another episode of the Systems and Workflow Magic podcast. I’m Dolly, your systems workflow and launching BFF and guide. And today I have a returning guest, Kara Duncan. She is going to be speaking to us about how to incorporate trends into evergreen content when it comes to Pinterest and blogging. And I wanted to hit on this because

We are currently in the middle of a Black Friday series. So I know if you’re listening to this live, you’re like, Dolly, it’s summer. What does this have to do with Black Friday? It has everything to do with Black Friday because right now you as a small business owner, if you are wanting to set up your Q3, Q4, and you are wanting to have a stress free Black Friday experience for your business to market well.

then listen to this series. We’re trying to set you up for success. so Kara is going to be speaking to us about just how to incorporate Pinterest into the strategy. So Kara, before we jump in, can you give a quick overview of what you do and who you help and like, especially for those who may be new to you?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. I adore you, as you know. So I’m Kara. I do Pinterest and blogging, like literally done for you for creative online business owners. anyone from like website designers, wedding pros, like really runs the gamut, mostly service based businesses. But lots of times as service based businesses grow, not that it’s required, but they start doing digital products and courses to just kind of diversify their revenue. So I’m just in the back end.

with search-driven marketing to help.

Speaker 2 (03:36.034)
I love it. I will say this to everyone, full disclosure. So if you are an OG listener, you know I am a family photographer. And then in addition to this podcast, a systems workflow launching educator, but Kara is in my world because she helps me optimize all of my blog posts for the family photography side of my business. So I don’t know what I would do without Kara. And I…

have just loved having her working on the back end of my family photography business. So after this episode, you better believe I’m gonna be like Kara, share all the links because people need to work with you.

Uh-uh, thank you.

So let’s set the stage a little bit about Pinterest and blogging. And I know I like threw out the term evergreen content. So I will try to rein it in listeners so that like set the pace for everyone. But I want to ask you, Kara Lake, what do you consider the key difference between trend based content on Pinterest and evergreen content when it comes to blogging like in Pinterest together? Did I phrase that okay?

Yeah, I totally feel you. So I like to think of it actually in three buckets. So we have your evergreen content, that’s like your tried and true content, like, what should I wear to my family photo session, or eight things your website needs to have or something like that. That’s like evergreen, no matter what time of year it is, what year it is, like, it’s going to be really relevant. And then we have trendy content. And when I think of trendy content,

Kara: 
I think of like when Pantone chooses their color of the year and we’re like finding ways to incorporate it. Or when we’re thinking like how to pandemic proof your business or you know that kind of content that is super high search volume but for a shorter period of time. And then we kind of have this third bucket which I call timely content which means that it is not evergreen necessarily but it can work for you.

in different seasons, right? So an example would be like Black Friday sales, or like if you’re like have a Christmas sale every year, like those blog posts are not necessarily going to, or Pinterest pins or whatever, are not necessarily gonna work for you in March, but they will work for you for more than just a season. So that’s kind of how I distinguish the three kind of buckets of content.

Okay, so listeners, now that Kara set that up, we’re gonna focus on the bucket of kind of like the Black Friday specific trends buckets. And so what in your mind and from your experience, because I know you work with a wide variety of female business owners, your business owners work in all types of businesses, Kara.

What trends should online business owners be paying attention to specifically in 2025 when it comes to Black Friday trends for Pinterest and their business?

Yeah, for sure. So I think the thing to remember and like I hope this isn’t like to bait and switch. But with Pinterest, what you’re really doing is trying to support your other black marketing or Black Friday marketing efforts versus just like you can pin XYZ to get Black Friday sales, right? Because Pinterest is not necessarily because of the search driven nature. It’s not necessarily going to like

Speaker 1 (07:06.328)
boost during a Black Friday week unless you run ads or something like that. But instead, and I feel like this is super relevant to systems and workflow magic listers because we’re planners, right? That’s why we’re listening to a Black Friday sale thing in the summer. What we want to do is go really niche with like problem aware and then also solution aware content on Pinterest to really like, and then give them a spot.

so that you can nurture them. think one thing that we’re seeing across the board, across industries is people need a little more reassurance, right? So people need a little more reassurance to buy. And I think they also need to, they’re watching their money closer, which means they need to know like what you’re launching on Black Friday, how much it’s gonna cost. I don’t think we should be gatekeeping that, like what’s included, that kind of thing.

So if you have something that you are launching and let’s say you launch it every year on Black Friday, like a mastermind or something like that, like you need to be planting the seeds so much earlier and that can start on Pinterest. And what I would say is if you’re listening to this in the summer and you have zero Pinterest strategy right now, that’s okay. Pinterest does take a bit of time to kick off. But if you’re trying to get kind of maximum results in a short amount of time,

we’re really gonna wanna narrow in on as niche as possible. Like how many pins to, I like to say different blog posts, but it could be landing pages for freebies or something like that. You want a variety of different URLs, but keep it as focused to like the one problem you’re gonna solve, I think is like the biggest thing.

I love that. within, and I feel like I know the answer to this question, but I’m going to ask it anyways to see what your opinion is on this. But when you are pinning to those specific niches or specific problems, do you want

Speaker 2 (09:03.466)
Is the goal also to be growing? Like, are you wanting to send them to your URL that has an opportunity for them to join your email list or wait list or some sort? Like, do you have a strategy behind that? Or am I just like over complicating it? No.

for sure. think in order to I mean Pinterest is great because if regular Pinterest users can save your content for later But we still do need to get in front of them like when the actual sale is happening so capturing them somehow like whether it’s Trying to drive email signups if you’re active and like good at using your email list that way or for people like you can also drive people to follow you on Instagram like let’s say

people land on your blog post, it’s super relevant to what they want. And then you’re like, we’re more behind the scenes or tips, blah, blah. Head to my Instagram. I love specifically like whenever I can link to an Instagram highlight and you’re like binge this content. And then I think like something just to make it like super as easy as possible, something like the Dow, I think you use the Dow, Dolly correct me if I’m wrong. But yeah, something where it’s like you can literally have, because the name of the game, I guess is specific.

specificity. That’s an awful, but like, because of where the market is at, I think the more specific, the better. And why I like not that this is like a plug for Bedell, I’m sure there’s other tools that do this, but like how specific you can get with the call to action with the blog post or wherever you send them, like you can get really strategic in like capturing the people.

And that’s another reason why it’s great to start early because you can start to get traffic and then you have the data to see like what needs to be tweaked.

Speaker 2 (10:46.294)
I love that so much. the earlier the better and definitely be very specific in your planning.

figures in five months or whatever. it is.

Exactly. So how early then should someone start planning their Black Friday blog and Pinterest strategy to get actual momentum or traffic to their site? Like what do you see is the norm? And I’m sure it changes year by year.

Yeah, so my answer is kind of like twofold. I would say if you already have an active Pinterest presence, I think three months is fine. I think if you don’t earlier would be better, but I know that we can’t always do that. So I would just say, and I don’t even want to say minimum of three months because if you’re two months away or whatever, I don’t want to discourage you, but it does take a while to kick in. So maybe you can also.

if you’re starting your Pinterest strategy or blog strategy a little late, maybe there’s like an opportunity to have like a backdoor sale. Like you just missed it, but XYZ.

Speaker 2 (11:54.058)
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You can save your virtual seat for the Black Friday Summit of 2025, happening August 26th through 28th. The link will be in the show notes. Now Mara, Becca, and I will see you there.

Speaker 2 (13:08.78)
Yeah, so that kind of like making trends evergreen, because I know like during the year, Black Friday is very seasonal. All right, it’s not a evergreen thing. And so like, what kind of, well, like, what are your favorite ways to bridge the gap between trending topics, like Black Friday and evergreen content? Does that make sense? I feel like my questions are so like,

all over the place, but then very complicated, so I’m sorry.

No, but it is like so complicated. all, feel like as small business owners, we want to get the most like bang for our content buck, right? So I feel like when you’re like looking at Black Friday 2025, you also, and I feel like you’ll appreciate this as a launch strategist. Yes, the first launch is the most work, right? Because you have to get all the blog posts up, you have to get everything ready. And then next year, you can just kind of update them, right? So like an example of this would be like,

best email marketing courses in 2025. Let’s say yours is one of them. And then there’s like a couple other like competitors that aren’t offering something slightly different, whatever. The nice thing about content like that is it’s very easy to update for when it’s 2026. You remove a couple, you add a couple, whatever you’re gonna do.

but that just gives it like more opportunity to rank for you. And maybe it’s not like something so specific like email marketing, maybe it’s marketing, but you’re an email marketing specialist or something like that. I feel like when we’re like looking at evergreen versus that more timely content, the thing is just getting as much out as early as you can is really what you have to do. And I know that kind of is like, but then also tying those pieces, those like time sensitive pieces to your evergreen content.

Speaker 1 (14:57.17)
And vice versa. feel like when we write a new blog post, we’re often thinking like, what older pieces can I like link to? Right. And if you’re not doing that, you should it strengthens your overall SEO. But I also think looking at your Google Search Console or Google Analytics to see what blog posts are already performing and get links to that newer timely content to write, we often don’t remember what content we actually already have that could look.

Okay, can you give us like an example of a blog poster pin that started out tied to a seasonal sale, like a Black Friday sale, but still brings consistent traffic? Like I’m liking like that internal linking strategy with Google Search Console, but can you give, can you walk us through a tangible example too?

Yeah, for sure. in I’ll give you an example from my wedding business. We had a blog post that was like wedding packages under five thousand dollars. And what we were doing is we were highlighting a resort chain that was having that kind of special. And then we’re like, here it is. And I mean, that sale has came and went a million times. Right. But we are just that because it’s like such a, again, specific thing like wedding packages under five thousand dollars.

that gets us the most traffic and we’re just constantly updating it with different sales or like a come back soon, give us your email address or that kind of thing to make sure, because you do want to have ways to kind of keep them in your orbit in whatever place you show up.

Yeah, so it sounds to me like there’s some sort of email marketing strategy tied to that. You’re saying, how can I grab their name, email address, and also grab their attention to something that is relevant to you now? So just again, being intentional about.

Speaker 2 (16:51.082)
opening up Google Search Console and saying, okay, what are my most popular blogs now, content now that people are searching for and finding organically and then you going in and optimizing them for Black Friday, for example, that’s coming up.

Yeah, absolutely. love email. I love Instagram if you’re active on Instagram or ads. Okay. That’s your thing, right? Like you just need to definitely Pinterest is so top of traffic and it’s cold audience, right? So people will just like bounce off and it’s kind of our job to make sure that once we get them, we keep them.

Yes, that’s so true. Kara, this has all been so good, so juicy. I’m sure somebody’s like, I need to listen to this again, take some notes. Do you, okay, well, I have a bunch of more questions to ask you, but can you like share a little tidbit as to why a person should sign up for this Black Friday Summit? Like, what are you going to be talking about, speaking about when it comes to Black Friday and Pinterest?

Yeah, absolutely. So I think in the summit, we’re going to be more tactical with examples and then also more in depth into email, if that’s what you’re using, which I mean, the stats are like for email are like insane, right? We all know that we need to be doing email marketing. So yeah, finding ways to tie those in with Pinterest is going to be what I’m focusing on, which I’m really excited about.

really excited about this too. And this is an idea that me and Mara Kuceric and Rebecca Reed all thought of when we had a friend mastermind earlier this year. like, know what would be really helpful? To help business owners actually understand how to get prepped and ready for Black Friday without the stress in November. We want them to get their minds prepped and ready starting in August so that they feel

Speaker 2 (18:50.402)
Like they have a better marketing plan and even as a team of ones. So when we started pitching to other business owners like you, we’re like, I hope this all makes sense. Like, I hope this is something tangibly that people want. And so when having you as the speaker, we’re really excited because that’s something that I want people to see, like the importance of using Pinterest long-term, but there’s also a short-term.

like benefit to it and how to use it for Black Friday. So we are just so excited to have you on.

Yeah, I’m so excited. I feel like the three of you are so cool and so fun. I’m so happy to be included.

Cool. I’m like the like I am the grandma of the group. And so I bring in the grandma style to the group, but they are so much fun. They’re definitely if you’re listening to this and you’re like, you feel alone running an online business, it’s very important to have friends who are like walking alongside you. So important.

Yeah, I totally agree. like just to kind of like add further motivation, because I know sometimes they have so much on your on our plates. When you were like short term benefit, I literally just started with a Pinterest client three months ago, we kept it very niche. And in that three month period brand new account, she got like 2500 clicks. So it’s like very possible. Like I’m not saying that always happens whenever you’re in dress. But I think sometimes I was reading a thread,

Speaker 1 (20:19.662)
the other day and it’s like as a business owner, when you’re in the online space, you try so hard to set realistic expectations. But then I saw a thread that was like every Pinterest person just keeps telling me how long it will take and you know, is it worth doing? And I’m like, oh my God, yes, it’s so worth doing. So I feel like I just wanted to add that when you were like, yes, I when I think about Pinterest for Black Friday, I’m like, how can we use Pinterest for 2025 for sure, but then also set it up in a way that will support us in 2026 and 2027. yeah.

That’s just what I wanted to add. Like it is, you can get momentum. And I, again, I think specificity and going niche when you have a shorter timeframe is going to help.

I love it. Well, Kara, do you mind sharing with everyone how they can find you, follow you, work with you? And can you talk a little bit about your podcast?

Yeah, for sure. So like I said at the beginning, I offer done for you blogging and Pinterest services if you’re looking to outsource it. I also

source to Kara. She’s awesome.

Speaker 1 (21:19.054)
Yeah, I feel like I get to work with the best people. So if that’s you, I’m gonna work with you. And then I also have a podcast called The Care Report, same as my business name, which is super easy to remember. And we talk about kind of like business marketing, scaling. And then I actually have a new private podcast coming out called Build It Once, Get Found For Months. And that will be available when this is live. So I’m super excited for that too. If you just want to like binge a bunch of like really specific content, you’re gonna love that.

I love it. And you guys, is all this all will be in the show notes. And again, to sign up for the summit, which Kara is a part of the Black Friday 2025 summit. It’s absolutely free. And so I want you all if you are serious about having some sort of Black Friday promotion sale strategy, sign up for it. Learn from 20 plus amazing speakers who have actually done Black Friday launches or who have

helped other six, seven figure business owners with their behind the scenes of their launch. Like you’re gonna learn a lot about how to prep for 2025 Black Friday strategies. So I encourage you to sign up for it. I encourage you to also follow up with Kara and yeah, thank you again Kara. I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me and yeah, second year summit because I feel like you put on the best summits and it’s be so fun and you’re just like so brilliant all things Black Friday. So I’m so excited.

Well, thank you so much. And everyone, I will see you all next week with a brand new Systems and Workflow Magic podcast. Until then, stay streamlined and magical. You amazing muggle you. I’ll talk to you all next week. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning into the Systems and Workflow Magic podcast. For the full show notes from today’s episode, please visit www.systemsandworkflowmagic.com forward slash podcast.

Speaker 2 (23:14.082)
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