Pinterest is a search engine—period. If you can see the value of having your law firm’s content on other search engines (Google, YouTube, Bing), then having content on the internet’s image search engine should be a no-brainer. In “The Definitive Guide to Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers,” I’m going to explore everything from the basics about Pinterest to a step-by-step system any attorney can easily implement right now. Because I have personally experienced viral growth on Pinterest, I’m also going to give you all my insider “secret sauce,” so buckle up.

Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers: Not Really “Social” Media

Here’s how you know whether a website is a search engine or not…ready? If there is a search bar front and center, that’s a search engine. On the other hand, if you can update your status or post a “story,” that’s a social site. We don’t go see what are friends are up to on YouTube or Pinterest—we do that on Facebook and Instagram, right?

Imagine if you could save Google results in a convenient, 100% customizable folder system…all for free. Instead we are limited to saving a small quantity of “bookmarks” and emailing ourselves an article we like. Not only does Pinterest give users an easy way to save and organize search findings in what they call “boards,” but users can also save content they like when not on Pinterest through something called the “Pinterest browser extension.” This means the site’s reach extends well beyond it’s own platform. Again, neither Google or YouTube offers that. Speaking of YouTube, where Pinterest edges out other “visual sites” like YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok is that a click-through on your content goes directly to your lawyer blog…not to a user profile, your home page, or to your LinkTree page.

Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers: Why Should You Care

This is my favorite part! So you can see Pinterest is an excellent research tool, as evidenced by the fact that Pinterest and wedding-planning are practically synonymous. But let’s break that down…what do people do after they research and plan? They buy stuff…for the wedding, for the bathroom renovation, for the trip to Greece, for the Thanksgiving recipe. While on the surface it may appear that people are on Pinterest to plan, which is true, what they are really doing is planning WHAT TO BUY, or in other words: shopping.

Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers: Better Than Google

Imagine if you could save Google results in a convenient, 100% customizable folder system…all for free. Instead we are limited to saving a small quantity of “bookmarks” and emailing ourselves an article we like. Not only does Pinterest give users an easy way to save and organize search findings in what they call “boards,” but users can also save content they like when not on Pinterest through something called the “Pinterest browser extension.” This means the site’s reach extends well beyond it’s own platform. Again, neither Google (or YouTube) offers that.

I feel like a game show host: “But wait—there’s more!” In addition to all these search game-changers Pinterest offers, they also send your target audience FREE EMAIL BLASTS at the precise moment they are searching for you! What? Divorce lawyers are going to feel this one…let’s say a woman is meticulously planning her marriage exit strategy (For you non-divorce lawyers, this is called “Walk Away Wife Syndrome”—women tend to fully plan their divorces before initiating anything). As this woman is calculating her finances, future budget and living situation, which marital assets she’ll ask for, what child custody arrangement she wants, and which local family law attorney she will hire, she’s no doubt stashing all this info somewhere he will never see it, like on a private Pinterest board.

So, back to these free email blasts, let’s say one Monday morning, this walk-away wife searches “Nevada divorce” on Pinterest and spends 15 minutes scrolling through the hypnotizing mosaic results. The next day she’ll get an automated email from Pinterest saying, “Here Are 12 More Nevada Divorce Pins You May Like.” The email is intended to get her to return to the site and scroll more, but Pinterest will actually put 12 real pins in this email—one of those pins could be from your Nevada family law firm.

Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers: How It Works

“OK, so you’re making a good case for Pinterest, counselor, but how does it generate leads for my law firm?” Excellent question. Pinterest marketing is really something that’s going to just add 3 extra steps to each blog post you create—easy peasy. Here’s the break-down:

1. Create a “pin” to go with each of your law firm’s blog posts. To be clear, a pin is a branded vertical image featuring the title of your article (or other content). You can add a call-to-action or even create pins for quotes or key points from within your blog post.

2. Upload your pin to Pinterest and link it to your blog post. You’ll give the pin a short teaser description encouraging people to click on your pin and read the full article on your lawyer blog. Don’t forget the keywords.

3. Also upload the pin image to your blog post so people who find your article via Google have the option to save it in one of their Pinterest boards.

Here are two sample attorney pins more or less following this criteria:

Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers: About Infographics

An infographic is a long, detailed pin, often with a list, charts, or graphs. It can be very tempting in the legal industry to post a bunch of infographics explaining complicated legal processes and laws. Let me ask you this though…if you give a pinner all of the content up front on the pin, what is his or her motivation to click through to your website? You can’t get a Pinterest user into your sales funnel if you don’t get them onto your blog. If you’re going to post an infographic pin for your law firm, I recommend not putting ALL of the info on the graphic. Put the first 2 of 5 steps or discuss the law in question but make them click-through for the possible penalties or details about the related legal process. You’ll need a prominent call-to-action at the bottom of the pin letting them know exactly what they’ll get when they click your pin—be specific.

Here are three sample lawyer infographics from Pinterest—only one offers any type of call-to-action:

Pinterest Marketing for Lawyers: Pinnable Homepage Image

Reverse engineering your attorney brand’s Pinterest marketing can not be overlooked—a lot of pinners save content they find outside of Pinterest to their boards with the Pinterest browser extension (or share buttons on the website in question). If someone wants to save your law firm’s website or a specific piece of your content to one of their Pinterest boards, your page needs to have a pinnable image on it. Background images or graphics that are formatted in certain ways can’t always be detected by Pinterest. For years, pinners used to receive a “no pinnable image” error message when trying to pin something under these circumstances. A few years ago, Pinterest began to generate a generic text-based image for web pages without graphics, but these stink and you don’t want them being re-pinned (i.e. shared) all over the platform—boo.

The moral of the story is: have a pinnable image on your law firm’s homepage, on each service page, and each blog post. On your homepage, I recommend have a pin that’s kinda like a business card as anyone pinning your homepage (versus a piece of content) is someone who is saving you for later when they are ready to file the divorce, sue their employer, file bankruptcy, whatever. The pinnable images on your service pages should be similar. On your law firm’s blog posts, however, the pins should follow the criteria above (reflecting the title of each blog post). I don’t think it’s really necessary that these homepage and service page pinnable images are tall and vertical, but if you can swing it without making your page look awkward, go for it.

How do you know if an image on your site is “pinnable”? Install the Pinterest browser extension on your computer, navigate to the web page in question, and click on the red Pinterest “P” circle in your upper toolbar. A window will pop open showing all of the pinnable images on the page. Sometimes you’ll be surprised to see that icons and other random stuff shows up.