Fashion on Pinterest is like butter on bread.
It’s one of the core niches that the platform is known for. In fact, Pinterest is often the first place people come to discover their new look. For these reasons, having a solid Pinterest marketing strategy is critical to success in the fashion industry.
Today we are talking with Sai De Silva of Scout the City to learn the story of:
- how her business started
- the tools she uses to diversify her content for the many different platforms she uses
- how she uses Pinterest as a marketing tool
- the growth her strategy has brought to her business.
We also touch a bit on content creator burnout and how exhausting it can be to navigate all the changes on all the platforms.
First, A Bit About Simple Pin Media
Our goal here at Simple Pin Media is to help businesses increase their reach and awareness through our Pinterest management services. Our services are designed to help meet your company goals by:
- creating an effective daily pinning strategy
- evaluating analytics multiple times per week
- pinning based on your brand needs.
Our number one goal is to drive Pinterest users back to our clients’ websites so they can realize increased sales, email conversions, ad revenue, and affiliate income.
Related: How to Increase Your Pinterest Conversion Rate
We use the latest tools, best practices, and leveraging our connections with Pinterest and companies closely related to Pinterest to achieve your goals.
Our strategies are always based on the Simple Pin Framework – Inspire, Inform, Decide. We walk through that framework with each of our clients during a discovery call where we explain each service we offer and we evaluate if Pinterest and Simple Pin Media’s services are right for your business.
We want to be your one-stop-shop for all of your Pinterest marketing needs!
Let’s dive into today’s episode about fashion on Pinterest with Sai De Silva of Scout the City.
Scout the City is a fashion and lifestyle blog that Sai started as a hobby after her daughter, London Scout was born.
Did you catch that connection to the name of her site?
Sai was the only mom among her group of friends when her daughter was born. She found herself turning to social media as an outlet. Sai was passionate about fashion. B logging about her daughter and children’s fashion provided great mommy/daughter time and created connections with like-minded moms.
Seven years ago, Scout the City was born. Nine months into her blog, BuzzFeed wrote an article about her blog that resulted in a lot of press for her:
I had no idea anyone would be remotely interested in children’s fashion, but it was a thing! I thought, could this be a job? Is this a job? Can I get paid? There were so many questions because this was just a hobby for me. I found myself in this kind of sink or swim situation and I said, ‘Okay, let’s swim. Let’s make this into something! — Sai
Fashion on Pinterest: Creating a Marketing Strategy
It wasn’t a clear-cut path in the beginning though.
Sai felt like she couldn’t quite figure out Pinterest at first. She thought of it as a place to look for recipes and home decor rather than a place for her fashion content.
But, the more she got involved with fashion Pinterest, the more traction she gained with the platform. She remembers when Pinterest as a marketing tool began to click with her. She realized that it actually was a huge search engine where people were going to look for inspiration for many different things, especially fashion.
She decided to hop off Facebook and devote more energy to Pinterest.
Related: The Transition from Facebook Marketing to Pinterest Marketing
An added benefit was discovering that her Pinterest content could be repurposed for use on Instagram!
Key Elements of Her Current Pinterest Strategy
Sai thinks the future is all about short-form videos. As a YouTube user, she has been used to creating long-form videos, but she believes it’s important to adapt to current trends.
I think with this job that you need to adapt or you end up getting left behind. For me, this has always been my jam. I love social media. But the audience attention span lately is like 5 seconds. — Sai
That short attention span is important to consider when creating content.
You have to capture your audience’s attention and get to the point quickly. Sai believes that’s why TikTok exploded when they arrived on the social media scene. It’s entertaining and it’s quick.
Pinterest and many other platforms have recognized this as well. Pinterest responded with Idea pins (formerly story pins) and video pins, Instagram has Reels, Twitter introduced Fleets, and now YouTube has Shorts.
Sai’s approach to this constantly changing face of social media is to embrace the change and learn as she goes. She believes learning something new is all trial and error and there’s no right or wrong.
If something is new, I’m going to just immerse myself into it and figure it out. With TikTok, I said, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s just short-form video. I love short-form videos. Let’s do it!
Sai describes herself as an app stalker when it comes to adapting and learning new strategies and platforms. She embraces learning from a 13-year-old how to edit a video.
She even learns from and finds inspiration from her 9-year-old daughter.
Content Management
Sai, like so many others, is on many different platforms. This requires a lot of content management. Sai has a wicked-smart content creation plan.
She says she tries her best to keep an editorial calendar, but her brain is always thinking and she gets those great ideas that come when you’re in the shower. She finds those will often take her off the calendar on a spur-of-the-moment photo or video shoot.
Sai has a divide and conquer approach to her content creation strategy. Each platform gets its own day of the week for shooting photos or videos. She says it’s not easy, but if you are organized you can get it done.
Repurposing her content between platforms helps her to be as productive as possible. Since most platforms require vertically shot video right now, she can shoot videos for one platform and then adjust the length, change text overlay, etc. to use across three different platforms.
But Sai’s “always on the go” schedule can make repurposing a challenging task to manage. Thankfully, there are many apps available that make repurposing between platforms so much easier.
(Check out our podcast episode on the JumpRope app, which is an excellent tool for repurposing video content).
Sai enjoys editing from her phone. It makes it easier for her because creation doesn’t have to stop just because she is always on the go.
Some of her favorite apps for simplifying the process are:
- InShot – great for jazzing up boring footage with music, transitions, filters, etc.
- Videoleap – great for cloning yourself doing multiple things in one video
- VN – great for zooming effects
If you don’t know how to use these apps, Sai recommends finding tutorials on YouTube. She is constantly amazed at the brilliance of the kids offering tutorials and finds them very entertaining and informative.
Pinterest for Fashion Inspiration
Sai turns to Pinterest for fashion inspo when it comes to next season’s fashions (especially if she is shooting a video for “Get the Look” content).
Pinterest’s search engine is phenomenal for these types of things.
Sai says the “Princess Diana” look is very popular right now. It’s so easy to go to Pinterest, type something like “Princess Diana’s old-fashioned finds,” and find inspiration for your own “Get the Look” from there.
She also likes to scroll through TikTok before she goes to bed. Sai says it is so easy for her to get sucked in for an hour or two because she enjoys watching the kids, but she also feels she gets idea sparks from them that she can twist and make her own.
Don’t forget YouTube for great inspiration as well and app “how-tos” from those very entertaining 13-year-olds! Sai clearly enjoys them.
Advice for Fashion Content Creator Newbies
Dive right in and experience as much as possible.
Sai believes there is no right or wrong when it comes to content creation and marketing fashion content, it’s all just experimenting to find what works best for you.
Pinterest can be great for inspiration. It can spark fantastic ideas, but Sai offers one caution:
My biggest piece of advice is don’t copy and paste. It doesn’t work out in the long run. You’re unique. You’re your own person, so find that niche. Find what others are going to be interested in. -Sai
Sai found her success when she let go of trying to be like someone else and realized she was a unique person with unique ideas to share.
I love that bit of advice. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of trying to be like someone else. Content creators deal with it all the time. They find people just copying their stuff instead of carving out a unique path.
Don’t be a copier! Think about it. You wouldn’t consider copying someone’s physical product. Why would you do it in the digital world?
Sai’s advice is great! Go and find who you are in this fashion space.
Recognize that burnout is normal.
People often underestimate the work of content creators. Many think it’s an easy schedule, picking days here and there when you want to work.
In reality, it’s a full-time job!
Sai says it’s important to realize that it’s normal to have days when you feel burned out from the always-on-the-job lifestyle of a content creator. It’s important to create times where you put a hard stop in place. We all need to take a break from social media and reset.
I have days when I’m kind of tired of talking to my phone and my neck is tired. I call it tech neck now. I swear that my neck is getting saggy because I’m always on my phone looking downward.
Sai mentioned that she often puts in 12-14 hour days. If you’re a content creator, you know in reality it feels more like 22-hour days. As a creator, you can’t just turn your brain off. You never stop thinking, even while you’re sleeping. You wake up with ideas already turning in your mind.
Content creation can be exhausting. As Sai said, It’s intertwined with your life.
I think Sai has given us some great insight into managing inspiration and content creation in this continually evolving world of social media. I hope her story inspires you to find your unique voice in the world of fashion on Pinterest or whatever niche you find yourself in right now.
To connect with Sai, simply search “Scout the City” across any of the social media platforms.
For Further Listening/Reading:
