How to Use Pinterest for Your Business

Implementing a Pinterest marketing strategy for your business may increase sales and brand awareness. Fifty percent of people made a purchase after seeing a Promoted Pin and 67% say they’ve discovered a new brand or product from content on the network.Even though 40% of new Pinterest users are men, it’s commonly seen as a female-dominated platform. Which could be one of the reasons it isn’t taken seriously by many small and medium-sized businesses, especially the B2B ones.

But not leveraging Pinterest marketing is a mistake that your business cannot afford to make. Because if you’re ignoring Pinterest while using other social media marketing methods, you’re most definitely leaving money on the table.

Pinterest, as of today, is the fifth most used social media platform with an estimated 700 million visitors a month. Since the site is visually appealing (which happens to be its USP), it also has a high engagement rate.

Making it perfect for businesses that want to reach their target audience and funnel targeted traffic back to their site. In fact, Pinterest only comes second to Facebook in terms of generating social media referral traffic to websites linked from it.

Before we look into the why and how of Pinterest marketing, let’s first look into…

What Exactly is Pinterest Marketing?

Pinterest is a social media site that is based on the idea of sharing visuals. Users or “pinners”, can organize, share images/videos from around the Internet and search for them as well. Which also makes it one of the biggest search engines for visual content.

Images and videos that users upload (along with their links and descriptions) are known as pins. Pinners have the option of neatly organizing their pins into virtual bulletin boards, also called pinboards.

Users can customize and theme their boards, which can then be followed by other users. You also have the option to make your boards private or public.

Now, when it comes to sharing visuals, you have three options:

1. Manually upload and share visuals along with their links/descriptions
2. Repin and share visuals that you discover through your feed
3. Repin and share visuals that you find via search

The best thing about Pinterest is that it allows you to share ideas and inspire others like no other social platform.

Also, since every pinner is busy pinning visuals of their own interest and organizing them, they have no problem with other pinners seeing their activity. Which makes Pinterest marketing a highly effective way to get the word out about your products/services.

Why Choose Pinterest Marketing?

Unless you’re living under a rock, you should know how big Pinterest has become over the years. It has turned out to be the go-to tool for many businesses that want to drive laser targeted traffic back to their site using relevant visuals.

And why not? Pinterest currently has 250 million monthly active users and according to Pew Research, a whopping 29% of U.S. adults use Pinterest.

When compared to other social media platforms, Pinterest is definitely on the smaller side. But what makes it an interesting option is the fact that people using the site are actually engaged with it. This means you have a higher chance of getting people to click-through to your site from Pinterest than say, Twitter.

For example, if you are an eCommerce store selling t-shirts, Pinterest can help you propel your online store to a whole new level. Because it’s different to find a product on Pinterest than on Facebook or Instagram. People using Pinterest are pre-conditioned to hit the buy button.

Pinterest users are used to finding interesting products on it. And they’re not new to buying something that they find interesting either through active search or through their feed. This gives Pinterest marketing an upper hand because of its potential to drive more sales.

Here are a few statistics to help convince you of the power of Pinterest when it comes to generating new business:

• 40% of Pinterest Users Have a Household Income of $100,000 USD
  This goes on to show that Pinners have a huge buying power that businesses like yourself can tap into. Also, it has been found that 50% of pinners earn $50,000 USD. And active Pinterest users are more likely to spend than other passive users that are not pinning.
• 93% of Active Pinterest Users Said They Use Pinterest to Plan/Research for Purchases
  Pinterest marketing and advertising make a lot of sense when such a big percentage of people are ready to buy a product. You can make Pinterest an important part of your content marketing strategy by producing educational content that helps people plan their purchase.

• 50% Pinterest Users Have Bought a Product After Seeing a Promoted Pin
  Pinterest Promoted Pins have proven to be extremely effective due to their native ad format. People don’t mind them because they nicely integrate into the user’s feed. When and if you follow a Pinner, you’ll find promoted pins that are marketing towards a particular demographic.

• Almost 85% of Pinterest Searches Occur on Mobile DevicesThere’s no doubt that mobile marketing is hot and happening. Given the fact that most pinners use their phones to search on Pinterest, you can get more out of your mobile marketing efforts and get a better return on investment.70% of Pinterest Users Search and Save Pins
  Pinterest users do not use the site passively. According to Data, 70% of Pinterest users not only search for pins but also save them and click on them. So if your business can take action into pinning into the right board and label each pin which can effectively help you increase your reach and drive more sales.

3 Effective Ways to Leverage Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest is a goldmine when it comes to marketing. But finding success with Pinterest marketing goes beyond just having a great profile image and company description.

Making Pinterest marketing work boils down to having a clear strategy that resonates with your business goals. Because ultimately, building a strong presence on Pinterest is only possible when you’re headed in the right direction.

Here are three ways you can tap into the huge opportunity called Pinterest marketing and expand the reach of your business, regardless of the niche you are operating in.

#1: Build Your Authority

There are a lot of businesses benefiting in multiple ways by leveraging Pinterest marketing. One simple way to use Pinterest is to build and grow your brand authority, which can help you get more of your prospective buyers to trust your brand and do business with you.

It doesn’t matter what product or service you are selling, you can always use Pinterest to make more people aware of your brand and lead them to buy from you.

For example, if you’re in the beauty niche, you could create Pinterest boards that help and educate women interested in getting a total makeover. This not only allows you to strengthen your brand but also lets you promote your products in a creative manner.

The best part is you don’t have to produce all the content yourself when pinning. You can take a mix and match approach by sharing from various other authoritative sources, which helps you showcase your industry knowledge to followers.

The idea is to give your followers the impression that your Pinterest account is THE place to find useful and reliable information about your industry. When you build your authority this way, you end up…

1. Building consistent trust with your target audience and strengthen your relationship with them.
2. Experiencing a higher level of customer loyalty, which can translate to repeat sales in the long-run.
3. Getting more referrals from happy customers and prospects who turn into your brand advocates.

#2: Grow Your Reach

Let’s face it, every business wants to increase its reach, because it can lead to bigger sales numbers. Having a larger size audience is also the key to testing new products and getting targeted feedback. Pinterest has a highly accessible community that you can leverage to reach out to a bigger set of your audience.

In order to actually grow your reach the right way, you need to have a strategy up your sleeve. Something that isn’t commonly used (or abused) by other marketers.

One such strategy is leveraging group boards. The idea is to go out there and connect with popular Pinterest users who have managed to build a big, loyal following. And then collaborate with them so that you can get your content in front of the right audience.

This “joint venture” allows both parties to benefit. You get a higher degree of exposure and build your authority by partnering with a relevant brand from your industry. And they get to share more value with their followers.

Now, if you want this collaboration to bring results, you have to get in your prospect’s shoes and look at things from their perspective. Their followers should be relevant to your content and vice versa. This joint venture should make sense at all levels.

With a bit of strategic thinking, you can quickly tap into a bigger segment of your audience.

#3: Increase Your Traffic

Traffic is what makes a website tick. Without the right kind of traffic coming in, it’s simply not possible to grow your web presence and increase your online sales. Even though there are many paid and free ways to generate relevant website traffic, Pinterest can leave many of these methods in the dust when applied properly.

Given the popularity of Pinterest and the way it has grown, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it can help you get even more referral traffic than YouTube and LinkedIn, combined. However, you won’t be able to generate traffic unless and until Pinterest users…

1. Find your content appealing and useful enough to share.
2. Repin your pins to their boards on a consistent basis.

Pinterest users that have been successfully using the platform for marketing know-how to pin great visuals. They don’t share images just for their visual appeal, but also because they’re valuable pieces of content that:

• Solve a real-world problem and offer an effective solution
• Inspire people to take a positive set of actions
• Offer something that is worthy or desirable
• Appeal to a certain interest/activity
• Our unique and creative in their own way

Driving lots of traffic from Pinterest is not rocket science. It’s completely doable for a brand that has laid a strong foundation.

Starting a Pinterest Board that Gets Positive Results

Starting a Pinterest board is a great way to build a following and connect with your prospects. When you’re in the beginning stages of Pinterest marketing, you’ll want to make sure your new boards have good quality pins that are relevant to your audience.

Once you’ve got new boards out there, it’s your responsibility to maintain them by pinning valuable content on a consistent basis. Here are a few tips to help you develop attractive Pinterest boards for your business.

#1 Select Your Keywords

People search on Pinterest just the way they would on Google. So when creating your boards, you need to choose the right keyword for your topics.

Start by building a relevant list of keyword phrases that your target audience would be using to search. Add these keywords to a spreadsheet where you can add your primary topics followed by sub-topics.

#2: Decide Your Content Types

The good thing about Pinterest as a visual platform is it’s not limited to static images. There are a variety of content types that you can add to your boards to stand out from the crowd and deliver value to your followers. Such as…

• Infographics
• Animated GIFs
• Videos

So decide beforehand what content types you’d be using for your boards. Do some research to find out what content types are getting the most shares or repins in your niche.

#3: Research Your Competition

If your competitors are active on Pinterest, chances are high that they have their own successful boards. The idea is to not copy what they are doing, but rather monitor their boards to gain insight. You’re basically looking out to understand their performance in terms of…

1. Topics they are choosing that are getting the results.
2. Content types that are clearly working for then.

Obviously not everything your competitor does will be successful. Your job is not only to find out what’s working great for them but also where they missed. Make a list of the content ideas they are pinning to their boards, and analyze what content types are helping them fetch the highest level of interaction.

#4:  Curate Quality Content

If your board is brand new, you want to make sure it is set up to make the strongest impression on your target audience. So make sure the first 15 to 20 pins on the board are top quality and are evergreen in nature. The content of these pins needs to be…

1. Relevant
2. Valuable
3. Useful

The content you pin should compel people to take interest in your boards and eventually follow them. As you move forward, keep curating new and useful content, while repinning any related content that your followers find valuable. You can easily find and track reliable content sources be following two basic steps:

1. Identify any relevant blogs within your niche that are known to publish great content on a consistent basis.
2. Discover evergreen content that you can share on your new board by visiting forums and other social media sites such as Reddit, Instagram, etc.

#5: Keep an Eye on Your Metrics

Just like any other marketing campaign, you need to know where you’re going with your Pinterest marketing efforts. Tracking your performance and understanding it better will help you achieve better results. Starting a new board is one of the initial steps you take towards building your Pinterest marketing endeavor. And that’s exactly when you should also baseline your analytics.

See to it that you determine the most critical metrics for your Pinterest campaign, and use the data to understand what content sources you should continue using and which you should avoid in the future.

If Pinterest looks like a platform that would work for your business, then you need to ensure that you’re not aiming in the dark. In other words, you have to take the needed steps to ensure your pins get more exposure.

Your content on Pinterest has to get noticed by your target audience on Pinterest, whether they’re following you or not. Or else you’ll only be wasting your time and resources with Pinterest marketing.

If you want to get in touch with a member of our team, please feel free to email us at [email protected], call us at (714) 916-9000 or reach us on social media. We would be more than happy to hear from you.

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