Pinterest is where people go to discover, dream and do more. And with more than 300 million people depending on Pinterest for new ideas, they all want to hear from you. In other words, people on Pinterest are here to take action. They browse their feeds for inspiration, search for topics they’re interested in and click on Pins to learn more.
Therefore, your content fits right in and helps people decide what to try next. In fact, 83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on Pins they saw from brands. Big or small, local or global—Pinterest Ads work for all kinds of businesses too. Through their flexible Ad products, you’ll get your products and ideas in front of the right people, at just the right time.
Whatever it is you want to do, you can make it happen on Pinterest. However, to get the most out of Pinterest, you’ll need to have a record-breaking business account (see an example of the jmexclusives profile). Bearing in mind, you can sign up for a totally new account, or even convert your existing personal account. Once you have a business account, you’ll get better analytics and can start running Ads.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a visual social media marketing site where users, or “pinners” can share images or videos from around the world with friends and family. These pinners also have the opportunity to create specific boards packed full of “pins” of the content that they like.
Often, each board will feature description, and so will the individual pins on that board, making it easier for other people to find the content with keywords. For example, the jmexclusives Pinterest profile has a board entitled Campaign Marketing Promos.
As can be seen, the above mentioned Pinterest board includes pins from jmexclusives and re-pinned items from other Pinners who share similar content marketing tips. Users can make their board public when they want to share their creativity with others. Or preferably, keep it private if they’re using the content specifically for personal inspiration.
What’s more, when it comes to finding images, pinners will be able to either manually upload and share visuals. As well as, re-pin content that their friends share, or re-pin material that they find online. Though many people assume that Pinterest is reserved for moms and lifestyle bloggers, the truth is that any company can grow with a Pinterest account.
How does Pinterest work?
Have you ever created an online photo album made up of your favorite pictures? Pinterest is that, with an added twist, a big one at that. How Pinterest works is it lets its user’s post or “pin” original visuals. And as well as ‘pin’ or bookmark them from across the Internet.
Often, these pins make up a theme-based virtual photo album or gallery known as a “board”. But, in order to help you understand better how Pinterest works for business owners, it’s important that you first familiarize yourself with some basics.
Here are some of the important elements and how they work:
1. Pin
When a user saves a visual (image or video) to their Pinterest account, it becomes a Pin. While the visual is an attraction for the user, the link that follows it is what you as a business should be interested in.
Since each pin links back to its originating source, it can become a great way of getting targeted referral traffic to your business site. Which you can then convert into leads or sales.
2. Board
Some of its users are compulsive pinners, which is why Pinterest Pins have ballooned to billions in number over the years.
But, when a user Pins too many visuals, it can get difficult to find the right Pin. So, Pinterest allows users to organize all their Pins into relevant collections, which are aptly called Boards. Users can either follow an account or an individual Board of interest.
3. Feed
If you’re familiar with the Facebook newsfeed, then you already know how it works. All the pinning activity from the people you follow on Pinterest gets displayed in your feed.
In simple terms, the reason why marketers love Pinterest is that they can research pins and profiles to learn about the tastes of their target audience. Secondly, they also get a clear picture of products/services their audience might be interested in.
Specifically, the social media platform especially works great for marketers who are focused on promoting physical products.
The main options include:
- Individual Account
- Business Account
Although both of these Pinterest accounts don’t cost a dime, their purpose is different.
For example, when you sign up for the business account, you get access to in-depth analytics data that you wouldn’t have in the personal account.
You can also read and learn more about Pinterest Ads | How to Promote your Pins Step-by-step.
Why is Pinterest important?
For many, Pinterest is a social network where only women hang out and spend their time sharing beautiful pictures from all walks of life.
But turns out, Pinterest is much more than that. If you know how Pinterest works, then, as a business, you can use it to your advantage.
Many users (both male and female) tend to depend on it for different things. Right from finding unknown recipes to planning their baby shower to creating their own designer collections. The social network is huge, and there is an endless supply of ideas for everyone.
Pinterest users are:
- 41% of women and 16% of men
- 31% from suburban areas
- 84% between the ages of 18 and 64
- 70% US mothers and 33% US dads
- 55% of shoppers
With this in mind, if you look beneath the skin of this fast-growing social media site and try to understand how it works, you’ll see what all it can do for your business. Regardless of the niche that you are operating in.
Just imagine! What if you could…
- Give your customers a real feel of your products/services online,
- Paint a picture of the solution you’re providing and generate visual cues,
- Consistently deliver new yet relevant ideas to your audience,
- Build a massive following with the help of professional visual content, etc.
Sounds exciting, right?
When you actually realize how Pinterest works to help your business grow, a whole new world opens before you.
And in that case, you start to think outside the box by applying marketing ideas that you never thought were possible. Also, you begin to see opportunities that were previously invisible to you.
Pinterest may not be a search engine, but it is definitely a place where your target audience could be searching for new inspiration or the right solution. They could actually be looking for a product or service like yours.
Check out these interesting Pinterest statistics:
- 60% of users prefer this social media platform over search engines such as Google
- Based on a Pinterest Business study, 72% of online users say that they are inspired to buy something after checking out Pins.
- 90% of Pinterest users say that this platform helps them make a purchase
- And according to Pinterest, they have the most referral traffic across all social media networks.
Now, before you jump on the Pinterest bandwagon and go crazy with your pinning activity, you need to stop and think. In other words, you need to strategize.
Simply, because without a strategy, you’ll only be headed in the wrong direction. Try to take a slow and steady approach as time/money are limited resources that you do not want to waste.
How does it Help in Business growth?
Generally, the social media world has become huge over the years, with sites like Facebook dominating it. All this while Pinterest has quietly made a name for itself and garnered a huge audience.
And as of today, people across the world are regularly using it for various reasons. It is seen as a place where anybody can find inspiration for new ideas. As well as, find products to buy or simply learn more about brands.
According to a study done by eMarketer, Pinterest is the second-largest social network in the United States (after Facebook). Helping people discover new products and indirectly influencing their buying decision. Let’s look more into how it works to help you market your business, build a brand, and generate more sales.
1. It Lets You Drive Targeted Traffic
Are you looking for high-quality traffic without spending gobs of money on advertising? If your answer is yes, then you should understand how it works for businesses that want to build targeted backlinks to their sites. These links are valuable because they help you generate referral traffic on a consistent basis.
Compared to other social media sites, it’s more likely to send you relevant traffic when you use it right. If you can create and post high-quality visual content on Pinterest, you will have more of the users share your content and following your links.
2. It Lets You Convert Leads Better
Even though the Internet has grown huge, there are still people hesitant about making online purchases.
And how it works to remove this hesitation is simple! It destroys common sales barriers by lowering the number of steps it takes for someone to convert.
It acts as a sort of a visual search engine and takes users directly to the relevant source. This means people browsing Pinterest Pins have a higher chance of converting into a lead or sale.
3. There’s A Real Engagement Generation
The biggest upside of using Pinterest for business is the fact that its users are used to sharing good content. Especially, with a targeted group of audience that trusts their recommendation.
So, if you can give people what they are looking for, you can make your pins get seen by the right audience. And maybe even go viral on the social network. Getting real engagement, from real people.
4. Lets You Get In Your Audience Mind
Who doesn’t want to discover precisely what their target audience wants? When you’re using it for business, you get the keys to audience interests.
Meaning, that you not only get to see what is currently trending, but also get into the shoes of your audience to understand their likes/dislikes. Knowing what is popular today is critical data that you can use to customize your products and services. And create demand like never before.
Regardless of whether you have used Pinterest for business or not, you are not late to make the most of this powerful social media platform.
Given below are some of the most practical tips for using Pinterest for business. And by far, get the highest return on your monetary, time investment, or even both.
FIRST TIP: Prep up your Business Profile
To set up a business profile on Pinterest is a walk in the park, but you have to make sure you’re hitting the right notes. In other words, you need to prep your profile.
Equally important, ensure that you don’t leave your profile looking empty and barren. People on Pinterest will find your profile more enticing when they see your serious approach.
When using Pinterest for business, you have to keep in mind the importance of being professional. And giving your profile that professional edge doesn’t have to be complicated.
SECOND TIP: Keep Track of Relevant Trends
While creating great content for your Pinterest account, it’s important to know what your audience likes. To simply put, you have to focus on what type of content is popular on the site. So that you can produce something on the same lines.
Luckily, one of the best ways to understand what to create is to spot a relevant trend and take advantage of it. Don’t be a company that limits its reach by not going beyond its own categories. Instead, be a brand that knows how to jump on a trend before it is too late. Yes, it takes a little effort to consistently keep track of trending topics, but in the end, it’s totally worth it.
The idea is to analyze what kind of content users are regularly consuming and the type of topics that they are interested in. Next, you can use this knowledge to create original yet relevant Pins that your target audience can connect with. These Pins are not to be sales in nature but informative. Which helps drive traffic back to the website.
THIRD TIP: Focus on Content Types Proven to Work
Obviously, without the right kind of content, your Pinterest marketing strategy will suffer. However, since the content on Pinterest is different than other social networks, you need to make sure you’re providing real variety to your followers.
And by now you should know that Pinterest is a visual social network. Therefore, in order to make it work for your brand, you need to know what images to post. And how to create a perfect content strategy.
Equally, just the way it is important to link to relevant sources, it’s also important to post the right type of image. So that you get the highest amount of traction from it.
For example, if you look around Pinterest, you’ll find that there are a few types of content that are proven to work. In that case, when you’re offering a variety of different content to your followers and non-followers, you should try to use content that is proven to work.
FOURTH TIP: Share do-it-yourself Video Tutorials
As a matter of fact, social media marketing has always crossed paths with other digital marketing channels. And one of the main components of a successful content marketing strategy is to educate your prospects/customers with informative content.
And since Pinterest is all about posting the best images, it becomes easy to educate people via pictures. Which is exactly why educational content is so popular on Pinterest.
On the contrary, many people these days don’t like to wade through a long, detailed blog post; they’d rather bookmark it for reference. However, this doesn’t change the fact that people want to be educated. Using Pinterest’s unique “image-based” angle, your brand can craft DIY and how-to tutorials to teach people what they want to learn.
When you give away quality content in the form of bite-sized, easily digestible information, you are feeding Pinterest users with the knowledge they’re looking for. Another plus point of creating such content is that it helps you gain backlinks. Particularly, from relevant sources and also encourages social shares.
FIFTH TIP: Spread Inspirational Ideas
Pinterest has a lot of visual content that deals with inspiration ideas. Users regularly follower “Inspirational Boards” to keep seeking inspiration. Regardless of the market, your business is in, you can create relevantly, inspirational content. While you motivate your target audience and have them share your content with their own network.
Whenever you share anything inspiring with your Pinterest followers, you can be sure of getting some traction. For instance, if you are an interior design firm, you could post eye-catching images that share decor ideas of different types.
Or if you are a business consultancy, you can post images with motivational quotes for entrepreneurs. As long as you think out of the box, the sky’s the limit.
SIXTH TIP: Feed them with Infographics
When it comes to attracting social shares, there is little doubt that infographics work great. No wonder they are highly popular in B2B marketing circles. By pinning infographics to your Pinterest Boards, you can also get more people to embed your content on their own site.
If your aim is to build a large, targeted following on Pinterest and have them regularly interact with your content, then infographic-based posts are perfect. Initially, you may be linking out to other relevant blogs and sites from your boards. That’s fine, as long as your followers get used to clicking through on your shared infographics.
Remember, Pinterest is not only about creating great content. It’s also about helping your audience discover relevant content. So even if you’re not creating the majority of your Pinterest content, there are chances that your target audience will like your curation efforts and start following you.
SEVENTH TIP: Curate Pins the Right Way
Pinterest became huge not just because people created and shared visual content on it. It became what it is today because the majority of the users preferred to re-share content on their account.
These Repins are also known as Saves. And by curating them, you add more weight to your own account and increase its potential. But, the question is, how do you go about curating Pins the right way? How do you ensure you get the best results from your efforts?
How Pinterest works to deliver the “right content” to its users is no different than other popular social networks like Facebook and Instagram. Right content here means content that people want to see. Which is why you need to get familiar with the kind of content your target audience likes on Pinterest.
Above all, you need to do a bit of homework to see what all according to you would work perfectly for sharing. As you explore, keep saving anything interesting and relevant.
While curating is an important part of your Pinterest marketing strategy, you need to limit it so that you’re also sharing original content. The best way to go about this is to use social media rules so that you’re re-pinning 80% content from other accounts, and the rest of the 20% is your own.
FINAL TIP: Don’t Be Afraid to Sell
Now, if you’ve ever tried social selling before, you should know that it can be intimidating at first. What if your audience doesn’t like it? Having such fears is understandable.
However, if you do it right, social selling can work in your favor rather than against you. After all, who doesn’t want more business ethically?
Look around and see how Pinterest works for businesses (big and small) who are indulging in both soft selling and hard selling. Which of course depends on the product or service they are promoting.
The thing with other social networks like Facebook and Twitter is that promoting products directly is frowned upon by these companies. Because they see their networks as a way to socialize. But the good aspect of Pinterest is that it outshines even other visual social media networks such as Instagram.
The point is, if you have a worthy product or service to sell (in B2C and even B2B), you can go about on your selling-adventure on Pinterest. Don’t be afraid to take high-quality product photos and share them on your account.
Takeaway,
People use Pinterest for all kinds of things, from last-minute dinner ideas to “someday-we’ll-go” trip planning. And by reading some of these stories, you can start dreaming up new ways you can inspire people too.
In general, when you think of social media marketing, you probably think of Facebook, Twitter, even Instagram. But, have you ever stopped to consider the benefits of Pinterest marketing?
Apart from sharing content, Pinterest Ads provide you with a great way to get your products and content in front of more people as they search, browse and discover on Pinterest. In the Pinterest Ads Manager, you can create, edit and manage your Pinterest campaigns.
Though the channel is frequently overlooked and underappreciated, it’s actually an incredible place to facilitate brand growth. At the beginning of 2019, Pinterest had 291 million monthly active users, and an average awareness reach of 72% too!
Other channels like Facebook and Twitter continue to lose organic reach. While struggling to overcome the demands of a changing audience. But, Pinterest is earning increasing engagement from its audience.
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