Pinterest Marketing: The Only Guide You Need to Make It Work

When it comes to social media marketing, the first site that comes to mind is obviously Facebook, followed by Twitter, Instagram, etc.

The reason these social networks are popular amongst marketers is because they work.

However, if you can think out of the box and use a dash of creativity, your business can benefit from one of the most…

…underrated social media platforms available for marketing – Pinterest.

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 strategy 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.

This social network also boasts over 322 million Pinterest profiles as of 2020.

Since the site is visually appealing (which happens to be its USP) and can actually be considered as a visual search engine.

It also has a high engagement rate.

Using Pinterest for business is perfect to help reach the target audience and funnel targeted traffic back to the 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, hashtags 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, create unique board names 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 and bloggers that want to drive laser targeted traffic back to their site using relevant visuals.

And why not? Pinterest currently has 320 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.

Which 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 e-commerce store, selling on 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 new pins with interesting products on it.

And they’re not new to buying something that they find interesting either through active search or through their feed.

Which 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 makes 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 Devices

  There’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 your Pinterest marketing strategy goes beyond just having a great profile image and…

…company description for your Pinterest business account.

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 a wider audience using 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.

Establish yourself as an influencer in your industry, and lead them to buying from you.

For example, if you’re in the beauty niche, you could create your own content and Pinterest boards that help or 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 new 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 an 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 strengthening 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 Pinterest marketing 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 the 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 positive set of actions
• Offer something that is worthy or desirable
• Appeal to a certain interest/activity
• Are 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 and Pin images.

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.

There are several marketing tools out there that can help you create these content. A popular choice would be Canva.

#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 an insight.

You’re basically looking out to understand their performance in terms of…

1. Topics they are choosing that are getting them 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.

This is especially true if you’re running Pinterest ads.

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 from your Pinterest analytics tool to…

…understand what content sources you should continue using and which you should avoid in the future.

5 Simple Yet Powerful Tips to Get Your Pins Noticed

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.

Given below are four tips to help you do so:

#1: Optimize for Pinterest Search

Getting found on Pinterest becomes a lot easier when you’ve optimized your presence for search.

Because a large majority of active Pinterest users are regularly using search to find pins.

So make sure you optimize the following to get the most out of your Pinterest SEO marketing efforts…

• Your Name
  

  Your Pinterest user account name shouldn’t be treated like just another name.

  It’s an important element that can help you appear in relevant searches, but only if you optimize it well.

  People searching on Pinterest use various types of terms.

  Your aim should be to appear in search for the term that is more relevant to your brand, and is also popular.

  When you have zeroed on such a keyword, add it to the end of your brand name.

  This way you’ll have a better chance of people finding your Pinterest account when they search.

• Your Boards
  

  No matter how good your Pinterest boards are, they’re not going to benefit your marketing campaign if your target audience doesn’t get to find them.

  Try to use your primary keywords in the titles of each of your boards.

  While people may not find all your boards through the search option, you’ll still increase your chances of getting found by the right people.

• Your Pins
  

  Think of your Pin description as a quick intro to your visual.

  Using the right keywords in your Pin description can help you show up in the search results more often.

  A simple yet effective way to come up with keyword ideas for your description is to type in your root keyword in the Pinterest search box.

  This should automatically give you a list a popular keyword suggestions that people are using to search on Pinterest.

  You should also consider using rich pins.

  These pins provide additional context about a particular Pin which is similar to rich snippets of SEO.

#2: Maintain Day-to-Day Consistency

When it comes to pinning, a lot of brands make the mistake of being irregular with it. Pinning consistently can help you in two ways:

1. Get more people to find your pins, which means more exposure and traffic.
   
2. Boost the number of relevant followers to your Pinterest account that actually like your content.

Now, maintaining consistency can prove to be a challenge for busy brands that are also focused on other marketing activities.

In such a scenario, you should at least try to pin five to ten visuals in a day.

However, if you do have the time or have a dedicated individual work on your Pinterest marketing.

Then you can take your pinning activity to the next level.

As reported by Pinterest content distribution network Ahalogy, pinning up to 25 visuals per day is a highly effective way to increase your…

…Pinterest presence and grow your influence.

Once again, being consistent means pinning the same amount of pins everyday.

Whether it’s 10 pins or 30 pins – there needs to be a balance. Because that’s exactly what your followers expect from you.

#3: Experiment with Timing

There is no definite formula when it comes to getting your pinning timing right.

Depending on whether your business is targeting a local audience or a global one, you should always experiment with your timing when you are pinning.

Also, Pinterest is a busy social media site with many different types of people using it.

So try pinning or schedule Pins throughout the day at different times so that you’re reaching out to a bigger set of your audience.

Finding the optimal pinning time differs from brand to brand due to various factors.

Which is why it makes sense to test and use the data you get to pin at the right times.

You should keep an eye on how your followers (and non-followers) respond to your pins at different times.

#4: Use high-quality images

Let’s face it, Pinterest is almost the same as Instagram. It’s all about the visuals.

Pinners usually go here to find ideas or inspiration for almost everything.

And having high quality images is the key to selling your brand on this platform. It’s vital for these images to be enticing.

These are some tips that you can try:

• If you’re selling beauty products, clothes, accessories or footwear, your product Pins should use real people to model them in everyday life settings.

  Also, don’t forget to highlight the product in your model’s pose.

• And if you are selling home décor, furniture or goods, it’s best to capture their photo in a home setting.

  This will help the users to imagine what it will look like in their home if ever they decide to purchase it.

Always ensure that the images are captured from the best angle and of high quality.

#5: Repin Older Pins

Gaining targeted followers to your Pinterest account is only one part of the equation.

The other part is to actually get them to see your pins. The fact is, not everybody is going to notice every pin you post.

Which means, you need to go beyond regular pinning to get your pins noticed and clicked upon.

An underrated way to do this is to repin content that you previously pinned to your account.

For example, if there’s a pin you posted a month ago that got a great response.

Why not repin it and get a higher response? This could be done with pins that you posted days, weeks or months ago.

Many of your new followers will be eager for great content.

When you repin older pins that have already garnered a good response, you’re delivering proven value to these fresh followers. 

What’s more, if you’re using Pinterest to drive awareness of your products and get more sales.

You can remind your followers (would-be buyers) of what you have to offer.

Time to Start Your Pinterest Marketing Adventure

Even though we just gave you an ultimate guide to Pinterest marketing, you may still want some help as your business grows.

If that’s the case, well then we can help you there too. We offer Pinterest advertising and Pinterest management services for small businesses.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you grow your business on Pinterest and stay ahead of your competition.