How to Use Pinterest for Business: 8 Strategies You Need to Know
Are you currently just using Pinterest to plan your dream vacation or find delicious-looking baked goods to try — or are you using Pinterest for business? If you aren’t doing the latter yet, it might be time to consider getting your brand on this visual platform.
Pinterest is the 14th largest social network in the world with 459 million active users each month.
Pinterest offers businesses of all sizes a unique way to market themselves — as a visual search engine, Pinterest is great for exposing new potential customers to your brand.
That’s because Pinners come to the platform for inspiration. They want to try new things, discoverr new ideas, find great recipes, and often, get inspired to make their next purchase.
Let’s get started.
What is Pinterest marketing?
Pinterest marketing is a set of tactics incorporating Pinterest into your business’s bigger social media marketing strategy to reach new audiences and grow awareness for your brands and products.
According to Pinterest Business, social media marketers turn to the platform to:
Reach a new audience and grow an online presence.
Drive more traffic to the business’s website or online store.
Encourage conversions like newsletter sign-ups, ticket sales or purchases.
In other words, using Pinterest for business can help your brand reach a lot of people and make money.
In fact, 80% of weekly Pinners have discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest. And Pinterest statistics show that both the number of Pinners and boards created, is increasing year over year.
This platform can be particularly beneficial if your business targets the same demographic that loves and uses Pinterest. The platform has historically attracted women and people who want to shop or start a new project. As of 2021, it’s becoming increasingly more popular with men and Gen Z-ers.
Pinterest is also popular among people looking for positive inspiration — it’s not the platform for FOMO or controversial back-and-forths.
Now that you know what Pinterest marketing is, time to move on to how you can market your business on Pinterest. Keep reading for 8 actionable tips.
How to use Pinterest for business: 8 tips and tricks
Create a Pinterest marketing strategy
Just as you would with any other social media channel, start by drawing out a social media strategy for Pinterest — don’t just jump right in.
Creating a Pinterest marketing strategy means:
Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound). On top of gaining a following on Pinterest, do you hope the platform will drive traffic to your website, increase sales for a specific product or drive sign-ups for an event?
Learning about the general Pinterest audience and the demographic that is most likely to use this channel.
Learning about your brand’s specific Pinterest target audience.
Considering what your competitors are doing on this social media platform.
Planning and incorporating on-brand content for Pinterest into your social media content calendar.
Once you’ve set a clear strategy, you can begin working toward your goals.
Pin engaging, captivating content
Pinterest is a visual platform, so effectively using it for business means producing high-quality, engaging visual content to share.
So, what makes a captivating Pin?
Vertical imagery. Data shows that 82% of users browse Pinterest on mobile. Shoot for a 2:3 aspect ratio to avoid awkwardly cropped images.
Consider your image and video quality. You want to avoid pixelation, so aim for the highest quality image and video that Pinterest recommends.
Descriptive copy. Good descriptions can help you improve SEO, add context to your images, and encourage users to click on links.
Text overlay. Consider including a headline that reinforces your visual message.
Tasteful branding. If it makes sense for your brand and corresponds to your Pinterest marketing strategy, incorporate your logo in your Pins so your brand doesn’t get lost in the Repin shuffle.
Make sure your links work. Broken links won’t help your brand! Ensure the link with your Pin won’t go to a 404 and loads quickly to give Pinners the best user experience.
Finally, be consistent! Consistent, daily Pinning is more effective than creating a board and filling it up at once. And Pinning regularly ensures your content will reach a wider audience.
Try different Pin formats
Pinterest is an image-sharing platform, but it’s not just about photos.
Mix it up! Pin a video encouraging Pinners to shop at your e-commerce store or try adding multiple photos to a Pin to create a carousel.
But even though 80% of Pinners discover a new brand or product on Pinterest, think beyond shopping and explicitly promoting your brand.
Pinners also come to the platform for inspiration, with 85% of Pinners saying they come to Pinterest to start a new project. Consider posting how-to Pins or inspiration boards to provide your audience with fun and valuable content.
Carefully plan your boards
As 97% of Pinterest searches are unbranded, your brand’s boards can help reach new Pinners interested in specific topics or learning specific things.
For example, Oreo’s boards include Pins with inspiration for upcoming seasonal holidays — like its Spooky Sweet Halloween board and Holidays with Oreo board — as well as recipe ideas, like its Oreo Cupcakes and Oreo Cookie Balls board.
In other words, the brand skillfully mixes useful, engaging and inspiring content boards with boards that are more promotional:
Optimize your Pins for SEO
Pinterest is a search engine, so make sure your business’s Pins are easy to find in a search! Include keywords in your Pins’ descriptions, on boards and in hashtags.
Rich Pins, designed to pin new content from your business’s website while avoiding duplicate content, will boost your brand’s Pinterest SEO.
Try out different Pinterest ads
Another effective way to market your business on Pinterest is with ads. Pinterest allows advertisers to target ads around keywords, interests, location, age and other metrics and categories.
And detailed audience targeting lets advertisers reach specific groups of Pinterest users, including:
People who have visited your website.
People who have engaged with your Pins.
People who have engaged with similar content on the platform.
A custom list, such as your newsletter subscribers.
From video ads to collections to promoted Pins, a range of ad types are available on Pinterest.
Track the metrics
A successful Pinterest marketing strategy is data-driven. In other words, tracking, measuring, and analyzing key Pinterest metrics and audience behavior helps social media managers see what content performs best and what content is less engaging.
We let you know which metrics you should track and which tools you can use to monitor them here.
Promote your Pinterest profile
Finally, make sure your loyal followers from other platforms know you’re also active on Pinterest. Promote your Pinterest profile:
By linking to your Pinterest profile on your company website.
Including the link in your email signature.
Cross-promoting your Pinterest business account on your business’s other social channels.
Sharing the news of the Pinterest profile in a company newsletter.
Pinterest is a powerful marketing tool that can help you increase brand awareness, boost conversions, increase sales, and create long-lasting relationships with your target audience and buyer personas.
You can achieve all of these things for your business by following the Pinterest marketing strategies we reviewed and incorporating the available tools and resources to help you succeed as a business on the platform.
So, sign up for a business account and create unique and engaging content to market to your customers and followers on Pinterest.
Ready to fulfil all the demand that comes your way? Download free templates today to see how you can streamline demand planning and meet your most audacious revenue goals.
You can learn about some beautiful nits-bits of online business from the one & only Mayank Mittal. Buy his e-book "Art of Building Great Products" at 50% OFF only here.