Vix Reitano is the Founder of Agency 6B and an expert on strategic, omnichannel campaigns focused on generating revenue, fast.
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Even though Pinterest is one of the most popular social media platforms for consumers looking to discover new products and services, most brands don’t include the platform in their ongoing strategies. This is due to the misconception that it’s a platform requiring a ton of content and creative to have a measurable impact.
Pinners (as users on the platform are called) come to the platform to plan, learn and buy. I’ve been on the platform since the beginning and have seen its incredible power as a traffic driver for editorial sites like This Old House. Pinterest can also be an amazing way to acquire engaged, highly converting paid leads in key demographics.
In this article, I’ll cover how to use Pinterest to grow your business and how to leverage the advertising opportunities on the platform without spending a ton of time cultivating an organic presence to see a true ROI.
Use Pinterest For Brand Awareness
When it comes to social media marketing, Pinterest is often thought of as a platform for coaches, consultants and bloggers, for content creators with a blog, or for a brand with a massive budget for content marketing. If that’s what you’ve thought, it’s time to reevaluate the platform.
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In working with the Pinterest team, I’ve learned that almost all users (89% of them!) are on the platform for purchase inspiration and 97% of top searches on the platform are non-branded. This means if you’re working on sales and marketing, crafting an advertising plan for a new e-commerce brand or trying to create a retargeting audience that’s highly engaged, Pinterest needs to be part of your strategy. Not only will you get in front of more of the right consumers at the right time, but you’ll also do it for less ad spend, too.
The user experience on Pinterest is based on the click-thru—a click-thru to your website, not your profile. This means that your organic presence needs to be established on the platform but doesn’t have to be maintained constantly.
One way to take advantage of this user experience and preference is to create a Pinterest board for each of your products and services and then create a few pins highlighting the different elements or individual products. Then, you can promote each of these pins to drive traffic back to the main page where users can make a decision.
Use Pinterest For SEO
Pins are searchable on Google, which means they are a great tool to use to increase your domain authority and rankings, and as part of your overall SEO strategy.
SEO is the only tactic that can directly impact your brand’s awareness with prospective consumers who have actively made a choice to look for a solution to the problem you solve, or for the product, service or experience you offer. These consumers are ready to buy—they just need to find your brand first.
To use Pinterest for SEO, you need to have a business profile on Pinterest and have the Pinterest tag installed on your brand’s website. Add the Save button to your site too for an added value and a reminder to your users. And claim and verify your domain(s).
Then, consider all of the standard best practices for SEO and social media marketing (and marketing in general) to create high-quality content that tells the story of your brand to an audience actively ready to get to know you (so they can like, trust and buy from you). Pins are searchable on Google, so research your keywords wisely and be consistent. Make sure you’re ranking for what you want to be known for—and by that, I mean for what you know converts.
Use Pinterest For Sales
Pinterest users come to the platform to find ideas, products or services they can trust. If you’re not using Pinterest for sales, you’re missing out on that highly engaged and ready-to-buy audience.
When it comes to organic conversions, the data holds: 50% of Pinners have made a purchase after seeing a promoted pin.
In order to really harness the power of Pinterest for sales, you need to make sure that your website or landing page is optimized for a great user experience and tells the story of your brand in a conversion-focused way and that there is a way for you to capture the consumer’s email (at the very least!) so you can nurture them in the future.
Pinterest can also be used for shoppable pins for e-commerce sites or for local sales. The targeting on promoted pins can go down to the zip codes, and you can upload a customer list to exclude current customers if your strategy for the platform is focused solely on new consumers.
A Pinning Strategy
Decide what you want to achieve with Pinterest and create content for your goal. If you want to grow an email list for your business, pin about products relevant to your field. If you want to increase e-commerce sales, pin your products from your site directly on the add-to-cart page. If you want to use it to increase brand awareness, make sure you’re telling the story of your brand with high-quality visuals and content.
The key to creating a winning pinning strategy? Just pin with a goal in mind. You can’t create any change in your business without having marketing, advertising and sales strategies that are goal-focused, and Pinterest is no different.
If you take the time, the return will always be worth it—just ask brands like This Old House, which has 8-year-old pins still driving traffic to this very day.
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Author: Vix Reitano, Forbes Councils Member
