Ever think of Pinterest as a source to drive more leads and sales to your business? If not, then gimme five to ten minutes and I’ll change your mind…More and more small business owners are are bringing their businesses online to claim their rightful place in the digital world.
I’ve met with a lot of clients who kept on asking me tips on how they can give their Facebook ads more exposure; how they can get more retweets on Twitter; how they can get their business to first page on Google, etc.
And those are all valid questions that I’ve been more than willing to answer. However, if there’s one thing I always advise, it’s to remember that there is more to the online world than Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
Yes. Other social hubs exists, and in some aspects, they’re better than the ones we know! This month, we’ll examine some of them so you’ll know how to can use them to forward your online success.
Let’s start with Pinterest!
Pinterest, according to Wikipedia, “is a web and mobile application company that offers a visual discovery, collection, sharing, and storage tool.” This simple platform has attracted over 70 Million users all over the world, including 500,000 business accounts.
Here are some benefits of using Pinterest:
Pinterest can bring you more traffic
Indigo, the largest Canadian online bookseller, has seen this in action when their traffic had an immediate 78 percent jump in social sharing and 218 percent leap in social traffic after adding Pinterest sharing tools in their website.
Pinterest is the best “top of the funnel” marketing source
A few months ago we moved into a new office which has a lot of stark white walls that need some love and attention so I checked Pinterest and did a search on office designs. The ideas are endless and I have more than enough choices to choose from.
In the end, instead of paying an interior designer to do it, I decided to make it a team building exercise where each month we decide to make over one new area of the office, purchase the products we find on Pinterest and do the work ourselves for a bit of fun and stress release on Fridays. Not only is Pinterest awesome for ideas but you get introduced to a lot of business owners you never knew existed before.
This is what Pinterest does best, it introduces new customers to client websites. In fact,
Pinterest drives sales directly from it’s website
52% of daily Pinterest users consult the site for ideas and information before doing their online shopping, making it one of the best source of conversion for small businesses. ComScore echoed this study when they released that a statement saying 21% of Pinterest users purchase an item after seeing it in the site.
Pinterest makes it easy for your content to be shared
The percentage of pins that are “repins” in the site is 80%, which means that it’s very easy for businesses to have their content shared.
Other amazing reasons why Pinterest will be the next big thing (if 70 million isn’t big enough for you):
- Pinterest leads (vs. Facebook and Twitter) network activity for categories in Food and Dining, DIYs and crafts, Health Info, Funny and Human Interest, Fashion and Beauty, and Tech
- Pinterest grabs about 41% of e-commerce traffic
- 25% of Fortune Global 100 are in Pinterest
- The average Pinterest user has a household income of over $100, 000 (USD) a year
If the statistics above convinced you to start your Pinterest journey, let me guide you on the do’s and don’ts in Pinterest.
Let’s start with the best tip in joining the network – Create a Pinterest Business Account!
First and foremost, you must create a business type Pinterest account. The benefits of having business account instead of a personal profile are the following:
- A business account allows you to use your business name instead of your first and last name.
- It gives you access to Pinterest Analytics – an in-house tool that lets you see the traffic you get out of pinterest.
- You’ll have access to the features that will soon be available to business accounts – “promoted pins” being one of them.
If you already have a personal account and you don’t want to start anew, don’t worry it’s easy to convert it into a business account! Converting is FREE of charge and will only cost you five minutes of your time. Let me show you how…
Step 1: Log-in to your personal profile.
Step 2: On your homepage, you’ll see a search bar. Click on the drop-down menu located at the end of the bar.
Step 3: When the menu drops, head on to the bottom links and click on “Businesses”.
Step 4: You will be redirected to the Pinterest for Business page. In here, you can create a new account or you may also click on “Convert now” to convert your personal account to a business type.
Step 5: Choose your business category and fill-out the other fields needed. Then, you’re done! Your account is now a business type.
Note: First time-user? You may skip steps 1 – 3 and head on directly to Pinterest for Business to sign up.
It’s time to get pinning! Here are more tips…
One of the concerns of small businesses when joining Pinterest is that “they don’t offer fun products”. Indeed, not all businesses have crafty, colorful, and fun products. But this doesn’t mean Pinterest isn’t for them, it just means that they have to be extra creative.
Here are my tips on how to succeed in Pinterest – even when you offer “boring” products!
Make your site pin-friendly
Most of us have done a swag of things to invite internet users to our website. Through social sharing, we can encourage them to keep the momentum going.
Make sure your website is pin-friendly to make it easier for your website visitors to pin (and re-pin) your images. One quick way to do this is to install Pinterest plug-ins, or to include a pinterest share button code in your website. (If you’re a very special client of ours, just email Tech Support and we’ll do it for you at no charge.)
Create shareable content
In any network, users will always snob accounts that are filled with ads. So to expand your following in Pinterest, you’ve gotta be extra creative. Aside from the promoting your products, you must pin content that’s super interesting and valuable for the Pinterest users.
Let’s practice your creativity!
Scenario: You’re a life coach and you offer coaching sessions to those who have had a traumatic experience in life.
If this was the scenario, how would you incorporate fun things to your posts?
Some of your posts can cover:
- Inspiring quotes
- Daily challenges to stay happy (Ex: Say “good morning” to a stranger, random acts of kindness, paying it forward etc)
- Fun ways to decorate your room and encourage positive vibes
- Best places to spend your alone time
- Crafty activities on how to deal with your traumatic experiences (creating wall pieces of great photos and inspiring quotes, etc)
- And a lot more!
You see, a little creativity will get you a long way!
Be very visual!
Pinterest is all about photos, so when you decide to showcase your products and events, make sure that they are visually appealing. Keep text minimal and focus on posting quality images. If there is a need to inform users about details that needs a lot of text, save it for the description and add a link to your images.
Tip: Use vertical photos as much as possible, for they are easier to notice than horizontal ones. Canva.com offers ready-to-use layouts which are very helpful in creating eye-catching Pinterest posts. Simply to go Canva.com, and choose Pinterest to see the layouts.
Organise your content
Pinterest Boards are what photo albums are on Facebook. You can create boards to organise your pins. You can also request to join the popular boards made by other users so your pins will be viewed by more users.
Use Pinterest Analytics
By creating a business type account, you get free access to Pinterest analytics. The data you can get from this tool are the following:
- Average daily impressions
- Average daily viewers
- Average monthly viewers
- Average monthly engaged
- Top Boards: boards with high Pin impressions from the last 30 days
Using the data you get from Pinterest Analytics, you can design a better content flow that will lead you to more leads and sales. You’ll know which pins and boards are getting you more traffic, so you can focus more on this board while fixing the other ones.
You can get more data out of your Analytics account if you verify your website. To know more about Pinterest Analytics, you can use check their blog.
Maybe you want to use a Pinterest Scheduling tool?
Pinterest can get very addictive (I spent every spare hour I had at night and on weekends when I first signed up — I was addicted!!) so it can be time-consuming. That’s why you should consider using a Pinterest scheduling tool to help you save time spent on the site without affecting the quality of your posts.
EveryPost is a scheduling tool that lets you upload and schedule photos to social media networks including Pinterest (It also lets you connect Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, etc). It’s currently only available on mobile, so you’d have to download it using your smartphone.
EveryPost Tip: Create a new Pinterest board before connecting your account using the app to avoid getting errors.
That’s it for our ultimate guide to Pinterest Marketing. This social media network is not as big as the major social media networks, but it has many benefits that make it a must-have for business owners.
As Facebook’s former monetisation executive Tim Kendall says it, “Pinterest predicts intent to buy. Google is only useful when you already know what you’re looking for. On Pinterest, 70 million people are searching for inspiration. The don’t actually know what they’re searching for when they arrive, and they’re open to ideas.”
Catch leads when they’re most receptive to new ideas and products by having an online presence on Pinterest.
Happy pinning!
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