When considering what social media channels to use for your business, Pinterest might not be at the top of your list. This is a missed opportunity. The network (one of my personal favorites), is a hotbed for creativity, eager customers, and those seeking ideas. Using Pinterest for business is the perfect way to get your product or service “discovered by millions of people looking for things to plan, buy and do.”
With so much opportunity, it can be difficult to know where to start with your Pinterest strategy. To help you out, I created the following Coaching Blog to help you discover how Pinterest can boost your business success.
Why your business needs to be on Pinterest
Pinterest is a site of discovery. There are over 150 million Pinterest users seeking information, advice, and inspiration on the network—a number that can’t be ignored.
Demographics
With 150 million Pinterest users, the site’s demographics are key. As Pinterest shares, “67% of Pinners are under the age of 40, a 27% jump from last year.” Even more interesting? 54 percent of women aged 34 to 55 are on the site, and 35 percent of them have household incomes of over $100,000.
If you’re looking to target male-identified individuals, you might be surprised to learn that male users have grown 120 percent in 2016.
Proven marketing success
It’s hard to sell to people who don’t want to be sold to, but on Pinterest you don’t have this problem.
“When asked who they would rather follow—their favorite brand/store or celebrity—83% of people said they would prefer to follow the former,” according to Pinterest.
Because of this, Pinterest has influence on what people are buying. Using social media to research or bookmark items for purchase is a core element of the social buying process, and you can ensure your brand is involved by integrating Pinterest into your strategy. Why? According to Pinterest, “87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest” and “93% of Pinners have used Pinterest to plan a future purchase.”
A top traffic driver
If your goal is to increase traffic to your website, look no further than Pinterest. Pinterest shares that about five percent of all website referral traffic comes from the site (second to only Facebook).
Now that you understand the “why” let’s talk about how to move forward and get started!
How to promote with Pinterest for business
There are a number of ways to promote your business using Pinterest.
Personal vs. business accounts
You might be using Pinterest for personal reasons already, but it could be time to create a business account. If you think your brand would benefit from having access to analytics (spoiler alert: it would), Rich Pins (more on those later), or promoted Pins, a business page is right for you.
You can either create an entirely new business account, or convert your personal account into one. A business account has different terms of service than a personal account, so make sure you familiarize yourself with these.
Promoted Pins
Promoted Pins on Pinterest look like regular Pins, but are paid by a brand to be seen by more people. Pinterest explains, “They’re native ad units that perform just as well, if not better, than organic Pins, helping people discover and save ideas.”
Promoted Pins were first introduced two years ago, but in October 2016 they got a bit of an update with Promoted App Pins and One-Tap Promoted Pins. Promoted App Pins allow users to find and download iOS apps straight from a Pin, without leaving Pinterest.
One-tap Promoted Pins now let users go straight to where the content originated from, which, according to Pinterest, “makes it simple for Pinners to do more—like learn about your product and complete a purchase—right on your business site.” Pinterest is hoping to add high quality ads and landing pages to One-tap Promoted Pins in the future.
Pinterest Ads:
There are three types of ad campaigns to choose from:
1. Awareness
Awareness campaigns aim to get your business in front of people who have not heard of you before, do not really know what you do, or are not already interested in your brand. You pay per 1,000 impressions.
2. Engagement
Engagement campaigns are designed to encourage Pinners to interact with your content by re-pinning or clicking your Promoted Pins. You pay per engagement action: a close-up, re-pin, or click.
3. Traffic
Traffic campaigns send people from your Pinterest ads directly to your website, and you pay per click. The process is the same for creating all three types of Promoted Pins.
Promoted Video
Pinterest has seen a 60 percent increase in videos over the last year, so taking advantage of the new Promoted Video feature is a smart idea. Promoted Video allows for easily discoverable content, which is also paired with Pins related to the subject of the video.
How to create a Pinterest business page
Creating a Pinterest business page is the first step towards Pinterest success.
1. Enter your email address, password, and business name. Then select your business type and enter your website.
2. You will now need to confirm your website to get access to analytics and logos from your site. To do this, click Confirm website in the website field from your settings.
3. Once you’ve done this, follow the instructions on the next page. As Pinterest explains, “You can verify with an HTML file or meta tag.”
You will know that your website is confirmed when you are able to see your logo or profile picture on the Pins saved from your site.
Add the Save button to your website. This makes your business more discoverable on Pinterest, and lets users save things from your site to their Pinterest boards.
Go to Pinterest’s simple-to-use Widget builder. Select Save Button (the first option).
7. Decide whether you want your Save button to be a ‘One Image’, ‘Any Image,’ or ‘Image Hover’ format. You can see examples of each of these in the Preview section.
8. Once you’ve decided on the format of your Save button, copy and paste the code into your web page where you want it to appear.
9. Don’t forget to include pinit.js once per page, right before the closing tag.
In conclusion:
You’ve now set up the essentials for your Pinterest business account and it’s time to start Pinning! Check out my next Coaching Blog in this category, My Top 10 Pinterest Business Tips and Best Practices
