Businesses use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to connect with their audiences and promote services, but over the years Pinterest has grown to become a powerful search platform to further target audiences before they make a purchase.
According to Pew Research Center, only 29% of U.S. adults use Pinterest but learning how to maximize and best use this platform can be key to an increase in clicks, email subscribers and sales.
Pinterest is commonly used to browse around for something to use in the future, narrow down ideas or find something specific. Today, businesses are taking advantage of what pinners are using Pinterest to better promote their services.
Be prepared
Before you dive into using Pinterest, it’s important to have a marketing plan in place to ensure this is the best direction to go. The plan should focus on how the business is going to use Pinterest to increase traffic, email subscribers and clicks. Take into consideration what topics to focus on and turn them into boards, featuring related pins.
Pinterest uses boards to gather pins and businesses can use this to showcase their products and help consumers find exactly what they are looking for.
Do your research to maximize reach
When you have an idea of what topics you want to feature, think about your target market and research what keywords for search perform best. Step into the shoes of the audience and determine what terms they use when searching for your product.
For example, if your business is all about social media, your pins should feature social media tips, email marketing, tips to improve branding and more. Keywords should also relate to social media, marketing, strategy and more.
Pinterest is for more than ideas
Wpromote, a full-service digital marketing agency in California, uses Pinterest to create campaigns to expand their reach. According to Pinterest, this agency wanted to expand their clients’ reach with a lower cost per action. People use Pinterest to not only scroll through content but to plan purchases.
“We’ve found that people on Pinterest are more actively trying to plan or make a purchase than on other platforms. Being able to reach them when they’re in that mindset is a primary driver for the strong performance we’re seeing.” – Ashley Talley, Wpromote Account Director
With the use of Promoted Pins, their campaigns included 40% lower costs per action and 26% lower costs per thousand than other paid channels. They were able to reach new customers via Pinterest at a much lower cost than other paid channels.
Use eye-catching imagery
Along with using keywords and taking advantage of Promoted Pins, design plays a part in getting more people interested in your Pinterest.
Taking the time to design beautiful and striking graphics, focusing on the layout and creating useful pin descriptions are a few design ways to help increase traffic to your website. Using design tools like Canva, Crello and Adobe Photoshop can help to create impactful images.
As Pinterest expert Peg Fitzpatrick said, you want to maximize your efforts and create content that inspires, teaches and visually appearing to gain the attention of the audience.
Eye-catching images within your pins can make or break your business. The better the image used, the more clicks, traffic to website and email subscribers you can potentially have. Preparing a style guide with brand colors, fonts and logos can help plan out your Pinterest layout easily.
As with all social platforms, it’s important to understand how to use Pinterest too meet your audience’s needs and have a plan before jumping in with both feet.
