Pinterest marketing entered the digital landscape with a bang in 2010 and has only continued to make waves for digital marketers since. In January 2021, Pinterest was ranked the 14th largest platform in terms of global active users, outranking social media behemoths such as Twitter and Reddit by more than 50 million. It boasts an impressive 459 million monthly active users, gaining more than 100 million monthly active users in 2020 alone.
What does this mean for Pinterest marketing? Well, weekly conversions on Pinterest grew by a whopping 300% last year, with no signs of slowing any time soon. Pinterest users aren’t just engaging with pins; they’re purchasing through pins — which explains why six times more businesses used Pinterest marketing shopping ads in Q4 2020.
If you want to join the ranks of marketers reaching more than 200 million people on Pinterest each day, you need a solid Pinterest strategy to compete. This blog shares everything you need to know about Pinterest’s social media marketing services, successful strategies, and our Pinterest marketing tips.
What is Pinterest Marketing?
Pinterest marketing uses Pinterest posts (Pins) in conjunction with advertising and sharing to build awareness for a brand, business, product, or service. Like other social platforms, marketers can leverage Pinterest to identify and develop an audience for marketing purposes.
What sets Pinterest apart from other social media sites is its similarity in use as a search engine. Pinterest users scour the platform for new ideas — such as healthy recipes or the latest tech gadgets — and ultimately utilize the search function to research specific products or businesses. Many users explore Pinterest with the intent first to research, then buy, making it a compelling platform for eCommerce.
Where Instagram and Facebook place tremendous emphasis on community, Pinterest users log on for inspiration, commonly dubbed ‘Pinspiration.’ They’re looking to plan extravagant holiday dinners, chic weddings, ultimate fitness routines… you name it. Because of this, Pinterest users aren’t just receptive to brand content. Instead, they find it incredibly helpful — making Pinterest marketing a no-brainer for burgeoning businesses looking for a coveted Repin.
Why Use Pinterest for Business?
Pinterest for Business allows brands to post Pins that more than 400 million users can save. Pins can link back to websites to generate both leads and sales for businesses in the short term and create an engaged audience that can be retargeted in the long term.
Even better, Pinterest offers what’s known as ‘Rich Pins’: A type of organic Pin that automatically syncs information from your website to your Pins. There are three different types of Rich Pins those using Pinterest for Business can utilize:
- Product Rich Pins — Display the most up-to-date pricing, availability, and product information directly on your Pin.
- Recipe Rich Pins — Add a title, rating, cook time, serving size, diet preference, and a list of ingredients to recipes Pinned from your site.
- Article Rich Pins — Display the blog post’s headline or title, description, and author Pinned from your site.
Rich Pins are a free product available for anyone using Pinterest for Business. They automatically update to reflect any edits made on your site, meaning that fluctuations in pricing or availability are accounted for without any additional work produced on the back-end. This ease of use for both the advertiser and consumer explains why marketers using Pinterest for Business are experiencing recent engagement and conversion wins.
From April to October of 2020, engagement lept more than 85% across buyable Pins. Conversion grew in tandem, with shopping ad revenue outpacing overall Pinterest growth. Today, there are more than six times the amount of businesses using Pinterest marketing. Brands can even repurpose consumer-generated content (CGC) across Pinterest, tagging individual products in a photo or video Pins. Pinterest reports that Pinners are 70% more likely to engage with this kind of content.
How to Build an Effective Pinterest Marketing Strategy
Now that you’re aware of how powerful Pinterest for Business can be, you’re probably in a rush to create your first Pinterest board. But, before you can start securing engagement like Repins or potential conversions, you’re going to need a solid Pinterest marketing strategy in place first. Thankfully, the Pinterest experts at Bullseye Strategy are here to guide the way.
Take your social media marketing up a level with these six steps for building a Pinterest strategy.
Step 1: Sign Up for a Pinterest Business Account
Similar to how Facebook and Instagram offer Creator Studio to manage posts and insights and Ads Manager to monitor campaigns, Pinterest has a Business Hub. However, just like a personal account on Instagram, it does not come equipped with an Ads Manager and will not offer Business Hub. Therefore, if you plan on using Pinterest marketing, you’re going to need to sign up for a Pinterest Business Account.
Visit pinterest.com/business/create and enter your business email and desired password. After selecting your preferred language and location, add your business name. Then, choose the description that best fits your business from the drop-down menu and add a link back to your website. Next, connect your additional social media handles and YouTube channel, so all Pins from these platforms can be attributed back to your business — and you can track analytics.
From here, you can begin to edit your Pinterest profile, being sure to:
- Update your profile name to your business name
- Add a profile photo that represents your business (dimensions 165 x 165)
- Add a descriptive, 160-character About section that uses relevant keywords
- Claim your website and add the Pinterest HTML tag
Once finished, click Done to save and move along to step two.
Step 2: Develop Your Pinterest Content Pillars
Most websites advise you to create your first Pinterest board or Promoted Pin as soon as your Business account is live. We’re here to tell you not to do that. Before rushing to add fresh content, take the time to create Pinterest content pillars. Often referred to as content buckets, content pillars for a social media strategy are the most relevant topics for your industry and target audience.
If you’re unsure which content pillars would work best for your brand, return to your keyword map to identify clusters of topics that your target audience is searching for most frequently. If you don’t have a keyword map yet, do some basic keyword research to determine your ideal consumer and how that relates to your brand. Then, gather those topics into buckets that you can base your Pinterest content around.
For instance, your content pillars may be Eyes, Lips, Base, and Complexion if you were a beauty brand. Your content pillars may be Healthy Diet, At-Home Workouts, Fitness Accessories, and Workout Clothes as a fitness brand. With your pillars in place, you can begin to create a content calendar.
Step 3: Create a Content Calendar Based Around These Pillars
Content calendars are crucial. For one, they make it exceptionally easy to determine what you’re posting and when. Additionally, it takes the guesswork out of Pinterest marketing. Lastly, establishing a content calendar allows you to ensure your pillars are adequately represented.
Both of these factors feed into one significant aspect, which is consistently posting. Remember, Pinterest users tend to use the platform as a search engine, which means you constantly want to supply new information for relevant keywords in the form of new Pins. So, if you have five content pillars, you’ll want to have at least five Pinterest boards — and content to fill each. To accomplish this, funnel your content pillars into a monthly content calendar that establishes what types of Pins you’ll be creating and on which Pinterest board they will land.
Types of Pins you can incorporate into your content calendar include:
- Product Pins
- Recipe Pins
- Article Pins (or blog posts)
- ‘Shop the Look’ Pins
- Visual content, such as infographics or video Pins
From here, begin to capture search volume with Pinterest SEO.
Step 4: Capture Search Volume with Pinterest SEO
The Pinterest algorithm performs more like a search engine than a social platform, meaning the best way to gain traction and brand awareness is through relevant keywords. So just as there’s Instagram SEO, there’s also Pinterest SEO. That means you’ll want to harness the power of hashtags and include Pinterest-relevant keywords.
Your Business Hub will have a ‘Create’ tab in the top left corner that will allow you to publish new Pins, Pinterest Ads, and Stories. Take full advantage of the description while creating a new Pin, being sure to add a keyword-rich title and a description of at least 100 characters.
Hashtags can be placed in your title and Pin description but should only be used when accurately describing the content. For instance, only use a #WorkoutHack hashtag if your post is actually about a workout hack. Return to your content pillars and keyword map for ideal phrases for your target audience for preferred Pinterest hashtags. Likewise, don’t forget to include a keyword-rich description and title for your Pinterest boards.
Step 5: Interact With Your Community and Share Your Content
Pinterest is not a ‘set it and forget it’ type of platform like any social media. Instead, you’ll want to routinely engage across Pinterest, both with your followers and others in the community. Take the time to comment on posts: Shout out fellow Pinners for their great content or provide a solution to their problem by funneling website traffic to your latest product page.
Bear in mind, the primary source of engagement on Pinterest other than comments is Repins — when a user re-saves one of your Pins to their own Pinterest board. To entice Repins, you’ll need to build a reputable following. To drive Pinterest traffic, interact often, and keep content fresh. Remember, you can essentially share all of your content to Pinterest, from recent blog posts to new clips from your YouTube channel. So, post often, engage daily, and interact with your community.
Besides organic posts, Pinterest Business also supports ‘promoted Pins,’ otherwise known as Pinterest ads.
Step 6: Utilize Pinterest Advertising to Enhance Visibility
Pinterest ads are relatively straightforward. Through a Pinterest Business account, advertisers can target ads around keyword sets, interests, age, location, and other demographics. Pinterest ad creation and analytics are housed under the Business Hub.
In the Business Hub, advertisers can select from numerous audience targets, including:
- Users who visited your website
- Users who engaged with your Pins
- Users who engaged with similar content
- Customer lists, such as newsletter subscribers
Similar to other social media platforms, Pinterest ads also allow for ‘lookalike audiences.’ Advertisers can select an existing audience as a source, and Pinterest will do the rest and find like-minded users for you.
Best Practices for Pinterest Marketing
The factors most essential to success are using relevant keywords, posting often, and engaging with your community. However, beyond these methods, there are several tips you can apply to your Pinterest marketing strategy. Opt for vertical imagery. More than 80% of Pinners are on mobile, so opt for vertical visual content with a 2:3 ratio — this way, your content doesn’t get truncated.
Utilize descriptive copy. Beyond Pinterest acting as a search engine, it’s a place for users to get lost in their Pinspiration. Entice users to learn more with detailed copy.
Incorporate your branding. Be sure to include your logo on all visual content so that your brand can be instantly recognized in a sea of Repins.
Stick with a color scheme. In line with incorporating your branding, opt for a consistent theme with colors and imagery to give a cohesive look to your Pinterest account.
Use a “new” text overlay. According to Pinterest, Pins with the word “new” in overlay text drove nine times the brand awareness.
Take Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy to the Next Level
Since last year, the number of active users on Pinterest has increased monthly by 28%. Are you ready to take your Pinterest marketing strategy to the next level and reach millions of people daily? Contact us today to get your Pinterest strategy off the ground and Repinned across the board.
