How to Effectively Use Pinterest for Your Business
Pinterest is one the most popular social media platforms being used today, with over 200 million monthly active users. Although not as popular as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, nor as appealing to male users (as 60% of Pinners are women), Pinterest still offers a considerable number of opportunities for marketing that’s hard to pass up.
Pinterest is where people look for ideas and inspiration, and it’s also where people seek out new products to buy. In fact, according to Pinterest, 93% of Pinners use the platform to plan purchases, and 67% reported to have discovered a new brand through Pinterest. What’s more is that the same report revealed that 1 out of 2 Pinners made a purchase after seeing a promoted pin.
With the huge influence Pinterest has on their user’s purchasing decision, Pinterest could be a powerful tool to use for your business’ marketing efforts. Here are tips on how to get started with Pinterest and how to use it effectively for your business.
How to set up a business account on Pinterest
To tap into the full potential of Pinterest as a business, it’s highly recommended to have a business account. Pinterest business accounts offer professional tools, such as analytics and Pinterest advertising, to help your business reach more potential customers.
If you never had a personal Pinterest account before, or if you wish to create a separate business account from your personal account, here are the steps on how to get started:
- Go to the Pinterest website and select Continue as a business. Alternatively, you can go directly to the Pinterest Business page to begin.
- Enter your email address, password, business name, and website. Then choose the category in which your business best belongs to: professional, public figure, media, brand, retailer, online marketplace, local business, institution/non-profit, or other.
- Complete your profile and input the following information: business name, profile picture or logo, username, description about your business, location, and website.
- Confirm your website. Confirming your website gives you the advantage boosting your Pins’ rankings in search results and to gain insight on what people Pin from your website. It also adds your logo to any Pins made from your site, which is great for brand awareness. To confirm your website, all you need to do is add a tag/code to your website’s header tag or upload a HTML file from Pinterest onto your site’s root folder. For detailed instructions, please refer here.
How to convert your personal Pinterest account to a business account
If you already have a personal Pinterest account, you can convert it to a business account. Upgrading to a business account is free. Here’s how to do it:
- Sign in to your Pinterest account.
- Click on the icon on the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select Switch to Business and input your business name, select your business type, and website.
Tips on how to effectively use Pinterest for your business
1. Add a Pinterest Save button to your website
Make it easier for your site visitors to save your content directly to Pinterest without having to leave your website by adding a Pinterest Save button. With the Save button, a Pinterest logo will appear on your site’s images. Your site visitors can then easily click the logo to save your content to their Pinterest boards. This helps in boosting content visibility, as well as driving traffic to your website.
To add a Pinterest Save button to your website, follow the detailed instructions provided here.
2. Showcase your products and brand creatively
As Pinterest is a visual-centric platform, one of the most obvious ways to use it for your business is to share images of your products. The key to effectively showcase your products is to present your images creatively. Invest in good photography, and make it a point to show users how your products can be incorporated into their daily lives.
Another good idea is to designate your Pins as products to make it easier for Pinners to know how much your product is, where they can buy it, and its availability. To do this, use the Rich Pins feature and choose Product Pins. For detailed instructions on how to set up a Product Pin, refer to this page.
3. Include relevant keywords to your Pin titles and descriptions
One of the great things about Pinterest is that it works much the same way as Google in terms of searching content. By including relevant keywords to your Pin title and description field, you optimize the visibility of your Pin when users search for ideas on Pinterest. What’s more is that content on Pinterest also get ranked and indexed on search engines like Google.
Be as descriptive as possible so that users will gain more insight on what your Pin is about. It’s also recommended to include a link in the Website field that takes Pinners to your website or landing page.
As mentioned, the Rich Pins feature can also help you provide more context on what your pin is about. There are four types of Rich Pins:
- App Pin – This adds an install button to your Pin so that Pinners can download your app without having to leave Pinterest.
- Product Pin – This makes shopping easier by providing relevant product information such as real-time pricing, availability, and where to buy the product.
- Recipe Pin – This provides relevant recipe information such as ingredients, cooking times, and serving sizes.
- Article Pin – This helps Pinners discover articles and easily pin them to their Pinterest boards. Article information such as headline, author, and story description are also included.
Closing notes
Pinterest is a good place to help people gain a better understanding of your brand and how your brand can fit into their daily lives. It is, however, often an undervalued social media platform, when in fact, it has a number of useful tools and features that enable businesses to optimize their social media marketing strategy.
If you want to know more about social media marketing, or if you’re interested in working with Ilfusion for your marketing efforts, give us a call at 888-420-5115, or send us an email to [email protected].
Tags: pinterest, pinterest marketing, social media marketing