Pinterest is an incredibly powerful search engine (kind of like Google).
And while there’s a long list of business types that would benefit immensely from a robust Pinterest strategy, creatives and makers stand to benefit the most (provided a couple of key things are in place that allow for a global customer base): jewellery designers, clothing retailers, graphic designs, furniture makers, babywear, general home goods, artists - the list really does go on and on!
Ultimately, people are on the platform to find inspiration. If you’re the business providing that inspiration, then you’re one step closer to making a sale. After all, 90% of Pinners say that Pinterest helps them decide what to purchase so why not take advantage of it!
So what’s the best place to start if you’re new to the world of Pinterest marketing?
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Shot & Styled by Shout & Co. for Auckland Art Gallery
Using your own experiences as a Pinterest user is a powerful way to guide your business strategy on the platform.
How do you use it?
You probably log on, enter your search terms in the search bar at the top of the landing page and then scroll through the images to find what you're looking for. And if you’re not looking for anything specific - seeking only to be inspired - you’ll scroll through your home screen to see what’s on offer. Either way, once you land on image or video that you love, you either file it away for future reference onto one of your boards or click through to shop the products you’ve just found.
All of this content has to come from somewhere, and it's coming from sources just like you: business owners, blog owners, photographers, creatives, designers and makers who upload their work with a link, tag or caption. If this is where your core target market is hanging out, you need to be one of those people creating content because it could lead followers and audiences straight to your door.
The catch?
Your business either needs to be digital or open to worldwide orders because Pinterest isn’t location-specific. It’s a global platform and users come from all over the world. So if you’re website or offer isn’t geared towards international business right now - you need to make it so!
Once you’ve got this in place, here’s how to get started with your Pinterest marketing:
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Shot & Styled by Shout & Co. for Auckland Art Gallery
ENABLE YOUR BLOG OR WEBSITE
To post directly from your site to Pinterest, you’lll need to get your website verified. Once that’s done, it will allow not only users to pin content straight from your website, but will allow you to link the content you upload to your site straight to the platform. Consider adding Pinterest widgets to your site to make pinning even easier: whether that’s a SAVE / FOLLOW / EMBED options.
YOUR BRAND NAME
Your Pinterest name (i.e. the name people will see when they visit your profile or at the bottom of your pins) should include what you do and the product or service you provide. For example, ours says Shout & Co. | Digital Content Marketing Agency, making it easy for people to see at a glance what it is that we do.
BEST BIO ON THE GROUND
Curate your bio like you would on Instagram: make it easy for users to see at a glance what you’re all about. Perhaps talk up the pain point you alleviate for your customers and clients, add your website, location and throw in a couple of emojis to make it pop. Optimise your bio with the core keywords that Pinterest users would use to find your product, service or brand. And of course, don’t forget to add your website URL.
TOP BOARD
Have a board of your current projects / work / product at the TOP of your boards - this way when someone has a look at your profile, this is the first board they come across. And give it a really catchy or self-explanatory name, like “WHAT WE DO”, “OUR CURRENT RANGE” etc. But don’t just stop at 1 board, create a series of boards for your business - perhaps by category, service offer, or even end user! Don’t forget to add an effective keyword-rich description to each board.
Your profile should be set up in such a way so that users can immediately see WHO you are (thanks to your profile name), WHAT you do (thanks to your bio) and HOW you do it (thanks to your top board).
PINNABLE IMAGES
Because Pinterest is such a visual-rich platform, it’s a photo-to-play type of situation. For every blog post you publish, have at least 1 - 3 pinnable images - i.e. visuals that would accompany a pin.
ENGAGING IMAGERY
There is no getting around it: to make it on Pinterest, you need to have beautiful images. If you haven’t invested in lifestyle photography yet, we suggest getting this in order first. Create a substantial bank of imagery so that you have content to pin. Unlike other platforms where sharing the same image over and over again will drive your followers crazy, with Pinterest you can recycle content on a more regular basis.
IMAGE CONSIDERATIONS
Ensure the images you’re uploading are: high quality, high res, 2:3 aspect ratio (i.e portrait rather than landscape)
Add your logo (subtly) to your imagery - just don’t add it to the lower right corner because that’s where icons go
Many people start planning for specific events or seasonal updates a few weeks (if not months) in advance: think Father’s Day, winter wardrobes, Christmas, etc - so create your content and imagery with this seasonality in mind.
EFFECTIVE CAPTIONS
Ensure that you are creating a clear content title and website reference with all the important contact information attached so that when your followers' (and their followers) come across your uploaded pins, they can follow the pin trail back to you - so your links will be VITAL here. Make your pin title catchy (you can use a max of 100 characters) and your description irresistible (you can use a max of 500 characters).
ENLIGHTEN
84% of Pinners say that they learn new things via Pinterest. So incorporate educational and enlightening content to your content plan for Pinterest - infographics or text overlays are a great way to do this.
FREQUENCY
For the platform to really work for you, you need to be on Pinterest on a regular basis: try to pin every day - and as consistently as possible. If you’re not able to hop online to do this at the same time everyday, schedule your content! This is where that significant time investment we reference earlier comes in!
SHOPPABLE PINS
Make sure you’ve enabled the product pins functionality, to add pricing / product title / product description to your pins through either catalogues or rich pins. With the catalogue option, you can upload a data source of product information, allowing you to categorise your pins by product groups. You could go the rich pins route as well which allows you to upload the product info straight from your website. This is obviously simpler and quicker to set up but won’t allow you to categorise your products into groups.
ANALYZE
Keep your eyes on your Pinterest Analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. It will also give you an opportunity to see which times / days are the best for publishing content. All of this information helps you refine your Pinterest marketing strategy so that it’s an ever-evolving approach rather than a once-off.
Do you use Pinterest to market your business? What are your favourite tips to using the platform? Share with us in the comments!
Follow us on Pinterest - we share our latest work and use it as a source of inspiration for our upcoming shoots! We also invite clients (new and existing) to share their mood boards with us of images that they love!
If you’re needing fresh new imagery for your Pinterest marketing, get in touch!
Feel free to book a complimentary DISCOVERY CALL with us where you can get a feel for who we are, how we work and how we can help your brand with it’s content creation:
