When it comes to Pinterest, it’s important to look at the numbers. First and foremost, Pinterest averages two billion searches each month. And three-fourths of the content that people pin are from a business’s website. Plus, unlike other platforms, Pinterest users aren’t just scrolling: 70 percent of users click through to a website. This adds up to Pinterest being a powerful traffic driver that can help you market your business for months, or even years, with a single pin.
In fact, it’s one of the most powerful search tools on the Internet, primarily because of its visual nature. Here are some key tips and tricks for incorporating Pinterest into your marketing mix:
Think of Pinterest as a search engine first
To get the most marketing mileage out of Pinterest, think of it first and foremost as a search engine. Include keywords in titles and descriptions that are both compelling and searchable.
However, aim to be helpful rather than spammy with descriptions. Avoid copying and pasting the same description and title for multiple images. Instead, take a moment to craft content that will entice users to visit your website for more.
Stay on-brand
When you pin, think of your brand as a person and showcase the lifestyle of your brand. Go back to your brand adjectives and let them guide you. Popular boards could include travel, food, and personal style, as well as inspiration, useful products, and tutorials.
If you’re known for refinement and elegance, but your Barbie-loving daughter wants her bedroom remodeled, think twice about your “Kid’s Bedroom Inspo” board. Fortunately, Pinterest allows you to set boards to “private” so that you can manage personal boards without diluting your brand.
Get organized
Organize your Pinterest page into sections and boards that are consistent with your brand and serve your target audience. A board should have at least 20-30 relevant pins in it. If you want to start a board but don’t have enough pins yet, set it to “private” while you curate.
Sections allow you to further segment boards into larger categories, such as travel, home, and design, or organize them by other categories, such as color, event type, and product type.
Optimize your website
Direct all of your pins to a landing page that
relates to that pin, as opposed to your homepage. Optimize your site for speed,
too—this will decrease bounce rate and lead to higher conversions.
Be sure to add the “save” button to your website so visitors can save new pins
that their audiences will see, which will drive new traffic back to your site.
In fact, a save button can increase saves up to 500%.Likewise, install the “Rich Pin” code on your website to
automatically include extra information on each pin. Rich pins work well for
recipes, articles, apps, and products (which include the price).
Consider the user first and the algorithm next
Like other platforms, there is an engagement-driven algorithm on Pinterest. People see a piece of content and either engage with it or don’t. The more people engage with it, the more it gets shown. High engagement allows pins to live and provide value for years to come, so it’s worth it to create pins that are helpful and engaging. If you do this, the algorithm will always reward you.
In addition, on Pinterest, the first five pins you save each day are prioritized for delivery, so make them count.
Show up with great content every day
The good news is that you don’t have to just pin your own content all of the time. In fact, users expect brands to offer well-curated boards that feature other people’s content as well as their owned content. Therefore, you’re not expected to create multiple articles and blog posts each day to add to Pinterest.
You can use a scheduler like Tailwind or Viraltag to do most of the heavy lifting, but you may want to schedule 10 minutes a day to organically pin what you like. You can also get more eyes on your pins by sharing a “Pin of the Day” on social media or “Top Pins this Week” in your newsletter.
Measure what matters
Get the most out of your analytics by including UTM tags in your links so you can use Google Analytics to see what people are doing on your website from each pin. Look at which pins are driving the most engagement and conversions on your site and create campaigns and pins that replicate those successes.
Pay close attention to popular pins that are saved frequently and optimize the title or description to drive more web traffic. Similarly, for pins that are popular traffic drivers, make sure to optimize those landing pages for conversions on your site.
With a little effort, Pinterest can positively transform your business for years to come. If you show up every day with helpful content, it will build a foundation for your pins to effectively market your business.
Want to learn more about Pinterest for Business? Get our Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business here.
