Why Pinterest is the key to grow your business in 2022 and how to start from scratch
Pinterest has been around for a while now so you may already be a fan of this platform or at least have heard of it but, do you know how great Pinterest is to grow your business? Well, it certainly is! and today we’ll be talking about why businesses use Pinterest to connect to new and loyal customers, but first things first… let’s clear out what Pinterest is and how it works for those who are not familiar with this platform yet
What is Pinterest all about?
If you think Pinterest is only for finding the perfect banana bread recipe let me tell you this couldn’t be further from the truth. Pinterest is a visual platform where you can share content and find inspiration. On Pinterest Pinners save ideas of anything they find interesting to nicely organized boards. Actually, it’s the first search engine based on images and one of the world’s most active platforms. Today, over 400 million people around the world use Pinterest every month! So… we’re talking about a very powerful search engine for ideas, services or products!
Let’s say you are planning a birthday party and you are looking for decor inspiration, all you need to do is type “birthday party decor” on Pinterest’s search bar and it will give you tons of different ideas for that.
You´ll find quotes, recipes, home decor.. Well, basically anything that makes your heart sing! People go to Pinterest searching for a solution to their problems. It’s a positive space where people love plans, they imagine their dream home and create a board with all the decoration details they would love. Unlike other places on the internet, Pinterest is the Platform people seek to spend time free from comparison while planning their own lives. This means Pinterest is about yourself and whatever you are passionate about. Maybe that’s why 85% of Pinner claim Pinterest is where they go to start a new project.Ok, but… how does Pinterest work? As a visual content platform, as soon as you create an account you’ll be able to see on your home feed all these images, videos and products called Pins.
Everything on Pinterest is a pin and some of them lead to a source site which provides more information. So, in those cases, when you click through a pin, you’ll be able to go to the website which that pin is linked to. Pinterest indexes its content and puts much effort on making sure the pin matches the source and that is actually relevant to the audience it reaches, that it responds to those Pinners interests. And why is that? They want to be that one place people think “I’m looking for a solution to my problem, I’ll go to Pinterest!” But in order to do that, the pin must be created in a way that helps Pinterest understand what it is about and this is why optimization is insanely important… but we’ll talk about this later. Some other pins don’t lead to a site such as Idea Pins but all of them serve the purpose not only to answer Pinners interest but also to make brands build a community and awareness.
Now, you are probably wondering how pins are organized, right? Each one of those pins will be grouped on a board about one specific topic. If you find a pin you love, save it to a board! At the same time all the pins you discover and save already live on boards. So, Pinterest boards are where pinners save and collect their pins almost like pinning pictures or videos to a digital mood board scrapbook.
Are you an entrepreneur? You should be including Pinterest on your brand’s winning strategy
The content creator’ s best friend
Pinterest is not only used for discovering new inspirational content. Entrepreneurs, bloggers and content creators use Pinterest for Business. Why? Because Pinterest for Business can unlock a goldmine of traffic to your website, connect your brand to a whole new targeted audience and make your brand stand out so if you are not using pinterest as part of your business strategy, you are totally missing out!
The giant search engine
Would you say you don’t care about Google? You certainly won’t say that. Well, Pinterest is the third search engine and it’s the first search engine based on images. In fact, sometimes Pinterest is one of the top results on Google so if you are not putting your content on there, someone else will. As we mentioned before, Pinterest has a large user base of over 400 million monthly users! For this reason building a strong presence on Pinterest is key for your brand to grow organically and get more awareness.
Boost traffic to ridiculously high numbers
Massive amount of traffic is around the corner when using Pinterest for Business. Pinterest works for traffic generating even much better than other popular social media such as Facebook or Instagram but, why is Pinterest so great for driving traffic and sales? Pins can link back to websites which means a wider customer base for your business so once a Pinner finds your pin interesting, it’s easier for them to find your website to check it out and the best part is that it’s all free organic traffic! But, In order to be found by the right people who are actually interested in your content and create early engagement to your pins it is crucial to optimize your Pinterest profile for SEO and have a Pinterest marketing strategy but… we’ll be talking about this later.
Now let’s share some numbers. One of our clients’ websites showed a great traffic increase during 2020 after getting one of our Pinterest content creation and management plans. This board shows not only how this blogger’s website increased its traffic but also where this traffic came from.
So, what can you see? 62.64% of the website traffic in 2020 came from Pinterest! Magic? definitely not! It’s all about real and organic growth
Pinterest positivity environment pays out!
Do you ever feel the internet drains your energy or your inspiration? I’m sure we all feel that way sometimes and that’s why this point is crucial to understand the impact of Pinterest at every stage of the funnel purchase. Recent research shows negative spaces make people less likely to purchase from brands. Amidst a global pandemic and social uprising it gets really hard to find platforms on the internet free from anger, comparison, divisiveness or even terrifying news. Those feelings may encourage people to argue but not to buy. Pinners claim they find it easier to remember a product, trust a brand or even buy when they feel positive. So whether you are driving conversion or working on the presence of your brand it will always matter (a lot!) where your brand shows up to avoid negative perception. People no longer turn blind eye to negative context and your business can’t afford that!
People crave for a different type of online experience and Pinterest is one of the most positive platforms out there. Pinterest is the place people go to relax and find new inspirational content to create a life they love. According to a recent research nearly 5 to 10 Pinners say this platform feels like an “online oasis” to them so, why would you miss the opportunity to share your content to over 400 million people and build awareness in such a positive space?
The goldmine of shoppers
Conversion rates on Pinterest are usually higher than other platforms’ conversion rates such as Instagram or Facebook. People come to Pinterest with an idea or an intent of purchase. Pinners use Pinterest with the intention of doing something, which many times means getting the inspiration to purchase something- This way Pinterest becomes the place where people go to find a solution or discover new things that are aligned to their interest and how to actually take those things to action. Pinners use this platform to determine whether they want to make a purchase or not. 80% of pinners report they discovered new brands or products on Pinterest and 85% of weekly Pinners said they have made a purchase based on content they found on Pinterest… Holy cow, that’s a lot! So, what’s important here is that Pinterest offers a high value audience of shoppers to get discovered by. I mean, let’s be honest…not to be there sharing your unique content would be a pity!
Ok, I’m in! But, how do I start?
Earlier on this post we talked about how Pinterest works: that was from a personal user’s point of view but, as we anticipated, in order to be on Pinterest as an online marketer you need to set up a Business Pinterest account, this will open a large professional toolbox. You can sign up for a business account from scratch but if you already have a personal Pinterest account you can easily change it to a Business one following this instructive but don’t worry, it’s free and it’s not hard to grasp at all!
Once you set up your Business account profile you’ll have access to some extra perks like claiming your website, scheduling your content, ability to advertise, Pinterest Analytics, some really useful educational material as well as many other features such as Rich Pins. Oh and, about these last ones, they’ll be your ally on your Pinterest Marketing Strategy journey to make your numbers go up so I know you don’t want to miss them but don’t worry, we’ll be talking in depth about them on another post (I bet you´ll love them)
We know this may be a lot of information up to this point but here’s some things you must pay attention when you are setting up a Pinterest Business account.
Make sure you’re using SEO!
So, Pinterest is definitely worth your time, as its content is indexed it shows up in search engine results like Google. But resources are limited right? Since time is precious and your business can’t afford to waste it you want to make sure your content is searchable. Because of how important it is to be a trusted source, optimization is crucial to make Pinterest understand exactly what your content is all about.
Profile
When you are promoting your brand on Pinterest, your profile must attract users to explore more of your content so you have to make the most of every space you’ve got on there. Think about making a competition research, how they present themselves on Pinterest and what specific words they use to get noticed. Pick up your display name and your bio carefully thinking about what your audience is looking for. Your bio is your chance to tell people what you do so use the first sentence to explain what you do and think, you could use the second sentence to add your personal spark, you could inject some humor or add tagline, whatever you think sintentizes your brand essence. In other words, think well how you want to present your brand and try to be fresh but simple! You should also think about your profile photo and cover art, these are the first things people see when they visit your profile so choose your images wisely. All these items are ways to embed your business branding so make sure everything makes sense together as a whole.
Pay attention to your boards
Setting up your boards correctly will help your pins get better distribution within the algorithm so you want to make sure everything makes sense together!
Your boards will organize your pins in different categories just like you would organize documents in a folder so Pinners can easily browse your profile and explore all your content in a visually pleasant way. All your content within each board must be relevant to its category. But, what if I already have boards? don’t worry, you can always optimize existing boards and if a pin does not fit its board you can move it to another board or delete it. Either way, what we recommend is to always move it to the most relevant board. Now, keywords are crucial, they are the heart and soul of any search engine and Pinterest is not the exception, so make sure to do a deep keyword research to find those aligned to your target audience and those relevant to your content, you can use keyword research tools to find inspiration, use them to think about the title and description of your boards and use a board planner to organize them.
Pin smarter!
So, what about the image of your pin? Pinterest reads and scans your image to figure out what’s about so it’s important to upload an image that’s easily understandable for Pinterest. Your pins will have higher chances to be shown in the first few results and be discovered by your potential audience when you optimize them, they might even check out your profile and visit your website. So, this keyword research that you’ve done for your boards will be also used to create engaging titles and descriptions to your pins too. Keep in mind your pins titles and descriptions must be compelling and as descriptive as they can so make sure to say in a few words and keywords what the idea that board encapsulates so Pinners can decide whether your content is relevant to them or not. Pin titles can be up to 100 characters but keep it simple and relevant. Even though Pin’s descriptions can be up to 500 characters, Pinterest suggests to use only 1 or 2 sentences so make those words count and share the most relevant information first. Think of a beautiful message and then think how you are going to communicate it using your Keywords! Another great advice is to pick the right font, make sure it’s legible and scalable, nobody spends more than a few seconds trying to figure out what a sentence is about and you want to catch that thumb click! Now, what about infography and all that stuff? don’t struggle to come up with Pinterest infographics and make sure you download the ultimate free Pinterest cheat sheet infographic we offer. But hurry up! it won’t be available for too long!
Put your heart on your content
Make your content organic and appealing to your audience to improve engagement. Real content is the most powerful tool when you are building a community. Online experience nowadays is all about interacting in a more positive way, doom scrolling is the norm and people crave for high-quality content so be consistent and put your passion on it, think about your audience’s interest and help them find inspiration on everything you share, we guarantee they are going to be grateful for that! Remember, everything you create on Pinterest will be shared to a lot of people who are interested in that topic but it’s also going to be next to a lot of other interesting content so, think about what you can add to it in order to make it very special and unique!
Delegate is an investment
Even though this is quite an accessible platform, we know sometimes it can be a little too much information to start from scratch a Pinterest Business account and extra work to keep up with Pinterests best practices updates (yes, they tend to change regularly) but, hey! …we’ve got you some really good news… You don’t have to be an expert on the subject to get it right or succeed. Acknowledging when to delegate it’s always an investment! Searching for a Pinterest Manager is a great way to learn and see early results as they manage your business. Remember you can contact us to make your content stand out and help your traffic grow immensely, check out our services and get started today!
Well, we have covered a lot of very helpful information today and we hope this post encourages you to start your Pinterest marketing strategy journey!
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