Contrary to popular belief, Pinterest isn’t just a place for sharing the latest viral recipes, workout routines or DIY projects. The platform is also a great space for marketing brands and sharing newsworthy content. While many still consider Pinterest to simply be a virtual scrapbook, the platform is quickly proving itself to be a powerhouse for increasing conversions, driving traffic and creating engagement through its various advertising features.

With well over 300 million people using Pinterest each month, the platform offers businesses a unique opportunity to get their products and services in front of an ever growing audience.

Pinterest Organic Posts

If your business isn’t yet on Pinterest, the time has come. Here are our top 10 tips for getting started organically on this popular site.

1. Create a Pinterest strategy. The strategy for a Pinterest business page should mesh with the corporate brand. For instance, if your company builds entry-level homes, avoid multiple pin boards with dream homes that are high end. A Pinterest strategy outlines boards and what is pinned – individual home plans, communities or boards for kitchens, pools, owner’s suites. Create this document and think it through before starting a series of random pins.
2. Make high-quality images a priority. While it might be acceptable to include images snapped from an iPhone on a personal Facebook page, folks looking at images on Pinterest expect a higher quality. This means that the image on the original website needs to be large enough to pull through without being grainy or blurry!
3. Be consistent. Add pins regularly throughout the month, not all at once. This creates a drip campaign for followers, while at the same time not overwhelming them with an avalanche of pins all at the same time.
4. Use descriptions on pins. Descriptions add context and reinforce branding. They also impact where content shows up on Pinterest, and who sees it. Descriptions can look different across Pin formats and devices. Sometimes the full description shows in the feed, and sometimes it is just the Pin title or a few words of the description. Descriptions can be up to 500 characters, so write as much descriptive information as possible. The first 50-60 characters are most likely to show up in people’s feeds, so put your most important info first. And, take the opportunity to incorporate commonly searched terms on Pinterest within your descriptions.
5. Think like your audience. What trends do they like? What seasonal content can you add? For home builders and remodelers, consider home trends – shiplap, colors of the year, organization, etc.
6. Add hashtags. Add relevant hashtags to help people find your content. Hashtags function as search terms and people use them to find trending topics. If unsure which hashtags to use, search for the topic on Pinterest and use the autocomplete suggestions as guidance. Add these to the pin when it is originally pinned, as adding them later does not get the same results.
7. Get the right perspective. Facebook prefers horizontal photos and images, and on Instagram it is hip to be square. However, Pinterest likes vertical images shot in portrait mode. So, think of an aspect ratio of 2:3 or 1:3.5 – these are super long and skinny.
8. Show some action. All Pinterest business accounts can upload videos. Scatter them throughout your boards or create a board to highlight all videos in one place – or do both!
9. Share stories. If your company blogs, showcase those stories on Pinterest. This is another great way to make your company more transparent.
10. Link all pins to a website – your website. When someone clicks on your Pin, they want to learn more about it. Pick a landing page that feels like a natural progression from the Pin to the site. And remember, the point of Pinterest is to showcase your work, don’t pin to other sites unless you want to send them all of your traffic!

Pinterest Advertising

If well-known brands like Apple and Wal-Mart have figured out how to take advantage of Pinterest’s advertising features, there is surely room for smaller businesses to do the same. Pinterest Business accounts offer a variety of advertising and analytics tools to target audiences and measure success.

Here are a few of the biggest benefits of using Pinterest’s advertising features:

1. Increase reach, traffic and conversions. While most social media platforms are used by businesses to attract traffic and create awareness, Pinterest incorporates the entire marketing funnel. According to Pinterest Business research, Pinterest users or “pinners” have higher rates of engagement and purchase intent. Similar to Instagram, Pinterest’s attractive, visual-first format is highly engaging and puts pinners in a shopping mood. In fact, 93% of pinners use the site to plan their purchases and 98% of pinners have made a purchase from the site compared to 71% on other social media channels. To keep track of these actions, businesses can install Pinterest Tag onto their website. Through this tracking feature, Pinterest will track the actions people take on your website to help you find out how users engage with the site and which ads lead to more conversions.
2. Content marketing benefits. Pinterest is often used as a content marketing tool by bloggers due to its ability to reach and be shared by users. For many blog sites, Pinterest’s search engine design even surpasses SEO as the leading source of traffic. By using Pinterest in their social media strategy, businesses can modify content from their blog or other social sites to connect with an audience on Pinterest. Boosting a few cross-platform pins extends their reach and drives even more traffic to those original posts and website landing pages. Like any good blog or social media post, each pin that redirects to your business’s website should include keywords in the description to help the promoted pin find its way to the target audience more easily.
3. Target specific audiences. Pinterest also offers targeting options to help businesses reach target markets. When it comes to targeting audiences on Pinterest, there are seven different options to choose from: audience, act-a-like audience, interests, keywords, demographics, placement and expanded. Businesses can combine a variety of targeting options however they please to create a target audience that is as narrow or as broad as they desire. Through the targeting features, businesses can also view the potential size of their audience to help gauge their Pinterest ad’s success. One targeting option that is special to Pinterest is interest. With Pinterest ad targeting, businesses have access to over 5,000 interests that could be relevant to their ad and be used to promote pins for highly targeted campaigns.
4. Measure with analytics. Using search and saved pin data, Pinterest offers helpful analytics to reveal potential and existing audience interests. This audience insight helps businesses improve ad campaign targeting by providing a deeper understanding of what interests their target audience the most. Pinterest also allows businesses to measure ad results based on awareness, sales, traffic and other marketing objectives. Pinterest’s ad manager quickly shows key metrics at any given timeframe, allowing businesses to redirect ad budgets to their most successful campaigns. These metrics include the money spent on the ad, as well as the number of ad clicks, results and impressions.

Are you ready to experience the power of Pinterest organic pins or Pinterest advertising? Whether growing following organically or with paid ads, Pinterest offers a unique platform that businesses can use to grow their brand and improve their marketing strategy. To get started on your business’s Pinterest advertising efforts, contact us and let the Denim Marketing team craft a Pinterest marketing strategy for your company.