If you are not currently working with Pinterest for your business, now may be just the time to help you get started.
Pinterest offers a unique place to connect with other influencers and your own friends too. But it also works as a visual search engine that can bring customers over to your business in no time.
There are many reasons why pinners come to this platform. But it is mostly for inspiration. Some are there for inspiration to make their holiday dinners, go on their dream vacations, or plan a wedding or party.
Because of this, these pinners are receptive to brand content and are actively searching for it to find it helpful. Let’s look at how you can use Pinterest to bring your business to the next level.
Setting Up Your Own Pinterest Business Account
There are three main methods you can use to create your own business account. You can use your personal account and add a business profile to it. You can convert your personal account over. Or you can start a brand new business account.
The steps you can use to start your business account from scratch includes:
- Visit the site pinterest.com/business/create: If you already have a personal account, log out of that first. Then enter the email you want to use and a new password before creating the account.
- Add the business name: You can choose your location and language, the business name, and write a small description about your business. Add the link to your website too.
- Connect to your other accounts: You can connect your Pinterest accounts to other accounts like Etsy, YouTube, and Instagram.
- Decide if you would like to run ads: Pinterest will want to know about this. Choose what information you would like them to use for this.
- Fill out the profile: Make sure to pick the profile name you want and add a picture that represents your brand.
- Click the Claim button: this will allow you to claim your own website and follow the website analytics. Any pins that link back to your claimed account will come back here too, giving you more visibility.
- Create your first board and pin. Pick something that goes with your business. You will need to add quite a few of these based on your marketing plan, but take some time to get the hand of this process now.
Tactics to Get the Most Out of Pinterest for Your Business
Now that we have had some time to discuss what Pinterest is and how to set up your own business account, it is time to learn the best tips you can use to grow your business on Pinterest.
Some of the best tips to see your business grow on Pinterest include:
Create good content
When working with any social media account, content is so important. And visuals are the most important on Pinterest. To show this, one Pinterest study shows that 85% of the people who use Pinterest place more importance on the visuals than the text. You do need good copy to go with the images too.
Some important things to consider when making a good pin includes:
- Vertical imagery: About 85% of pinners use the website on their mobile phones. You should go for a 2:3 aspect ratio so the image looks good even on mobile devices.
- Copy that is descriptive: Spend some time telling your customer what they are seeing. Do so in a way that entices them to learn more.
- Use text overlay: You may want to use a headline to help with your message.
- Branding, but only if done tastefully: Consider doing something as simple as including the logo. This helps prevent the brand you want to present getting lost in the RePin shuffle.
- Good storytelling: The best marketing includes a good story.
Create a Consistent Pin Schedule
It isn’t good enough to place a few pins on your board and call it good. You need a consistent schedule for posting pins to keep your potential customers coming back. The recommendation from Pinterest for this is to pin once each day. This is a more effective than filling up a whole board at once. When you pin regularly, your content can reach a bigger audience.
A good way to make sure you get pins up consistently, without having to sit down and do it each day, is to use Hootsuite. This will let you list out the Pins and the time you want them to be put on your page.
Take Advantage of Seasonal Content
Pinners love to plan way ahead. This means that you need to share any seasonal content early. The recommendation for this is 30 to 45 days in advance. Since seasons and big holidays are big marketing opportunities for brands, this is advice you should plan out for. Just do not be too late on this one. The earlier the better if you want to reach your audience.
Take Advantage of the Boards
You need to give others on the site a reason to follow you. There are several ways to do this. For example, you can get a board set up that is filled with your customers using some of your products. Or you can create your own DIYs and tutorials to get people to look at your work.
Optimize Using Pinterest SEO
Always remember that Pinterest is a valuable tool, but it works as a visual search engine. Similar to the Google or Bing search engine, keywords will be important to your customers finding your information. This is why you need to use keywords properly on your descriptions, board, pin names, and even for the company. Hashtags are a good way to do this.
SEO with Pinterest is a little bit different than what you may find with other social media sites. If this is something you need help with, outside of creating good content that sells, you can learn how SEO on Pinterest varies from SEO on other sites.
Use Ads
You can also work with ads on Pinterest. Pinterest is great at working with advertisers, providing them with ways to target their ads around the chosen keywords, interest, location, and age of those they want to target. At the same time, audience targeting will allow you to reach those who visit your site, those who engage with your pins, and those with similar content.
Make it Easy to Shop
Your end goal is to make it easy for your Pinners to shop. You do not want to lead them to one of your pins and then have them leave without a purchase because they can’t figure out where the right buttons are. Create links that will take the potential customer directly to where they can make a purchase if they wish. This will help increase your profits.
Should Every Business Use Pinterest?
There are a lot of things that are great about using Pinterest and many companies will benefit from using it for their needs. However, not every business should jump right on the bandwagon.
Pinterest is a very visual type of site. This works well for many businesses. But if your company does not lend itself well to being visual and different videos and other media, then you should not use Pinterest.
If your potential customers do not visit Pinterest, then you should not use this either. Market research will point you in the right direction to find your potential customers, but you may or may not find they are visiting Pinterest.
Pinterest is a great tool for your business. It is simple to set up an account and there are a lot of tips you can use to reach your potential customers.
Make sure this is the right platform for you before getting started and see what a difference it will make in your business and how you reach your customers.