If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Pinterest is priceless. You may already be familiar with the image-centric social media site that people use to post and share ideas, from how to redecorate their living room to quotations from their favorite authors. So next to having a website, Businesses can leverage the power of visual stimuli through Pinterest by posting marketing materials, web content, and company photos to their accounts.
Using Pinterest, it’s possible to gain a wide reach by spreading images related to your brand across the web – and Pinterest users do much of the work. When people see your pins on Pinterest, or images on your website, they can “pin” or re-post it to their own accounts. Data from Pew Research Center shows that 41 percent of people will repost images they find on the web to social media sites. It’s like your own network of content marketers – or, as Pew Research Center called them, curators.
Other reasons to use Pinterest for your small business:
- In a recent study, 90 percent of people surveyed used Pinterest to decide on what products to purchase.
- Home Depot, a company with $100.9 billion in sales in 2017, has partnered with Pinterest in a campaign that has helped the company boost sales.
- There are more than 250 million daily users on Pinterest – a wide audience with considerable influence.
- A whopping 87 percent of active “pinners” say they have bought something because they saw it on Pinterest.
What makes Pinterest such a powerful platform is the fact that it’s centered on images. Educational science shows that 65 percent of people are visual learners. Tweets with get retweeted 150 percent more than those without. If you’re in the marketing game, I’m probably just preaching to the choir, so I’ll say no more. Images have always been an important factor, and Pinterest is a way to capitalize on that. Here’s how to do it.
Images are powerful tools for not only making your brand seen, but making people remember it. The “picture superiority effect”, a well-documented phenomenon, is the idea that images are more likely to be remembered than words.
Tip 1: Re-purpose Existing Content
If you’re new to Pinterest, you may be thinking, “Oh, no, yet another platform that I have to create new content for. I don’t have time!”. Wait a minute, though. You will want some of your Pinterest content to be unique so that you can draw visitors to your page who are looking for something fresh. At the same time, you can also take content from your other social media platforms, your website, and your blog and repurpose it for an image-focused platform.
For example, you could take a tweet about your product and make an infographic; you could take your “About” page on your website and transform that information into an inspirational graphic. Use your creativity to get the most out of content that you already have.
Tip 2: Use Tracked Pins for Market Research
As with any other social media platform, once you’ve had some activity on your account for a while, it’s necessary to see how successful your use of Pinterest is. Pinterest has its own measurements solutions to help businesses discover how Pinterest is helping them grow. These tools not only give you a comprehensive view of pinning activity, but give you access to stats like brand loyalty, visibility, and conversions.
In addition to getting hard numbers, consider taking an anthropological view by looking at the profiles of people who interact with your pins. Who are they? What are their interests? What other things do you pin? The answers to these questions may give you ideas of how to improve your Pinterest content, as well as other social media and web content you publish to draw attention from your key users.
Tip 3: Stay Organized
A well-organized Pinterest account not only makes your Pinterest page look good – it also makes your brand look good. Use the boards feature to curate collections of related images and make your content more accessible. For example, you can have one board labelled “How-To” that gives tips on getting the most out of your product(s).
Another board could be labelled “Events and Outreach” and include photos from company appearances and volunteer projects. Each board should be strategically thought out to enhance the image of your business. The better organized your boards are, the more people will enjoy looking through them.
Tip 4: Use “Action” Shots
A majority of the content on your Pinterest page will likely feature your products and services. Posting pictures of what your company offers will cater to the fact that humans are visual creatures. Pin images of people using your product, photos of your brand’s leadership, and snapshots of customer service representatives helping people. The more you show action in these photos, the more interesting they’ll be and the better your subscribers can picture themselves using your product or service.
Tip 5: Make Use of the “Pin It” Button
Don’t forget that the content on your company website can be originally pinned by others, too. You will need to set up your website code to enable visitors to your site to pin your content to their Pinterest boards using the on-hover “Pin It” button. This is yet another way Pinterest takes the workload off of you when users do some of the heavy lifting.
Add the “Pin It” button to your images to help remind Pinterest users to pin it.
You can find guides about how to make the Pinterest “Pin It” button show up when users hover over images on your website. Once active, the images people pin from your site will start to bring in referrals from Pinterest. While users can pin your images without the on-hover Pin-It button by using a web browser widget, it serves as a good reminder for them to pin and share the content.
Tip 6: Don’t Forget to Incorporate Video, Too
Promoting video works a bit differently than images on Pinterest. Instead of adding pins to your Pinterest boards from an existing webpage, you can embed videos directly into Pinterest. Users can then watch the video without have to leave Pinterest to go to YouTube. In a recent poll, 67 percent of people surveyed said that Pinterest videos inspire them to take action. Take advantage of this feature as well as Pinterest’s Promoted Video program that lets businesses advertise by featuring their pins on user pages.
Conclusion
Using Pinterest for Visual Promotion
Using Pinterest can visually help promote your products & acquire new customers. Chobani is a beautiful example of this.
Pinterest is a highly effective social media platform for marketing through visual content. It’s arguably better than Instagram for brand promotion, since users can view a whole gallery of related images at once in an organized fashion. Many people use Pinterest to get ideas for gifts, home improvement, and personal shopping sprees. It’s an ideal means of reaching your current and future clients in a non-aggressive and collaborative way. Pinterest has made online shopping and brand selection a pleasing experience for consumers.
So Pinterest might be a handy tool if you want to use it as a powerful extension to your existing (or planned) website or e-commerce store and reach more potential readers and customers.
In case you have any more questions our you want to leave us some feedback, feel free to drop us a comment below! 🙂
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