How can your business benefit from Pinterest in 2019?

Social media is a bridge between businesses and customers. To remain competitive, businesses need to use the right social channels to reach out to their target audience and sell their products and services. One social media marketing platform that has gained prominence over time is Pinterest. Over 200 million people use this visual search platform every month. (Source: https://business.pinterest.com/en/audience-demographics-user-stats)

A study by eMarketer has found that Pinterest is one of the top social media platforms influencing buying decisions in the US. It is one place to discover new ideas, learn about new products and services and promote one's business. 1 in 2 adults between the ages 18-34 uses Pinterest to turn his/her ideas to reality. Therefore, brands and businesses should include Pinterest in their digital marketing strategy. The platform's massive popularity lies in its unique USP of visual search and image based results making it more engaging and entertaining for its users.

Our post takes a look into how your business can benefit from Pinterest marketing in 2019 and beyond.

The Pinterest Basics You Should Know

Before using Pinterest as a part of your social media strategy, you should be acquainted with a few terminologies to use the platform effectively. The ones listed below are some you will come across again and again.

Pins – The image or video that you save to Pinterest from anywhere on the web or by uploading one from your computer. Every pin links to the original source or website serving as a good source of referral traffic for those sites.

Pinner- This is what a user on Pinterest is referred to as.

Boards – In Pinterest, pins are saved onto respective boards relating to different categories. The boards can be based on any topic like Fashion, Beauty, Recipes, Travel, etc. Of late, Pinterest has also made it possible to create a section within your board to sub categorise your boards.

Feed – The feed is what the user is greeted with after they log in to Pinterest. The feed shows a mix of the pins from boards that the user has followed. It also shows the topics that the user followed as well as promoted pins. The Pinterest algorithm also takes into account what the user searches for and shows similar types of pins to the user.

Group Boards – These are the boards where more than one pinner can use a common board though only one person owns the board. If you create a board and ask other pinners to collaborate with you, it will be marked as a group board.

Archive Boards – If there are boards/pins you are not interested in anymore, you can archive them. It will help you to clean up your profile.

Secret Boards – This is a very handy Pinterest feature that lets you create secret boards that only you can see. This way you can create ideas for yourself instead of sharing it with the world.

Lens – A camera icon next to the search bar in the Pinterest app that lets you upload a photo from your smartphone and shows you the related images.

Why should you include Pinterest in your social media marketing strategy?

Brands and businesses are leveraging social media marketing services to scale their market outreach.  Pinterest being a major social media platform offers a slew of benefits. Let us take a look at these benefits.

1. Longer content life – A pin keeps on showing up even 4-5 months after it was initially published. This makes it possible for more people to see your content. This means your old blog post will still continue to get visits and views long after it was posted. On other social platforms, old posts are pushed down by the new ones.

2. Pinterest for business – Whether you already have an existing account on Pinterest or you are considering making one for your brand or business, you should definitely make a business account. A business account gives you access to important features like Analytics, Rich Pins and Promoted Posts.

To create a business account, follow the steps as given below:-

• Log into your Pinterest account.
• Go to Pinterest for Business.
• Click on “Convert Now”.
• Enter the required information in the boxes and click “Convert”.

In case you are creating a brand new business account:

• Go to “Pinterest for Business” and “Join as a Business”.
• Complete the details required.
• Read and accept the “Business Terms of Service”.
• Click on “Create Account”.

Verify your account and claim your website while you are at it. Without verifying your account, you won't get access to Pinterest Analytics. To verify your account, follow the steps given below:

• Go to “Edit Profile” menu on the main page.
• Scroll to the bottom and add your website address and click “Verify”.
• Select the “download the HTML verification file”.
• Upload the file to the root directory of your website using FTP or cPanel and then return to your Pinterest profile and then click on “click here to complete the process” button.
• You will receive a message that says that your verification was successful.

3. Rich Pins – A feature that can boost the growth of your brand across the Pinterest platform, rich pins show the meta data directly on the pin. This leads to a higher engagement on the pins as the user has a good understanding of what the image or video is about. Rich Pins are of four types namely app, product, recipe, and articles. For example, a company that sells cake mix can write a recipe on how to use the cake mix. If a rich pin is enabled then the recipe will appear right under the image. This automatically leads to a higher user engagement, increasing the brand value and driving more sales.

4. Related boards – We already know what boards mean in Pinterest. Now when it comes to keeping your followers engaged, you should create related boards for the different products and services you sell. Say you have an ecommerce website that sells fast fashion clothes, you should create separate boards for different product categories. The different categories can be clothes, shoes, and accessories. You can also put them in sections under the main boards to further arrange your pins. This will help other pinners understand the type of boards your brand focuses on and those interested will follow the specific board.

5. 50/50 pinning strategy - Digital marketing is all about strategy. Without a marketing strategy, your promotions will not be successful. The fifty-fifty pinning strategy requires you to pin 50% of images from your own brand promotion and the other 50% should be from different pinners who pin around the same topic as you. If you pin 4 posts a week, then you need to pin 2 of your own posts, and 2 of someone else's pins on the same topic to your boards. When you pin another person's pin, they are notified and if they like your posts, they might follow you back.

6. Pinterest Search – Pinterest is also a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo. The platform's 200 million users utilize the search bar to find out about the topics they like, discover new brands and products, and engage with each other. When pinning an image, write your pin descriptions with the right hashtags and use a creative call to action text to increase engagement on the pin.

7. Rich visuals – Pinterest is a visual marketing channel where images help drive conversion. Therefore, when pinning an image, you have to ensure that it is of high quality. Use Pinterest's preferred image size – 600x900 px or any 2:3 size. Vertical images do well as compared to the horizontal ones.

Conclusion

Internet marketing is becoming challenging by the minute with businesses of every shape and size trying to make their mark. Pinterest is one social media channel that offers you a chance to increase the number of visitors to your website and expose your brand to a wider audience. So, whether you are a small startup, a big organization or even a top digital marketing company, you can use Pinterest to engage people, increase sales, learn about new things, and get inspired.