Pinterest might not be top-of-mind when you are thinking through your business’s social media strategy, but maybe it is time to reconsider. According to Hootsuite, the number of people using Pinterest every month has increased 28 percent in the last year—totaling 300 million global monthly active users.

The big question, though, is: How can your brand tap into the platform and influence this growing audience’s purchase decisions? Below, we’ll explain some of the benefits of using Pinterest for business as well as share some tips and tricks for successfully promoting your brand on the platform.

Benefits of Using Pinterest for Business

Pinterest is a great platform for B2C audiences for obvious reasons, but it can also be a great platform for B2B marketing. Pinterest encourages sharing, helps drive traffic to your website, allows you to target and segment content, and competition is typically light compared to other social networks. If that’s not enough to convince you to check out the platform, here are some more key benefits of using Pinterest for business that you may not have known.

Increase Ecommerce Sales

When most people think about Pinterest, they think of planning their dream wedding, looking up recipes they’ll never make for dinner, or pinning outfits they wish they could wear. While that may be accurate in some cases, the vast majority of Pinners aren’t simply browsing for pleasure—they’re searching with the intent of making purchases. According to Spout Social, 83 percent of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on content they saw from brands on Pinterest.

Gain Insight Into Your Audience

Pinterest can be a valuable tool to gain insight into your audiences. Businesses on Pinterest have access to detailed analytics that can provide insight into who your audience is, what they are interested in, and how they interact with your content. For example, you can see the most popular related interests for your different audiences and their age and gender. You can also see which pins have been seen, clicked, and saved and which have led to purchases.

Longer Audience Engagement

Pinterest helps companies connect with their audience over a longer period of time compared to other platforms that have more fleeting engagement rates. According to PR Newswire, the half-life of a single pin is three and a half months—more than 1,600 times longer than a Facebook post.

Image Search Function

Finally, with image search on the rise, creating visual content will be more important than ever before—and Pinterest is the one of the only social media platforms to have that capability with Pinterest Lens. In fact, Pinterest’s CEO Ben Silbermann has previously said that “the future of search will be about pictures rather than keywords.”

Tips for Using Pinterest for Business

Optimize your Pinterest Profile

Your Pinterest profile is a chance to tell your brand’s story. When creating your profile, it should reflect your brand image and the types of content you will be sharing. To accomplish this, consider:

• Using your company logo in your profile picture.
• Creating a cover photo that speaks to your brand.
• Writing a description that clearly defines your brand, including a link to your website.
• Highlighting your best and most relevant boards.

Develop a Strong Content Strategy

Pinterest is more than just uploading photos and hoping for the best. The images and content you share should not only appeal to your target audience but should also appeal to the platform. Although Pinterest is driven by visuals, it is important to put thought and consideration into the imagery and copy.

The recipe for a good pin includes:

• Eye-catching imagery – Just like Instagram, Pinterest relies on beautiful, eye-catching imagery. Pinterest recommends using high resolution, vertical images with a 2:3 aspect ratio.
• Educational copy – According to Pinterest, 84 percent of Pinners say the platform helps them learn new things. Consider including how-to’s, tips, infographics, and DIYs as part of your content strategy.
• Text overlay – Using concise, targeted copy can help you tell a more compelling story with your imagery.
• Branding – For greater brand awareness, consider including your brand logo in your imagery.

Pin Every Day

Yes, you read that right. Pinterest recommends pinning something once per day. Regularly pinning allows you to publish pins when your audience is most to active to ensure your content will reach a wider audience. According to Hootsuite, “This is more effective than creating a Board and filling it up at once.”

Optimize for Pinterest SEO

Pinterest is a visual search engine and should be treated as such. Just like Google, keywords are the foundation of content discovery. Conduct keyword research as you would for any piece of content, paying attention to intent-based, long-tail keywords and LSI keywords. Be sure to incorporate keywords in your boards, pin names, and descriptions.

Use Boards to Connect with Pinners

Try to get into the minds of your audience. What are they searching for and how are they searching for it? It is important to organize your boards into relevant categories based on your brand and/or products for an optimal user experience. Having boards neatly organized can help your audience better find what they are looking for and compel them to follow your boards.

You can also create boards that your followers can contribute to, which can further help boost engagement. Keep in mind, though, that anyone can post to those boards, so you won’t always be able to control the message or image quality as you would on a board where you are the sole contributor.

Target Pinners with Ads

Just like any other social media platform, Pinterest offers businesses the option to create ad campaigns to increase visibility, awareness, and conversions. Depending on your goals and budget, there are a few different types of Pinterest Ads you can implement. These include:

• Promoted Pins – These ads, which can be in the form of images, videos, or even apps, appear in the home feed, search results, and the “more like this” section under a pin close-up.
• Promoted Carousels – These ads can feature between two to five images that Pinners can swipe through. Promoted Carousel ads can appear wherever pins can.
• Buyable Pins – Also known as “Shop the Look,” these ads allow Pinners to find and buy products directly from your pin.
• Story Pins – This is a new type of ad format that is being tested with select business accounts. These ads can feature up to 20 pages of images, text, and links and appear in Pinners’ home feeds with a cover image and title.

Get Started on Pinterest

There are likely several approaches that companies can take when growing a successful audience on Pinterest, but these tips are a great place to start. Need help building your company’s social media presence on Pinterest or another social media platform? Give us a call today! We have a dedicated team of digital marketers ready to dive in and help you better engage your community, tell your brand’s story, and engage your reach.