Posted by Pinterest isn’t the first social network that comes to mind when we talk about promotion and sales growth. 478 million people utilize Pinterest every month, looking for inspiration. It’s also a search engine with its own algorithms.
It means this social media is suitable for driving your brand’s organic or paid traffic. For example, Pinterest says 97% of its searches aren’t brand-related. People go there for new ideas and are ready to buy. And most of them utilize mobile apps for this.
As the previous website speed didn’t satisfy the viewers, the Pinterest developers decided to convert it to a PWA. Surprisingly, it led to improved user engagement, 44% higher revenue from user-generated ads, and increased time spent on the site. Some other impressive progressive web apps examples also prove PWA benefits.
Pinterest opens up opportunities for you to attract new customers, raise brand awareness, and build on extra revenue without much effort. To do so, read the article for six strategies to employ on Pinterest.
How to Start Promoting on Pinterest
Pinterest reports that over 60% of its audience are women. 45% is a solvent segment with a household income over $100K, ready to purchase goods or services from a social network. If your brand’s target audience falls within this range, then you should consider promoting there.
Choose Your Account Type
Pinterest has two types of accounts: personal and business. The latter gives you access to analytics to track popular pins. Also, a business account allows for adding links to your website, an online store, or blog. If you already have a personal account, you can change its status.
Confirm the Site
It will open up access to analytics and help you understand which pins are generating more conversions. To do this, connect the site and your Pinterest profile and edit the HTML code. Besides, you can verify your Instagram, Etsy, and YouTube social media accounts.
Add Pins, Boards, and Profile Widgets to Your Profile
With their help, users will add photos to their boards in one click. To do this, get a special code in your Pinterest account and post it on the site. Pinterest will check your resource and give the green light to the widgets within 24 hours after adding the code.
6 Steps to Increase Traffic and Sales with Pinterest
1. Profile Design
After you have launched your business account, develop your profile. Add a header, title, and short description. Be sure to attach a link to the site the way Dior does. To track how many people come to your site from Pinterest, include a trackable link with a UTM tag.
Screenshot taken on the official Dior Pinterest account
Creating pins that support the brand’s image and mission is key to maintaining an effectively performing account. They have more chances for long-term promotion. And to increase traffic to the site, link the site and the pin.
When filling your profile with content, remember that 85% of Pinterest’s audience utilize the mobile app. Therefore, you should publish vertical images with a 2:3 aspect ratio to avoid cropping. Also, aim for high-quality graphics and photos as visuals speak volumes on Pinterest.
2. Optimize for Pinterest SEO
The user searches for pins by keywords, so you should write them in the title and description. Specify a few keywords according to your queries to make your content easier to find.
Try to write a concise description of no more than 2-3 sentences. Otherwise, the viewer will have to click the “See all” button, and some important information can be hidden. Also, use appropriate hashtags.
It is essential to link the pin to a related page of your site, for example, a product page, and not to the home page. Remember that irrelevant links can increase your bounce rate.
Apply a call to action to get more clicks to your site. They should contain imperative verbs such as “Buy from a link” or “Read an article on our website”.
3. Group Pins into Boards
Create as many boards related to your brand as possible. They allow you to store the images you like and create a collage from photos and ideas. You can attach pictures to the board that will inspire people. In other words, you tell your customers a story.
For example, if you are a travel agency, compile a selection of the best beaches, unusual attractions, hotels for families with children, etc. Check out the profiles of competitors if you need inspiration.
For brands and companies, boards can help color products with emotion, explain how to employ their products, and solve a customer’s problem. For example, H&M collects their images into various boards so that subscribers can navigate more easily.
Screenshot taken on the official H&M Pinterest account
4. Pin Consistently & Plan Ahead
To keep your audience captivated and engaged, you need to pin regularly. The more frequently you do this, the more actively Pinterest will show your content. It’s best to add five pins every day than 35 images once a week.
Moreover, Pinterest searches vary by season. Holidays, events, trends become a trigger for pinners to search for relevant content. For example, I analyzed the number of searches for “winter coats” in the Pinterest trends section.
Most often, users searched for them in November and December. However, this tendency begins to intensify already in September.
Screenshot taken on the Pinterest trends section
If your campaign is related to a specific holiday or season, create pins well in advance, at least 30-45 days beforehand. That way, you can get reach in search results, find out which strategy works best, and leverage different combinations to achieve peak results just in time.
Utilize delayed posting services to save time. For example, Tailwind, Hootsuite, and others. These services will show the correct time for posting, analyze subscribers, boards, and content.
5. Use the Advantages of Targeted Ads
Pinterest advertising capabilities are similar to Facebook in many ways. There are ads for:
- regular posts;
- carousels with pictures;
- promotion of existing pins;
- videos;
- apps.
You configure ads on Pinterest through a manager.
A good plus of promoting on Pinterest is the post life span. The content here doesn’t descend the feed and can rise to the top again. On average, one pin lives for 2-3 months, the most popular ones exist for up to 1 year.
Your promoted pins may appear:
- in the feed of users who, according to Pinterest, will be interested in your product;
- in search results on Pinterest;
- in the recommendations.
Such pins are marked as “Promoted by” and fit organically into the general context.
Screenshot taken on Pinterest
6. Connect with the Audience Through the Shop Tab and Shoppable Tags
To make it easier for pinners to shop and find products, use Pinterest features such as Shop tabs and shoppable tags.
For example, you are a women’s clothing store and upload a photo containing your products. You can add tags so that users can shop the look. They look like white dots in the picture, by clicking on which a person will go straight to similar products.
Screenshot taken on Pinterest
In the Shop tab, users can search and view the products that are on sale. For example, when pinners search for “summer outfits” or “women suits,” the Shop tab will display in-stock items associated with those keyword searches. In addition, it has a filter feature that helps viewers sort products by brand and price. They also have ratings in some cases.
Screenshot taken on Pinterest
Wrapping Up
Pinterest proves to be a valuable tool for B2C fashion and food brands as well as other industries and B2B companies. It provides you with organic traffic from the first day with no technical SEO knowledge requirements or long wait times. Set up your Pinterest business profile, attach pins to your boards regularly, and control the stats. The results of the experiment may surprise you pleasantly.