Pinterest For Business: Pinterest Marketing for Beginners

Pinterest: Why is it good for business?

The following Pinterest statistics will help you find the best answer.

• 40% of Pinners have a household income of $100k+.
• 48% of Pinterest users use Pinterest to shop in the US.
• Two-thirds (33%) of pins are brand and product logos.
• 77% of Pinterest users have discovered a new brand or product through the platform.
• They have 50% more products than retailers.

These Pinterest business insights provide enough proof that Pinterest is capable of making your business shine on Pinterest boards.

Pinterest is everywhere!

Pinterest is home to 367 million active monthly users who share and seek new inspiration and ideas every day.

There’s more!

Pinterest is the fourth most used social media platform in America, with 50% of all pinners. With 88 million active users per month from the country, it ranks above LinkedIn, Twitter, Whatsapp and Snapchat.

Do you need more statistics to prove your point? Have a look.

According to Pinterest’s proprietary user data, it has experienced steady growth with a 9.5% quarter-on–quarter growth rate. This is higher than the same at Snapchat (5%), Twitter (9.51%), LinkedIn (2.22%) and Facebook (4.20%). (Source – Socialmediatoday)

Pinterest brings more visitors to your site

Comparable to the two giants, Instagram and Facebook, Pinterest has its shortcomings and some perks.

Pinterest is unique in that it allows you to add links to each pin. This feature is only available for the bio section of Instagram.

Pinterest also drives 33% more traffic than Facebook to shopping websites.

Pinterest encourages people to buy

According to statistics, Pinterest encourages users make a purchase decision. To browse the latest trends and to find inspiration, pinners use Pinterest to create boards and share ideas that inspire them to make a decision.

Shelf life for higher content

Pinterest pins are more durable than other social media platforms’ chronological feeds. Pinterest is known for allowing older pins to gain traction.

Imagine your pins becoming more visible over time and sending traffic for months after publication.

This is a huge business opportunity. If you don’t use Pinterest’s creative features and growing audience to influence your audience’s buying decisions, it will be a massive waste of time.

Understanding the Pinterest Terminology

You’re familiar with Pinterest and the differences it offers over other social media platforms. The functionality and terms that relate to it are also very different.

You should familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions of Pinterest before you use it for business.

Let’s begin by giving you a quick overview of the main features and their names.

Pinner

A pinner is a person who uses Pinterest for saving or posting pins, boards, or images from the internet. The “pinners” are for Pinterest, just like the “grammers”, “members” on LinkedIn, and “tweeps” for Twitter.

Pins

Pins refer to the Pinterest posts. You can upload an image, infographic or video that contains a source link or destination. To make your Pins more interesting and clickable, you can add a short description and a title.

You will find different types and styles of pins on the Pinterest Home feed. They are arranged according the interest you’ve chosen and have connected to on Pinterest before. You can also save pins from other sources to your Pinterest boards.

Pins allow pinners to discover and save new content on Pinterest. Pinterest stated that pins are bookmarks used to save the ideas you love on Pinterest.

Pinterest has these types of pins that can be used to promote your brand or product:

Promoted Pins

Promoted pins work in the same way organic pins do, but they’re paid ads that are cost-per-click (CPC). These pins are placed by Pinterest where they will be seen most often. Targeting options are available based on gender, location, device and language.

Rich Pins

Rich pins can be normal but contain more information, such as price, install buttons, and recipe ingredients. Rich pins are great because they show changes to your website about your pin content. They reflect metadata from marked up pages on your site.

There are four types of Rich pins.

Product pins display real-time pricing and availability information.

Recipe pins contain ratings, ingredients, cooking times, and serving sizes.

App Pins (iOS only), show an Install button.

Article Rich Pins display the title or headline, the description and the author of your article, or blog post.

Look for Pins

Pinterest is now a member of the native marketplace revolution with its shop the look pins. These pins are limited to certain countries but allow users to search and purchase products in the fashion and home décor Pins. Pinterest will also launch Shop the Pins ads over the next few months.

Boards

A Pinterest board can be described as a folder that you use to collect ideas and inspiration through Pins. You can create a Pinterest board with a unique name so that you can group similar pins under one idea or theme. Your followers will be able to easily browse your creatives. Your followers will also be able to quickly browse your creatives.

Pinterest offers many types of boards:

Group boards are very similar to the boards except that they can be used by multiple pinners to save Pins.

Secret Boards – Secret boards can only be accessed by their creator and invited Pinners. Any board can be made secret by simply turning off the toggle button in Board edit settings. These are typically used by marketers for preview or planning purposes before they make the boards public.

Protected board: These boards contain promoted pins that you only can see at your profile’s end, while others can only see them in search results.

Re-pin

Repin works in the same way as “share” but is a different option. This happens when someone pins another user’s content to their boards. This is a great way for you to keep your boards up-to-date, even if you don’t create original content.

Click on the Save button

This is a Pinterest button for Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge that can be installed to your website. It allows Pinners to save product or content from their websites to their boards by using it.

Now that you have a good understanding of the Pinterest glossary it is time to start learning the first step to using Pinterest for business.

How to set up your Pinterest business account?

You must have a Pinterest account in order to take advantage of Pinterest’s additional features like Promoted Pins or Pinterest Analytics. We will now walk through the steps of setting up your Pinterest profile.

1. Register for your Pinterest business account

You have two options to set up your Pinterest business profile.

Here you can create a new Pinterest business account.

Click on the arrow at the top right of your screen to open the option “Add business account”

You will be able to fill out the same form for both of these paths after you have completed each.

You have the option to upload a brand profile picture here, or later. You can also edit your profile with more options under settings.

2. Create your Pinterest business profile

Although your account has been created, you still need to make some changes. Edit your profile for better optimization .

To edit your profile, click the pencil sign in the Business hub dashboard.

Here you can upload or modify your brand profile photo. To maintain brand identity, make sure you upload the same profile photo as on other social media platforms.

You can also change your username, which will be the same email address as your first email address.

3. Claim your website

It is essential to claim your website in order to get analytics on your content’s performance. Your profile picture and URL will be displayed next to each pin that comes directly from your website.

A claimed account has the benefit, as it gives pinners information about where they can find more content from you. This is a step-by–step guide from Pinterest on how to claim your website.

4. Connect your Etsy, Instagram, or Youtube account

You can also claim content from Youtube, similar to website claiming. Pinterest account for Etsy and Instagram.

Isn’t it wonderful?

All pins from these sites will be attributed directly to your account. You will also receive analytics for all pins that you have claimed.

Want more?

Another feature is that you can now install your Pinterest app within your Shopify account. This will allow you to add your name, profile picture and pins from your Shopify store.

How to use Pinterest for business with SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a great tool, but why?

SocialPilot’s Pinterest scheduling tools give you an easier way to manage your Pinterest marketing. You can manage multiple Pinterest accounts from one dashboard thanks to its intuitive user interface and amazing features.

You can also manage clients and multiple team members from the same place.

SocialPilot allows you to connect multiple Pinterest boards so that you can schedule and create your pins in a matter of minutes.

This is a step-by–step guide for connecting your Pinterest board to SocialPilot.

Step 1 Log in to your SocialPilot Account. To connect multiple accounts, click on “Accounts” in the left-hand menu. Click it.

Step 2 – You’ll see a list of social media platforms that you can connect to SocialPilot. Navigate to the Pinterest box, and click the “Connect Board” button

Step 3 You will be directed by Pinterest to authorise SocialPilot access. Click “Okay”.

Step 4 – Now you’ll be redirected on SocialPilot, to the Connect Pinterest boards page. Here you can choose which Pinterest Boards to connect to.

SocialPilot allows you to categorize your chosen boards within the various groups. This will allow you to manage multiple Pinterest boards across different accounts.

Step 5 – Lastly, once your Pins are added to the queue, you can set the times for when you want them to be published.

SocialPilot and Pinterest: The Benefits

Time efficiency SocialPilot allows you to schedule pins for multiple accounts way in advance, allowing you to spend more time on marketing and other important tasks.

Improved team collaboration: This gives you an error-proof workflow that ensures no content is published without approval from managers.

Multi-channel analysis: Compare your Pinterest performance with other social media platforms using one dashboard.

We don’t want you to doubt us. Take a 14-day free trial.

11 best practices for using Pinterest to promote your business

Create your Pinterest profile right away

It is the introduction that counts most. To make a stronger impression on potential pinners, you will need to update your profile.

Your profile bio should include enough information to provide a first impression about your brand and what kind of products/services you offer.

It is essential to have a complete profile that matches your brand identity in order to use Pinterest for business.

What should you do?

These are the changes you should make to your profile in order to optimize it for Pinterest marketing.

Profile logo Your logo is your brand’s face, so make it unique. To avoid confusion, the logo should be the same across all social media platforms.

Cover photo: This cover image gives you more space to visually describe your brand. Make a cover image that is visually striking and reflects your brand better.

Website Link: Add your URL to increase conversion rates.

Description Your brand description should be concise and clear, but include all information about your brand.

Feature boards Your profile content is the prelude to your feature board. It can either turn your profile visitors around or make them forget about you. Your feature boards should showcase the best ideas. To make your profile more search-friendly, include keywords in the description.

Louise Myers is a visual social media expert. Take a look at her profile.

Pinterest is a great way to grow your audience

Pinterest is all about inspiring new ideas from your followers. Pinterest is a great way to engage with your followers, share new ideas and have two-way discussions about your niche.

These are three steps you should take to build your audience proactively:

Engage – Apart from the golden rule that consistent posting leads to better engagement (which we will discuss later in this article), you should be pinning, commenting and reacting to the pins on Pinterest profiles relevant for your niche.

There is one more thing.

Engaging with big players in your niche increases the chance of them following you back. Repinning your content will increase your reach among their followers.

Invite Pinterest’s Group board feature can be a great help in building a loyal and engaged community of pinners. Invite other pinners and allow them to add their ideas on your Group boards.

Collaborate – Group boards allow you to collaborate with brands that have more control over your boards.

Click here to see how to invite Pinners and collaborators on a board.

Pinterest: Create inspirational content

Pinterest is all about visuals. Pinterest reports that 49% of Pinners believe visual search helps them build a stronger relationship with their brands.

What is the story behind creating an inspiring Pin

Before you start choosing your content type, fonts, and color palettes, think about what you want to share with your pinners. Only the best ideas make the most beautiful pins.

You can now turn your idea into a great pin by following these best practices from Pinterest.

Catchy imagery Pinterest recommends using the 2/3 aspect ratio (1000×1500) for all images to avoid them getting truncated. This aspect ratio is better to appeal to the 85 percent of pinners who use Pinterest via mobile phones.

Content that is brand-centered: Don’t use lifestyle or abstract imagery to overshadow your product. Your brand should be in the spotlight.

Use clear and concise copy. Make sure that your description is short and simple enough to get pinners interested in learning more about the pin.

Add your logo: To strengthen your brand presence, include your logo in any pins. It is best to avoid placing it in the lower left corner, where Pinterest displays the product icons.

Text overlay – Add text to your image to add context and improve the message. Pinterest claims that pins with calls-to-action in the overlay led to a 6% increase in sales.

Pins with action: Pinners will be able to see how your product works for them. Pinterest claims that pins showing someone using a product/service were 67% more likely drive offline sales lift.

Consistent pinning

Be consistent with your Pinterest pins. You should also avoid posting too many pins within a short time span. Keep your pins spread out throughout the day.

How can you keep your consistency?

Pinterest tools such as SocialPilot make it easy to pin multiple times per day or throughout the month.

Pinterest also offers a feature that allows you to schedule pins. SocialPilot is a great tool for managing multiple Pinterest accounts or other social media networks.

You will discover that Pinterest has hidden best times for your business to post. These are the best times to schedule your pins.

Pinterest has seasonal trends you can plan for

Pinterest is a popular social media platform for holiday planning and event planning.

Pinterest recommends sharing seasonal content 30 to 45 days ahead of time so your target pinners can make decisions.

Are you organized? You should.

Pinterest’s 2019 season insights guide shows that more than 56,000,000 searches were done for Valentine’s Day, 38 million for Easter and 321,000,000 for December holidays.

To make it easier for you to plan, create, and schedule seasonal content ahead of time, we recommend SocialPilot’s social media content planner feature.

Its monthly social media plan view gives you an overview of the content scheduled for each account.

Pinterest: Use your Hashtags well

Hashtags on Pinterest, like every social media platform are a great way to make your content more discoverable and get more engagement.

Use hashtags to the best effect. Be descriptive and specific and use hashtags that are relevant to your pin content. Pinterest recommends using 20 relevant and trending hashtags in your pins for a wider reach.

However, there is no need to stuff yourself.

Use hashtags sparingly. You’ll end up with pins full of supercool but vague hashtags. You should strike a balance between niche-related and trending hashtags.

Target your audience with promoted pins

If you want to increase traffic and sales through your Pinterest business account then create Pinterest-promoted Pins.

Why?

Statistics show that 50% have made purchases after viewing a promoted Pin. Marketers have a great opportunity to promote pins. Pinterest has an average of $4.30 gross return per $1 spent on ads.

Pinterest ads allow you to target millions of people every day who visit Pinterest to search for or shop for products and services. You can use keywords, interests and location to target these people.

The Pinterest ads manager makes it easy to set up your promoted pin.

Use Look Pins

Pinterest’s look pins feature is another powerful tool to increase business sales. This collection of pins speeds up the purchase of a product that is given to you in a pin.

Each product can be tagged in a pin with the product URL. Once clicked, it redirects users to the product page. This eliminates the need to manually go over the website, search for the product and then buy it.

Pinterest also added a Shop tab to the profile section of its business account. You can now showcase all of your products under one tab.

SEO Optimize your Pinterest Business Account

Pinterest is a visual search engine.

Pinterest uses keywords to rank your content within search results. We recommend keyword proofing your profile bio, pin name, pin description and board name.

People will find you easily on Pinterest if they see relevant keywords in your profile bio.

Add the Pinterest “Save” button on your website

One of the best ways to get discovered on Pinterest is to add a “Save” button.

Anyone can save images from your website to their Pinterest account by clicking the “Save” button. The pin will include your URL embedded within it.

Pinterest’s “Save” button allows you to be visible on the platform and attracts other pinners who will visit your site.

This is an example of Pottery Barn using the Pinterest Save button below each product.

Click here to see how to create a Pinterest “Save” button for your site.

Dive into Pinterest Analytics

Now that your Pinterest marketing campaign has been launched, it’s time to evaluate it.

Pinterest analytics can help you analyze your marketing performance and show you how to optimize it.

You can dig deeper into your Pinterest for Business account to see more information about your profile analytics. It is easy to see how many impressions, engagement and audience your pins and boards have received.

You can also see detailed audience insights of all users who have engaged with your Pins within the past 30 days.

You can dig into important insights like the location, gender, age and time they are most active on Instagram by going to the audience section.