Small Business Marketing on Pinterest

You have probably heard the term "Pinterest" before. But you might be wondering what Pinterest really is. Pinterest is a social media platform that uses imagery to capture the attention of its users. Think of it as a digital pinboard. You know, the old-fashioned corkboard of photos and ideas people used to put on their walls? Nowadays, Pinterest is the place where individuals and business's display their vision boards. Want to know how marketing on Pinterest can help you build your brand? Keep reading!

Did you know that in 2019, there were more than 291 MILLION active users reported on Pinterest? That's right. 1 in every 26 people uses this social media platform! When it comes to who these people actually are, about 80% of users are women between the ages of 24-64 years old, according to Statista. This platform is considered a purchasing platform. What this means is that most users, typically female users, refer to Pinterest for planning future events, reviewing certain products, for inspiration, and for setting goals. This platform is the all-around winner when it comes to visual marketing. If your product is not already on Pinterest, start pinning now!

Marketing on Pinterest is not a difficult task once you have everything prepared and keep it consistent. To get your Pinterest profile ready, you will need to optimize it to perform better in a web search. In other words, your Pinterest profile needs to have the most up-to-date information, contain SEO-friendly keywords, and it needs to have emojis.

Writing SEO-Friendly Pins

To get your profile SEO-friendly, you will want to make sure your pins contain descriptive keywords about your pin. If you are pinning the product you sell, such as a skincare product or maybe a book that you have written, you are going to want to describe it in a way that stays true to your brand but in a way that will rank highly in a Google search.

For example, let's say you are going to compose a pin with a photo of your product. You upload your photo to Pinterest, write "Buy our face wash at my website," and the pin links to your website. You have just posted it to your "Products" board. While this is correct in terms of uploading a photo and linking it to your website, your description needs some work! Having a short description will most likely not lead to many sales for you. Your description for your product should read similarly to the following format:

"Check out our deep-cleaning facewash! This non-toxic face wash is great for all skin types, smells incredible, and contains ingredients you can actually pronounce. Order your bottle of our non-toxic face wash here!➡️ *insert link* #YourCompanyNameHere #NonToxicSkincare #NonToxic #FaceWash #ClearSkin"

Above is an ideal description for a pin. This description contains multiple keywords (non-toxic, face wash, ingredients, and order. Moreover, this description also contains a call to action and would pertain to an appropriate image: a bottle of the face wash! Lastly, this description contains relevant hashtags for your brand and adhere's to the best practices for marketing on Pinterest. With your hashtags, you will want to make sure you are using your brand's name and a few relevant words that correlate to the details about your specific product.

What Are Pinterest Boards?

Pinterest boards are the digital places you put your pins! Specifically, a Pinterest board is similar to that of a folder, but it is public (unless you create a secret board). Let's continue with the skincare example. Your Pinterest boards would look a little like this: Products, Skin Tips, Blog Posts, Benefits of Non-toxic Beauty Products, etc.

The concept of a board is a bit complex, so let's break it down a bit.

The difference between a pin and a board on Pinterest is the following: pins are your content; boards are where you organize your pins. You cannot create a pin without saving it to a board.

Similarly to individual pins, your boards need to be optimized as well. There are several things you need to do to properly optimize your Pinterest boards in order for them to perform well in search engines. Your Pinterest boards need to have relevant names. If you are in the electronics business, you could have boards for TVs, Computers, Apple Products, Windows Products, etc. Each board needs to have a category. Having a relevant board name, category, and detailed description of what your board will contain is key to optimization. Overall, when creating boards, you want to represent your business in a way that reflects what your target audience would be searching for.

Another feature that recently added to Pinterest is a "section" feature. With this feature, you can add a section to your board. For example, if you have an "Electronics" board, you can create sections for the different types of electronics your business sells. While sections are a great feature, they do not increase your likelihood of appearing on the first page of a Google search; they are "purely for organizational purposes," according to Pinterest.

What Else Can I Pin About?

The types of pins that do best on Pinterest are educational content or pins that will help the user make a decision. If your company sells skincare products or electronics, chances are, people are using Pinterest to help assist with their purchasing decision, according to Pinterest. What this means for you is that when you are creating a pin, make it educational. Make your pins have something of value that someone else can take away from it. If someone is searching for a "non-toxic face wash that is great for all skin types," make sure you include that in your pin image and description. For example, infographics do wonders for marketing on Pinterest.

More types of content that you can post to your Pinterest boards include video content and your blog posts. Pinning your blog posts is a great way to draw attention and give someone valuable information, all while driving traffic to your website! Videos are also booming on all social media platforms, so make sure you are posting original video content to your Pinterest boards as well!

The Beauty of Repins

Repin? Sounds funny, doesn't it? A repin is a way to repurpose content, whether it is your own personal content being pinned again to another one of your boards, or repinning another user's content. When posting original content, you want to make your pins appealing enough to where someone would want to repin it onto their own Pinterest feed. These types of pins are one of the main reasons behind Pinterest's booming success, as 80% of Pinterest's content is made up of repins.

To get the most success out of your repins, using a pin scheduler, such as Tailwind, is a great way to repin at optimal times to garner engagement and impressions. It is common for users to engage with, make purchases from, and click on pins that have high repin numbers; however, these numbers are only able to be seen on the desktop version of the platform. The number of repins is important for a search, as those with the highest number of repins are more likely to show up first in a Pinterest search due to their algorithm! The major takeaway for repins is that you want to write your pin descriptions and create your pin graphics in a way that will encourage people to engage with it!

Now, it may seem like marketing on Pinterest is a lot to handle, but it is a wonderful platform for building your brand once you get the hang of it! To help summarize everything you need to know, click HERE to download your FREE, yes FREE, Pinterest cheat sheet!