Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only social media platforms marketers need to be aware of. Pinterest is a crazy-effective tool for social media marketing. This highly visual platform lets users pin images to digital boards. The idea is simple, but the platform has a powerful impact.
- 83% of active pinners would rather follow a brand than a celebrity
- 67% of daily users consult the site for purchasing guidance while in a store
If you haven’t put together your Pinterest marketing strategy yet, you’re missing out. You can be a part of this exciting social platform and be the kind of brand that pinners love to follow.
These 13 tips will help will help you make your business a Pinterest hit!
#1: Add a Pin-It button To Your Site.
Make it easy for people to pin your blog posts and photos.
Adding pin-it buttons to your site is a great way to do that. You can add a Pinterest sharing button allowing people to share either any image or just one particular image on the page.
Pin-it buttons that appear when you hover over an image are popular, but we advise against them. Hover buttons really only work for desktop or laptop computers since they require a mouse, and can detract from a friendly mobile experience.
#2: Use Pinterest Marketing To Drive Traffic To Your Site
Pinterest can help you bring new viewers to your site. When your customers and readers use your pin-it button to share your posts, they’re bringing you more traffic.
You should also be pinning own posts and products to drive traffic to your website.
Create boards to share your blog posts and how-to articles. You can also create rich pins that allow you to share links to your products complete with current pricing info.
Like marketing on any social media site, sharing your content on Pinterest helps introduce your brand to a new audience.
#3: Verify Your Website On Pinterest
Once you’ve set up your Pinterest for business account, verify your company’s website!
Why? Verifying your site lets you:
- Add your logo to any pins that come from your site.
- Use more detailed analytics reports.
Pinterest makes it easy for you or your web designer to verify your site:
- First log in to your account and go to settings. Click the “confirm website” field next to your URL.
- Follow the instructions on the next page. They’ll provide you with an HTML tag to add to your site’s index.html file.
#4: Make Use Of Your Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest offers robust analytics with plenty of data. You can use your analytics to learn:
- How many monthly viewers you have on average.
- How many of them engage with your pins.
- Your daily impressions or views.
- How many people visit your website from Pinterest.
- They can even tell you what your audience is interested in to inspire future boards and pins.
Once you’ve verified your website, you get even more exciting analytics info on how all of your content is performing on Pinterest, not just the pins you saved to your own profile.
#5: Research Your Keywords
Use keywords for your Pinterest account just like you do for your website SEO.
Research popular topics and longtail keywords. These will help people find your pins when they Google those terms or search for them on Pinterest.
Work keywords into your board titles, your board titles, descriptions, and anywhere else they feel natural.
#6: Find Your Industry’s Influencers
Every social media platform has its influential voices. Interacting with those people can help you draw attention to your brand.
See someone on Pinterest who pins about your industry? Know any popular pinners with boards relating to your topics or keywords?
Interact with them! Build relationships! You can like their pins and leave thoughtful comments to get the ball rolling.
#7: Leave Comments
Comments are a great way to engage with people. And not just industry influencers, either! Spend some time leaving comments on people you’d like to become your followers.
Comments let you build relationships and interact with people who comment on your pins.
Greet new commenters on your pins. Comment on posts you love to attract new followers.
#8: Get Creative With Your Image Aspect Ratio
Long and slender images take up more room in search results on Pinterests. That means vertical images get noticed.
In search results and feeds, pins will be about 238 pixels wide. When people click on pins to expand them, they’re up to 735 pixels wide. To really get noticed, your pins should be at least 600 pixels wide.
The height of an image is more flexible. Just remember that the maximum vertical aspect ratio is 1:2.8. In other words, the picture can be up to 2.8X as long as it is wide. If it’s bigger it will get cut off. So, if your image is 600 pixels wide, you can make it up to 1680 pixels tall.
Pro tip: Infographics and DIY tutorials using multiple photos make excellent long, attention-grabbing images.
#9: Remember: Pins Live Longer Than Posts
Facebook posts and Twitter tweets are good for a short time before they get buried beneath everything else in your followers' feeds. Pinterest pins stay relevant a bit longer.
The half-life of a social media pin, post, or tweet is the amount of time in which you earn 50% of all clicks and views. According to Wisemetrics, the half-life of pins have an amazing advantage over posts or tweets:
- The half-life of a tweet is approximately 24 minutes
- The half-life of a post is approximately 90 minutes.
- The half-life of a pin is approximately 3 ½ months. That’s 1,600 times longer than a FB post!
What does that mean for marketers?
Half of visits will happen 3.5 months after you pin your content. That means your content will still be relevant for months (or longer).
#10: Pin Regularly
While pins live longer, that doesn’t mean you can skimp out on your Pinterest duties. Stay current. Pin for a few minutes a day a few times a week, at least.
As the cliche says: Out of sight, out of mind.
How much should you pin to stay current? Between 5-30 pins a day is recommended.
Automate your Pinterest marketing strategy just like you do with your other social accounts. You can use Pinterest automation tools to help you schedule pins, automatically follow other users, and more.
#11: Pick Great Names And Tags For Your Images
How you name and describe your images is important!
Image alt tags are an important part of a strong website SEO strategy. Search engine crawlers don’t see images, so they read the alt tag to learn how to categorize an image. A good alt tag will help your images show up in search results.
Those alt tags are important for Pinterest too. Pinterest images show up in search engine results just like your website’s images do.
So when you’re uploading your site’s images, make sure you use descriptive names and alt tags with great keywords. That way search engine crawlers know what the picture is about.
#12: Mind Your Descriptions
When people click your pin’s image in their feeds, they’ll be taken to your expanded pin and description.
While Pinterest is primarily a visual site, that’s no excuse to overlook your descriptions. A good description will grab your reader’s attention and encourage them to click through to your site.
Make sure your descriptions are:
- Concise
- Keyword filled
- Full of helpful details
- Include a call-to-action
#13: You Can Pay To Promote Your Pins
Finally, if you really want to get your pins out to a wider audience, consider promoting them. Promoted pins are Pinterest’s version of ads.
Promoting your pins can help you reach your marketing goals, such as improving:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Traffic
Before you pay to promote a pin, make sure you’re setting yourself up for success. Choose to promote a pin with a great image, a killer description and a title with the right keyword.
One of the most important parts of building a good social media strategy is knowing which platforms to use. Pinterest is enormously popular, and provides the perfect opportunity to engage with shoppers looking to invest in your product. If your customers are on Pinterest, you should be too!
If you’re a new pinner, our Pinterest marketing tips will help you start sharing your content with enthusiastic pinners. If you’ve already have success marketing on Pinterest, leave a comment and let us know what strategy worked best for you!
