Eight Pinterest Brand Marketing Tactics to Try

Pinterest is the second largest driver of traffic from social media, only coming in behind Facebook. Also, five out of ten Pinterest users have purchased after viewing a promoted Pin.

This makes it obvious that Pinterest should be a part of your marketing efforts. However, Pinterest marketing is unique to marketing on other social media platforms. If you haven’t ever done it before, you could be confused and unsure of how to start.

If you are currently using other methods of social media marketing, you may wonder why you should bother with Pinterest. Let’s discover why you should.

Why Invest in Pinterest Marketing?

Pinterest is growing quickly. Today it has approximately 250 million users per month, with the male demographic continuing to grow. From a traffic standpoint, Pinterest is becoming more and more like Google as it helps people find new ideas and content.

For example, many people use Pinterest to find ideas for planning an event or recipes, but that’s not all.

Pinterest is also about sharing. Even if you don’t pin your content on this platform, other people can. While this is true, you still have more control over how your content appears if you learn how the platform works and pin your content regularly.

Now that you understand why it’s a vital marketing tool, it’s time to learn out how to use it to its full potential.

1. Optimize Your Pinterest Boards

The names and descriptions of your Pinterest boards are crucial. They let users know what they can expect, and help people find your content.

The titles you use need to match the keywords people use for finding your Pinterest boards. For example, WeddingWire has created a combination of boards with generic titles, such as “Wedding Dresses” and “Glam Wedding Dresses” to capture several keywords.

You need to optimize the description you create for each board too. There’s a limit of 500 words, but the briefer, the better. Try to write the description or your board the same way you would write a meta description for an article or blog post.

Ensure the description is 160 characters or fewer and use the same keywords in the description and title. Even if you don’t use any of the other Pinterest marketing strategies found here, this one will help more users find the content you have pinned.

2. Learn How Promoted Pins Work

In the earlier part of 2019, Pinterest filed for IPO. This means that the social media platform went public.

What does that mean for pinners, especially those trying to use the platform to help grow their business or brand?

With Pinterest going public, the company will be controlled by shareholders, and just like any other business, these individuals want to see a profit. Some believe this will lead to an increase in Pinterest ads, which are also called Promoted Pins.

Even though Promoted Pins may gain some traction, Pinterest will remain a powerhouse for organic traffic. So, don’t let this scare you away.

While this is true, you still may want to learn how to take advantage of everything Promoted Pins offer.

Begin with a Traffic Campaign

With traffic campaigns, you are only billed for the direct clicks going to your site. The lowest you can bid for these clicks is $0.10, but you can get clicks for even less than take with repins.

You aren’t ever charged for any clicks that are derived from repins.

Begin with a Lower Bid

It’s a good idea to begin your bidding between $0.10 and $0.15 per click. If Pinterest is showing your ads enough to max out your budget, then don’t make adjustments.

However, if the bid isn’t competitive enough, consider raising it a few cents at a time.

Determine a Solid Goal

Are you in charge of an email opt-in for page conversions, retargeting sales page views, or running ads to an affiliate blog post to close even more sales? If so, make sure you have an end goal in mind before you begin your campaign.

3. Work to Build Your Authority

There are several businesses that benefit in many ways by leveraging the popularity of Pinterest. A great way to use this site is to build and grow your overall brand authority.

This can help you get more of your prospective buyers to trust your business or brand and choose you over the competition. It doesn’t matter the service or product you are trying to sell; you can always use Pinterest to make more people aware of your brand and lead them to purchase from you.

For example, if you have a beauty niche product, you could consider creating Pinterest boards that provide information, and help to educate women who are interested in undergoing a complete makeover. Not only does this help to strengthen your brand, but also gives you a way to promote your products in a more unique manner.

One of the best parts of this marketing tip is that you don’t have to try to produce all the content on your own when pinning. You can use the mix and match approach by sharing information from other authoritative sources.

The idea behind this tip is to give your followers the impression that your brand’s Pinterest account is the best place to find reliable and useful information about your industry. By doing this, you build your authority and gain the following benefits:

– Build more trust with your audience

– Strengthen your relationship with your audience

– Increase customer loyalty

– Increase repeat sales

– Get more referrals from satisfied customers

– Turn prospects into brand advocates

As you can see, building your brand authority offers a wide array of benefits that are worth the investment of time and effort.

4. Use Rich Pins

Pinterest initially launched in 2010. There was just one type of pin. Today, Pinterest offers several types of Rich Pins that help your business append more information on your pins.

There are six Rich Pins available:

1) Place

2) Article

3) Product

4) Recipe

5) Movie

6) App

With Rich Pins, you are taking the risk to users out of the equation. This is because it is more transparent where the Pin will go when they click it. This also makes it more likely the user will click through your website.

Taking the example above of the wedding business, the Rich Pins that are most relevant are Product and Article Pins. That’s because these are most broadly applicable for businesses trying to drive website traffic.

Besides the image being pinned, an Article Pin includes the headline of the article, story description, and author under the image. The Product Pin is good for eCommerce businesses because they display availability, pricing, and information where users can purchase the product on the pin.

Rich Pins require more work than the other Pinterest strategies mentioned above, because you have to add meta tags to your website and then apply to ensure the Rich Pins are enabled. While this is true, Rich Pins is much more noticeable and improves user experience.

5. Discover What Your Competitors Are Doing

It’s a good idea to do some competitor research when developing your own Pinterest marketing plan. By researching, you can find out what they are doing on Pinterest, and even learn from their efforts.

Also, if you follow your competitors, there’s a good chance they will do the same. Remember, imitation is the biggest form of flattery.

Even better, you may learn some of the best practices to help you promote your service or product even better.

6. Take Time to Engage

An important thing to keep in mind when creating your overall social media strategy is that social networks are designed to be social. While this may sound redundant, it’s important not to push your content out there. Instead, make sure you are engaging with users along the way.

More traditional marketing channels, such as email, are about pushing information to people. Social media marketing is designed to help open up a line of communication between a brand or business and the audience.

Take advantage of this by engaging with followers, along with other Pinterest users. The more active you remain by re-pinning, commenting, or liking, the more likely your business will be visible to your target audience.

Also, when you remain active on Pinterest, it means you are always generating fresh and new content, which is essential for search engine optimization.

7. Use Strategies to Increase Traffic to Your Website

Traffic makes your website tick. If you don’t have the right traffic coming in, it’s not possible to grow your web presence or to increase your online sales. While there are several free and paid ways to generate more relevant website traffic, Pinterest leaves several of these methods behind when used properly.

With the popularity of Pinterest, and the way it is still growing, it should not be too much of a surprise that it can help you gain even more referral traffic than LinkedIn and YouTube combined. However, you can’t generate traffic unless your Pinterest users do the following:

– Find your content useful and appealing

– Share your content

– Repin your pins consistently

Current Pinterest users that have successfully used the platform for marketing know how to use great visuals. They don’t just share the images for visual appeal, but also because they are valuable content that helps with:

– Solving real-world problems

– Offering an effective solution

– Inspiring people to act in a positive manner

– Offer something desirable or worthy

– Appeal to specific activities/interests

– Creative and unique in their own way

Getting a lot of traffic from Pinterest isn’t rocket science. It is possible for any brand that builds a solid foundation, as described here.

8. Install the “Pin It” Button on Your Website

While the strategies mentioned above help to drive traffic to your website, this tip helps empower your customers, readers, or prospects by getting them to work for you.

Chances are you have seen the Pin It button provided by Pinterest. It’s commonly seen in online stores, e-magazines, blogs, and websites. This button lets users pin an image in just a few clicks, making the process quick and easy.

Since the Pin It button is so easy to use, users are much more likely to share your content using the button than using the alternative of copying the URL, opening Pinterest, and sharing.

One of the best features of the Pin It button is that after it’s installed, that’s it. Your website readers and visitors can Pin content on your behalf, and their followers can see this on their Pinterest. This increases impressions, and potentially clicks, that your content receives.

Now is the Time to Begin Your Pinterest Marketing Efforts

Pinterest is a great way to grow your website’s traffic and brand authority. With the tips and information here, you are well on your way to becoming a Pinterest pro. Taking advantage of this social media platform is the best way for you to grow your brand and ensure your services and products are more appealing to potential customers.

While the information here provides you with a helpful guide to Pinterest marketing, you might still look for more help as your business continues to grow. If that is the case, contact us for a free marketing review. Once this is done, we can help you develop an improved strategy that can help you achieve better results. 

We can help you when marketing your small business on Pinterest, along with other social media sites.