Market your product or service with Pinterest
You may have heard a lot about Pinterest lately. It has more than 300 million users 
(with 85 million users in the US) and over 5% of all website referral traffic comes from Pinterest.
Well, that’s nice, but how can it help your business. Maybe you’ve tried this whole Pinterest thing but you don’t even know where to begin. You posted a pin here and there but nothing is happening…your traffic is not “exploding” as everyone who successfully uses Pinterest seems to be claiming.
So why should Pinterest matter to your business? Isn’t it only useful for wedding planners and for saving recipes? Actually, nearly any online business can benefit from using Pinterest. But I know how overwhelming it can be trying to figure out exactly what to do for your specific industry, so I put together a quick overview.
Why Pinterest
People on Pinterest are ready to buy
Pinterest offers brands the chance to reach customers as they’re in the process of making purchase decisions, creating opportunities to provide engaging product education. 87% of active pinners said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest (which is much higher than other social platforms).
Find out what your audience really wants
Pinterest is a giant search engine and therefore, a great place to discover trends. By targeting your audience and searching for trends you can find out what’s popular. You can see what your competition is sharing, who they follow and who your followers are following. You can find out what they want to see and use that information for market research and product positioning.
Get more traffic
That’s the magic of Pinterest – when optimized and used correctly, your traffic will start pouring in no matter your niche. Do you have solid content, a great website and amazing products? Is the only thing that’s keeping you from growing even more your lack of visibility and traffic? Then Pinterest is right for you!
Inspire your audience with an optimized profile
If you have beautiful pins AND great content, your audience will keep coming back for more. Create boards that they want to see.
It’s all about the keywords
Every niche has people who are searching for specific keywords on Pinterest. If you know what these keywords are and where and how to use them you will show up right in front of your target audience. Even if you don’t have a lot of followers (here is where Pinterest differs from Instagram and Facebook), as long as you know how to properly find and use keywords, you’ll get an increase in traffic.
For Service Providers
This one is for all my service based businesses – social media managers, coaches, web designers, photographers, interior designer etc. How can you make Pinterest work for you?
Share your knowledge through blog posts and create content that positions you as an expert in your field. For example, if you’re a life coach, you could create and share posts on Pinterest such as “How to plan for a life coaching session” or “X signs it’s time to hire a life coach.” You could also share podcast episodes, courses, freebies, workbooks or other content you created.
With the right keywords and well designed pins, potential clients will find your content and click-through to your website. They’ll start exploring your website and inquire about your services or book your products.
By offering freebies and growing your email list you can also start building a relationship with the leads coming in from Pinterest.
Side note, Pinterest is also great for creating a strategy for your local business (photographers, I’m looking at you!).
For Online and Ecommerce Stores
As mentioned above, users buy products they find on Pinterest at a much higher rate than the average social platform.
The power of Pinterest starts on your own website. Adding Pin It buttons to all your product (and content) pages and optimizing the name of the product is just the beginning.
You can pin product pins that contain pictures or videos of specific products, which then take users directly to your site to purchase. But the Pinterest user who is interested in and actively searching for your product can only find your product if you are thoughtful of what you pin and the audience you are targeting.
You guessed it – I’m talking about keywords! Optimized and targeted boards, descriptions, titles and captivating pin designs are a must.
For Bloggers
Recap
Hopefully, you have a better idea now how Pinterest can help your business.
To recap, you need to:
- Create targeted, useful content
- Design captivating pins
- Optimize your entire profile with keywords
- Post consistently and at optimal times
- Get traffic, sales and clients
And that’s it…
Don’t forget to grab your free Pinterest Success Checklist here.
