How to Use Pinterest In Your Marketing Strategy
Are you currently utilizing Pinterest in your marketing strategy?
Depending on your business needs, Pinterest may be a helpful asset in your marketing plan. With more than 291 million monthly active users, Pinterest is a visual search engine designed to discover new content. Pinterest is also the only platform to offer a visual search option, a feature unique to their platform with a growing popularity to users.
Although Pinterest is considered a social networking site, it is more often used as a search engine…where people actively search for inspiration, also referred to as “Pinspiration.” People use Pinterest for ideas and solutions, with boards to reference their findings. Things can include making plans for home renovation or a vacation, parenting tips, outfit ideas…you name it.
So how do you figure out if Pinterest is a good match for your brand?
Here are some Pinterest user facts.
- Pinterest is especially popular with women. According to Hootsuite, “Pinterest reaches 83% of all women 25-54 in the US, That’s more than Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.”
- Pinterest has a growing global audience. According to Pinterest, “From 2018 to the third quarter of 2019, the international base of monthly active users grew 38%, from 171 million to 235 million.”
- Businesses using the platform have shown steady growth. “The number of US marketers that use Pinterest continues to steadily rise. EMarketer forecasts that 31.9% of US marketers will use Pinterest in 2018, up from 29.1% in 2017.”
- People use Pinterest to shop. According to EMarketer, “Shopping is a top priority for 48% of Pinterest users with 83% of Pinners report making a purchase after seeing content from brands on Pinterest.”
- 8 out of 10 moms are using Pinterest. According to a study by ComScore, “more than 80% of U.S. women ages 18-64 with children use Pinterest.”
- According to TechCrunch, “the number of Shoppable Product Pins has increased by 2.5 times since last year, and Pinterest drove a total increase in traffic to retailers by 2.3 times since then.”
- It’s popular with millennials. According to Pinterest Business, “One out of every two millennials use Pinterest every month.”
- Some Benefits to Using Pinterest As A Marketer
One major perk in creating Pinterest content is that you don’t have to recreate content. All you need to do is put together a Pin by pinning an image from your website’s already existing content or social media and share it on the platform.
As a marketer, you can share your content on Pinterest that offers users an idea or solution, either organically or through paid advertising. Users can save your content on one of their boards to reference your branded product, ideas, tools, or services.
Another great perk is that the pins you promote during a paid campaign will not be taken down once the campaign ends. They will continue to stay posted on the platform long after it’s over, allowing your pins to continue driving traffic organically to your links. In addition, organic pins have an extremely long life-span, with older pins often included in search results.
Understanding the Pinterest Algorithm
Pinterest uses an algorithm, which is how your search results are created. We can say that there are some similarities in the primary ranking factors to that of Google’s search engine. So if you are familiar with how Google’s SEO works it can help you as a guide.
With this in mind, the best strategy for Pinterest is to nail your SEO while creating quality visual content. Pinterest is a search engine as well as a visual platform, so you want to combine the two main components of it’s content structure. (Hint: think of reasons why someone would want to save your pin for reference and work around that mindset).
As with any search engine, we’ll never know the exact formula within any algorithm. However, we can study it and test what works. There are a few key points Pinterest has shared where we can give our focus.
- Your Website Quality–This refers to the quality of the website that your pin is linked to. The more popular the pin, the more Pinterest views your website as high-quality. Until your pins start gaining popularity, a great start is to convert your account to a business account and claim your website.
- Your Pin quality–This is determined by the pin’s level of engagement. The more likes, saves, comments, etc with your content, the better.
- Pinner quality–The Pinterest algorithm ranks Pin partially on the reputation of its pinner. A reputable pinner is viewed as more likely to create quality content.
- Topic relevance–The last factor that determines where your pin ranks is relevance. This is related more towards the current search trends and individual preferences rather than the pin quality. This refers to how relevant your pins are to your audience and what they are searching for.
As with most content marketing, Pinterest optimization is about creating high quality content that your target audience will want to engage with. Take time to see what works and what doesn’t by using tools such as Pinterest’s business analytics to analyze and modify your results.
Content courtesy of Michelle Finn, Founder of Pop Design Shoppe
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR, MICHELLE FINN
Michelle has a strong marketing background in a versatile set of roles including social media, events, and field marketing. She fell in love with design and combined it with her skills to create her business, Pop Design Shoppe. In the future, she hopes to continue her work within design or the arts (including interior design, fashion, the visual arts, and event design). She wants to continue working on projects that create impact. Her perfect day includes a morning workout, sunny day at the beach (preferably with her dog joining) followed by an evening out with friends at an event.
Connect with Michelle on Instagram @michellekatheriine and follow her business @popdesignshoppe