Pinterest? For Business?
Yes, Pinterest for Business! Does that sound like a contradiction? We’ve all been down a ‘Pinterest rabbit hole’, harvesting inspiration for everything from interior design to meal plans to craft projects! This can lend Pinterest a cosy reputation as the domain of Yummy Mummies and creative hobbyists. However, this is merely the tip of the mighty Pinterest iceberg.
Pinterest is a curious platform, and a bit of a Dark Horse as regards its usefulness as a marketing resource. Don’t underestimate Pinterest because your niece uses it to organise Boards of her favourite K-Pop bands! While it does have niche aspects (which could work for your business), Pinterest is actually a powerful and hugely diverse visual search engine. It’s the third most used search engine (ranking after Google and YouTube) and has over 400 million active users.
Small service providers and retailers who aren’t using the dedicated Pinterest for Business tools are overlooking a surprisingly successful strategy – and it’s free to use!
Why Pinterest?
Although the most powerful exposure occurs within 60 to 90 days of posting, your content has infinite Lifetime exposure on Pinterest. Your Pins remain there, waiting to be discovered – aided by your choice of relevant key words. These Pins won’t slide out of sight down a page feed, or have a shelf-life. Just remember to use Evergreen content wherever possible, in additional to seasonal or themed pins. For instance, create graphics around (and then link to) a featured blog post, or some consistently popular products on your website. You could link to a downloadable lead magnet. These are all examples of Evergreen content; nothing that will age or lose relevance too quickly.
It's motivating to know that 97% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded; basically, the Pinterest audience is open to new ideas and new brands. They’re actively browsing for a new product, or a variation of a popular theme. This is why you need to get your brand in front of them; this is a source of potential new clients, just waiting to be converted.
Additionally, 85% of Pinners say they use Pinterest to plan new projects. That’s one of the joys of creating a new board; taking something from rough concept ideas, through to a plan of action…which then involves purchasing items or services that have been researched and pinned. Pinterest reported that “the number of Pinners engaging with shopping surfaces grew over 20% both quarter over quarter and year over year in Q4 [of 2021].” Again, this source of exposure is too good to pass up.
Free, you say? What’s the catch?
You’ll need time, and patience. As with other social media platforms, creating your content in bulk and then scheduling in advance will help with time-management here. However, there isn’t a financial outlay for a Pinterest for Business account. Even Tailwind (the official partner tool for Pinterest scheduling and analytics) is free to use. Keyword research can be done gratis within Pinterest, and you’ll be able to repurpose your actual content, just tweaking the graphics to give your Pin an additional lease of life on a different Board. Remember to employ valuable keywords and link to your platforms, to direct your new audience to where you want them to be!
I’d like to know a bit more!
I’d like to share more with you! This is why I’ll be writing a second part to this blog. I’ve concentrated here on why Pinterest for Business is a good and helpful tool. Next up, I’ll talk more about the practicalities and get a little more technical. Pinterest for Business is more strategic than regular Pinterest – as you’d expect from a Marketing Tool. I hope you’ll join me in my next blog, and we can look in more detail at how to make this work for you.
In the meantime, if you're wondering if Pinterest could be a great platform for your business, I would be happy to chat to you about this further. Reach out to the Youbee team and we can chat about ways Pinterest can make a difference to your business. We're able to guide you with marketing consultancy, create content as your social media management team, or able to create workshops and training sessions that will give you all the skills you need.
