For so long, business owners have been aware of the effect social media can have on growing your audience, many believing that Instagram has the biggest impact. But, in fact it is Pinterest which can actually be the biggest driver of traffic to your site and more influential in terms of converting to sales.
Pinterest is generally lumped in with the other platforms as being social media, but really it is more of a visual search engine. We tend to connect less with other users on there and instead use it for research and inspiration. That is why it can be so beneficial for your business.
We ran a Creative Session last year with Curly Carrot who shared an absolute wealth or practical tips and knowledge to transform your Pinterest account into something that is working really hard for your business. I highly recommend taking this session as you will literally see results within weeks if you take on board the advice. Read more about the Pinterest for business workshop.
Today, Dorte Januszewski shares her five top tips to get you started – all of which she goes into much more detail in the workshop which you can purchase and watch it back as often as you like.
TIP 1: SET UP A PINTEREST BUSINESS ACCOUNT
You can either convert an existing personal account or set up a new business account from scratch. The great thing is, it is completely free and there are various benefits. The main one is that it gives you access to Pinterest Analytics. This gives you lots of insight into which pins work better than others, how many people are seeing your pins, which pins people are saving, and how many people are discovering your website via your pins. You can also ‘claim’ your website, Instagram, YouTube channel and if relevant, your Etsy shop, meaning your can connect products and much more.
TIP 2: CREATE A PERFECT PROFILE
I recommend always using the same image, graphic or logo across all of your platforms, so make sure to do this on Pinterest. It means that your brand and/or logo becomes familiar to people and easily recognisable. When writing your profile, aim to include keywords which clearly describe what your business is all about, then when people are searching for specific things, your profile has a better chance of appearing in their search results.
TIP 3: CREATE BEAUTIFUL PINS USING GOOD QUALITY IMAGES
If you have an online shop for example, as well as pinning your product images, it is really worth having lifestyle images of your wares too, as these tend to do well on Pinterest. I would advise mixing it up and pinning both types of image from your website, as you never know what kind of boards people are creating. Remember that Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so ensuring your photography is of good quality will be a huge benefit to how well they do on there.
TIP 4: PIN CONSISTENTLY
Rather than pinning say 100 images on a Sunday evening, I recommend saving pins on a daily basis. Pinterest favours this kind of activity, so aiming to pin around 5-10 times a day will be more beneficial. These can be your own images from your website, blog or even from your Instagram, or it can be pins from other people’s boards that complement yours.
TIP 5: CREATE KEYWORD-RICH PIN DESCRIPTIONS
The way Pinterest works is very different to a platform like Instagram. Pinterest is using the images and keywords to search for what the user is looking for. So, if you use the right keywords in the title and description of your pins, there is more chance for your pin to be discovered.
IMAGES: Caroline Rowland
There is SO much more to know about how to utilise Pinterest for marketing your business, so if you’d like to delve into it in more detail, do check out the full 90 minute workshop HOW TO MAKE PINTEREST WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS & GROW YOUR INDIE BRAND
For more small business tips, Â you can watch the short videos on our IGTV
