Pinterest is all about smart social media marketing in a fun and creative way. Pinterest is changing to make the platform more appealing to both users and businesses. There were announcements made of e-commerce plans earlier this month and true to that, Pinterest just launched its buyable Pins in boards, feeds and search results for iOS users in the U.S. to search and purchase products straight from the site using Apple Pay or credit card. There are currently 30 million buyable pins from various retailers and e-commerce sites, such as Macy’s, Shopify. Pinterest plans to release the same for desktop and Android users too in the near future. The future of business marketing is indeed on Pinterest!
Statistics back up Pinterest as the go to place for business marketing with pins spreading 100 times more than a tweet, as against a retweet average of 1.4%. Additionally, it also has a longer staying power than a Facebook post. There has been a 27% increase in the number of Fortune 500 companies that have opened Pinterest accounts in the last year. If you are still not convinced that your business can benefit greatly from joining Pinterest, think of the 70 million users you could potentially reach out to through the network, out of which 53 million unique monthly Pinterest users are in the US. You could join the 500,000 businesses to enjoy the marketing features with Pinterest for Business accounts to promote your company, product or services.
Facebook and Twitter may be the more popular names social media marketing but visual marketing through Pinterest may be the best fit for your business to be visible. Pinterest for business account have additional features to the personal account that all businesses can use to fully utilize Pinterest’s marketing dynamics. There is nothing intimidating about Pinterest marketing, so get started with discovering the added perks of Pinterest business accounts.
Terms of Service
The terms of service for a business account are slightly different because it is being used commercially. You may be in violation of Pinterest’s terms of use if you do not have a business account but are using Pinterest to promote your business, products or services. Even if you drive traffic from Pinterest to a website that makes money through ads, or commissions or if you use Pinterest to build your personal brand to generate income, then you should sign up for a business account. The Acceptable Use Policy and Pin Etiquette Policy is the same for a business account but there are some guidelines to follow like –
- No promoting spam of any kind
- You cannot run sweepstakes where each pin, repin is counted as an entry or request pinners to vote with a repin or like
- You should not be running sweepstakes, contests or promotions too frequently
- You should not claim that Pinterest sponsors or endorses your business
Marketing Material
Pinterest provides businesses with not just the social platform but proactively creates a library of educational marketing material on how to efficiently promote your business that you can have access to. There are interactive workshops called Pinstitute in the works to help businesses connect with pinners and additional webinars as well as marketing resources for small businesses. You can check out the Pinterest blog to get basic tips and remain updated on these features.
Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest Analytics is an awesome tool for Business account to get important tracking information once your account is verified. You can see which strategies and content work for your business so that you can base your Pinterest marketing strategy on proven hard facts. With Analytics you can see:
The most impressive pins and boards from your profile
- What users save from your website
- Data on your Pinterest audience including their interests, sex and location
- The devices people are on when they’re pinning
- Details of referral traffic from Pinterest using the Pin It button
This feature also gives your business legitimacy and authority. The little red check mark next to your website builds trust among Pinterest users. You can use a Meta tag to verify your website in the settings section which will give you a verification badge, and make your business official. People can easily click on the hyperlinked URL to directly go to your website from your Pinterest profile.
Rich Pins
Rich Pins come in six different types- movie, recipe, article, app, product, and place, all loaded with more valuable information than your average pin to gain traffic and boost sales power. With Rich Pins you get automatic real-time price and stock updates, direct links to your site for increased traffic, and interactive map locations. Brands see improved engagement and over 82% jump in their repin/pin ratio with Rich Pins. If Wal-Mart can take advantage of Rich Pins, why shouldn’t smaller businesses take advantage of this feature to get no hassle leads?
Promoted Pins
Promoted Pins feature very similar to promoted posts on Facebook or promoted tweets on Twitter is the emerging game changer in social media advertising. They are paid ads that look like organic content which have achieved a 30% increase in earned media for businesses across a variety of industries and been found to perform long after the end of a campaign. Promoted Pins get you to a bigger audience as more people are introduced to your products and business on your website, bumping up your followers, traffic and sales. It is a chain where more people get to see your promoted pin, visit your site, get to know about your business and buy your product or service. When users save or click on one of your Pins, they send out a strong signal of intent for the future, No wonder then that Promoted Pins have engagement rates of 2-5%, exceeding industry standards. Businesses can use Promoted Pins to target users at this planning stage when they are working out what to do and pay for either a closeup, repin or click on the Pin. Additionally with Pinterest Ads Manager you can get access to stats across all your campaigns for better performance tracking and also to get reminders for actions to optimize your Promoted Pins.
Different Settings
With a business account, you can use your business name instead of the personal First + Last Name. You should add a Facebook tab to your Pinterest home page because business accounts won’t automatically link to your Facebook account. Getting found in search results is one of the major keys to success on Pinterest. Make your brand name and profile concise and descriptive. Ensure that your Business Page is properly categorized and all your pins use the appropriate key words in the caption.
Do use Pinterest business account to your advantage and pin your own product photos or audio-visuals from your website or computer. Better still let our successful marketing team at DirectiveGroup help you leverage Pinterest to boost your traffic and sales.
