Tips for Using Pinterest to Boost Sales
June 2, 2022
Pinterest has become an effective sales tool.
According to a 2019 survey, 47% of social media users view Pinterest as the best platform for discovering new products, as well as shopping for them, which is far higher than even Facebook or Instagram. Furthermore, 77% of weekly Pinterest users say they’ve discovered a new product or brand on Pinterest, and 83% of Pinterest users have gone on to make a purchase based on brand content on Pinterest.
When most people think of social media marketing, they often think of Facebook or Twitter, but no other platform can compare to Pinterest when it comes to actually driving sales. However, Pinterest is not your average platform, so even if you’ve managed to dominate on Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest is a whole different ball game. Here are a few things you can do to make the most of Pinterest for boosting sales.
How to increase your sales on Pinterest
#1. Make your pins branded
Of the two billion searches that happen on Pinterest every single month, 97% of them are unbranded, which means that Pinterest users are actively searching but are also open to discovering new brands. This creates a huge opportunity for e-commerce businesses hoping to boost more sales with Pinterest, and it all starts with adding a little branding to your pins.
When it comes to branding on Pinterest, remember that less is more. Branding is usually about consistency with things like color, typography and even photography, but too much consistency on Pinterest can easily look spammy. But, the one bit of branding you don’t want to miss on Pinterest is your logo.
I highly recommend including a small version of your logo in one corner of your pin. This will ensure that the pin is always recognized as yours (which is important because pins are stolen all the time on Pinterest). It’s also a great way to generate some recognition in your brand.
#2. Take advantage of rich pins
When you use rich pins, you have the ability to add more information to each pin. The types of rich pins you can use include movie, article, recipe, place, and product.
Taking advantage of the Product Pin allows you to add all kinds of useful information to your pins, including product availability, real-time pricing and where people can buy the product. Additionally, when a user pins a Product Pin, they’ll receive an automatic notification when the price drops.
In order to take advance of rich Product Pins, you’ll need to add the proper metatags to the back end of your website. From there, you’ll need to verify your Product Pins on Pinterest.
#3. Create content with mobile users in mind
Just as having a mobile-friendly website is a must these days, having a mobile-friendly Pinterest marketing strategy is also key. That’s because the vast majority of Pinterest users are accessing the platform from the mobile app. In fact, 85% of Pinterest users are mobile users. When creating content for Pinterest, always do so with mobile users in mind.
When someone is looking at your pins on a smartphone, the pins will look different than they do on a desktop or even a laptop computer. One tip that comes directly from Pinterest is to ensure that font sizes are legible by tailoring them to phone rendering.
Search is an important aspect of the experience for mobile Pinterest users. Make sure that your pins are searchable by properly categorizing your boards and creating relevant product descriptions.
#4. Get the timing right
Timing is an important piece of the puzzle on any social media platform, and Pinterest is certainly no exception. When managing the timing of your pins, the two questions you’ll want to ask yourself are:
- When is my audience online?
- What are people talking about what I’m offering?
By taking advantage of Insights from Pinterest, you don’t have to guess at the answers to these questions. Insights make it easy to monitor trending searches on Pinterest every single month, helping you stay in the know about exactly what people are searching for on Pinterest.
For instance, Trending Searches for April 2020 show that Pinterest users are looking for pins about health and wellness, parenting, food, beauty, and personal care. By learning what Pinterest users are looking for, you can create a better, more effective strategy on Pinterest.
#5. Build your shop
One of the best parts of using Pinterest to generate sales is that it allows you to sell your products straight from Pinterest. In order to do this, though, you’ll need to set up your shop in order to do so.
As long as you have a business account set up on Pinterest, you should be able to create a “Shop” tab on your profile. Shoppable pins take users directly to the sales page for each product, shortening the sales funnel and making it easy and convenient for users to go from browsing to shopping.
Pinterest also helps you increase the average lifetime value of your customers with Pinterest Catalogs, which allows you to upload your full product offering on Pinterest.
#6. Promote your products with Shopping Ads
With Shopping Ads from Pinterest, you can reach Pinterest users far earlier in the shopping funnel, when they’re still looking for inspiration. This helps users to see your brand first off the mark, which means that they’ll compare similar products to yours. And, because Pinterest pulls product data straight from data sources, there’s no need to set up specific targeting for your Shopping Ads.
In addition to Shopping Ads, you can also utilize Pinterest advertising to create dynamic retargeting campaigns. This keeps your brand front and center in the minds of Pinterest users that have already shown an interest in your products.
Pinterest has become a powerful sales tool, but not all shopping campaigns on Pinterest are made equal. If you want help boosting sales on Pinterest, learn what the experienced social media marketing managers at Marketing 360® can do for you.
Originally published on 6/9/20
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