As Pinterest’s popularity grows, it becomes a more attractive platform for advertisers. Pinterest has reached 150 million monthly users and is used by valued audiences such as millennial women and new mothers .
The platform visual and inspirational approach proved to be perfect to drive sales. Every day 2 million people add product pins to their boards. Researchshows that 25% of consumers buy a product or service they discover on Pinterest and 70% access Pinterest to find inspiration.
The company has been investing heavily in adding options to help advertisers tap into this potential.
Not sure if Pinterest is for you? Check out our guide to find out what you need to know before advertising on Pinterest.
If you are already sold on the platform and want to get the most out of Pinterest, follow our seven tips for Pinterest success.
1. Understand your customer
The secret to having your pins seen and get users to engage with your content is to know your audience’s behaviors and what is relevant to them. People generally look for tips, insights and inspiration on Pinterest. What does your audience want? How do they search for the things they want to see? What approach can you take to make your pins spark their interest? The answers to these types of questions will help you design a more effective advertising strategy for Pinterest.
2. Test how people react to your pins
Pinterest has features that allow users to reveal their interest in a product by engaging with a pin. These tools can also be used by advertisers to A/B test their pins. Users can show approval by clicking on the heart-shaped button ‘love it.’
Users can also use a new ‘tried it’ button to inform that they have purchased or tried a product or idea. This is a great tool to help advertisers track the shopping cycle considering not all customers who see a product on Pinterest end up buying it through the platform. Besides, it also helps to measure the popular interest in a particular product or the performance of a pin so you can understand which pins you should promote to reach a larger audience.
3. Use visually appealing images
Pinterest users engage with pins and make purchase decisions based on images. It is important that you not only show the product but the concept and lifestyle that surround it. Pinterest recommends creating boards for the ideas, places, people and moods behind your brand. Make sure all images are high-quality and visually appealing. Prefer to use vertical images as Pinterest is best suited for long, vertical images.
4. Invest in SEO and choose the right keywords
Users go to Pinterest to search for things they want to buy at the earliest stages of the decision-making process. Your pins need to be optimized for search in order to grab your target audience’s attention when they are using Pinterest for searching.
Choosing the right keywords will increase the chances of having your pin displayed when customers perform a search. If you use too many keywords, for example, you risk having low click-through rates. Instead, use fewer keywords that are highly focused on your target audience. You can also invest in Pinterest’s new search ads option. It allows brands to promote their product to users that are searching for something on Pinterest. The feature is similar to Google AdWords.
5. Follow up with your fans
Customers often abandon their shopping carts and, as a result, do not finish the purchase of the products they have selected. Pinterest’s shopping bag keeps the products in the cart and allows brands to reach out to users at any time to close the sale.
The feature gives customers more freedom to explore the platform and time to add multiple items to their shopping bag before checking out in a time that is convenient for them. To take advantage of this feature, brands need to activate the buyable pins option that adds a ‘buy it’ button to a pin. It increases the chances of generating sales and allows customers to purchase an item on Pinterest.
6. Be proactive
Pinterest allows customers to create shopping lists of products they plan to buy. Brands can be proactive and provide customers with their lists using the feature as a type of catalog. It is important to remember that Pinterest is about inspiration.
To be successful, you have to understand your customers’ behavior and add content that will help them reach their goals. L’Óreal, for example, increased their purchase intent by 37.2% creating lists that show their latest products, beauty tips and makeup ideas.
7. Be consistent
As in every social media platform, consistency is very important on Pinterest. You must post updates often and create pins that follow a concept that fits your brand. Make sure that you will not only post new pins but repin as well.
To repin is the act of sharing with your followers something that other users have shared. Pinterest estimates that 80% of the pins you see are repins. Business should repin strategically on Pinterest to create connections, attract the attention of other users and get their content shared by other users.
