Top 10 Things To Know About Pinterest Marketing

Marketing your brand on Pinterest may initially seem like an overwhelming venture. However, using this highly effective platform (Pinterest has the highest average order value from ads of all the major social platforms with an average value of $50!) will drive more qualified leads to your site.

So, buckle in, because I’m going to walk you through the top 10 things you need to know for your brand’s Pinterest marketing strategy.

#1 Content is Key

First and foremost, you need to have content to promote on Pinterest. You can easily achieve this by creating disguised content – content that promotes your product or service by providing information or advice to the user and plugging your brand in a clever and relevant way.

This content can take several forms. You might describe an issue your ideal customer has that your product or service can fix or might explain how the products you promote with affiliate links can help readers. You could even create list-building content by providing a content upgrade or opt-in freebie and sending users to a landing page where you can gather their emails.

#2 High Quality Photos

Sharing high quality photos is vital to building a presence on Pinterest because of how image-heavy the platform is. Images of your product on a white background won’t cut it.

Rather, show your product or service in its setting. If you sell clothing for teens, share photos of teens dressed in the clothing in front of their high school. The general rule of thumb is to grab people’s attention and get them interested in what your brand has to offer.

If you want to know your best bet, data from research and analysis on the highest engaged pins show that warm colors statistically attract more engagement on Pinterest. Pair these colors with clear, bold text overlay. A sans serif font in a color that contrasts with the background image will help draw the user’s attention as they rapidly scroll through their feed.

#3 Avoid Horizontal Images

Never use horizontal images on Pinterest. While you may be thinking that you have several great horizontal images you can upload straight from your blog post to your profile, Pinterest is not the place to showcase these.

Pinterest is not about quantity but rather sharing what gets the most engagement, and its interface promotes vertical images. If you use horizontal images, people will overlook them. Pinterest has also said that they won’t show them as much, and that means less engagement for your content and brand.

Play it safe and stick to vertical images. If you have high quality horizontal images, consider cropping their sides to create a vertical sliver of the original image with a tall layout grid on Canva.

#4 Optimize for Mobile

More than 80% of Pinterest users are viewing Pinterest from their mobile devices, meaning points #2 and #3 carry particular weight. Optimize your images by making them tall and colorful so that the user is drawn to your pins on a small screen.

#5 Encourage User-Generated Content

A great way to drive more traffic to your business through Pinterest is by optimizing your site for user generated content.

To do this, give visitors to your site the option to pin your images to their own Pinterest profile. Include a tall image with text overlay on your blog post or product listing, and implement a call-to-action, such as “Pin This!” with a Pinterest save button.

If you encourage user-generated content for your pin images, you establish your domain as a high quality source and Pinterest will reward you with more impressions.

#6 Keywords are Everything

Keyword optimizing every aspect of your Pinterest profile is crucial to executing an effective Pinterest marketing plan. This is particularly important in your pin descriptions.

Pin descriptions should be about 1-3 sentences and contain keywords relevant to what a potential customer or client might be searching for. They should also include a call-to-action that incites people to click through to your site from the pin. An example of this call-to-action could be “Check out this article to learn more.”

When you add pinnable images in your posts to encourage user-generated content, be sure to enter this pin description in the alt tag/ alt text field for the image. This will allow users to pin the image with this description and spread your message strategically on Pinterest.

#7 Remember That Pinterest Is a Discovery Search Engine

Pinterest is not a social network. People don’t flock to Pinterest to share news or details of their personal lives. Rather, people use Pinterest to find solutions to their problems and plan for the future.

Pinterest is a visual discovery tool and search engine rolled into one. For online businesses, this means sharing content that is evergreen and not time-sensitive.

#8 Your Content Has Longevity

Pinterest content has a long lifespan. The half life of a pin, meaning how much time it takes for a pin to reach half of the impressions it will get, is on average 3 ½ months. The average lifespan of a pin is about 7 months.

This kind of longevity is unique to Pinterest, so take advantage of it. Invest in good content that will circulate for several months. The more energy you put into establishing initial traction for your business’s Pinterest account, the more people will share the content and drive more potential clients to your website.

#9 Consistency is Key

Consistently sharing a mix of your original content and curated content created by others will establish your business as an authority on the platform. Pinterest will share more pins linked  to your site if you’re good about sharing more on the platform.

A scheduler like Tailwind (<< if you make a purchase through my affiliate link, I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you) can make staying consistent with posting much easier, as you can enter content once or twice a week to be sent out at set times.

#10 Don’t Focus Too Much on Followers

Unlike other social platforms, followers aren’t of the utmost importance on Pinterest.

Traffic isn’t correlated to follower count. Your account can experience significant gains in traffic while the follower count remains low, and that’s okay.

Pinterest shows content based on users’ interests, not what content is shared by those with the biggest followings. So unless you’re working with big brands who require a certain minimum of followers, you will gain a wider reach by focusing on generating solid content than focusing on accumulating followers.

Now that you know the top 10 keys to Pinterest marketing, you can take your business’s Pinterest marketing to the next level!

Pin This!