Pinterest: Why It’s Good for Digital Marketing (With a Bonus Guide)

25 Mar 2019
Alan Martin

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Pinterest: Why it is good for digital marketing

Are you interested in learning how to use Pinterest for your business in 2019? Many believe the image sharing site only works well for visually appealing businesses such as home décor, jewellery, clothing or wedding-related products or services.

But the truth is that Pinterest can be your secret weapon, even if your business is not particularly visually appealing. It has a wider appeal than most realise and is a great way to drive traffic back to your website.

Below, I explore some of the top reasons why having a Pinterest Marketing Strategy in 2019 is important and list some of the most useful tips for generating more traffic and conversions from this really popular social platform. I am confident that if implemented consistently, the strategies in this guide will help you increase website traffic and improve conversions for your business.

Engaged Users on Pinterest

Pinterest users are very active. They tend to engage more than users on other platforms. One of the reasons for this is because humans are visual: We love beautiful photos and images. So if you create good visual content, you have a high likelihood of others re-pinning it. In fact, 80% of all pins are re-pins! So there is a good chance that others will re-pin your content.

As a marketer, that’s what you want. Re-pinning increases visibility and the chances of the pin going viral. On Pinterest, your chances of that happening are higher. The platform is 80% more viral than Twitter!

According to data from Google Analytics, visitors from Pinterest to the Chat Marketing website, visit more pages than visitors from any other social media platform, which is another indication that the Pinterest audience is a highly engaged one.

SEO and Traffic from Pinterest

 

SEO and traffic - Pinterest

Re-pinning also has a positive impact on your website’s search ranking. The Google search algorithm considers them to be backlinks, a major factor in ranking high in online search.

The platform is one of the best in the world for driving traffic, as well. That’s because each image has a URL link associated with it. With just a click, users can land on your website and learn more about your products or services. So posting images of your company’s offerings can bring you website visitors.

Not only do visitors to the Chat Marketing website from Pinterest visit more pages, they also spend significantly longer than the average visitor to the site, both of which are classed as User Signals by Google and are instrumental in improving the ranking of your website.

Sales from Pinterest

 

Sales - Pinterest

Because of its ability to drive traffic, Pinterest can be a great site for online sales. In fact, Pinterest is the second highest source of social media traffic to Shopify stores.

That’s because users tend to do research there before they buy. According to Sprout Social, 96% of users regularly use the platform to research products.

Pinterest also reports that Pinners are 39% more likely to be active retail shoppers, and when they shop they spend 29% more than non Pinterest users.

When Pinners find images of interest, they click through to learn more about the product or service they saw in the image.

When they arrive at the target website, Pinterest users become leads and convert to buyers faster than from any other social media site!

Bonus Guide – Optimising Your Pinterest Business Profile

Now that you’ve decided to use Pinterest as part of your marketing strategy, you’ll want to make sure you optimise your account so it attracts traffic. Then you’ll want to be sure you can track that traffic to see if your pins are performing the way you intend them to do so.

It all starts with having the right kind of account!

1. Get a Pinterest Business Account

 

Pinterest Business Acount

If you’re linking to products on your website and selling them there, then you need to create a Pinterest Business Account. Once you create it, be sure to fill out every field. While that sounds obvious, many businesses leave out important information. You want to make it is as easy as possible for users who visit your account to contact you.

Even if you are not directly linking to products on your website, a Pinterest business account will give you access to enhanced analytics, providing vital information to help you improve the performance of your account. You will also be able to advertise on Pinterest by promoting your pins to your ideal target audience, which you can’t do without a Business Account.

2. Optimise Your Pinterest Boards

 

Optimise Pinterest Boards

Make sure the title of your boards reflect what people are searching for. You might find it helpful to look at the Categories of content that you have on your website and then create boards around these topics.

3. Add URLs to Your Pinterest Pins

 

Add URLs to Pinterest Pins

You have the opportunity to add a URL to every pin you post, so make sure you do this because that’s how you will move traffic back to your website. Be sure the URL you add is to the correct page on your site, not just your Home Page.

If you are showcasing a product with your image, make sure you are linking to the page on your website where visitors can learn more, and preferably buy from you.

4. Optimise Your Pinterest Pins for SEO

 

Optimise Your Pins For SEO

Just as you optimise a website or page to be found by search engines, you can optimise pins for the same reason. In the description of the pin, be sure to include hashtags, long-tail keywords, and backlinks.

5. Get the Pinterest Images Right

 

Get The Pinterest Images Right

To catch the eye of users, your pins must be attractive. Be sure any text you include on them is clear and that the images are sized correctly. The platform suggests using an aspect ration of 2:3 and they should be sized with a width of at least 600 pixels.

6. Enable Pinterest Rich Pins

 

Enable Rich Pins on Pinterest

 

These offer more detail than your standard Pin. Rich Pins allow you to add direct links to a product page, or real-time information. If you’ve worked with rich snippets from Google, then you’ll understand this concept. Pinterest has a section that explains how to add them.

If your website is built on WordPress and you find the official instructions from Pinterest a little hard to follow, this blog post from Melyssa Griffin explains a really simple work-around using the Yoast SEO Plug-In.

There are four types of Rich Pins – App Pins, Article Pins, Product Pins or Recipe Pins. You will need to decide which type is the most relevant to your business.

Note: You need a Business Account before you can apply for Rich Pins.

7. Add Hashtags on Pinterest

 

Add Pinterest Hashtags

Pinterest allows you to add up to 20 hashtags to your pins. Pins with hashtags get more distribution on Pinterest, so this is definitely something you want to start incorporating into your pinning strategy.

8. Use Pinterest Ads

 

Use Pinterest Ads

Want to reach a larger segment of your target audience? Pinterest ads can reach users who are not followers of your boards, but who are searching for similar content. The analytics let you see where your traffic is coming from and where it goes to on your website.

9. Use Keywords on Pinterest

 


Just as they do in internet search, keywords play a significant role in getting your content found on the platform. Be sure to add relevant keywords in your Bio section, pin descriptions, board tiles and board descriptions. If possible, include a keyword in your account name, as well.

If you are not sure what keywords to use, type in a general keyword in the main Search box, for example I might type in the word ‘Marketing’ and Pinterest suggests a list of keywords that others have searched for as you type. They also display a list of long-tail keywords, which appear in coloured boxes underneath the main search box.

Pinterest Long-tail keyword suggestions

So, in the above search example I could start using long-tail keywords such as ‘Marketing ideas’ or ‘Social Media Marketing’ in my pins and on my boards.

Wrapping it Up

 

Conclusion on Pinterest

So, we have listed some of the best Pinterest Practices for 2019, dived into Pinterest Marketing trends and explored which things are important for your business when you have a business account.

As of September 2018, Pinterest had 250 million monthly users! It’s users have pinned 175 billion images! With such an active, growing audience, Pinterest is proving to be the platform where brands go to be seen. But the key to a successful Pinterest strategy is to view it less as a social media channel, and more as a search engine.

If your business is not visually appealing, you can still take advantage of the impressive traffic generating power of Pinterest by sharing links to your blog content. Simply re-size your blog image for Pinterest and add a link to the blog post. Follow Chat Marketing on Social Media because we will post more Pinterest Guides in the future to help you out with your marketing efforts.

If you would like more information about marketing your business on Pinterest, call Chat Marketing on 0131 6189898.

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Alan Martin is a social media speaker and coach with Chat Marketing.

Having worked with clients from various industries, we’ve learned that sometimes you need to think outside of the box to find the most effective traffic generating strategies.

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Do you want to find out how we can help you use Pinterest to market your business? Contact us here to arrange a chat (no pun intended!!).


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1 Comment
  • The well-written article will be beneficial to anybody who utilizes it, as well as me. Keep doing what you are doing – looking forward to more posts.
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