How to Use Pinterest for Business Accounts
What Is Pinterest? And What Tips Are There For Marketing On Pinterest?
Marketing on Pinterest can be beneficial for almost any business. Think of it as an online corkboard you can share with your friends. Pinterest gained popularity mostly amongst women as an online pinboard for things like “dream weddings”, “DIY”, and “shabby chic interior design”. But now, Pinterest has increased interest across all demographics, and marketing with Pinterest is showing some impressive results. Pinterest has many tools and benefits businesses can leverage.
Pinterest can help with lead generation and brand building. But most importantly, it can be used to bolster your inbound marketing efforts and drive users to your site, blog, online store, etc. In March 2012, Pinterest announced that it’s links will now be nofollow, but if you look at the source code or use SEO toolbars, links on the site are still follow links and can be backlinks. Normally, marketers would be ecstatic about building easy backlinks. But, it is safe to assume Goolge has reduced the impact and authority that Pinterest links have. Current trends show that Google plus ones and Facebook shares carry more weight than Twitter or Pinterest links. It would be too easy to build Pinterest links to increase SEO, and Google doesn’t like easy.
Getting Started
To get started marketing on Pinterest, create a business account. If you already have a personal account, you can easily convert it to a business account. For how to use Pinterest for business, check out Pinterest’s business site for access to tools and to convert your account.
Link your Pinterest account to your Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Marketing with Pinterest is easier this way and gives your followers other platforms to interact with you.
One of the best tips I have for how to use Pinterest for business is making sure your boards are relevant and entertaining for your target market. Answer these questions: Who do I want to target? What kinds of boards should I be making to attract these users? There is no limit to the amount of boards you can make, but for the best results when marketing with Pinterest, you should tailor them specifically to your ideal customer.
Putting a “Pin It” button on your site is essential when marketing with Pinterest. Use it for products, blog posts, or basic info. But make sure you always have an interesting picture, infographic, or video to pair with it! Many CMS sites including WordPress, BigCommerce, and Magento make it easy to add the Pinterest button when marketing on Pinterest. You can find it in their widgets and extensions sections. Another tip for how to use Pinterest for business is to make sure the images on your site have an ‘Alt’ text and description, this is what Pinterest reads as the description of the image if the pinner does not write a description.
Marketing On Pinterest: The Art Of (Pinterest) Attraction
Now that you have a lovely, robust Pinterest profile, how do you get users to repin, comment, and follow your business? When marketing with Pinterest, this does not happen overnight, and anyone who promises you that is a liar.
The best way to gain followers is to post meaningful, entertaining, and insightful content. Pinners love good pictures! Make sure your pics are big, high resolution, and link back to a relevant page on your site. Infographics are always popular and work well for non-visual content you want to share. Simple how-to videos relating to installation or use of your products are easy to use when learning how to use Pinterest for business. Videos increase your effectiveness when marketing on Pinterest because they add credibility to your organization (when they include tasteful content, of course).
When learning how to use Pinterest for business marketing, you should follow, comment and interact with people you want as followers. If you sell window shades online, follow the top interior designers, and comment on popular interior design boards. Stay relevant when marketing with Pinterest!
Once you have built a loyal base of followers (including your mom and auntie), have a pinning contest! You can create a collaborative board on Pinterest and give it a fun theme. Build hype for sales or events you are hosting. You can share and promote this board on all of your social media. Make a Pinterest board widget using the business tools to display the submissions on your site or blog. The tools for how to use Pinterest for business marketing and widgets are easy enough for beginners to use!
Use your #. Use hashtags in the description of your pin to make sure your pin can be indexed and easy to find by pinners. Be relevant, not spammy. Proper sentence structure and grammar is important for marketing with Pinterest. Pinners like descriptions and practical applications, a text box filled with nothing but hashtags can look overwhelming.
For online retailers marketing on Pinterest, there is a new option for pinning: rich pins! A rich pin will allow you to post a product image along with pricing, availability, and where to buy it online. This is a more measurable and surefire way to get pinners to buy the products they are searching for. You can find it in the tools section on the Pinterest for Business site.
Measurability And Analytics
If you are a small business, it does not make sense to buy an expensive social media managing suite. Marketing on Pinterest is cheap and easy (if not free). Pinterest has easy to use analytics for those figuring out how to use Pinterest for business. Like Google, Pinterest offers a free analytics tool that gets the job done and presents your profile info in an easy to understand dashboard.
To refresh, this is why you must have a business account when marketing with Pinterest. Personal accounts do not include the free analytics tool. With the business account, you can export a full report in a CSV file and open in the analytics tool of your choice. Measure reach, audience, repins, click throughs and more!
Hopefully, now you have a few more tips on how to use Pinterest for business. Marketing on Pinterest is more than cute pictures of weddings. Now, marketing with Pinterest is an interactive platform to give users relevant, entertaining, and insightful inspiration and ideas.
