How to master Pinterest for business in 2019
On the face of it, Pinterest is not the most prolific social media platform with 250 million monthly users worldwide compared to 2.38 billion on Facebook. So why should you consider using Pinterest for business in 2019? It’s simple: Pinterest earns its crust as a marketing tool because of the intent of the people who use it.
Pinterest users visit the platform because they want to be inspired – not because they want to connect with friends or chortle at cat gifs. They’re looking for ideas, advice and solutions. They want to know what to wear, where to go and how to do things; meaning they’re well on the way to making a purchase.
In fact, 90 per cent of weekly Pinterest users use it to make purchasing decisions.
So how can brands take advantage of this ripe customer base and what can you expect to get out of using Pinterest for business?
What works on Pinterest?
Much like Instagram, quality images are everything. However, there’s more to mastering Pinterest for business than posting pretty pictures.
Here are a few things to tick off your list when creating successful Pinterest pins:
Get the dimensions right
Pins perform best if they’re vertical and use a 2:3 aspect ratio. Think: 600px by 900px; 1000px by 1500px; or 1200px by 1800px.
If you use an online design tool, like Canva, they have templates you can use and will update these in line with the latest guidance from Pinterest. Its favoured dimensions do change from time to time based on what’s working for users and advertisers.
Overlay text
Leave people in no doubt what you pin is about. Ultimately, you want them to save it and click on it for more information. Overlaying a small amount of enticing, explanatory text will help.
Add a great description
Pinterest allows you to explain what your pin is all about in a description that is revealed if they click on your pin. Use this text to encourage pinners to click through to your website. Don’t forget to add in some relevant hashtags as Pinterest recognises these in keyword searches.
If your pinnable image is embedded on your website you can add your text to the image description and alt text in your Content Management System (we use WordPress). This means if someone visits your website and decides to add the image to Pinterest themselves the description is already filled out.
Create and populate themed boards
Pinners search Pinterest for topics, so create boards that are relevant to your customers’ interests. Make sure you give each board a name and description using appropriate keywords so it is easier to find and more compelling to follow.
Once you have set up your boards – at least 10 is a good starting point – add new pins every day. These could be from your own website or other relevant sources of useful information. Try to post more of your own business content to achieve the most business benefit. Add new boards regularly to tie in with new campaigns, changes in the seasons and new trends.
Take advantage of trends
Pinterest has done all the hard work for you by highlighting predicted trends. If your business is involved with food, hobbies, health and wellbeing, travel, interiors, fashion, beauty or families, there’s plenty of inspiration in its trends for 2019 for creating boards and adding trending content.
How Pinterest can help your business
If used correctly, Pinterest is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website over time – 33 per cent more than Facebook. There’s also a good return for advertisers on Pinterest with an average gross return of $4.30 for every $1 spent on ads.
And when you think about how much time you spend creating the perfect social media posts for your business, Pinterest is the platform where the effort is most worthwhile. The half-life of a pin (the time it takes for it to achieve 50 per cent of its total lifetime engagement) is three and a half months. Compare that to a tweet which has an average life span of 18 minutes, Facebook posts which die after 30 minutes, and Instagram posts which are old news in 19 hours.
If your customers use Pinterest and your brand is in the right niche, Pinterest is an invaluable social media platform.
To find out more about using Pinterest for business in 2019 get in touch with Southampton-based marketing agency Amplify PR. We can help create a bespoke social media strategy for your brand.