Pinterest is a visual search engine.
There, I said it.
Pinterest is not your typical social media platform or social network. When you, the social media manager, onboard a new client and create a social media strategy, do not, I repeat, do not discount Pinterest as a viable option for online growth for clients, or yourself!
In this article you will discover why Pinterest is important to your overall social media strategy!
Let’s Start With Social Media Goals and Business Goals
As part of an effective social media marketing strategy, goal setting with your client is an important undertaking.
Social media marketing goals could include one, or several of the following:
- Increase product sales
- Attain clients
- Overall business growth
- Money in the bank
- Larger audience
- Foot traffic
- Web traffic
- More online sales
- Brand recognition
- Book sales
- Speaking engagements
- Community involvement
- Media attention
- Sponsorships
- Partnerships
To reach these goals, you’ll be implementing strategies and tactics.
Above mentioned goals like ‘increase web traffic’, ‘increase online sales’ and ‘brand recognition’ can be reached by utilizing Pinterest!
Once you have a written social media marketing plan, Pinterest could be one of several tools you use to strategically reach the preset goals for the client.
How Pinterest Can Help Your Social Media Strategy
As a visual search engine, Pinterest can and will drive traffic to your website.
If you have a blog or a YouTube channel and create content regularly, sell online products, or are in need of brand recognition, Pinterest could very well become your secret weapon to success!
Here are three ways Pinterest will help you accomplish these goals!
1. Reaching Your Target Audience Using Pinterest
While it used to be ‘known’ that Pinterest was primarily used by women, that certainly isn’t the case any more in 2020! Many men are on Pinterest; one of the fastest growing trends on Pinterest includes home improvement which targets… mostly men!
Whether your target audience includes men, women, millennials, baby boomers, gen xers etc etc. you need to be on Pinterest to reach your target audience!
Pinterest users hail from all corners of the world and as of 2020 includes over 400 million active users per month!
No matter if your audience likes images or video – both types of content do well on Pinterest and can be included in your strategy.
2. Driving Traffic To Your Website Using Pinterest
Pinterest pins have a lifespan of about four months.
That means that effort put into creating a fresh pin, can result in a huge uptick in website traffic over a long period of time. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms where the post or tweet has a short lifespan and the times to post need to be optimized to the minute, Pinterest allows for a more long-range approach.
Creating multiple images to drive traffic to the same link is another great strategy to employ to increase website traffic.
Most if not all industries can have success on Pinterest. The one caveat is that original content need to be created and shared on a regular basis to keep the search engines happy! ‘Fresh Pins’ mean uploading images that have not been seen and indexed by Pinterest.
3. Facilitating Brand Awareness and Recognition Using Pinterest
Last but not least, using visuals to increase brand awareness and brand recognition is smart business.
If you are not sure your business should be on Pinterest, we recommend a competitive analysis.
You might find that your competitors are already on Pinterest.
Go where your competition is!
Study how your competition uses this platform and take a step by step approach to emulating and then improving some of the Pinterest strategies they are implementing.
Alternatively, you might find your competition is missing from Pinterest, which affords you the chance to jump ahead! Take that as a huge opportunity to do better than your competition, and stand out from the crowd and been seen.
Either way, a competitor analysis will provide an industry baseline to start measuring your success!
Pinterest Organic vs Paid Strategies
While Pinterest can be quite instrumental in driving traffic organically, don’t discount Pinterest advertising.
When you have a a small budget for social media marketing, running Pinterest ads can impact the overall outcome of your strategy.
Supplementing organic posts with paid ads is a great strategy to gain traction.
If you’ve never tried Pinterest ads, we encourage you to get your feet wet and try! If you are active on social media as an eCommerce business, Pinterest ads can be a great tool for sales growth!
TIP: Don’t hesitate to reach out to Pinterest customer service to ask questions about your organic or paid campaigns! I’ve found them to be responsive and helpful!
Happy pinning!
I am a Certified Social Media Manager, Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Organic Specialist and Agile marketer! Blogging is my creative outlet. Running, hiking and skiing are how I recharge. You’ll recognize me on stage and online by my always present orange glasses, a nod to my Dutch heritage.
