9 Ways to Heighten Your Visibility With a Pinterest Marketing Strategy

Pinterest: The go-to site for comical memes, delectable recipes, and fall outfit inspiration. Although the social platform has come a long way since its 2010 debut, Pinterest’s marketing capabilities are probably one of the most underutilized to date. Many businesses may assume Pinterest is targeted for female-only audiences. However, male users have increased by 120 percent in the past couple of years. Despite gender assumptions associated with the site, Pinterest’s marketing potential has evolved and is especially useful for today’s businesses.

How a Pinterest Marketing Strategy Will Boost Your Visibility:

• It Influences Purchases – Because Pinterest is based on visual allure, displaying attractive images of your products provides a huge advantage. Posting the right photos has the potential to gain mass exposure on Pinterest that can ultimately lead to purchases. In fact, 87% of users have bought a product because of Pinterest!
• A Pinterest Marketing Strategy Gains Referral Traffic – Second only to Facebook, Pinterest is one of the main social media sources for attracting website traffic. At 5% of all referral traffic, Pinterest pretty much kills it. To give you a better idea, Facebook provides 25% of referral traffic whereas Google+, Reddit, Twitter, and StumbleUpon each refer less than 1%.
• It’s More of a Personal Tool Than a Social Space – Rather than being a traditional social media platform, Pinterest is unique in the personalization it provides. As opposed to posting selfies, Pinterest users utilize the site for personal use to share and post inspirational content on a wide range of topics. It’s the perfect place to showcase your items to individuals who are actively browsing products for ideas that may turn into near-future purchases.

Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty. Here are nine strategic ways you can use a Pinterest marketing strategy to help your business thrive.

Use Correct Dimensions

Pinterest users typically explore a variety of eye-catching visuals, so it’s important that you optimize all images. Be sure to size your images vertically so your photos aren’t skewed and seen as an eyesore. Tall images work best on Pinterest—the ideal pin size is 600 x 900 pixels with a maximum width of 735 pixels. Image-creation tools such as Canva and PicMonkey offer Pinterest-specific templates that are already perfectly sized.

Include Pinnable Images in Your Posts

When creating content for your website, include a “pinnable” image in every blog post. Be sure to choose or create images that will quickly catch a pinner’s eye and are sized correctly (see above.) Include a “Save” button to make the image easier to pin.

Create Boards That Establish Credibility

Begin building boards that are relevant to your industry and provide valuable content to other pinners. Add a combination of your original pins to these boards along with repinned content from other users that boost your credibility.

Build Relevant Links Back to Your Blog

This step is practically effortless, but probably the most significant. Always include links back to your blog or website-or both-on every original pin. There are two ways you can accomplish this:

1. In the source URL
2. In the pin description

Post Frequently

Coschedule recommends pinning approximately eleven pins a day. Additionally, best practice says 80% of your pins should be from sources other than your own. Always research what best suits your industry and avoid inconsistent pinning.

Post at Optimal Times

Like all social media platforms, it is beneficial for you to look at optimal posting times within your industry to see what works for your competitors. Experiment with different posting times and then use Pinterest analytics to evaluate what days and times generate the most engagement for your pins, as well as what kind of pins perform the best.

Write Effective Descriptions

Writing efficient pin descriptions improves the chances of your content getting clicked on. Your pin descriptions–the text that shows below the pin itself–should be no more than 300 words, and should include a link to your website. When writing descriptions, use powerful keywords and accurately describe exactly what the users will get when they click on the pin.

Call-to-Pin

Adding a “Call-to-Pin” in your description will increase your Pin’s engagement, much like a Call to Action does. For example, adding copy such as “Repin to your own inspiration board,” or “Click here for more tips on [topic]!” is an effective way to prompt users to engage with your content.

Strategize to Inspire

Pinterest was created to be an open, digital catalog of ideas. With that in mind, strive to create a Pinterest marketing strategy that communicates how your products or services fit with other pinners’ ideas. Use Promoted Pins to target your audience and make your pins searchable and relevant. Be creative, helpful, and valuable, and understand your buyer’s needs. Happy Pinning!