Social networking is a great way for businesses to make close connections with customers, increase interactions and make better sales. You may be surprised to know that among all social media networks, Pinterest has quickly become one of the top ranking sites for e-commerce marketing. In this article, we will explain why you should use Pinterest for your business and share some smart tips on making it easy to do just that. Read on to learn more.
How Does Pinterest Perform?
The most recent statistics show that Pinterest has a huge number of registered users. In fact, its members number 75 million and it is the third social media site, following closely on the heels of Facebook and Twitter in terms of generating high numbers of referral traffic every day.
These days more and more people (especially women) are using Pinterest for product searches. As a matter of fact, 80% of Pinterest users are women and the numbers show that they are 10% more likely to follow up their searches with a purchase when they find what they seek through Pinterest.
Use A Pinterest Business Page For Business Purposes
Pinterest offers both personal and business pages. For the very best results, you should use a business page for your business purposes. Business profiles are especially designed to cater to specific niches. This helps engage just the right target audience.
It is easy to obtain a verified Pinterest business page. Simply confirm the address of your business website. Doing so gives your profile greater credibility and gives you access to features that you would not have with a personal profile.
Familiarize Yourself With The Pinterest Platform For The Best Results
It is important to understand that Pinterest is primarily focused on social interaction. For this reason, you need to place your focus on reaching out to your potential customers and to those who may be interested in your products or topics that are connected with your product. Interaction should be light and enjoyable and pressure free.
When you post attractive images with light and enjoyable text and meaningful links, you will be able to engage members of your target audience quickly and easily. Using Pinterest increases product visibility, thereby increasing interest in your business, referrals and sales.
Engage Your Audience!
Be sure to get your existing customers interested by building up your involvement on Pinterest at your e-commerce website. Add a Pin button to every image on your business website. This will make it easy for your visitors to click through to your Pinterest pages and follow you.
Increase User Engagement By Enabling Rich Pins
Be sure to add plenty of interest to your Pins so that your target audience will be deeply engaged. For example, research has shown that when you include prices for the products and services pinned, you will have a 30% greater chance of attracting LIKES.
There are a few ways that you can include prices in your Pins.
* Include the price directly in the image that you Pin.
* Include the Pin in your product description.
* Enable Rich Pins
Rich Pins are like Twitter cards. They are a beneficial feature for e-commerce websites because they automatically pick up stock details and prices from your product page. This information is then displayed with your posts on Pinterest.
Attract Followers And Keep Them Engaged
Getting followers to view your Pinterest page is the first and most important step to success. As soon as you set up your Pinterest business page, you should seek out other pages that contain products and services that are similar to yours. Engaging these pages actively will help you attract their followers.
To do this, you would look through the pages, LIKE interesting Pins and respond to comments. You can build up your reputation as an expert in your field by providing intelligent answers to any questions you find.
Remember to also follow-up with Pinterest on your own business page. If a user re-pins one of your images or LIKES it, be sure to respond. You can send the user a thank you message or you can go to their pages, follow them and LIKE and comment on their Pins.
Include interesting and exciting activities on your e-commerce pages such as contests, raffles and anything else that may interest your target audience and that will encourage your customers to visit your Pinterest pages. Running contests on your Pinterest pages is a good idea too. Be sure to announce your contests on your website to encourage visitors to click through and participate in your contests.
Use Discretion When Posting Content
The key to successful social media engagement is the ability to let go of extremely focused self interest. Naturally, you want to post pictures of your own product and service and promote yourself, however, doing this exclusively is boring for your visitors!
To keep your visitors interested and engaged, be sure to post companion information any time that you post something about yourself, your business and your product. Seek out interesting, related images and information that will add value to your pages and keep your visitors interested, engaged and informed.
Be sure to share pertinent Pins from other users to make your profile more interesting and to build relationships. After all, this is the heart of social networking.
Present Your Pins and Your Boards Nicely
Be sure that your boards and your Pins are well organized so that it will be easy for your visitors to flow from one topic to another. Create combinations of information that makes sense and relate naturally. Well organized pages are more inviting and easier for your users to explore.
Categorize different aspects of your products by creating separate boards. For example, you might create one board that presents a variety of statistics regarding your product. Another board might present pictures of your product. Others might present related information.
Make Sure Your Images Are Big Enough And Of Very Good Quality
Remember that your Pinterest pages represent your business, so you want to be sure that the images you use are professional, clear and of very high quality. Generally speaking, larger and taller images are more engaging than small images. As a guideline, you should be sure that your images are 1128 pixels high and 738 pixels wide.
Be Sure That Your Calls To Action Are Clear And Compelling
A clear call to action in social media has about 80% more chance of stimulating engagement from visitors. Remember that you are using your Pinterest sites to drive traffic to your business website, so your calls to action should be very clear and very compelling. Keep them short, sweet and to the point in the image description.
A good call to action statement is something such as:
* Click Here!
* Register Now!
* Download Now!
Other good calls to action involve using statements and questions that elicit responses from your users. Use an interesting combination of different calls to action to keep your visitors’ interests piqued.
Make The Most Of Search Engine Optimization With Pinterest
As it has become more and more established, Pinterest has been proven to be a fabulous source of top-quality referral traffic. This is because it has very strong SEO appeal. The best way to tap into this benefit is to provide each image you Pin with a very descriptive name and a clear and keyword rich description. Add product URLs to this to make it easy for your visitors to follow through and convert.
When writing your descriptions, remember that it is important to use keywords, however, you should avoid overuse because this is off-putting for people and negative for search engine bots. Your description should read naturally and make sensible use of appropriate keywords.
Use Pinterest Analytics For Best Performance
With a Pinterest business page, you will have access to Pinterest analytics. These statistics are very valuable in helping you know exactly what sort of results you are generating with your Pins. Additionally, this feature provides you with geographic details and demographic details regarding your followers. It is easy to see that this is an invaluable service.
The Bottom Line
Pinterest has shot to the top of social media sites for e-commerce because of its strong visual appeal. When you take the time to create a vibrant presence on Pinterest, you can brand your business effectively and gain thousands of valuable, targeted visitors to your website. It is easy to see that connecting your business to Pinterest can make a big difference in your social commerce results.
Thomas Gunner is a successful entrepreneur and business owner. He operates ReviewFilter.com, which is a cloud based tool for Hotel And Restaurant operators that engages with recent customers via email or SMS and invites them to give feedback on their recent experience of your business.