The perfect Pinterest strategy helps generate the right branding, drives traffic, enhances lead generation and improves revenues. In this article, we look at the top 7 steps to help in crafting the perfect Pinterest Strategy.
By Mashum Mollah
In the last few years, Pinterest, along with Instagram has emerged as the most sought after social media platform. For B2C brands, which focus heavily on visuals and designs, Pinterest is the go-to social medium.
The numbers support the growth saga of Pinterest as well. With more than 250 million monthly users, no social media brand can afford to ignore Pinterest. Even though it may not be a giant as Facebook, Pinterest has created a niche for itself in certain businesses and demographics.
Some businesses find Pinterest more engaging because of their business model. In our experience, I find that the following B2C brands can leverage Pinterest more than others-
- Home Décor
- Beauty and Cosmetics
- Food
- Fashion
- Travel
- E-Commerce Multi Product Platforms
While there are many other industries that use Pinterest, the above stated businesses get a lot of traction on the platform. A social media marketing strategy in 2019 for B2C brands is incomplete if there is not a dedicated Pinterest strategy.
Pinterest: What is the platform about?
Like any other social platform, Pinterest has ‘feeds’. This is content that is shared by brands, people you follow and themes/interests that you engage with.
As members on Twitter are called as the ‘Twitterverse’ or the ‘Twitterati’, members on Pinterest are called as ‘Pinners’. This is because posts/creatives on Pinterest are referred to as ‘pins’.
However, the biggest attraction on Pinterest is what boards users create from their favourites. You can compare this to the saved feature on Instagram. If you compare this to Instagram, the board has many more functions, and becomes a saved directory/inventory of things you have liked.
This helps people make purchases, seek design inspirations and leads to an increase in direct referral traffic. Pins act like links. Whenever users click on the pins, they are redirected to the brand’s website or e-commerce. This helps them make an immediate purchase of any pin.
Let us now look at some of the top steps to craft the perfect Pinterest strategy.
The Perfect Pinterest Strategy: 7 Steps
1. Set up the Right Content Creation Team
Pinterest is all about creativity and visually rich images. This means that content creation should focus on photography, designing, editing and copy.
A social media team that works on all platforms might not be such a good idea. Every platform has its own dynamics and challenges of content creation. For example, most brands and agencies just focus in the image and not care about filling in the description section. This is a big mistake.
Since Pinterest as a platform is heavily dependent on visuals, you will need to set a fee for high-end photography. Quality images that focus on lifestyle (rather than standard product shots) perform exceedingly well on the platform.
2. Enable Users to Act (Save Pin)
People on social media are always looking for directions. They want to know what the page or the brand wants them to do. This is why CTAs become very important for a medium like Pinterest.
On Pinterest, brands want people to ‘Save’ their pins. The more pins people save the better is the engagement. The saved pins can translate into brand building, reach, shares as well as direct sales. By using a simple ‘Save Button’ on your pins, you can help shore up engagement levels.
Brands can go for either the ‘automatic save button’, or the ‘hover button’. In addition, brands can also choose to add a specific save button on any particular image, which they want to publicise.
3. Push Content as a Story, Theme or a Narrative
In our experience, I have found that brands and agencies focus only on product shots on Pinterest. While product shots are necessary, a Pinterest strategy should have a narrative to it.
This means that there should be a content strategy with different content pillars and themes. Product can be one pillar. However, like any other platform, a Pinterest strategy should work according to a theme.
This also helps a brand in creating different pins and stories. This creates a multi-dimensional and comprehensive storytelling process. This also makes the users become curious on what they should expect from their brands.
4. Use Analytics to Craft a Better Pinterest Strategy
If you are not using analytics to better your social media game, you will become a dinosaur. Like all social platforms, Pinterest analytics are thorough, helpful and extremely helpful. By using data and statistics, you will get to know about-
- Which posts are performing well
- What demographic is engaging with your brand
- What is the right time to post
- Whether there are any improvements or alterations that need to be done?
By asking your social media team to analyse the data, you will empower them with information that will help them craft a more potent Pinterest strategy. The most crucial piece of data that you need to take note of are how pins were saved. This will help plan and align your strategy in a much better and holistic fashion.
5. Post Regularly and Consistently
It is always a good idea to post regularly on Pinterest. This is something that is common to most social media platforms. This not only helps from the point of view of the platform, it also helps in terms of users and their expectations.
Once users start following your brand and its content, they want and expect a regular and steady content flow. If you do not post regularly, you will see a massive drop in engagement. Some brands make the mistake of posting all the pins at one go.
This is not a Pinterest Best Practice at all. The posting needs to be consistent, according to the best timings (analytics) and should always be of a high quality.
6. Add Prices to Pins to Facilitate Sales
No brand wants to shy away from making a sale. In fact, brands love selling things on social media in 2019. By adding Price Pins on your pages, you will encourage users to buy products that they like.
Once you add prices to the pins, Pinterest places the pin automatically in the Gift’s section. Once people click on the pin with the price, they are redirected straight to your website. Following which, they can buy directly from your website.
Thousands of brands use this feature to make direct sales. This also helps brands understand what is working and what is not working. Most brands stick to adding price pins twice a week. This also helps in maintaining exclusivity and increases sales.
7. Use Keywords in Images and Descriptions
Social media is increasingly becoming a keyword rich medium. The right keywords end up doing well not just on Google, but also on social media platforms. This means that a Pinterest strategy should also have a keyword dimension to it.
This is where optimization becomes crucial. You might create a visually stunning pin, but if it is not discoverable, it does not have any use. The idea is to optimise your image and your text for search engine discoverability.
You need to include industry specific keywords in-
- The description section of the pin.
- The file name of the image/creative.
- Title and Meta description section of the pin.
- The Alt-text section.
Conclusion
More and more people, especially from Generation Z are gravitating from Facebook to Instagram and Pinterest. This means the number of young users on Pinterest are growing by millions every month.
For most brands, this presents an interesting opportunity. Unlike Facebook, Pinterest does not have a lot of competition. While it has fewer members, yet its base and reach is expanding drastically.
If brands and agencies want to get ahead of their competitors, they should have a robust Pinterest strategy. The above 7 steps will help brands immensely if they want to craft the perfect Pinterest strategy.
Do let me know what you thought about the 7 steps in the comments section below.
Mashum Mollah is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO at BloggerOutreach.io, a blogger outreach platform. He is a passionate blogger and blogs at MashumMollah.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Pinterest stock photo by Nopparat Khokthong/Shutterstock
