How to Optimize Your Pinterest Business Account to Get Engagement
The Pinterest social network has more than 442 million users worldwide, one-third of which uses the social media site to follow brands or companies. It’s free to use yet it’s one of the most powerful ways to market directly to an engaged audience with epic purchasing power.
The reason for its spread-the-word success is simple: When a user “pins” (uploads an image of) their online discoveries to Pinterest, the pins are shared with anyone who follows that user. They also surface in Pinterest keyword search results, which is the Google search of the Pinterest universe.
For great content, this can create a ripple effect of visibility for your brand, content, or product.
Better still, Pinterest pins link back to their website URLs of origin, making Pinterest a powerful tool to use to drive traffic and sales.
So how do you make the most of a Pinterest business account? Read on to find out.
What Is a Pinterest Business Account?
At first glance, a Pinterest business account looks just like a personal account. Dig deeper and you’ll find small discrepancies, such as Pinterest business terms of service, which differs slightly from regular Pinterest terms. But here’s one distinction that really matters: A Pinterest business account includes access to Pinterest analytics.
If you have a Pinterest business account, you can access a variety of valuable account stats, including:
- Impressions
- Total audience
- Engagements
- Closeups
- Link clicks
- Saves
- Engagement rates
- Closeup rates
- Link click rate
- Save rate
- Engaged audience
- Monthly total audience
- Monthly engaged audience
You can also filter the data based on variables such as:
- Organic versus paid or earned content types
- All pins, pins from your website, other pins
- User device type (mobile, desktop, and tablet)
- Sources (your pins versus other pins)
- Format (standard, product, video, or story)
That’s a lot of important insight into how Pinterest users are interacting with your content and account! This is why if you’re looking to use Pinterest for business and optimize it as part of your social media marketing strategy, you want a Pinterest business account.
Another perk? If you have a business account, you can set up a “shop” right on Pinterest. With this feature, your online catalog can showcase price, product title, an image, and a Shop button that links to your website to purchase.
If you already have a personal profile, you can attach a business account with your business name and hop between the two as desired. Otherwise, start a new business account and ta-da! You now have a way to promote your business on Pinterest and measure results of your efforts, free of charge.
Now let’s talk about using Pinterest and these analytics to help market your business.
Why Pinterest Should Be a Part of Your Marketing Strategy
We mentioned Pinterest’s staggering user numbers above. But there are more reasons to look to Pinterest as a marketing tool.
Pinterest is a small business marketer’s dream for nearly every business type. Unlike other popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, users turn to Pinterest for inspiration and help with decision-making. Users not only want to know about brands and products that can help solve the day’s dilemma, but they’re also actively seeking them out!
In fact, Pinterest reported that 77% of weekly “Pinners” have discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest, 98% report trying new things they find on Pinterest, and 83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on content they saw from brands on Pinterest.
So, whether you’re showing where to vacation or store your winter wardrobe, how to wax eyebrows or cars, or what to wear to a wedding or an interview, you have a good chance of getting your brand in front of an interested Pinterest audience. This is especially true if you build a strong brand on Pinterest, start pinning for your target audience, and keep at it.
Of course there’s a catch. Pinterest is a very visual platform. If you want to grab attention, you need to do it through eye-catching images, graphics, videos, or all three—even if you’re selling power tools. (Hey, what’s not to like about watching someone use a chainsaw?) You also need to know all the ways you can optimize your efforts. Keep reading!
Convinced of Pinterest’s value? Good. We’re moving on to everything you need to know to promote your business through Pinterest marketing.
How To Market Your Business Through Pinterest
Here’s the best part of using Pinterest as a marketing tool: Most of the efforts cost nothing more than elbow grease. You can pay to maximize visibility through Pinterest ads, but they’re not required to run a successful Pinterest business profile.
Here’s what you do need to do: pin strategic, attention-grabbing images and optimize your content through proven methods.
Distribute Eye-Catching, Visually Driven Content
Content really is king on Pinterest. But not just any content.
Pinterest is a “visual discovery engine,” meaning all Pinterest search results are images or videos. To be successful on Pinterest, you need to learn how to communicate in a visually compelling way.
Here are some ideas and templates to help you master the visuals for your Pinterest profile, home feed, and beyond:
Your logo: There’s a circular spot for your logo. Design your logo to look good in that space. It’ll be seen front and center on your profile and home feed and below every one of your promoted pins (i.e., paid ads), no matter where they appear on Pinterest. If you need help, use free logo design tools.
Like the logo template below? Click it to customize it your way.
https://www.adobe.com/express/create/logo
Your banner: That large space that lingers above your logo on your home feed is your own personal billboard. Declare yourself loud and proud with an image, an image collage (make a free one here), or even a video.
https://www.adobe.com/express/discover/templates/photo-collage
Images: More than anything, you need images to pin. They can be photographs, graphics, or both in the form of product pins, infographics, announcements (Sale! New! 10 Ways To …), or anything else you can think of. You can even include video.
Make sure your images are consistent with your brand and that photos are clear, crisp, and well-lit. These days smartphone cameras can produce quality results if you use good lighting and thoughtful photo composition. You can crop out unwanted backgrounds using free online tools, and you can make cool, free graphics for your images, too.
https://www.adobe.com/express/create/social-media-graphic
Pinterest Pins: Once you have images to pin, you need to put them into a layout that looks best (long and narrow) and helps achieve your goals around images and messaging. Thankfully, there’s no need to start from scratch; there are great free Pinterest templates available. Use them to make layouts that combine images, text, and graphics; multiple images; animated design; and more.
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https://www.adobe.com/express/create/pinterest-pin
Like the templates above? Click to make them your own. If you want to get fancy, check out how to create custom Pinterest pins before you get started.
Don’t hold back on learning the nuances of crafting awesome Pinterest layouts. Visual search is growing in popularity, especially with Gen Z. The skills and tools you’ll learn will help with all your online marketing efforts for years to come.
Optimize Your Content To Educate, Build Community, Drive Traffic, and Boost Sales
Creating on-brand visuals is a great first step toward strong marketing through Pinterest. Following are more ways to turn your pins into business performers.
Include relevant text: Take a few moments to write strategic, brief, keyword-heavy descriptions to accompany each of your pins. Add a few relevant hashtags at the end; this makes them easy to find via Pinterest search.
Add links: For each pin, you can include a link back to your website or blog in the description and in the pin source. Use ‘em or lose ‘em.
Make boards: Boards, or collections of pins with a shared subject that live on your Pinterest page, give users reason to browse multiple pins or pieces of content. They can also establish you as an authoritative source for the subject you’re featuring. Collaborative boards do double-duty, creating an abundance of interesting content and connecting you with new Pinterest community members. Invite users to join your board to build community and visibility. Be sure to use keywords in your board title to help users find your collection.
Interact with users: Pinterest is a community. The more you engage with users, the better your visibility and reach. Communicating also boosts customer loyalty and potential new customers. Standard social-media etiquette applies here: follow accounts you want to follow you, comment on others’ content, and respond to comments.
Embed pins on your blog or website: Plant pins on your site and you can get repins from outside of Pinterest! It’s easy to create embed codes from Pinterest’s widget builder. Add the “Save” widget to your website to make your images pinnable. Let your customers and clients help spread the word. Once called “Pin it,” the “Save” button, which can also display as an image of the Pinterest icon, lets you and others pin images from your website or blog directly to Pinterest.
Share across platforms: Post about boards and pins on your other social media channels. Do marketing for your marketing! Drive traffic to your Instagram content by sharing it to your other social networks and tweeting them.
Follow the lead of your “Pinterest for Business” analytics: Analytics tell you what pins are generating traction. Use that information to either promote the pin, reshare them on other Pinterest boards, or create similar content.
Practice Patience and Diligence
Like with all social media accounts, it takes time and effort to build an engaged following. Don’t expect landslide success overnight. Instead, pin regularly, engage with the community, and have fun with the visual world that is Pinterest. Your efforts are sure to pay off.