While social media is a marketing hub with the potential to reach people far and wide through the click of a button, one platform has a massive advantage for businesses. And that’s Pinterest!
With 450 million users as of 2020, 85% of Pinners say they begin brainstorming and planning on Pinterest before starting a new project. Most of those millions of users continually look on the app for inspiration, products, and services.
Meaning, Pinners are not only receptive to new content and find it helpful, but they’re actively searching it out.
Why Pinterest is Ideal for Businesses
Pinterest essentially gives businesses a platform for customers to find you, and they make it as easy as possible.
And how do they make it so easy? Well, each Pin can be linked back to your website, driving all that traffic directly to your sales. Pretty incredible, right?
Pinterest doesn’t describe itself as a social media network, but a product discovery platform – although that is beginning to shift with the introduction of Idea Pins. As the “go-to” space for projects, anyone in the food and drink, retail, decor, travel, photography spaces – or, any small business – should consider Pinterest as a valuable opportunity for business.
But, how do you set up a business account and get started? Well, friends. Have no fear because we’ll be discussing not only why you should use Pinterest for your business, but also, how to truly stand out!
Setting Up Pinterest for Your Business
On Pinterest, a user is 33% more likely to click on your site than on Facebook. And the gap is even more significant for Snapchat and Twitter!
And a whopping 90% of Pinterest users say Pinterest helps them decide what to purchase, with over half of the people on Pinterest claiming to have bought something they’ve seen on Pinterest.
To tap into this opportunity, when someone comes to your account, there should be a clear idea or message of what you do and what they can get from following your business.
If you’re using it for fun, then sure, keep having a personal account! But suppose you’re trying to build a community or sell products. In that case, I recommend optimizing Pinterest for business and using this incredible resource to draw people in, fuel sales, and create brand recognition.
Now, before we move forward, let’s get you caught up on all the ‘need-to-know’ Pinterest terminology so you can be ready to dive into the Pinterest for Business side of things!
Pinterest Glossary
The goal of Pinterest is to have your content show up on more people’s home screens and in their searches. This gets you even more repins and website traffic!
Using Pinterest in your marketing strategy can take your business to the next level, and we’ll cover all the ways you can do that. But first, let’s have a run-down on Pinterest lingo, to help you navigate your way to becoming a Pinterest expert!
Pinterest Boards
The handiest thing about Pinterest is how organized the app allows you to be. You can save a group of pins around a service, topic, mood, or theme to one board. Boards are essentially where you categorize your pins and allow your inner organizational rock star to really soar.
Pinterest Group Boards
These are boards that allow more than one person to add and contribute Pins. They are mainly meant for collaborating with others. Think – wedding planners and realtors with their clients, or a group of friends planning a vacation.
Rich Pins
These are special types of Pin that automatically sync information from your website to your Pins. Pinterest offers Rich Pins for four different categories – Product Pins, Recipe Pins, Article Pins, and App Pins.
Shopping Pins
These Pins allow businesses and accounts to tag products within a Pin, so people can click directly to the featured product on your website. This gives consumers the ability to browse many stores when looking for one particular thing. And then with a mere few clicks on the mouse, they can purchase your product.
Promoted Pins (aka Pinterest Ads)
This feature allows you to pay to have your Pins distributed more widely. The Pin will be labeled “Promoted” and will be shown to new audiences for the chance to get even more eyes on your Pinterest content. You can promote static images, videos (even full-width video!), and carousel Pins.
Story Pins (Now Known as Idea Pins)
These multi-page Pins allow you to tell a story within twenty slides for a single Pin! If you’d like to learn more, we have a guide about Story Pins!
Shop Tab
This feature allows people to easily browse your shoppable products by clicking a tab featured on your home page. Essentially, you can have a tab of your most popular items and links, along with your most recent inventory.
This new feature makes it easier than ever to see what a shop or business has in stock – leading to higher conversion rates!
The user-friendly tab when clicked also takes them directly to your website giving you prime opportunities to make sales. Shoppable Product Pins have more than doubled traffic to retained sites by an incredible 230%!
Pinterest Tag
This is a code you can add to your website which allows Pinterest to track visitors coming to your site from the platform, along with what actions they take. This gives you all the analytics you need to see just how profitable the app is to your business.
Enhanced Match
When added to your Pinterest tag, this optional addition matches conversation data when there are no tracking cookies present, allowing you to have the most accurate data on which Pins are performing the best.
Okay, so we’re all on the same page in terms of Pinterest’s Business terms. The most special part about these tools is that they’re geared to not only help you grow and make sales, but to make the experience as user friendly for their consumers.
And Pinterest is constantly coming out with new ways to do both!
That is why Pinterest keeps growing and has created a massive space that continues to expand. Their Shop Tab, Idea Pins, Rich Pins etc., make it so easy for people to find what they’re looking for, and then purchase it from you. So if you’re not using Pinterest to market your business, trust me – you should be,
Now, let’s break the basics down on how to set up a Pinterest for Business profile so you can get Pinning and making sales like the boss you are!
How to Create a Pinterest Business Account
The first step in creating a professional-looking Pinterest account that generates sales is switching to a Business Account (if you haven’t already). However, that’s just one piece of the pie. (Albeit, an essential part of the pie! Mmm… pie. )
The eight tips below will help you not only appear professional and trustworthy to your audience but will help you appear in more searches, generate more website traffic and sales, and grow your audience! Can I get a hallelujah in the back?!
Step 1: Create your Pinterest for Business account
We have a helpful guide to creating a Pinterest Business account for you if you don’t have one, or you’re wondering if you should make the switch.
But, to put it simply, Pinterest states that if you use Pinterest for commercial purposes, you must create a business account and agree to their Terms of Service. If you already have a following, you can simply switch it from a personal to a business account in three simple steps.
If you have a Personal account and switch it to a Business account you can keep your same audience. So really, there’s nothing to lose!
Overall, having a Business account gives you all of those amazing features we discussed earlier, along with analytics that can make any entrepreneur’s dreams come true. Pinterest Business can track how many sales come from Pinterest and potentially inspire you to promote some Pins and generate even more sales!
While a Pinterest Personal account may be great for consumers, the Business account is there to make your life easier and help you make more money.
Step 2: Add your business name and a description
I recommend writing a simple yet compelling description of your business/account. Something that shows who you are, what you’re doing, and why it’s unique. And make sure to include your website’s URL! Ninety-seven percent of searches on Pinterest are unbranded, so include your keywords in your name and description to help your content show up in searches.
Step 3: Connect your social media channels
Make your other accounts as easy to find as possible, and allow Pinterest to track those analytics too! You’ll be able to see how many people are popping into your other channels like Instagram, Etsy, and YouTube. This aids in the growth of your other accounts too!
Step 4: Claim your website
When editing your profile, on the left-hand side, there’s a Claim button. Click it, type in your website URL, and complete the steps to link it to your Pinterest page successfully. Note: you can now claim more than one website.
This will help people find and purchase your products easier, and it also allows Pinterest to track the analytics for you. This also automatically links all of your Pins to your website unless you manually switch a Pin’s URL. Here’s a guide to help you claim your website on Pinterest!
Step 5: Tweak your profile’s presentation
Press the pencil icon next to your name to edit your name, profile picture, cover photo, and the info section from your dashboard.
Pro Tip: If you don’t manually input a cover photo, Pinterest will automatically upload a collage of your Pins in that designated spot. But a cover photo that has your logo and your brand’s colors will make a huge difference in your presentability! Here’s where you can find Pinterest image sizes for your cover photo and profile picture!
Step 6: Add the Pinterest Tag to your profile
As mentioned above, this feature allows you to track what people do on your site after seeing your Pins. Are they browsing other pages, buying anything?
This incredible feature allows you to see what’s working best in your marketing strategy.
Step 7: Create Pinterest Boards that will help you grow
Now, here’s where we get to the fun part, optimally organizing your boards. To create a new board, go to your profile and click Create a Board.
Add a Board name that best describes what will be on your Board. Try to include some keywords in the Pinterest board description and make sure that everything you add to that Board is relevant to that name and description. All of those things will help with Pinterest SEO and driving more people to your account.
Step 8: Create some Pins
Go back to your dashboard and press the plus sign located in the upper right corner and select “Create a Pin”. Upload an image or video; you can crop, trim videos, and add text in the Pin editor.
Add a Pin title, description, related keywords, and hashtags. Always include a link, even if it’s just your website homepage. Then, choose which board you’d like the Pin to be located on.
And then, click Publish!
Congratulations! You did it! Your Pinterest profile is now pro-status. With these tweaks, you’ll reach much more people and make it easy to find your website and products!
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If you want to go from pro to expert, keep on reading for additional tips and tricks on how to take this fantastic platform to the next level for your business!
Expert-Level Pinterest Business Tips
Okay, we’ve gone over the perks of using Pinterest Business and how to set up a professional-level account. Now, let’s go over some very good-to-know tips on using Pinterest to establish a consistent brand and build a community leading you to expert status.
Establish your brand (if you haven’t already done that!)
What colors, fonts, voice, messaging, values, etc do you want to use? Experimenting with different styles and colors is a great way to reach new people, but always include either a logo or URL on your Pins.
Build engaging content
Utilize your best product shots with high-quality images that aren’t overly filtered or altered. Clean, high-quality, and concise imaging helps you look like a professional who knows what they’re doing, and it establishes trust with your audience.
Inspire with your Pins! Thanks to Tailwind Create, which gives you access to hundreds of personalized, unique designs ready to import at the click of a button.
It’s never been easier to make gorgeously appealing, professional-looking Pins. The more captivating your Pins, the more likely you are to get that follow and sale!
Provide an intriguing Pin Title. This goes hand in hand with building a voice for your brand. Before anything, try to be you and bring your personality to your brand and business. After all, there’s only one “you!”
Oh, and don’t repeat the text that’s on your Pin image – people will read that anyway – make good use of this extra real estate that appears in feeds and search results.
Make the copy clear, concise, and descriptive on your Pinterest Pin designs, and in your Pin description. Use keywords and phrases, and don’t be afraid to try new things and see what sticks.
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Find your audience
Building a community gives you authority and an audience who can keep sharing your Pins to reach more people. Hone in on your niche, figure out who is most likely to buy from your company, and what they are Pinning.
Look at their accounts and determine what type of content is most interesting to them!
Once you’ve discovered what your followers and audience most gravitate toward, you can use your Pins to draw them in further, along with their like-minded peers!
Expert tip here: if you’re in the women’s fashion space, and many of your audience love travel, feature your clothing in exotic places. Two birds, one stone!
Test out diverse Pin options
Vertical Pins tend to take center stage and work best with Pinterest’s formatting.
Idea Pins, as mentioned earlier, are a creative way to add all the information a person would need onto one single Pin using multiple slides. It makes storytelling and recipe sharing easier than ever! Video Pins also allow you to tell a story in a compelling way.
Embrace Pinterest Ads
Promoted Pins make it easy peasy for users to discover and purchase products and services. 50% of users buy products after viewing a Promoted Pin.
71% of Pinterest users are female, making it the ideal place to market to women. Especially with how user-friendly it is to shop! Here’s how to run Pinterest ads!
Make your Pins mobile friendly
Since many Pinners are on mobile devices, this can make a huge impact on your Pins being seen, shared, and clicked on.
You can use Pinterest’s clickable element to preview the button on different devices and see if the dimensions need to be tweaked. Overall, this is why vertical 2:3 Pins are the best Pins because they’re the most user-friendly.
Now, this may be the most important part of Pinterest: Use good quality images! Not pixelated or over-edited and filtered images. The more professional the image look, the more likely they are to be Pinned and clicked on.
Use large text on your Pin where possible to describe what that Pin is!
Spruce up your website
If the main goal is to get users from Pinterest to your site, don’t disappoint them with a poor experience. You can create a good website experience by making sure your site is fast, professional, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing.
Also incredibly important: when something is “out of stock,” make it obvious and redirect to other similar options!
Create opportunities for clicks
Once again, this is where the Shopping Pins are your best friend! Whenever possible – on Pins, on your Pinterest profile etc. – include links to your site.
Testing out Shop Tabs for Pinterest and driving traffic directly to the products they’re seeking, makes sales as easy as pie!
Don’t forget about SEO
Pinterest is a search engine, and certain keywords are searched more than others. You can search keywords in the Pinterest search bar, and check out Pinterest Trends for some inspiration!
Without stuffing your keywords all over the place, make sure they are present in your Pin titles and descriptions, and on your Pinterest boards. That way people can easily find your content when searching Pinterest!
To learn more, we also have a FREE Webinar hosted by Pinterest expert, Alisa, that can teach you all you need to know about using Pinterest for Business!
Get Your Business Started on Pinterest
Overall, Pinterest is a positive platform, with most users describing it as a place that fuels creativity and positive vibes.
Pinterest makes it easier than ever to continually reach new customers and take your sales to the next level. Pinterest features are optimal for business usability for sales, more so than some other platforms!
Pinterest features, like Idea Pins and Shopping Pins, allow maximum traffic to your website. Their easy-to-use analytics also give you the insights you need on what to tweak, where to reroute, what falls flat, and what’s working extremely well.
Marketing your business on Pinterest is likely the best thing you can do to take it to the next level. And thanks to Tailwind Create and our hundreds of Pinterest Pin templates, it’s easier than ever to create high-quality Pin designs without being a designer!
It all starts with good-quality Pins – let us do that step for you!
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