Pinterest Marketing for Business: Complete Guide

If you’ve ever baked a cake, planned a wedding, or undertaken any ambitious DIY project, then Pinterest is most likely one of the first few places you visited for inspiration.

Just to remind you, you’re not alone. More than 335 million people use this visual social media platform every month. It’s also one of the fastest-growing social media networks, and, according to a recent Hootsuite report, the third most popular social media network in the US.

Suffice it to say: it’s the number one place people look when searching for content, products, and ideas. The platform drives more sales and traffic than many of the social media networks that you know.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an image-sharing social media platform designed to help people discover new information and ideas on the web using images, videos, and GIFs. 

It’s a social-sharing network for visually sharing and discovering new interests (o pins) by posting images, videos, or GIFs to their own boards (a collection of pins) and browsing through what other users have already pinned.

Pinterest was designed based on the concept of visual orientation. It’s very much focused on the idea of personal lifestyle, where people share their interests and tastes with others, while also discovering the taste and preferences of other likeminded people.

Importance of Pinterest to Marketing

Pinterest is the fastest-growing content sharing platform, according to ShareThis (online content distribution service).

This only serves to remind businesses to look beyond Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when managing their social outreach. The more marketers and advertisers understand how consumers are using other social media channels (apart from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), the more they’ll be able to augment their campaigns effectively.

Small businesses can use Pinterest to grow their consumer base and extend their product reach. Being a highly visual medium, Pinterest gives you a chance to engage your consumers using highly colourful infographics and compelling images that promote your products and other business dealings.

Why You Should Market Your Business in Pinterest?

Here are a few reasons Pinterest is the right social media platform to market your business and products.

It’s the Sixth Most Popular Social Media Platform (the Third One in the US)

Maybe you didn’t know about this, but Pinterest is popular than Snapchat and quite as popular as TikTok. In the US, Pinterest ranks better than even Twitter, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn.

Pinterest Statistics in Singapore:

9.14% of Singaporeans use Pinterest. It’s the 9^th most popular social media platform in the country, more popular than Line, Skype, and Reddit.

Approximately 27 of Singaporeans have an account with Pinterest. That’s more than a quarter of the population or one out of every four people.

Strong Global Footprint

Pinterest’s international base of active monthly users grew by 38% in 2019 — from 171 million people to 235 million people.

The Number of Pinterest Users Have Been Increasing

The number of Pinterest users have been increasing every month, to now hit 335 million users. It’s for this reason that it’s ranked as the six most popular social media networks and the fastest rising one from the bunch.

Visual Search is the New Craze

Pinterest is the only social media channel that offers visual search. That explains why some people refer to it as a visual discovery engine.

This is huge, considering 62% of millennials and Gen Zers prefer searching the internet by image.

Read this bearing in mind that Pinterest’s image search is advanced enough to give Google’s image search a run for its money.

According to Pinterest, the image search lens can identify over 2.5 billion fashion objects and household items.

Popular with Women

More than 60% of Pinterest users are women.

It’s a popular social media platform among women. The fact being there are more women fashion enthusiasts than there are men.

Plus, women are the key decision-makers when it comes to what household products people buy.

Pins are Great for Boosting Brand Exposure

Pinners are always on the lookout for new products.

In fact, 75% of Pinterest users admit they visit the platform to find new products, compared to the 55% on the other platforms. And it has actually proven to work. On a weekly basis, about 77% of users discover new products and brands on Pinterest.

Pinterest Inspire People

People mainly use Pinterest to discover new ideas and plans for special events. About 95% of its users agree that Pinterest inspires them, while 91% say the platform has helped them achieve their goals.

On Pinterest, your business or brand is more than just a brand. It’s a source of inspiration. Or we could say it plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of your customers.

Important Pinterest Terminology:

Like any other social media platform, Pinterest comes with its own lingo. For this, we’ve prepared a simple glossary that might help you understand the technical terms used on the platform:

1.  Pinner

Instagram has grammers, LinkedIn has members, while Pinterest has Pinners. Quite simply, a pinner refers to a Pinterest user. Anyone with an account on Pinterest is a pinner.

2.  Pin

A pin refers to any post that’s been published on Pinterest. It includes images, videos, text, or a link to an outside article, video, or post.

3.  Repin

Twitter has retweet, while Pinterest has re-pin. When you pin someone else’s post or a pin you didn’t create yourself, then that’s repining.

4.   Promoted Pins

Pinterest has an option for promoting your pins. You simply pay the company to promote the pins. Any pin that you’ve promoted on Pinterest is referred to as a promoted pin. These pins aren’t different from the regular pins, save for the “promoted label.”

5.  Rich Pins

Rich Pins add more information to pins, from install buttons to price information.

These pins occur in four formats: Recipe Pins, App Pins, Article Pins, and Product Pins.

6.  Boards

Board refers to a group of pins tied to a particular topic or theme.

It’s like a digital analogue for mood boards. When you pick a theme and then proceed to create several pins around that theme, that becomes a board.

For example, you may create a Pinterest board for seasonal content or for a new product launch.

7.  Group Boards

Groups boards are similar to regular boards, except that there’ll be more than one person adding pins or content to them.

They’re created by a group and not just one person.

98% of all group boards have fewer than five group members.

8.  Secret Board

A secret board is precisely as its name, secret. Only the creator and the collaborators they invite see the boards.

After you create one, you should be able to see the lock symbol beside the board’s name. Usually, they’re used for planning or when you don’t want the public to see the boards.

9.  Protected Boards

Protected boards don’t show on your profile. They’re restricted to promoted pins and only available to promoters and advertisers. These pins can be seen all across Pinterest, but they won’t show on your profile page.

10.  Pinterest Lens

Pinterest Lens is only available on smartphones. It’s a camera tool that lets you take a picture of something or any content you come across and search for it on the site.

It’s simply an image version of Shazam. It can recognise images and let you trace their sources.

11.  Save Button

This is a browser extension for Firefox, Chrome, and Microsoft Edge. You can also install it on your site so your site visitors and pinners can save your products or pins to their boards.

12.  Pincodes

Pincodes are essentially QR codes. They’re Pinterest version of Snapcodes. They operate like QR codes. They can be scanned on display or as packages and link back or redirect to your profile or board.

Setting Up Your Pinterest Business Account in 10 Easy Steps

You have three ways to go about it.

1. Create a personal account and add a business profile
2. Convert your personal Pinterest account into a Business account
3. Create a business account from scratch

Here’s how to create the account from scratch.

• Click on this link to sign up.

If you’re already signed in with your personal account, you might want to sign out first. You’ll be prompted to enter your email address and password, and then click on “Create Account.”

Choose Your Language, Location, and Your Business Name

On the next page that shows up, choose the best description for your business. Remember to also add your website address.

Connect Your Instagram, Esty, and YouTube Accounts

This helps to attribute pins from these three sites to your account. It’s to also helps you with tracking related analytics.

Let Pinterest Know if You Have Any Plan to Run Ads

This is where you inform Pinterest of your plans to run ads. You’re to also provide your contact information just in case one of the reps wants to get in touch with you.

• Edit Your Profile

To access your profile from the business hub dashboard, click on the pencil icon next to your business name. You may also want to edit your profile name since Pinterest automatically pulls it from your email.

Remember to also add a profile photo that best represents your brand. Pinterest dimensions for your profile picture is 165×165 pixels.

When filling your “about” section, be sure to include a few relevant keywords to increase your chances of ranking.

Click “Done” after you finish everything.

• Click “Claim”

On the top-left side of the page, click “claim.”

This option allows you to claim your website. It also allows you to track your website analytics.

Moreover, it allows you to claim any pin that’s connected to a claimed account. This is meant to ensure better visibility, which translates to more followers for you.

• Create a Board

On your Pinterest profile, click on the plus sign over “Create a Board.”

You’ll be asked to provide a short descriptive title.

Go back to your profile and click on the pencil icon. Add a proper description, naturally integrated with all the keywords you wish to rank for.

Choose a category, and upload a suitable cover photo.

• Creating Your First Pin

Go to your dashboard again and click on the plus sign at the top-right corner of the page.

Add your pin title, followed by a short description. While at it, make sure you’ve integrated all the keywords and hashtags.

Remember to also include a destination link. In case your pinners want to find out more about you or where the content came from, you want to make sure there’s a link directing them there.

Now go ahead and upload your image or video. With Pinterest’s pin editor, you can crop, trim, or add a logo to this image.

You’re advised to use high-quality image files.

Next, hit the publish button, and choose an appropriate board to add the pin.

• Choose a Suitable Cover Photo

Go to your Pinterest profile page, and click on the pencil icon. Pinterest will automatically have it filled with creative from your boards or pins. You have the option to choose between pin or board creative.

• Add the Pinterest tag

A Pinterest Tag is designed to help you track your ad traffic. You want to find out how effective your ads are, so you add this tag to help you out with the following:

• Track your conversions:
• Measure your campaign performance
• Build new audiences

This is the last step of setting up your Pinterest Business account. You have to add this tag and track the flow of activity after people engage with your ads or promoted pins.

At this point, you’re done setting up your Pinterest Business account.

This is where you start working on how to attract followers.

Personal Pinterest Account Vs. Business Pinterest Account: Which One Should You Choose?

If you already have a Pinterest account, then chances are it’s a personal account. But if you’re planning to set up one from scratch, then a Pinterest business account is a more realistic choice.

There are a few reasons for this:

Pinterest Analytic

The most important reason is analytics, only available in a business account. You need analytics to track your marketing campaign and success. You also need analytics to understand how people interact with your pins.

So, as a marketer, there’s no way you can run a successful Pinterest marketing campaign without this feature.

Rich Pins

You also need Rich Pins. You need them to run an effective paid campaign on the platform, or when promoting your posts, another critical business feature.

Account Verification

Only a business account can be verified, not a personal account. It’s a simple check that your followers can use to confirm if you’re legit. Where you’re still working on building trust, you want to make sure your account is verified.

What to do If You Already Have a Personal Pinterest Account?

If you already have a personal Pinterest account, then you have the option of converting it to a business account instead of setting up one from scratch.

With this option, you get to keep everything in your personal account: followers, pins, and boards.

20 Brilliant Tips for Pinterest Business Users: How to Make the Most Out of Your Pinterest Business Account

1.   Stay Focused

With Pinterest, it’s easy to get distracted or lose focus by posting content that moves you personally. However, it’s more advisable to approach everything with business in mind. Have a business focus in everything that you do.

First, you can make yourself look more professional by verifying your site. You want your customers to trust you and have even more confidence in your experience and expertise.

2.   Master Pinterest SEO

You can start by doing simple keyword research.

You also want to include your business name, a short description of your business, and your website’s URL.

With each board that you create, be sure to include a category to increase your Pinterest visibility.

3.   Stay On-brand

Learn to keep your pins and boards on-brand by only pinning content that’s useful or of interest to your dream clients.

The first eight boards are the most important, as they’re the most visible. For this, you want to make sure they highlight your core business expertise.

Another simple trick would be to design branded board covers for them.

4.  Be Secretive with Some Things

If you’re planning to pin some of the things that you personally enjoy, then perhaps you should consider creating them a secret board.

The last thing you want to do is confuse your followers with the kind of messages that you put out there. Moreover, you do not want to let go or lose touch with the things that personally inspire you.

5.   Use Pinterest as a Search Engine

Pinterest isn’t your ordinary social media channel but a social media platform that also doubles as a search engine.

So, learn to use it appropriately.

First, Pinterest’s secret boards are a great way to collate your research. After all, you’re not planning to publicise this research.

You could use it to collate article resources, or the behind-the-scenes business advice. You can even add contributors and make it easy for them to share their content or contribution with you.

6.  Your Pin Descriptions Must be Up to Snuff

Not so many people take pin descriptions seriously. Many people just write them for the sake of it, and that’s where they go wrong.

To stand out, you have to invest in well thought out pin descriptions every time you sit down to write one. Of course, it’s time-consuming but worthwhile once you get to hack a few things.

A simple trick would be to highlight a few lines of texts from the original post before you can go ahead and hit the pin button. The highlighted text will be transferred to your description automatically.

Also, while writing a pin description, you want to make sure that you’ve naturally used all the relevant keywords.

7.   Use Rich Pins

Pinterest offers five different types of rich pins for you to choose from. They include:

• Article Pins: These include the author, story description, the headline, and link.
• Product Pins: These include availability, real-time pricing, and where to buy.
• Recipe Pins: These include cooking items, ingredients, and serving info.
• Movie Pins: These include reviews, cast members, and ratings.
• Place Pins: These include your phone number, address, and map.

Before you begin using Rich Pins, you first have to validate your website. To do this, you’ll have to go to “Edit Profile,” ~> “Confirm Website.”

Copy the meta tag that’s provided.

On your WordPress website, go ahead and install Yoast SEO plugin. On the sidebar, click on the “SEO” ~> “Social” ~> “Pinterest.”

Now paste the meta tag you copied earlier and hit on “Save.”

You can now apply for rich pins. In Pinterest Validator, enter your website’s URL, and follow the instructions provided to validate everything.

8.   Run a Contest to Attract New Followers

Pinterest contests are a great way to attract new followers and engage with current ones. However, a few rules do apply:

The Do’s

• Keep in mind that Pinterest is all about helping people discover new things. It’s a place to seek inspiration.
• Reward quality, not quantity
• Keep your instructions simple and straightforward. Just make them simple enough for everyone involved.
• Be sure to go through anti-spam measures to keep everything useful and fun.

The Dont’s

• Don’t suggest anywhere that Pinterest sponsors endorse your brand on the contest
• Don’t overdo it. Run the contest for a limited amount of time, lest they run old.
• Never call your contest, “pin it to win it.” This is so cliché and old fashioned.
• Never ask people to vote with likes, pins, or boards.
• Don’t encourage your participants to engage in any spammy behaviour, like asking them to comment.
• Never make your participants pin your rules or contests.

9.   Collaborate with Other Users

Contribute to group boards to connect with an even wider audience. Just make sure your content is high-quality.

You can use PinGroupie to find these groups by niche.

One thing to note: if you choose a board with thousands of contributors, then you’ll have to be more consistent to get noticed or heard.

10.   Find Out who Your Pinners are (and What Content are they Pinning the Most)

Enter the following address into your web browser: http://www.pinterest.com/source/[yourURL).

You should be able to see all the content that’s been pinned from your website. This should help you identify which content resonates best with your target audience.

It should also help you refine your content or approach.

11.   Capitalise on Trending Content

Trending content on Pinterest may not be relevant to your type of audience. But it helps to review their popular page every once in a while.

If not for anything, then it’s to find out what content appeals to your target audience better.

Find out how these themes and trends can be incorporated into your overall marketing strategy.

12.   Pin Your Own Stuff

It’s a good idea to have a board that’s exclusively dedicated to your own content. This is where you pin every single one of your videos, blog posts, freebies, and podcasts.

It’s also a good idea to have a board that’s exclusively dedicated to your freebies.

You also want to make sure these boards are the first thing people see when they visit your profile.

13.   Be Careful with Your Links

One good thing with Pinterest is that it allows you to include your links in your descriptions. However, you should avoid shortening your links. That’s because Pinterest has strict rules against spammy links. Plus, Pinterest always interprets shortened links as spams, even when the said link is not spammy at all.

So, by posting shortened links, your followers will be automatically discouraged from visiting your site. 

14.   Try Promoting Your Pins Once in a While

Promoted pins aren’t any different from regular pins. They, however, function as ads. In other words, they expose your brand to an even bigger audience for a price.

Also featured on Pinterest are “Promoted App Pins,” which allows users to directly purchase apps through pins, without necessarily leaving the platform.

You have the option to target the following group of people:

• Those who visit your website
• Your list of uploaded subscribers and customers
• Users who’ve engaged with your pins
• Users whose behaviour resembles any of the three behaviours listed above

You can choose between any of these functions once you confirm your domain name.

15.   Connect Your Pinterest Profile to Other Digital Platforms

Remember to also add your LinkedIn share and follow button to your website and other social media platforms.

You can also tweet and share your button on other social sites. For instance, to tweet your Pinterest pins, tap on the image ~> and tap on the Twitter icon.

You can use Woobox to display your entire Pinterest feed on Facebook.

16.   Try to Simplify the Pinning Process for Your Users

Create a “Pin for later” link that your readers can use to pin your posts.

With every image that you post, remember to pin the featured image. Go to Pinterest and copy the pin’s URL.

On your post, add these words “Pin this Post” with a hyperlink to the pin’s URL, and hit save.

17.   Streamline Your Workflow with IFTTT

There’s so much you can do with IFTTT (if not this, then that). Just visit this online tool and search for Pinterest.

Here are some of the things you can do:

• Pin Instagram posts
• Pin Facebook photos
• Pin your new blog post
• Pin YouTube videos
• Track all your pins in Google spreadsheet

18.   Finding Your Own Pinned Posts

Assuming you’re always pinning things. If you ever find yourself searching for something you pinned earlier, then you should be prepared to do some thorough scrolling.

This is especially true if you have several users contributing to your boards.

Luckily for you, there’s a shortcut to this. To view a piece of content that was pinned by you, go to your Pinterest profile, and type the name of the pin, before hitting “your pins.”

19.   Re-pin Other People’s Content

Pinterest isn’t a platform to ego-balm. You’re here to serve value, feed your users with useful or helpful content.

No one really cares if the content was pilfered from somewhere or if you’re the original creator.

So, learn to view your Pinterest profile as a tasting tray of helpful content.

You can pin other people’s infographics or any piece of content you think will attract even more followers to your profile.

20.   Schedule Your Pins

You can schedule your pins for the whole week instead of waiting for a specific day or time. There are so many tools to help you out with this, starting with IFTTT.

With Pinterest, one of the things that define your success is consistency. Your pins should be expected at a specified time.

From what we know, this can be time-consuming.

The perfect tool for this is Tailwind. With this tool, you can schedule your Pinterest posts across different boards and make regular appearances without spamming your users.

Pinterest Marketing Trends in Singapore

Most Singaporeans are not early adopters of social media platforms. However, Pinterest marketing is doing well here, especially in Singapore city. A good example is the success of Prestige Singapore, which is a lifestyle magazine for the affluent and influential. In Singapore, Pinterest is driven mainly by an aspiration (designers, travel, weddings) or specific projects (renovation, house decorations). Most Pinterest users tend to be female, and a large proportion of them are in visually related lines – design, luxury products, photography, illustration, and advertising.

Pinterest is 19th widely used social media platform in Singapore accounting for 0.7million users. Recent research also points out that 46.2% of Singaporean first research product information, reviews, and user experience through social media including Pinterest. Although Pinterest marketing is not as widely used in Singapore as other social media platforms like Facebook, there is a surge of users notably in Bedok and Alexandra.

The first thing marketers should ask themselves is the usefulness of Pinterest in getting their word out there. If you are not already marketing yourself on Pinterest, you must understand its marketing value and how to monetize your presence there. To begin with, know the kind of users that Pinterest attracts. With a logo that resembles an apple pie, Pinterest appeals to moms especially those with young families. These women are ready to spend since they do their household shopping and use Pinterest to research products and services.

In terms of value, it is clear is that Pinterest reinforces a brand, drives traffic, increases community, builds consumer interest and promotes your business in an organic way. Pinterest niche is picture sharing, and many brands that develop unique products and that have stunning imagery may benefit immensely from this platform. Some of the businesses in Buona Vista and other places in Singapore that can leverage on Pinterest include;

• Architecture
• Apparel
• Travel
• Technology
• Interior design among others.

Marketing your business using Pinterest

Create the content that attracts your audience

Content on Pinterest lasts very long, and you can use the power of the platform algorithm to go viral. This means your quality content must be tailored for your audience. However, keep in mind that your content is not the only thing that matters; you need to be an informational hub for your fans. Use Pinterest Analytics and other ways to understand the interests of your audience and then provide that which is hard to find and valuable to your audience. If your products are not photogenic or you do not have a physical product, create quotes and share them to have a branded experience for your followers. You can borrow tips from websites and articles, to drive traffic back to your products.

Pin your videos

With Pinterest announcing that they offer an opportunity to pin a Vimeo video, it is in your best interest to do so. For a business dealing with products or machinery that you may need to enlighten your customers on, you can create a “how to” instructional video. In the past, these videos could only be pinned directly from YouTube.

Partnering with guest pinners who are influential

Using Pinterest’s group boards gives you a chance to include guest pinners that can potentially bring new interests to your boards. When you invite influential users to contribute to a board, their activity will be shown both in their followers’ feeds and your followers feed. This increases your likelihood of attracting new fans. Form strategic partnerships with influencers using group boards but do not have too many contributors to each board as it is better to allow each partner curate his/her board.

Tell the human story of your brand

Slick imagery on Pinterest is good, but the story behind the images can also be engaging. You may have heard an interesting journey to where you are, and your fans would want to know about it. You may include aspects such as ‘history’ and ‘the people behind the pints’ to communicate a sense of your wider mission and reinforce your loyalty to your fans. Your relationship with your followers can be enhanced by celebrating your company, staff, and customers through humanizing your brand.

Create a constant stream of traffic from Pinterest

A smart feed is the one that has high quality, and that is timely (pins that show recent postings). When you understand your audience interests, you are a winner. Create relevant categories to help your pins get seen. Your images should be top notch and remember to share more pins to ensure that more are viewed. Be keen to understand what drives traffic to you and bear in mind particular style of pins that excites or makes your fans want to buy from you. You can share examples with data on top shared pins and find relevant group boards by searching them using keywords.

Create an events pinboard

If you plan to run an event for your business, whether it is a regular event, annual, or a “one-off,” it is nice to create a board highlighting the speakers and attendees so as to crowd source your marketing. When you talk to the attendees and the speakers, they will share the same before and after the event and this, in turn, add to the virality of your content and brand.

Refine everything

Ensure you have replaced old content with new content and create redirects for products that are no longer available. The essence here is to clean up everything and ensure that you are monitoring; fix a mistake when you find it. When products are sold out, you can utilize rich pins to inform pinners. Ensure you have correctly spelled your words and that the images are marked well.

SEO/SEM

Social platforms like Pinterest can drive referral traffic and generate brand awareness through increased community on the platform which is indexed by Google and therefore a vital part of a marketers’ social media SEO strategy. Some companies in Singapore, like Singapore GP Pte Ltd and Zalora Singapore an online fashion destination have discovered great success in using Pinterest for marketing. SEM strategies are aimed at making a site compliant with search engines regulations so as to increase its ranking should be embraced.

Your site should not only be attractive, but also it should be adequate regarding SEO requirements. It is important for a company to engage a SEM specialist since multilingual paid search campaigns, international SEO and localization services involve language skills and a flexible approach to different countries and market contexts. Other SEO expert strategies such as content marketing, link building, and search engine advertisements also play a crucial role in increasing traffic and building a brand name.

Planning and developing an online marketing strategy is a difficult assignment whose success depends on how these services get integrated into the business processes management as a whole.

9 Marketing Tools for Pinterest

There are a few tools to help you reach an even bigger audience or engage them better on Pinterest. Here are three resourceful groups of tools to help you out with this:

Social Media Management Tools for Pinterest

Here are some popular social media management tools for Pinterest:

1. Hootsuite: for scheduling your pins. It also gives you insights into your Pinterest analytics and data. You can also use it to track your Pinterest results.
2. Tailwind: can be used to schedule pins– quite similar to Hootsuite in so many ways. It has a data reporting system that you can use to determine which posts are likely to do well with your type of audience or to find out the best times and days to schedule your pins.
3. Sprout social: Has a range of features to help you target your audience better. These features include post scheduling capabilities, engagement tools, platform analytics, and details about your posts.

Image Creation and Design Tools for Pinterest

Tools for anyone with a background in graphic design or those who wish to start sharing polished content on their Pinterest profiles:

4. Canva: for creating professional Pinterest images. They have more than one million images, templates, graphics, and icons to choose from.
5. Pablo: Allows you to create beautiful Pinterest images in less than 30 seconds. It features templates and easy-to-use effects.
6. PicMonkey: You can use it to edit your images. Features advanced image editing tools that you may find useful.

Community Growth and Follower Count Tools for Pinterest

Useful tools for promoting your Pinterest content and profile:

7. PinGroupie: You can use it to track your followers, pins, and users on the various Pinterest group boards. It’s what you use to evaluate different group boards to determine which one to join.
8. Look88: for creating shareable content and determining which content could better help you with growing your following.
9. PinFollow: Great tool for finding out who’s following you on Pinterest or who among the people you’re following isn’t following you back. It’s what you use to keep track of your followers.