Many Singapore businesses tend to overlook Pinterest. They either ignore it altogether or just assume that it does not suit their brand. This is because it has been marketed mostly as the place to primarily share fashion ideas and recipes. However, plenty of businesses would be surprised to learn that Pinterest goes far beyond these two niches.
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 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.
Why Should You Use Pinterest?
If you have been paying attention to digital marketing over the past few years, then you know that there are a lot of changes that have recently surfaced. And one of them is the rise of visual content. This is why brands are starting to take significant interest in image sharing sites like Pinterest.
This particular social media platform is where images are front and centre and sharing comes naturally to the audience. With over 70 million users and a whopping 25 billion pins, Pinterest is the prime place to promote your business. Its addition of business accounts and marketing tools help to drive engagement that is targeted.
In terms of value, it is clear is that Pinterest reinforces a brand, drives traffic, increases community, builds consumer interest and organically promotes your business. 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
10 Ways to Use Pinterest for Business
#1: Use In-Store Pinterest Tags
One of the best parts about doing business online is that you can incorporate almost any social media platform onto your website. And Pinterest is one of them. Whenever you have an item that you feel is especially popular, you can show it on your website and capture the audience’s attention. But what can you do if you own a local business and want to attract the attention of your customers while they are actually in your store?
Well, there are popular department stores that have recently started to use Pinterest in their brick and mortar businesses. As a part of their in-store promotions, the stores highlight their most popular pin and “pin” the item in the store. This results in a huge increase in sales.
So if you own a local business and realise that one of your items is particularly popular on Pinterest, you need to highlight it. Make sure that you encourage your customers to take a look at and buy it. You may even create an app to help your salespeople locate the pinned item.
#2: Share the Lifestyle, Not the Product
When it comes to business accounts on Pinterest, there are a lot of companies that will simply post the product or service that they are interested in selling. The user is treated to an image as well as a price tag to go along with it. While this may result in a few sales here and there, this is hardly the best way to get your target audience’s attention.
Instead of “selling” your newest products and services, you need to find a way to display them in the form of a lifestyle image. For example, many businesses feature food, home decor, and fashion in their Pinterest feed. And these attract a lot of attention because they work the product into an overall theme and show the user how it would fit into their everyday routine or how their everyday routine could benefit from it.
If you own a Singapore hardware company then research what your target Pinterest audience is most interested in. You may post images of how your hardware has created a nice, hand-carved piece of furniture. You may show images of how your hardware was used to create gifts for special occasions. You might show images of DIY craft project instructions or interesting gadgets. Sell the lifestyle, not the product.
Keep in mind that Pinterest has a user base that is composed primarily of women. Their top interests are design, fashion, home, and kids. So when making your decisions, cater to the audience.
#3: Team Up With Authoritative Guest Pinners
One of the best features of Pinterest is its group boards. You see, regular Pinterest boards give users the ability to organise their images and videos into personal collections. However, Pinterest group boards allow the owner to invite other users to pin on the board. This helps to create diversity and variety.
The best part about this is that when you invite someone to pin their images and videos to your group board, their activity will show up on both of your feeds. This means that not only will your followers see what is being posted to their board but so will theirs. So search for individuals who have a large, active and engaged following and ask them to pin to your group board. This can help to expose your business to an even larger audience.
However, you need to be careful when asking people to partner with you. You need to be strategic about how you will allow people to post. Make sure that you don’t invite too many contributors as it can become confusing and overcrowded.
#4: Show Appreciation to Fans
You may provide a lot of great images, however, if no one ever took the time to share them you wouldn’t gain much popularity. This is why you must take the time to recognise the people who share your images and support your business on Pinterest. You can always create a pin that is meant especially for them.
For instance, if you own a Singapore bakery and recently hit 200,000 followers on Pinterest, then you could bake a cake for the occasion and “share” it with them as a way to celebrate. This may seem like a simple gesture but fans appreciate simple gestures. And it lets them know that you value their support and they are more likely to continue to patronise your business. You can also share this pin on your website and across other social media platforms.
#5: Make Your Brand Human
There is nothing more off-putting than a brand that seems cold and distant. This is especially the case when it comes to companies who barely interact with their Pinterest followers and only release planned image posts. Sure, your brand may be active on the platform, but your audience will soon lose interest.
The best way to avoid this is to make your brand human. You see, most of your audience will be used to seeing click advertising images. What they won’t expect is to receive images that would be considered a little “rough around the edges.” Believe it or not, these types of images can catch people’s attention because they are something out of the ordinary.
Perhaps instead of blasting your latest product or a set design, you should try associating actual people with your company. For instance, you could offer a little history about your brand. Post images of the people who were there from the very start. Post images of the staff that is there now. This helps fans to realise that actual people are working behind the scenes to ensure that they get the best products and services. And this makes your brand more memorable.
#6: Inspire Them
No matter what niche your business is in, you can always offer a little inspiration to your followers. And this can be done by creating a compelling Pinterest profile and only posting images that would be considered stunning. Undoubtedly, this will be very challenging for some industries but it’s not altogether impossible. The key is to know which angle you would like to come from.
For example, let’s say that you own a manufacturing company. You may use your boards to share what inspires you to innovate. This turns a subject that could be considered to be very technical into something stylish, artsy, and poetic. Think outside of the box and try to find out what appeals to the emotions.
#7: Create a constant stream of traffic from Pinterest
A smart feed has high quality and 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 a 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.
#8: 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 to crowdsource 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.
#9: 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 spelt your words and that the images are marked well.
#10: Send Users to Your Website (SEO)
Social platforms like Pinterest can drive referral traffic and generate brand awareness through the 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 to increase its ranking should be embraced.
The Takeaway
If you are interested in using social media marketing to reach as many people as possible, then visual storytelling is one of the best ways to do it. And platforms like Pinterest gives you both the tools and the audience that you need to take your business to the next level. However, you must be ready to create content that is compelling and inspirational. You must be willing to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. And you must be willing to think outside of the box to stand out from all of the competition.
Even if you wouldn’t exactly associate your business with a visual brand, keep in mind that there is always a way to create something that people will gravitate towards. The key to promoting your business on this platform is to venture out and use your pins in-store, share the lifestyle and not the products themselves, create strategic partnerships with guest pinners who have large followings, show your followers that you appreciate their support, make your brand human, and inspire people.
