Have You Considered... Pinterest?
In the last installation of
Have You Considered, we investigated Clubhouse – a relative newcomer to the social media forum which launched in 2020. Clubhouse is an ideal platform for B2Bs, however, it’s not for everyone.
For businesses who are targeting customers, Pinterest offers a diverse audience especially in the American and European market.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more.
With billions of Pins on Pinterest, you'll always find ideas to spark inspiration. When you discover Pins you love, save them to boards to keep your ideas organised and easy to find. You can also create Pins to share your ideas with other people on Pinterest.
Founded in 2009, Pinterest has one of the most diverse userbases amongst its competitors. The majority of its userbase lives in the United States of America, Germany, France, Canada and the United Kingdom – but of its users it has a diverse age demographic. The largest segment is the 25-34 age range, however it has strong numbers in all demographics besides 65+ (2.9%) which is a difficult group to target through social media platforms. Furthermore, unlike other platforms, the majority of Pinterest’s userbase is female (60%).
This makes Pinterest a potential asset for American and European businesses looking to target their customers. Like Instagram and TikTok, it is a visual-centred platform. Unlike these larger platforms, Pinterest offers businesses an opportunity to engage with multiple demographic segments through one campaign.
While images remain the most popular upload on Pinterest, its users also watch close to one billion videos a day on the platform. This gives businesses an opportunity to utilise pre-existing marketing materials made for other platforms without having to update its format, content or dimensions. Pinterest offers ad packages, which are set up to bolster the targeting and reach of video campaigns.
How Can Pinterest Help Businesses?
Pinterest is ideal for B2Cs and small businesses. The platform is particularly popular amongst educators and creatives. Set your business up using a business account to unlock analytics and add more detailed information to your profile.
1. Inspire Customers
Many Pinterest users access the platform for inspiration. Maybe they have a problem that needs solving or are looking to spark their creativity. Either way, by sharing quality content on Pinterest you can ensure that the inspiration they find leads them to your business!
2. Build Brand Awareness
Ensure everything uploaded to Pinterest contains your brand’s logo. Pinterest enables content to be shared widely and images shared on Pinterest will also appear on Google Images. This gives large scope for your content to spread, but don’t lose the credit. You should always include a link to your website with each pin – this could be a blog post, an online store or a company website.
3. Drive Sales
Pinterest drives 3.8 times more sales than other platforms and 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest. While Pinterest has fewer active users when compared to social media giants like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, this high conversion rate compensates for a smaller audience.
4. Curate
Boards are used by users to categorise saved pins to make it easier to find content at a later date. Curate your uploads to make it easier for potential customers to find what they’re looking for; specifically – your business.
5. Engage Customers
Like other social media platforms, Pinterest can be utilised as a tool for customer engagement. Build a community by following similar accounts or create content which engages other accounts. Check out this video Squideo made to thank other Hull-based business – Scribes Digital Printing – for creating their branded shirts.
How to Utilise Pinterest
Creating an account on Pinterest isn’t enough to build followers and increase customer conversion. Like all social media platforms, your campaign needs to be carefully designed for success. Follow Squideo’s top five tips to find marketing success on Pinterest.
1. Pin Your Website
Pinterest offers an API (application programming interface) with makes it easy for your website visitors to save you on Pinterest for later review. If a visitor is browsing your website and sees an image or product they like, the API allows them to hit a “save” button and add it to their Pinterest account. Once they share it to Pinterest, anyone on the site can see the image – expanding your viewership even further.
2. Use the Right Pin
Rich Pins are available to Pinterest business account users and add extra details to your posts (Pins). There are four types of Rich Pins to use and it’s important to get your choice right to drive traffic to your website.
- Article Pins. Attaches the headline, author and article description underneath the Pin; ideal for bloggers.
- Product Pins. This adds real-time pricing, availability and store location to your post.
- Recipe Pins. Gives a snapshot of the required ingredients, cooking time and serving size.
- App Pins. Adds an “install” button so users can download your app without leaving Pinterest. This is only compatible with iOS apps.
3. Upload High-Quality Content
On visual platforms like Pinterest, quality is important. Upload photos and videos at a high resolution to make them more shareable. 80% of people on Pinterest use the mobile app, which means it is better to use portrait dimensions instead of landscape. This makes your image or video fill the entire screen as the user scrolls. The maximum aspect ratio for Pins is 1:2:8.
4. Search-Friendly Captions
Pinterest is fantastic for SEO, so utilise search-friendly captions to propel your content toward the top of the results page. Analyse popular keywords for your business or products and start including these keywords into your Pin captions.
5. Reflect Your Brand
Whilst Pinterest doesn’t offer many profile customisation options, it is easy to create a Pinterest aesthetic. Keep your uploads looking uniform and related to your brand. Use the same colours, font and style, and add your logo wherever possible. Create custom covers for your Pinterest boards too using creators like Photoshop or Canva. You can also give your boards similar names. The goal is for your brand to become immediately recognisable to your Pinterest audience. To accomplish that, consistency is key.
Get Started with Video Marketing Today!
Hopefully, you found this installation of Have You Considered useful. Stay tuned over the next two months while we explore other underutilised platforms and find ways to make your brand stand out.
Speaking of standing out, check out our portfolio! And, if you want to discuss how animated explainer videos can benefit your business, get in touch with the Squideo team today.
