Pinterest Drives Sales [Research]

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Heidi Cohen in Content Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment

7 Steps to Build Your Pinterest Presence

Pinterest, 2012’s social media darling, is a shopper’s heaven.

Pinterest is where buyers go to keep up with the latest trends and to consider the products they need and want. To reach your target audience and support your sales process, Pinterest is the new must-have social media option you need.

3 Pinterest data charts

Not convinced to add Pinterest to your marketing mix? Then check out these three pieces of Pinterest research data. They underscore the marketing need to take advantage of Pinterest’s appeal as a shopping aid.

Pinterest has experienced meteoric growth over the past year. As of September 2012, Pinterest had 25.1 million unique visitors according to Compete and appears to be on track to continue its expansion. Here are seven insights about Pinterest’s audience you need to know!  Tweet This

Pinterest’s user base is similar to the overall Internet population in terms of age. Pinterest visitors are between 25 and 54 with households for which to provide.  Tweet This

More importantly for B2C marketers, Pinterest is where social media shops. Check out these three shopping findings from Bizrate Insights.  Tweet This

  1. Seven out of ten of shoppers use Pinterest to get inspired about purchases.
  2. Two-thirds of shoppers use Pinterest to stay on top of trends.
  3. Two-fifths of shoppers seek special offers on Pinterest.

7 Steps to build your Pinterest presence to drive sales

As with any form of social media, you need to have a plan to effectively convert visitors to sales. Pinterest’s visual appeal sets it apart from other more text-focused platforms. Here are seven steps to help you develop your Pinterest outpost.

  1. Research what others including competitors are doing on Pinterest in your areas of interest. Spend time examining what’s being pinned and repined in your business’ categories. Actionable Marketing Tip: Use these findings to guide how you present your offering visually so that it stands out and is repined.
  2. Stake out your brand’s turf on Pinterest. Establish your home base on Pinterest. Of course, it’s critical to understand Pinterest’s house rules before you dive in by learning Pinterest etiquette. Actionable Marketing Tip: Incorporate your 360° brand into your presentation in a way that resonates on Pinterest. Extend the use of your brand’s colors, typography and visual representations.
  3. Determine what pinworthy content you’ll create. Given the importance of Pinterest as a place where shoppers go to get product ideas and to stay on top of trends. Make your product presentation visually appealing on your website and other social media venues. Actionable Marketing Tip: Condense information related to styles, trends and how-tos into simple visuals. Think in terms of a magazine page layout as it relates to your product offering.
  4. Create pin-friendly content. Present your product offering in visual image form so that viewers consider it pinworthy as well as pinnable. Actionable Marketing Tip: Make it easy for others to pin your content by adding social media share buttons for Pinterest, especially near images and other pinnable content
  5. Curate other people’s content on Pinterest. Like other social media platforms, don’t just think me-me-me! Be a tastemaker on Pinterest by sharing other content that’s in line with your brand and visually appealing. Of course, it’s best to share major resources in your field with customers rather than competitors. Actionable Marketing Tip: Give appropriate credit for these curated items and observe copyright.
  6. Incorporate a social media call-to-action. Leverage the value of Pinterest for supporting the buying process and driving sales. Actionable Marketing Tip: Don’t be promotional. Rather link your images to the appropriate product pages on your website.
  7. Measure your results from Pinterest. Track sales and other sales-related activity from your pinned images. Actionable Marketing Tip: Use tracking codes to facilitate your analysis.

Marketers, especially those focused on B2C customers, need to leverage Pinterest’s power to aid sales by creating visually appealing content around their product offering.

Have you added Pinterest to your social media mix? If so, what have your results been?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles that may be of interest to you.

  1. 19 Reasons to Add Pinterest to Your Social Media Mix
  2. Pinterest: The Best New Source of Traffic
  3. Images: How to feed the content marketing beast 

Photo credit:  http://findicons.com/icon/556024/4

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