The Ultimate Pinterest Marketing Guide

Learn how Pinterest marketing can help you grow your business, convert more leads, and boost website traffic.

Pinterest marketing is incredibly effective.

Marketers target Pinterest users by offering content that is too good to pass up. With over 433 million people on Pinterest, why wouldn’t marketers want to be there? Not to mention that 83% of users have made a purchase based on the content on the site. So, how can your business use Pinterest as a marketing tool to improve brand awareness and conversions?

In this article, we’ll answer that question as well as explain how Pinterest works, which Pinterest marketing strategies you should use, how small businesses can benefit from the platform, and which tools you can use to ensure your Pinterest marketing approach is successful. But first, take a look at the platform and how it works — let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• What is Pinterest?
• How to Use Pinterest for Marketing
• Pinterest Marketing Strategies
• Pinterest for Small Businesses
• Pinterest Marketing Tools

– What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media platform where users can explore, share, and save visually pleasing content that they find inspiring, helpful, or entertaining.

Users add or Pin their favorite content to boards with a common theme to keep it organized so that other users may find new data that is related to their interests.

If you haven’t yet opened a Pinterest account, learn more about that process here. Once you sign up, you can start sharing content and, as a result, social media marketing on the platform.

To make the most of the platform, upload content from your computer or mobile device, Pin content from the platform, and add content from the web via the Pinterest browser button.

Engagement is needed. Follow your friends’ and competitors’ boards, “Like” and comment on other people’s Pins, re-Pin (or repost) content, and include links to your website and blog in your Pins.

It’s important to recognize that Pinterest has both personal and business accounts. Choosing a business account gives you access to Pinterest Analytics in addition to other features like a visual search tool, a native video player, and the ability to run Pinterest ads if desired, making the platform ideal for marketers.

Let’s take a look at some Pinterest marketing methods that can help you improve your influence and impact on your audience.

– How to Use Pinterest for Marketing

1. Distribute your content.
2. Build a community.
3. Educate customers.
4. Drive website traffic and boost online sales.

These strategies represent ways to add Pinterest to your greater marketing efforts. Here are some advantages of using Pinterest for marketing: 

1. Distribute your content.

85% of Pinners search for and prefer visual content. This makes Pinterest a uniquely strong place to distribute all types of content, including written blog content. Unlike Instagram, users can click through live links.

On Pinterest, you share content on Pinterest boards. Boards save all of your pins and share them with your followers so they can explore them. You can have as many boards as you like, and they can be sorted into themes, ideas, plans, or types of inspiration to help your audience find the content they want.

You can also invite people to join your boards — which turns your board into a “group board,” if you want other contributors to add content that they believe fits with the theme of your board. This is a great way to boost engagement and interaction on your profile.

2. Build a community.

Online communities bring like-minded people together and serve as helpful hubs for businesses.

With a Pinterest community, you can expect your followers and fans to interact with your boards, consume your content, and go to your website, driving traffic.

Every month, millions of people visit Pinterest. You may build a loyal community of Pinterest users who may become customers by treating your Pinterest board as a two-way street through which you can interact with and engage users instead of a one-way billboard.

How to Build Your Pinterest Following

Although you may search for and add specific friends based on their name, Facebook account, and other identifiers, this is time-consuming and would make it difficult to substantially grow your following.

Instead, explore the following methods for increasing your Pinterest fan and follower base:

• Promote your Pinterest account via your other social networks.
• Follow accounts you believe would want to follow you back.
• Watch what your competitors are doing to increase their base of followers and learn from their techniques.
• Use keywords in your posts (we’ll discuss these tactics in more detail later).
• Ask influencers to re-post some of your content to gain the attention of their followers.
• Pay for a Pinterest ads account to run ads on the platform.

3. Educate customers.

Pinterest is filled with tutorials, infographics, how-tos, and links to more educational content. Given its propensity for visual content, it’s an effective channel for educating and engaging customers.

Keep your target audience in mind while creating and sharing content for your Pinterest profile and marketing to users.

You want to ensure that you’re pushing out content that appeals to your target audience, current customers, and buyer personas on Pinterest the same way you would when creating new products, developing your branding, or posting to other social networks.

You can do this in a few different ways:

• Research your buyer personas to determine what type of content would be most helpful and appealing to them.
• Survey and ask your current followers and customers for feedback on what they want from your company on Pinterest.
• Look at what your competitors are doing well (or not) to help you think about new ways to push out your content and make it unique.
• View the boards of your current followers and customers to aid in your understanding of who your audience is and what they’re most interested in.

4. Drive website traffic and boost online sales.

Unlike Instagram, Pinterest allows you to link your visual material to another website — namely, your own website. This feature allows you to share both written and visual content, all while directing users back to your website.

This is a powerful addition to your marketing since it could also boost online sales. Many companies use Pinterest to display product images while also sharing content.

For example, the Madewell board serves as a source of travel inspiration and is paired with real products they sell to make their audience excited about their brand, the lifestyle they promote, and the idea of purchasing some clothing.

By integrating Pinterest on your website, you’ll be able to easily drive traffic from one of your web pages directly to your Pinterest profile, allowing your leads and customers to start viewing your content (and hopefully following you!) in seconds.

These Pinterest widgets and buttons allow visitors to your website to interact with your Pinterest page by seeing and following your profile or going directly to a specific Pin or board. The widget builder on the network allows you to quickly tweak, create, and add this feature to your site.

– Pinterest Marketing Strategies

These 8 Pinterest marketing strategies are relevant to businesses of any size and in any industry. One of the reasons Pinterest is such a powerful social media tool is its universal approach to marketing.

1. Sign up for a business account.

Create a Pinterest business account to market to your target audience. As previously said, this free account provides you with access to Pinterest Analytics (which we’ll go over in further detail shortly) as well as other useful marketing features like a profile that clearly states you’re a business, Pinterest widgets, and Pinterest tag. If you already have a Pinterest account and want to convert it into a Pinterest business account, you can also do that without losing any of your content or work.

Note: If you’re looking to enhance your business account and run ads on Pinterest, you can do so by upgrading your account — and setting up your method of payment because this part of Pinterest is not free — to target your audience more aggressively with the help of the platform’s Ads Manager.

2. Choose the right categories for your content.

Your Pins and boards will become more searchable for users looking for content similar to that of your business if you select the right category for them to be shared in. Users on Pinterest can search for specific categories or simply visit the “Categories” section of any profile on the platform to view all content related to the topic they’re searching for.

3. Use unique images and videos.

Pinterest, like other social networks, has a plethora of images and videos. You’ll want to make sure that not only are you posting videos and images that will help you promote your brand and market your products and services, but that they stand out among the others on the platform. Otherwise, why would a user choose you over your competitors?

Here are some tips to help you share great and unique visual content on Pinterest:

• Create and share branded videos to promote your products and company. Pinterest users watch nearly 1 billion videos per day on the platform.
• Share images and videos that show your products in action so viewers can more easily envision themselves using them.
• Avoid excessive blank (or white) space in your images — images with 30% less blank space in the background are pinned most.
• Create videos between 30-90 seconds long because they’re proven to have the highest performance.
• Create specific boards to share images of your company’s most helpful data visualizations and infographics if you have them for your audience to use as resources for their businesses.

4. Leverage keywords.

You’ll be more likely to appear in users’ feeds and searches if you use keywords throughout your profile, posts, Pins, and boards. Pinterest keywords and phrases are associated with specific niches in which users search.

If you sell suitcases, for example, you may use keywords and phrases like “vacation” or “going on a trip” in your profile and Pins. Whenever anyone searches one of those terms, your profile and images of your suitcases will appear in their feeds.

Start your Pinterest keyword research by searching for terms related to your niche within the platform itself.

In the image below, I searched for the term “travel” and got not only content related to that niche but also a number of related keywords at the top of the screen. This tells you what other related terms users are searching for to help in your research.

To see the search volume for terms on Pinterest, you can also use the plugin Keywords Everywhere. This enables you to measure the level of interest in the keywords you’re targeting.

Here are some locations on Pinterest where you can insert keywords to improve your chances of ranking organically through search:

• Bio and profile
• Pin descriptions
• Board titles
• Board descriptions
• Image-Alt-Text

For those of you who choose to pay for Pinterest ads, there’s also an option to use the platform’s keyword targeting tool to help you reach your audience through your ads.

5. Share your content on other social networks.

To boost the reach and followers of your Pinterest account and content, share your Pins, images, and videos in other locations. You can, for example, claim your business’ Pinterest account on Etsy and YouTube so that your followers can easily learn about the other platforms you’re on and how they can view more of your content. Additionally, claiming your account will provide you access to statistics and data on all of these Pins, allowing you to see which networks your audience is most interested in.

You can also link your Pinterest profile to your Facebook and Google accounts to simply add and find friends, share content across networks, speed up your login on all accounts, and back up your profile in case you lose or forget your password.

6. Follow, engage, and interact with other accounts.

You can initiate and maintain personal ties with other Pinterest users and their accounts by following and interacting with them. This type of engagement has the potential to create a sense of loyalty in your followers, leading them to come to your profile for inspiration, ideas, and product purchases.

Here are four ways your Pinterest marketing tactics can help you develop strong, lasting relationships with your target audience:

• Follow new accounts of users who state or show they have interests related to the work your business does and the content you post (you can do this by searching keywords and hashtags or reviewing the people who follow your current audience members).
• Re-Pin, Like, and comment on the content your followers and fans share.
• Respond to the messages your followers write on your content to personalize their experience on your profile and make them feel heard.
• Create engaging posts that showcase your expertise in your industry, teach your followers how to do something, or get them involved (in a giveaway or contest for example).

7. Use social media best practices.

Follow the same social media techniques you would use on other social networks while using Pinterest. Remember to engage and interact with your followers, post to (and update) your account on a routine basis, and avoid blatant self-promotion that feels pushy and forced on your audience.

You may also focus on the five best ways to boost Pinterest engagement.

• Encourage your followers to feature your brand in their content (and maybe offer to repost them or re-Pin their content if they do).
• Provide your audience with an incentive — such as a prize — for choosing to follow and interact with you as well as create posts featuring your products and branding.
• Offer your audience discount codes, and coupons, as well as details about your latest products, and updates to existing products to keep them coming back to your profile.
• Ensure your content is helpful and useful for your audience members — all content should have a purpose and/ or meaning.

8. Analyze your results.

If you’re putting all of this effort into Pinterest marketing, it’s logical to assume you’ll want to ensure the work you’re doing improves your business’s conversions and brand awareness.

So, to keep track of your referral traffic, the number of engagement leads generated, and anything else you’re interested in learning more about, you’ll need to assess the results of your Pinterest marketing efforts. Pinterest Analytics is the simplest way to do this.

Pinterest Analytics provides you with four major types of information including:

• Metrics about your profile as a whole.
• Insights about the number of people who save and re-Pin your content.
• Platform metrics to understand how people interact with your content via both desktop and mobile.
• Data about your most popular Pins.

– Pinterest for Small Businesses

If you own a small business, you may be wondering if putting in all of this effort and time to implement Pinterest marketing strategies is worth it.

Short answer? Yes, it is.

Pinterest is one of the more versatile, cost-effective, and impactful marketing tools for businesses trying to convert more leads, drive traffic to their websites, and increase brand awareness.

Plus, Pinterest users have the highest purchase intent of any other social media users. Let’s discuss some more ways small businesses, like yours, can benefit from creating a presence on Pinterest.

Tell a visual story.

Pinterest can help you create a visual story about your brand. You may show — rather than tell — your audience what you’re about as a company, the things you value, what and who you support, and the types of products and services you sell through videos and pictures.

Pinterest enables you to introduce your small business to platform users in a new and engaging way.

Humanize your brand.

Pinterest, like any other kind of social media, may help you humanize and personalize your brand. You can reach out directly to your audience members on the platform, chat with them one-on-one or in groups, and assist them with any difficulties or roadblocks they encounter while doing business with you.

You can also show your audience and followers how much their support and business matter to you by offering giveaways, videos of your behind-the-scenes work, the latest business news, product information, promotions, and discount codes.

Creating and executing these business-to-customer routines early on humanizes your brand, sets the tone for what your company will be known for, and shows customers how you intend to grow with them in mind.

Feature your blog posts.

Pinterest may be used to showcase your inbound marketing efforts, such as blog posts or content offers. You can Pin a photo or video to a board, for example, and include a link to a blog post on that visual content. This not only promotes your blog posts but also drives traffic directly to your website.

Display your work and showcase your expertise.

Pinterest is a great way for your small business to display your work and showcase your expertise in your industry. Pins with images and videos of your work, infographics, data visualizations, and blog posts are all examples.

Since you may not yet have a very strong brand, this is important. Because as your company grows and becomes more well-known, you will be more likely to be recognized as an industry leader and a company with helpful data for audience members.

Drive traffic to your website.

Pinterest is an excellent way to drive traffic to your company site, which will help your small business with lead generation and conversions. URLs can be shared on your profile, as well as on your boards and Pins. You may, for example, post content with a link to your email sign-up page, “About Us” page, or blog.

Conduct market research.

Pinterest is a great resource for conducting market research. It’s especially useful for small businesses that do not yet have a large following or the experience to know what their audience members expect and want in terms of content.

You can easily review what your competitors — and companies in your industry that are more established than yours — are doing using Pinterest. This will help you learn about the tactics they use on the platform and what works for their audience members. You may also analyze the content that your targeted audience Pins, as well as who they follow and interact with.

– Pinterest Marketing Tools

You may use a variety of techniques to help you reach your target audience and engage users on Pinterest. Account management tools, image design, and creation tools, and follower count and community growth tools are the three major types of resources to help you do this.

1. Social Media Management Tools

Prior to posting, social media management tools allow you to plan posts and organize your content on any social network, including Pinterest.

This way, you can be certain that everything is shared and delivered as planned. Social media management tools often include analytics capabilities that can be used in tandem with Pinterest Analytics.

Some popular social media and Pinterest management tools include:

• Hootsuite gives you the ability to schedule your Pins in advance, gain insights into your data and analytics, and measure your results on Pinterest.
• Tailwind provides you with analytics about your Pinterest profile, a data reporting system to help you determine what’s doing well with your audience members, and advice about the best days and times to share your Pins.
• Sprout Social allows you to take advantage of a range of features to help you reach your target audience and buyer personas through Pinterest. These include platform analytics, engagement tools, post-scheduling capabilities, and details about the type of content your audience wants.

Pinterest has also launched its own scheduling tool that enables Business users to pre-schedule content on the platform.

2. Pinterest Image Design and Creation Tools

Pinterest image design tools allow you to create, edit, and publish professional-looking photos and images for the platform (along with any other social media site and your website).

Because Pinterest is a visual social network where users discover eye-catching, beautiful, and creative images and videos, it is critical that your content is flawless in order to attract more followers and engagement to your profile.

The three tools mentioned below are great for anyone who does not have a background in fields like graphic design or art but still wants to share unique and polished content on their profile.

• Canva allows you to create professional images for Pinterest with over 1 million images, graphics, templates, and icons available to choose from.
• Pablo provides you with a way to create beautiful images for Pinterest in under 30 seconds with easy-to-use effects and templates.
• PicMonkey gives you the ability to create and edit images and has advanced image editing tools such as masking, mirroring, and double exposure.
• AdobeExpress offers intuitive tools and templates, and Photoshop-quality effects to create expertly-designed images for users of all skill levels.

3. Follower Count and Community Growth Tools

Pinterest has follower count and community growth features to help you promote your profile and content, as well as increase your number of followers and engagements. The three tools below have been created specifically to help you do this on Pinterest.

• PINGROUPIE provides you with the number of Pins, users, and followers on different group boards on the platform so you can determine whether or not you want to join and Pin your content on it.
• Loop88 helps you to create shareable content they’ve determined is ideal for Pinterest to help you attract your target audience and grow your following.

Start Marketing On Pinterest

Pinterest is a powerful marketing tool that can help you increase brand awareness, boost conversions, increase sales, and naturally create long-lasting relationships with your target audience and buyer personas.

You can achieve all of these aims for your business by using the Pinterest marketing strategies we discussed and the available tools and resources to help you succeed as a business on the platform.

So, create a business account on Pinterest and start creating unique and interesting content to market to your customers and followers.

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