How To Promote Your Business With Pinterest – 7 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About Pinterest Marketing

June 19, 2018 Jordan Meola 10 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read My Disclosure for more info.

 

 

Hey guys, Jordan here! So one thing a lot of fledgling entrepreneurs ask a ton of questions about is how Pinterest marketing really works. Going in blind, it can be totally overwhelming. Trust me, I remember the feeling.

 

So whether you opened your business 2 hours ago, or you’ve been in business for millennia but have just now started to expand your social media presence, these are 7 things you absolutely need to know.

 

This is how to promote your business with Pinterest.

 

#1: Why Does Pinterest Matter?

 

how to promote your business with pinterest

 

 

Ok, so we know that social media marketing is pretty much non-negotiable in today’s business world. If you’re self employed, and you’re reading this is in the 21st century, you probably already know this.

 

But when Facebook has over 2 billion users, it’s VERY easy to forget that any other social media platforms exist. Or at least forget that they matter. If you’re one of the people that scoffed about that little “sticky note” board online, you aren’t alone.

 

Underestimating Pinterest is a mistake. In fact, with the exception of Instagram, it may have no equal in the future of social media marketing.

 

Here’s why:

 

 

how to promote your business with pinterest

 

 

– statistically 86% of millennials (the rising majority of buyers) say they use Pinterest to plan things. The demographic using Pinterest is largely suburban, employed, and making around $70,000 per year (meaning they CAN and DO buy things comfortably).

 

– 2/3rds of the pins on Pinterest are related to brands, and about 75% of Pinterest users are cool with this. In other words, the 2 billion monthly searches on Pinterest are friendly to promotions. This is unique. Most people hate ads.

 

– 93% of Pinterest users say they use it to plan purchases. So it’s a den full of buyers.

 

– Visuals. The affect that visual aesthetics have on sales are growing daily. And Pinterest is all about visuals.

Here on Young Retiree, I will ALWAYS recommend that you be everywhere. Make your brand ubiquitous. Make your name seen. But if you have to pick only a couple social media outlets to promote yourself, for the sake of time, Pinterest NEEDS to be one of them.

 

 

#2: Your Pins Need To Be Tall

 

I learned this the hard way. I’m not kidding, one of the first pins that I ever entered into Pinterest when I was letting the world know about Young Retiree, was this picture below.

 

 

These are the exact things I do to save $1,200 per year on household expenses. And they're all super easy!

 

 

It didn’t have any words or titles on it. I left all of that in the description. I just plopped this picture, as it is, on Pinterest, and hoped it would convert into lots of clicks and website visitors.

 

It didn’t work out.

 

The VAST majority of clicks and responses on Pinterest are to tall images with words, or at least a clear idea of the point. As someone is scrolling down Pinterest, the taller pins stay in their line of vision longer, and this helps it to catch and keep their attention (especially if everyone else on the board is pinning square images).

 

My later pins looked more like this below, and the difference has been huge.

 

 

 

Stays in your line of sight nice and long, doesn’t it?

 

#3: Color Matters

 

While it’s good to have plenty of color and light in your pins (if people scrolling through Pinterest can’t tell what your pin IS, it’s not going to do you any good), this isn’t my main point here.

 

Believe it or not, using warm colors, like subtle reds, oranges, and burgundy, will naturally get more responses than colder colors, like blues.

 

Why is this? Well the subconscious choices of social media users are grounded in psychology, and we don’t have the time to get into the science of it here, but it makes sense that the more inviting a picture (Pin) is, the more responses it will get. Just like puppies, candles, and warm sweaters, it influences a mood, conscious or not.

 

 

 

 

#4: How To Create Snazzy Looking Pins (for free)

 

This is something I hate to admit as a professional marketer, but I’m pretty bad with design software. Photoshop has never been my strong-suit.

 

Design is an art, and without experience, it can be an intimidating one!

 

 

 

 

When I started tackling Pinterest marketing, I spent over a day stressing and trying to find a website or option where I could easily create Pinterest Pins.

 

I finally found the two best options I could have possibly imagined.

 

One is a free app called Canva. The other is a free suite of design apps by Desygner. Just look up Desygner on an app store, and you’ll see all of the options (Logo Maker has been particularly helpful for me).

 

Canva is my favorite to use for Pinterest Pins. It’s INCREDIBLY easy to use, and you can create awesome looking, eye-catching pins in a matter of minutes.

 

Design is not only way easier than it was a few years ago, but you can now do it completely FREE!

 

 

#5: Get Followers

 

 

Want to be successful in Pinterest marketing? (Or any marketing)… you need some fans!

 

You’re already inspirational because you’re striving for something big. You’re in your own business, you’re trying to get your name out there, and you’ve probably already worked very hard, and dreamed. You’ve probably started to develop some great content, or gathered some awesome products. You’re WORTH following!

 

But in the beginning, it can be tough. So here’s the strategy.

 

Your first 50-100 followers should be pretty easy to get.

 

If you’re part of any social media networks in your private life, share your Pinterest everywhere and ask your friends and peers to follow you. Be bold! Sharing your Pinterest on your Facebook, Twitter, or ideally in some internet marketing/small business owner communities, like Wealthy Affiliate.

 

Secondly, you can also just follow other people and their boards. A lot of the time this will result in them following you back.

 

This initial 50 to 100 followers IS NOT your primary audience and consumer base. It’s just a means to an end, and we’re getting to that next.

 

 

#6: Join Pinterest Groups

 

Just like Facebook groups, Pinterest groups are one of the most important places to do your primary marketing. These groups are already centered around a certain niche interest.

 

Once you have a follower base of at least 50 people, you will have some credibility when trying to join groups related to your brand. And this is how you can really start driving some highly interested, high converting, and free traffic.

 

 

This is the golden opportunity. But be tactful. You want to stand out like a penguin in a crowd of kiwi birds, but you DON’T (!!!!!) want to stand out like a salesman that’s just there to squeeze them for money.

 

Contribute value and helpfulness to the group. Your voice will be clearer and stronger.

 

 

#7: Paid Traffic – Is It Necessary?

 

Ultimately, this is a decision you’re going to have to make for yourself. But I would suggest that Pinterest may be one of the social media marketing spaces where you can get the MOST conversions without paying for any traffic at all.

 

Pinterest has a highly customizable advertising set up. It gives you a lot of control, and allows you to limit how much is spent every day to drive your Pins to the top of a list.

 

You may eventually decide that paying for traffic is necessary, but just bear this in mind. Unlike search resources like Google, Pinterest is extremely visual, and it’s designed to be scrolled through quickly. As a result, you don’t need to rank at the very top of a list like you would in Google, to see clicks and responses.

 

You just need to be eye-catching and authentic (so this isn’t an endorsement of click bait).

 

And if you use the Pinterest group strategy consistently, and sincerely, you can drive enormous amounts of traffic to your business without paying a cent.

 

 

Taking Action

 

 

You now that old saying, a picture paints a thousand words? This applies really well to Pinterest.

 

Get your name out there, make your business known, and NEVER forget to the value of pictures and visual representation in your marketing campaign.

 

Now take action!

 

Thanks for reading guys, and ask me any questions in the comments below!

 

 

10 People reacted on this

  1. Cool, thanks for the help!

    I hadn’t thought of using Pinterest groups to start building a following around my brand. What is Wealthy Affiliate? And can you promote a Shopify store in any of these groups?

    Thanks

    1. Hey there!

      Yes, public groups on social media that have a certain focus can be REALLY helpful in growing your brand! Wealthy Affiliate is a community kind of like that, except it’s people that are focused on internet marketing and entrepreneurship.

      Pinterest is a GREAT place to market your Shopify store! Physical products are probably the easiest fit for Pinterest marketing because the visuals are so important.

      Thanks for commenting!

  2. Hi,
    Thank you for sharing. I signed up on Pinterest, but still, don’t understand how does it work. I haven’t had any follow back yet, and I should admit that almost in all social media it is difficult to have the follow back.
    Anyway, maybe I need to work more on it.
    You said that photos should be tall, and I’ve noticed that you use big images also on your pages. Or it was only my impression? What size should the photos be? I always scare that they can weight too much and can create some issue on loading the page.
    Thank you again.

    1. Hi Marta, thanks for commenting!

      Marketing on any social media site, without paying for ads, takes a lot of patience and hard work. Pinterest, in particular, can be really overwhelming at first. Depending on your niche, there tends to be a lot of competition. Try the strategy that I described. Following people hoping they follow back is a start, but it’s MUCH better to start off by getting your friends to follow you, and then joining groups. 

      Tall images are important for Pinterest, but not as much for a blog. Images are important no matter what. Blogging, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, marketing in general. But tall images are really key for Pinterest. 

      As far as big pictures slowing down your loading time, this is a possibility and it’s good to be careful. WordPress has plugins like Ewww Image Optimizer, that make sure your images are fitted for SEO and good site health. If you’re still concerned about the file size slowing down your website, you can take your images to Photoshop, or free photo editing apps like Canva, or one of the design apps by Desygner to resize.

      Hope this helps! 

  3. Hey Jordan:

    Thanks for this very clear explanation of the value of Pinterest marketing and how to do it without going into overwhelm.

    I’ve always loved Pinterest because of the extraordinary visuals. I do like knowing that my favorite search engine is actually a very good marketing tool as well.

    1. Hello Netta,

      Yes, Pinterest is pretty awesome! And there’s a lot of opportunity on it. It can be competitive as a marketing space, but with enough consistency and learning the right methods you can REALLY grow your business. 

  4. This just goes to show that just because someone doesn’t use Pinterest in their personal life (I pretty much NEVER go to Pinterest) doesn’t mean it isn’t worth looking into from a business point of view. Clearly the people are there and for whatever reason, Pinterest seems to be a very reliable traffic source.

    1. Yes! I actually never had my own personal Pinterest either, until I started up my own business. Apparently a solid 75% of the users of Pinterest are female, the opposite of Google+ (so I’m in the minority for sure). But there’s no doubt Pinterest is a powerful resource.

      I think there are 2 main reasons that Pinterest is so essential for marketing. The first is that the demographic using it is also a strong buyer demographic. 1 in every 2 millennials uses Pinterest, and the number is increasing, so it’s not only currently relevant, but increasingly relevant.

      The second reason Pinterest is so important is that unlike almost every other social media resource, Pinterest is one social media platform where its users actually don’t MIND being advertised too. They go there to find ideas for things to purchase, and they largely making purchasing decisions based entirely on Pinterest ideas and boards. So it’s usefulness is almost impossible to overstate.

  5. I currently am one month into starting a business and do not have Pinterest. I have always been confused on how to use it so I never really got into it. With the steps you have outlined and the resources available, I might need to look into Pinterest as another source of marketing. I enjoyed how you explained how being involved in a community within your niche may be beneficial towards building authority.

    1. Hey there!

      That’s exciting that you’ve started up a business! What kind of business is it? Whether it’s affiliate marketing, or selling physical products, you can generate a lot of traffic through Pinterest. It can be challenging at first, because it can be competitive, but just like selling on Amazon and Etsy, competition is the price you pay for free exposure.

      Use the app Canva to build perfect looking Pins. It’s a free app, I have it on my tablet and I can create pro looking pins in just a few minutes. If you can make it eye-catching, you’ll see conversions. I got 2 people to my blog through a pin just a few days after posting it, and they BOTH converted into sales.

      Pinterest is important as a marketer! Wishing you the best 🙂

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