With social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram dominating the stage, it can be easy to overlook Pinterest. It’s often perceived as having a limited user base, or not offering the capabilities that the aforementioned social giants can.
In actuality, Pinterest is a growing platform which can provide a range of diverse benefits too good for ambitious online brands to ignore. If your brand isn’t already using Pinterest to boost traffic and engagement, here’s why you should give it another look.
Promoted Pins give increased engagement
Having already found success in the US, Pinterest has been expanding the availability of its Promoted Pins function into more regions. The option enables businesses to "boost" certain Pins and get more visibility for their offerings, while also providing links to their online stores or websites in the process.
Like Facebook’s paid ads, Promoted Pins can also be retargeted to Pinners, and personalized to suit customized audience segments based on email or customer lists. According to Pinterest, 61% of Pinners have made a purchase after seeing business content on Pinterest, while Promoted Pins also drive up to 5x more sales than regular Pins.
An example of a brand that used Promoted Pins to boost its business in this way is jewelry maker Pura Vida. Having discovered that a user who reshares a Pin is more likely to make a purchase, Pura Vida opted to pay for Promoted Pins to get its content repinned. Even after the campaign had ended, the Pins continued to receive exposure through users repinning products to buy later, resulting in a persistent 31% increase in order volume.
Impressive conversions for any industry
Pinterest also offers conversion rates which aren’t to be sniffed at.
A 2016 study found that 93% of Pinners use the platform to plan or make purchases, with its visual format serving to stimulate the customer throughout their journey as a buyer.
The curated nature of Pinterest enables users to browse and be inspired by user-generated content. Good, visually-pleasing content gets re-pinned and shared, and a well-crafted Pinterest content strategy can form the foundation of an effective marketing approach.
If you sell visually-pleasing products, such as food or fashion items, then Pinterest is the perfect platform for you. But fear not - even if you sell less attractive products or services such as accounting software packages or cleaning products, you can still use Pinterest for your brand.
General Electric, for example, has a highly active and engaging Pinterest presence.
Leverage the heavy emphasis on visuals to tell an engaging story for your brand, using infographics or people-centric images to talk about your business.
A growing, changing user demographic
Pinterest is also one of the fastest growing social platforms, with more than 200 million monthly active users (reportedly closing in on 250 million). Currently, most Pinterest users are women, and many brands therefore use the platform to provide content specifically tailored for their female users.
However, if your customers are mostly male, Pinterest is still worth your time, especially since the demographics are set to change. Pinterest reported a 50% increase in male users late last year, and that figure looks set to rise as more men become aware of the opportunities.
Pinterest’s active user base will gradually become more diverse as the years go on, making it an increasingly viable and effective platform for virtually any brand to consider.
Multi-channel viability
The benefits that Pinterest has to offer aren’t just limited to its boards - the visual focus of the platform also lends itself to other content delivery options.
It's easy to embed Pinterest content into websites and emails - Sony, for example, makes the most of its Pins by incorporating them into its email marketing strategy.
You can also make use of email marketing to do more with your Pins. Integrate your boards into your emails and include high-performing Pins to push more traffic to your Pinterest page. Additionally, you can embed your Pins into your website so customers who visit your site can discover your Pinterest boards for further inspiration and product discovery.
Get creative with your Pins and share them across a range of channels to maximize engagement.
Buyable Pins for in-app purchases
While Instagram is gradually rolling out Shopping Tags which enable customers to make purchases in-stream, without ever leaving the app, Pinterest also offers similar with its 'Buyable Pins' and 'Shop the Look' integrations.
Though they're currently restricted to a selected vendors, it’s well worth watching this space, as these options bring a whole new dimension to Pinterest shopping.
Where Promoted Pins require customers to click through to online stores to make their purchases, Buyable Pins let them buy products or services in-app - they need only click the blue ‘Buy It’ button above a Pin to purchase straight away.
This option currently works with most eCommerce systems - having initially been made compatible with Shopify’s simple retail storefronts and Demandware’s now-absorbed platform, it was swiftly expanded to other major CMSs like BigCommerce and Magento.
Because more and more platforms and locations are supporting this option every day, it’s only going to become more important over time that you embrace this seamless buyer experience, and start making it work for you.
As you can see, Pinterest offers numerous benefits which can help brands grow their businesses and boost sales. Despite only being eight years old, Pinterest is already a powerful platform, with prospects that make it likely to soon rival the biggest social media giants.
With its embeddable Pins making it easy for customers to share the things they like with others, its convenient purchasing options, and a visual flair all of its own, Pinterest has an undeniable allure. Every day, more and more brands are catching on to what this platform has to offer - so make sure you’re not left behind.