It's getting pretty close now, but if you haven't already got your Christmas marketing plan in place, or maybe you're still looking for ways to give your brand a pre-Christmas boost, Pinterest is definitely worth a look.
In the last week, the image-based social network has been working to raise attention for the platform and its benefits, particularly during the holiday season. And with good reason - Pinterest data shows that 38 million people have added holiday-themed Pins in 2015, at a rate of 90,000 Pins per day since August. And as the holidays get closer, that number of Pins is ramping up at an average of 41% per month.
Pinterest is definitely the place many people turn to for Christmas and holiday-themed ideas - which makes sense, over time Pinterest has increasingly become the place for recipes and gift ideas, in particular. A study by Millward Brown earlier this year found that 87% of active Pinners use Pinterest to help them decide what to purchase, a higher rate of purchase intent than other platforms. And brands are definitely taking notice - the platform has today announced that there are now more than one million businesses registered on Pinterest. So should your brand be jumping on board too?
One Million and Counting
From the official Pinterest blog:
"Over the last year, the number of businesses on Pinterest every month has grown rapidly. We're proud of that growth, and we especially loved hearing stories about how Pinterest helped grow your business this year."
Among the businesses that have seen success on Pinterest in 2015 are:
- Maggi, a Nestle brand in Germany, saw a 10x increase in engagement after adopting some of our partner tools
- Polyvore, who integrated with the Pinterest API and saw a 1000% increase in the number of Pins created from their website
- Simple Mills, a CPG brand that racked up millions of impressions and repins from Promoted Pins
- Dot & Bo, which used Promoted Pins to quadruple site visitors, increase repins by 6000% and boost daily clicks by 18,000%
- Adore Me, who saw a 4000% increase in Pinterest-referred revenue after they started using Promoted Pins
While the platform may seem somewhat niche, it's clear that a great many brands are seeing success on Pinterest, and that the platform is growing as both a discovery and eCommerce engine.
A Platform of Interest
So is Pinterest a good fit for your brand? It's hard to say - definitely there's a theme to the brands that do see success, being more fashion, food and retail product-oriented. But there are many others who are seeing success by using the platform more creatively. And given the numbers, it's definitely worth investigating whether it's worth your business getting involved.
Along this line, Pinterest has also released a listing of the products they expect to be big in 2016, based on trending Pins and selections from influential Pinners.
Pinterest's top ten predictions are:
1. Geometric tiles are the new wall decals in Home
2. Coffin nails are the new half moon mani in Beauty
3. Coding is the new Candyland in Parenting
4. DIY drones are the new selfie stick in Tech
5. Adult coloring books are the new woodworking in Art
6. Travel tattoos are the new passport stamps in Travel
7. Stan Smiths are the new high tops in Fashion
8. Avocado oil is the new coconut oil in Food
9. Backs are the new butts in Fitness
10. Cinderblocks are the new terrariums in Gardening
Those trends, again, underline some of the main use-cases for Pinterest - if your brand is involved in marketing any of these products, or anything in these areas of interest, this is what Pinterest data suggests will be big on the platform over the next year.
The listing offers some interesting insight, and the overall stats provide a great overview of what's working on Pinterest and what people are coming to the platform to find.
Capitalizing on Trends
Given the increase in attention Pinterest sees around Christmas, what can brands do to better reach their target audiences on the platform and meet that buying intent. Pinterest has offered five tips to helps brands capitalize on the season boost in attention:
- Create a holiday party board that gives Pinners everything they need to plan a festive party from recipes to wreaths
- Write thoughtful Pin descriptions using these trending topics as keywords in your holiday Pins and boards so customers can easily find what they're looking for
- Get creative. Does your business offer a product that could be incorporated into gift wrap or used as part of a photo gift? Offer a tutorial showing your followers how
- Show how your business celebrates the holidays by Pinning office décor, favorite employee recipes and photo prop ideas for your company holiday party
- Add holiday Pins to existing boards to entice current followers. For example, add holiday mantel ideas to a board about home décor
While these notes are clearly holiday-focused, they do offer some wider insight into using Pinterest to best effect, particularly the note on using trending topics as keywords in your Pins. As people come to Pinterest to search for relevant products, Pinterest's Guided Search will show them relevant matches based on their search terms and behaviors - knowing those trending terms is critical to boosting visibility on the site.
While Pinterest may not ever become a massive social network, and may never rival Facebook or Instagram in terms of user numbers and growth, what the platform does have is that Pinners primarily come to the platform looking for products. Pinterest's demographic is older, users who come to the platform seeking ideas and inspiration for gifts, fashion and design, among other things. Pinterest's building their search and discovery tools with this target audience in mind, and as such, they're seeing success in building the platform and expanding its utility as a sort of online catalogue - but a catalogue of every store you can think of, all in one place.
It may not ever become one of the 'big four' social networks, but that doesn't mean you should ignore it. Pinterest is delivering great results for brands that invest the time into understanding the audience and delivering what they're after.
Is Pinterest a good fit for your business? It's definitely worth investigating and taking the time to learn how it's being used.