How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Products

June 24, 2013 12:22 pm // Author: David Moceri

Sure, you’ve heard of Pinterest before, and how you should be learning more about it and use it for your business. But, do you really know why? What the heck is Pinterest?

In this article you’ll learn what Pinterest is, how people (your potential customers) use it, why it’s effective, and some tips and suggestions to maximize the precious time that it takes to utilize Pinterest correctly.

Facts that you should know about Pinterest:

70 percent of brand engagement on Pinterest is generated by users, not brands. (Digitas)
Pinterest shoppers are spending significantly more per checkout averaging between $140-$180 per order compared with consistent $80 and $60 orders for Facebook and Twitter shoppers, respectively. (Rich Relevance)
U.S. consumers who use Pinterest follow an average of 9.3 retailers on the site. (Shop.org)
Pinterest pins that include prices receive 36 percent more likes than those that do not. (Shopify)
81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from Pinterest. (BlogHer)
Pinterest accounts for 25 percent of retail referral traffic. (Rich Relevance)

Create boards where you pin holiday products. (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Mother’s Day, etc) and show your audience that you’ve got what they need to celebrate.

Create a board based on that holiday and label it with a board name, description and category.
Begin pinning relevant products from your website to this board. You could also upload the images directly to Pinterest, but in this case make sure the image leads to a landing page on your website where people can make a purchase.
Write a good description to let readers know how they can use your product during this holiday. You can also add the price.
Rearrange your holiday-themed boards so that they’re at the top of your profile page during the appropriate season so they stand out (and don’t forget to add a good cover image).

*You could also add a board widget to your website to help promote the board.

Promote your products using a theme. This could be a theme around colors, designs, materials, ingredients, locations or anything else that’s interesting and can be categorized.

Choose a theme
Create several boards based on that theme.
- For example, if you choose the color theme, create several boards where you plan to pin products of different colors. Label them accordingly, with different color names and arrange them side by side, so users know that the boards collectively form a theme.
- Start pinning products of that color onto that board and add a good description (make sure you mention the color here too). This is a creative way to market your business, as people can easily find products of their favorite color.

This method is also good for search engine optimization (SEO), especially when you mention the keyword (color) in the board title, board description and pin description.

People like popular products. When they know that a product is selling well and everyone else is buying it, they want to get a hold of it before they miss out.

Create a board with a title and description to tell readers this is where they can find your most popular products.
Pin some images of your most popular products here and add descriptions. You could also add the rank of the product.
Make sure you write everything about the product—include the price, whether the product is a limited edition and add a call to action asking users to check out the product or buy it.
Update the board regularly. Remove products no longer available and replace them with hot new items.

Another way to use your Pinterest page is to generate leads.

Create some quality content (such as ebooks, white papers, reports, case studies, etc.) that is gated with an opt-in form on a landing page.
Add a short description about the content on the landing page along with an attractive image that is also the cover image of your file.
Pin this image onto a board where you share your premium content.
Write a brief description about it with a call to action that asks people to visit your website to sign up.

This will increase your landing page traffic and will help generate more leads, which can be used to increase website and blog traffic and drive sales later.

The ultimate goal of your campaign is to generate leads and sales for your services and products. In fact, it would be nice to start generating sales as soon as you set up your brand page, but on Pinterest you want to take your time doing this.

Build an audience first.
After you gain followers, start promoting your products.
The best way to promote items is to create a dedicated board where you pin the products you want to sell.
Pin your products only once because if you do it over and over again, you’ll appear to be over-promoting yourself.

When you first pin one of your products, you want to get as many initial likes, repins and comments as possible. This will add social proof to your products, encourage users to check out the product and increase the likelihood of more direct shares in the future.

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GROUP BOARDS BEST PRACTICES REAL-LIFE EXMAPLES OF ENGAGING PINTEREST CONTESTS