How to Become a Pinterest Marketing Expert

So you read our article about the powerful advantages of Pinterest for your small business and figured you would take the leap in the pin-universe. Before opening your account: here is everything you need to know about optimizing pinterest as a marketing tool.

Who Uses Pinterest?

In order to determine if Pinterest is right for your brand, it is important to look at the average user profile. The platform is unique in that it caters to a very specific slice of the population, namely women between the ages of 19-40 who are well-educated and make over 75k annually. However, this might not be true for long. While the majority of users are indeed female, male usage is on the rise, up 120% from last year. Reflect on your business’s customer demographic and determine whether it overlaps with Pinterest’s audience. Even if the two do not perfectly align, Pinterest can still be a valuable tool. However, it is important to take this factor into consideration before formulating a marketing strategy.

Setting Up a Business Account

The first step is to set up a business Pinterest account. This gives you access to analytics, *Rich Pins, and **promoted Pins - all of which will largely benefit your business. Take a minute to check in with the terms and regulations as they are different than those of a personal account.

*Rich Pins are Pins that include extra information right on the Pin itself (app, movie, recipe, article, product and place).

**Promoted Pins are pins that are paid to increase visibility, but show up in user’s news feed identical to organic pins

Tips and Tricks 

Images

Any image you make into a pin should be first and foremost visually appealing. This simple rule cannot be stressed enough: the more aesthetic a pin is, the more interaction it will get. Pins that are not eye catching, have bad design or are low quality will not fare well in the Pinterest stratosphere.

Additionally, avoid using horizontal images as they are not compatible with Pinterest’s vertical style news feed style. A good size to shoot for is 736×1102 pixels. Canva’s Pinterest template is this size and makes sizing your images a lot easier.

Boards

Create boards that reflect your business in a creative and playful manner. You can include pins that are not from your site to show variety. Keep in mind that the board names, although creative, should also be search friendly so include key words. Pay attention to the captions you use. Whether you’re Pinning content from your site or repinning it from somewhere else, you need to explain why it is useful to your customers.

Make your website Pinterest-friendly

Before you start pinning and being pinned, make sure you prepare your blog. That means allowing your posts to be pinned through their various images and also including a button to follow you on Pinterest from your website.

Use the Pinterest Business Centre

This is a great resource brought to you by Pinterest themselves. You can access this site at business.pinterest.com and will find many resources including all the “Pin It” buttons for your browser and website, follow buttons, case studies and tools. Pinterest has also created an awesome Pinterest for Business Guide, which you can download by clicking here.

Pin Ethically

When pinning from other users, check the link to make sure it is a legitimate website. If content has been “resourced” with a false URL to another site, don’t repin it. Report it or leave a comment. Give credit where credit is due!

Be Social!

At the end of the day, Pinterest is a social media and should be used as such. Engage with other users, tag users in repins, keep track of people who repin you and reach out to thank them.

Curate Your Image

Don’t just promote your products, illustrate the the lifestyle behind your brand. Pinterest is all about aspirations. People design the life they want through their pins and boards. Capitalize on this behavior by showcasing a dream world for your audience.

You are now ready to fly solo into the Pinterest-sphere. Keep these tips in mind and happy pinning!

Good luck from the Solomoto team.