7 ways to grow your business using Pinterest

Pinterest has a unique and sizable followers base. From aesthetic interior design tips to business talks, everything is presented with visual flair. The platform currently has more than 433 million users worldwide. Being a creative and interactive tool with such a huge audience base of all categories, Pinterest has proven itself to be a powerful platform that can help you build your business. Once you understand how to use it, the journey to build a user community for your business is easy. Here are seven easy and effective ways you can grow your business using Pinterest.

Build effective Pinterest marketing strategies 

The underlying reason businesses use social media platforms is to attain measurable goals through marketing, but in order to achieve that, you must have an effective marketing plan. The first step towards incorporating Pinterest into your brand's marketing strategies is to understand that just like any other platform, Pinterest can boost sales effectively when utilized intelligently.

Before devising Pinterest marketing strategies for your brand, here are a few things you should figure out:

• What are your business/marketing goals?

• How is Pinterest going to help you achieve these goals?

• Do you have enough resources to achieve these goals using Pinterest?

Once you've found answers to the questions above, you'll be in a great position to determine which Pinterest marketing strategies are feasible for your business. Here are some tips:

• Identify your users' demographics and preferences; plan pins accordingly.

• Stay visible; keep users aware of your brand's presence. Consistency is the key.

• Focus on creating a community and include users' preferences in every bit of content you create.

• Link your pins across platforms and maximize the advantage of linking pins. This helps you increase traffic.

• Engaging with other accounts and users builds connections. Keep interacting!

Content that makes users go "Whoa!" 

It almost goes without saying that Pinterest is a visually rich platform and the content posted should make users want to click your pin without hesitation. The race to attract users by pinning visually impressive pins is highly competitive, but all it takes to create such pins is following a few basic steps as you start. Below are tips that work well for any business that's planning to make a stunning entry on Pinterest:

• Decide on a color palette and ensure it aligns with your business's branding.

• Always aim for high-quality images and visuals; appealing ones work magic.

• If you have a diverse audience, figure out what content works for each type of target group and publish accordingly.

• Use your logo on every pin but refrain from making it too big or flashy; keep it subtle.

• Never include clickbait or misleading content when you provide links. Credibility matters.

• Maintain a balance between what you want the audience to know about your brand and the content the audience wants to consume; too much promotional content might get boring.

• Have unique templates and showcase a variety of content.

Creating content for a different sort of platform like Pinterest might feel tough, but this is where social media management platforms come to the rescue. With Zoho Social, you can do it all: create, schedule, post, and track—all in one go and in one place.

The perks of attractive boards 

Feeds are to Instagram what boards are to Pinterest. Boards are the face of your Pinterest business profile. As such, they need to be attractive, expressive, and meaningful.

Here's how you can get started on creating boards:

• The basic purpose of creating various boards is to categorize content. While doing so, ensure you separate pins in the right way; do not mix pins and create confusing categories.

• Two things that impact the quality of your boards are the name and cover image. Ensure both represent the category properly.

• You can add keywords while naming your board for improved optimization.

• Maintain a uniform color palette for all your Pinterest board covers.

Here are some additional points to keep in mind as you maintain your boards:

• Deleting a board will also remove followers who follow that particular board. Instead, you can archive it.

• To make your boards look authentic and content-rich, make them public after adding four or more pins.

• Don't make categories too narrow, as it may lead to confusion. For example, if you talk about social media marketing, there can be categories such as Instagram and Facebook, but not additional, separate boards about Instagram Reels or Facebook Live.

• Strictly avoid misleading boards and duplicate pins.

 Utilize the power of rich pins 

The name "rich pin" says it all: they're different from normal pins and contain metadata, which syncs with the content provided on your website. This is a completely free feature and there are various types of rich pins you can use:

Product rich pin 

Use this type of rich pin if you want to keep users posted about your product information, availability, and pricing.

Article rich pin 

This type of rich pin provides outlined information about an article, such as author, title, and description.

Recipe pin 

The recipe pin enables you to list the ingredients, cooking time, serving method, diet options, and step-by-step process on how to make the dish.

If you're interested in hearing more about the difference rich pins make, here are some additional reasons why you should use them:

• When you provide users with more content, your pin performs well.

• Using rich pins helps you highlight your brand, as the feature allows you to include your website name and logo.

• While using rich pins you don't have to worry about manually updating information to your pins. When you update the website, it automatically syncs with your rich pins.

Get creative with formats 

It's vital to showcase a variety of content to your audience to keep them engaged. Sticking to the same formats may end up making them bored. In contrast, using varied formats will also give you more ideas on how to make your content clickable.

Below are the different pin formats and how you can use them as recommended on Pinterest:

• Standard image pins

  • Always use high-quality vertical images. The best aspect ratio is 2:3.

  • Prioritize your brand image; showcase who you are.

  • Optimize the title and descriptions using keywords. The character limit for the title is 100, and 500 for the description.

  • Add a proper active link.

• Idea pins

  • They can be considered Pinterest's version of Instagram Stories, in multi-page formats that can be used to convey your ideas.

  • Create your pin such that even those who watch with the sound off can understand what you're trying to teach or showcase.

  • Check thoroughly before publishing the content and ensure you have a checklist satisfying all aspects, such as the information, size of the image/video, and lighting.

• Video pins

  • Video pins are an amazing way to connect with your audience. Talking to them or posting a video on how to do things interests the majority of users, as it increases credibility.

  • The video limit for ads can be six to 15 seconds, and 15 seconds to one minute for organic content.

  • Your cover image should strongly convey the content of the video.

  • You can optimize the title and descriptions for videos, too. The character limit is the same: 100 for the title and 500 for the description.

The power of SEO on Pinterest 

If you're wondering what role SEO has in a visually rich platform, here's a breakdown. In simple terms, when you search for something on Pinterest, you'll find a list of results showing up as you type. These results match with your searched words/keywords. This is done using "guided search", which acts as the search engine for Pinterest.

Here are the easiest SEO strategies you can follow to optimize your Pinterest profile:

• Open a business account and refrain from converting your existing personal account to a business profile.

• Give your Pinterest business profile a professional touch: 

  • Add a proper profile picture and a business name. Optimize the name using keywords.

  • A well-structured profile description is the easiest way to optimize your business account. Conduct keyword research and write the bio.

  • Include your website or blog and ensure the link is active.

  • Link all your social media accounts, as this increases your credibility.

• Once you're set up with a proper business profile, you can proceed with creating boards and pins.

  • While creating pins write an attractive title and description that includes keywords.

  • Many of the brands do not use Pinterest hashtags, if you understand how to use them it can work well for you. But understand that hashtags work best for new posts as they are displayed based on the date of publication.

Give Pinterest ads a try 

Promoted pins work wonders when targeted right. According to Pinterest, by using their ads, brands can earn 2.3 times the cost per conversion and twice the returns of other social media (source: Pinterest official site). Give Pinterest ads a try. Here's how you can get started:

• Create a campaign by determining its purpose:

  • To spread brand/product awareness

  • To make users consider your content and increase the click rate and views

  • To achieve higher conversion rates through signups, online purchases, and subscriptions

  • To drive them to the store through ads and increase offline sales

• Pick the right format and design an attractive ad with a balanced presentation.

• Next, you have to determine the target group using the tools provided by Pinterest. Choose the audience based on their interests, age, and gender.

• Publish the ad after deciding which pin to promote.

Summing it up

Pinterest is indeed a powerful platform you should use to promote your business. Try out these seven steps and let us know how they worked. If you're looking for a Pinterest management tool, checkout Zoho Social, which is a strategic platform that adapts to new trends and technologies. Our experts are here to help you out, so please leave a comment with your thoughts and queries.