By now, we are mostly aware that social media is a great way to generate traffic for almost any online business. Most of these businesses, when they think social media, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, are often their first port of call.
However, it will interest you to know that since Facebook purchased Instagram, Pinterest has become the “it” social media platform for business marketing. Pinterest has 459 million monthly active users (MAUs). Pinterest is currently the second most significant social media platform that drives referral traffic by a large margin.
Understandably most businesses are still not conversant with how to use Pinterest for marketing. Therefore, I have created this ultimate guide on how Pinterest can generate more traffic on your business website. But first, let’s take a look at how Pinterest works
How Does Pinterest Work
Pinterest is the reminiscence of a cork board with push pins, where you create a collage of pictures or videos for ideas and products your target audience is interested in. Similar to other social platforms, Pinterest users can follow your business board, like and comment on your pins. They can also re-pin your content to their boards, and share them on other social channels.
However, in comparison with Twitter, Pinterest pins are more spreadable than a tweet, while the half-life of a pin lasts much longer than a Facebook post. Another cool thing about Pinterest is that besides its social media aspects, it also doubles as a search and discovery engine.
Now let’s look at some Pinterest marketing strategy to grow your business website traffic:
1. Leverage on Boards
Pinterest boards are simply a group of related Pins. These boards are set up to enable you to break your Pins into multiple categories. For example, you can create a board, especially for blog posts and another for your products and service so that users can follow the boards based on their interests.
Therefore when you place a new pin to a board, it appears directly in the user’s home who has been following the board. It is an effective way of making sure your pins reach the target audience, improve engagement, and, ultimately, boost website traffic. A few tips to creating an active board include:
- Create Relevant Boards
Every board you create must be relevant to your business and, likewise, your target audience. For instance, if your company sells ladies’ shoes, you can create boards with different kinds of shoes. E.g., heels, slippers, booties, sandals, etc.
Once set up a board, the next thing is to post pins regularly to generate engagement with other users. Also, your board should carry a mixture of promotional and educational content. In addition to posting just shoes, you can also post tips on how to maintain your shoes or how to curtail smelly feet.
- Label Your Boards properly
The names you label and categorize your board with should enable your target audience to find it with a simple search. This is because boards with unusual titles are less likely to show up in search results. Thus the trick here is to include keywords your target audience will likely use when searching for your product or service.
For example, professional writing services review sites like Pick The Writer and Writing Judge should use words such as easy writing, paper review, cheap paper writing, best writing service, etc. when labelling their Pinterest board.
- Use Seasonal Boards
Most users of Pinterest are always looking for ideas that are new and inspiring. Especially during holidays and other festivities, their search for new and inspiring pins is heightened. You can seize this advantage and use Pinterest for business marketing by creating seasonal board content.
Research on the major holidays and the ways your business can create the right seasonal content. For instance, a company that is into eCommerce can create a board containing products for Easter sales. On the other hand, if you run a digital marketing agency, creating a board for Easter marketing campaigns will be the way to go.
- Join Group Boards
Besides your Pinterest profile boards, you can join a group or collaborative boards to add your pins. The first important step here is to find popular group boards. You can search for group boards using relevant keywords on Pinterest. Once you have found one, you need to submit a request to join the group board.
After your request is accepted, actively participate by posting relevant and interesting pins. You can also engage with other pins posted on the group board. Active participation is a great way to get the attention of your target audience and generate traffic to your page.
Also, you can create a collaborative group board with the users of your product to share their ideas about your product. This promotes audience interaction, and the Pins are a great form of a product review
2. Utilize Promoted Pins
Promoted Pinterest pin is a paid advert that appears just like regular pins in the feed, and t is available to only business accounts. Using promoted pin campaigns is a strategic way to boost your content on Pinterest. The fantastic thing about Pinterest ads is that they are much easier to learn and set up than Facebook ads or Promoted Tweets. Pinterest comes with an intuitive ad platform that doesn’t require any expertise to use. So you can efficiently structure your ads and manage them your own.
Furthermore, because Pinterest works both as a search engine and a social network, content barely gets lost on the platform. Thus, they show in every relevant search results.Additionally, you can use the Pinterest Ads Manager for your business’s promoted pins.
3. Create SEO Complaint Pins
Search engine optimization is one of the most cost-effective ways you can reach out to new customers. When a business utilizes its SEO properly, its website appears on the first page of any users’ search engine result, and this leads to increased traffic on the site. Thus, an SEO optimized pin has better chances of showing up in related search queries and boost website traffic.
Each Pinterest pin has three components, which are the pinned image, blog or video, title, and description. These components need to be SEO compliant. Your images must be relevant, and in high resolution, your title and description need to have key SEO words and phrases.
4. Explore Pinterest Analytics
It sucks when you have worked hard to create a fantastic pin, and then it gets very little interaction. Pinterest Analytics can help with this. Though only available to business accounts, Pinterest analytics can help you identify which of your content has performed the best. The analysis contains different metrics, such as reach, engagement, and traffic from not only Pinterest but your website and other social media accounts.
From the results on your most popular pins, you can replicate the same strategies on other pins. Also, you can re-pin your most popular pins to gain more traction. Another fantastic thing about Pinterest Analytics is that it helps you gain a better understanding of your target audience. It gives you valuable data such as their age group, gender, and their online behaviour.
Conclusion
From your business website traffic to increasing brand credibility, Pinterest is a handy marketing channel. With increased usage by giant companies such as Apple, Exxon Mobile, Wal-Mart, etc. it is an indication that your business should join the 250 million users and counting.
Author’s Bio
Thomas Lore is a 23-year old writer. He is also a creative and diligent freelance blogger, who is always seeking for new ways to improve himself. Thomas is very versatile and he wants to reach the tops with his writing skills.
