Pinterest was once the underdog of social media. It was the newcomer in a fierce industry with players like Facebook and Twitter as competitors. Despite this, Pinterest has enjoyed a lot of growth since its creation. Now, it is a platform used by marketers and businesses alike.
Today I’m going to show you 20 different ways to enhance your marketing efforts on Pinterest and enjoy even more traffic from this platform.
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20 Unique Ways to Enhance and Grow Your Marketing on Pinterest
1. Utilize Rich Pins
We’ll start with Rich Pins, which are an exclusive feature for online businesses. You’ll need to apply for Rich Pins first, but once you do, your business can start adding extra information and details to your pins.
There are six types of Rich Pins:
- App
- Movie
- Recipe
- Article
- Product
- Place
Each of these offer a unique set of features. For example, Place Pins add a map, address, and phone number to your Rich Pin. On the other hand, App Pins will include an install button so users can install your app without ever leaving the Pinterest website.
2. Create Multiple Boards
A great way to diversify your pins, is to create multiple boards. This allows you to post themed content that speaks to multiple portions of your audience. Depending on your business, you can base these boards on different topics, categories, or anything else unique to your business.
Each board should offer something different and unique for visitors. This will bring more people of different interest types to your brand and ultimately strengthen your presence on Pinterest as a whole.
3. Optimize Your Images
Pins live and die by the quality of their images. That’s why it’s important that your images meet a few requirements:
- Clear and high-resolution sizes.
- Lighter colors and contrasting shades.
- Typically, images without faces get more repins.
- Keep your images simple and uncomplicated
- The ideal size is 734 x 1102. If you use Canva, their Pinterest template is this size.
4. Connect Your Pinterest to Other Social Media Platforms
Starting from scratch on any social media platform isn’t ideal. Once you’ve finished setting up your blog, and creating a presence for yourself online, and on social media, the last thing you want is to start over again on another platform. If you already have followers on other sites like Instagram or Facebook, try linking them to your Pinterest to create new followers on the platform.
Doing this is actually really simple. It just requires three steps:
- Go to your account settings
- Click on social networks
- Choose to connect your Pinterest with Facebook and Twitter
It’s worth noting that Facebook only allows you to connect a personal page, not a business one. If all you have is a business page, then you’ll only get the option to connect to Twitter.
5. Run a Contest
Contests have long been a great way to engage followers on social media, but Pinterest offers a unique approach. Many companies follow a similar structure to their contests where they encourage followers to pin their entries on a specific board and choose the winner from that pool of contestants.
Always include the start and end dates for your contests within your Pins. Since Pins can be reposted as many times as users want, this will ensure they don’t continue circulating after the contest ends.
6. Pin at The Right Times
According to the Buffer Blog, there are specific times and days where Pins will perform better than others. This is what their studies found:
- Saturdays, afternoons, or evenings are ideal times to post.
- Additionally, specific topics do better on certain days. Humor performs best on Fridays, for example.
- Finally, the times of your Pins also matters. The best times are usually between 8pm-11pm, as well as 2am-4am on Saturdays.
7. Optimize Your Descriptions
Pinterest allows you to include up to 500 words in your descriptions. This is too much for a image-focused platform, but you should use this limit as an opportunity to say more than you would in, say, a tweet.
You should also optimize these descriptions by including relevant keywords to your brand, niche, and industry. As always, don’t keywords stuff your descriptions, but use these terms to make the Pin more visible for your audience.
8. Add The “Pin It” Button to Your Content
You can use a free widget from Pinterest to add a “Pin It” button to your content on WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, or anywhere else you feel the need. You should apply it to all of your images within your content for the best possible results.
Monitor which images are getting the most Pins to better understand what resonates with your audience.
9. Keep Customers Engaged
Too often, especially during peak seasons, customers click a Pin and expect to be taken to a purchase page, only to be hit with a 404 or a sold out message. This immediately breaks the engagement that you have with the customer.
To avoid this mistake, make sure your customers are redirected to a landing page in the event that your product page is sold out. This page should explain to them when you expect to have more and ask them for their email so you can contact them when the product is available again.
10. Repin Successful Content
If something worked once, then it’s bound to work again. Repurposing content is always smart as the number of Repins will decide how long it stays within the front page of your user’s Pinterest boards. It helps if you tweak it slightly or combine it with other successful content to make the new version stand out even more.
Try this with your images, your successful blog posts, and get creative with how you repurpose it.
11. Pin More Often
Research has shown that pinning more often can equivalate to better results. A great starting point is five times per day, but if you have the content to support it, it’s better to pin up to 30 times per day.
That being said, you should space out these posts. Doing them all at once or within an hour of each other will not show any benefits whatsoever.
12. Create Instructographics
Instructographics are a term coined by Pinterest themselves. They are a different version of infographics that seek to impart information. Since the Pinterest community is very hands-on and DIY oriented, this represents a great format for your images.
You don’t need to be a graphic designer to make these either. As mentioned earlier, Canva is a great tool for making these types of images, as is PicMonkey. An ideal Instructographic will showcase the steps in a process and explain how to perform it.
13. Showcase Your Brand’s Unique Personality
One of the main draws in social media, is the opportunity to express yourself. This is true for businesses as well. When you’re creating content and images for Pinterest, consider how you can use these visuals to better convey your brand’s personality.
Whether it’s a fun themed day at your office, or something whacky you do, make it known and allow customers to learn more about your company. Ultimately, this makes it easier for them to trust and connect with your brand.
14. Showcase Hacks For Your Product
Oftentimes a product can be used in a number of different ways. Perhaps combining it with something else yields new results? These product hacks are perfect for the Pinterest community as they offer a new DIY approach to something they own or something they’re going to buy.
Brainstorm some creative ways to combine your product with others or use it in a unique manner. Post images and instructographics of these on your Pinterest to create engaging posts.
15. Insert Keywords Everywhere You Can
Keywords should not be limited to your description. Place them anywhere you can for the best results. Whether that means placing text in your image or creating an overlay, it’s important for your visibility and your organic reach that you incorporate keywords wherever possible.
In addition, consider using them in your board names as well for an added boost to your chosen categories.
16. Direct Pins to Landing Pages and Blog Posts
Your Pins should always lead somewhere. Whether it’s promoting a blog post, a guide, or just a link to one of your landing pages. Posting these images and gaining the attention of your followers creates and ideal opportunity to bring them into your brand.
17. Use Pin It For Later Links
Regardless of where you’re posting it, Pin it for Later links can be incredibly useful. They can be placed on any of your posts, on any platform. The best way is to post the link on your Facebook or Twitter posts and label it as “Pin it for later” so people know what the link is meant to do.
18. Avoid Overly Promotional Pins
Like any other social media platform, it’s important that you don’t flood users with overly promotional content. If you’re constantly pressing them to buy something, they will become fatigued with your brand rather quickly.
Instead, lure them in with useful content, how-to-guides, things of that nature. Once you’ve given them value through your content, you can ask them to purchase something from your business.
19. Follow and Post on Popular Boards
Engaging with other boards and brands is important to spread awareness of your own. It never hurts to engage with these other areas in meaningful ways as it can bring attention to yourself as well.
Furthermore, you can also Repin relevant content from other boards to further bring value to your readers.
20. Mention Influencers in Your Pins
Influencers are customers or users with a lot of followers. They aren’t usually other businesses, but instead are individuals. In many cases, they can be more valuable to your brand than celebrity endorsements.
By mentioning them in your Pins, you can potentially open a dialogue with them which can lead to them promoting your product or brand to their followers.
Final Thoughts
Pinterest has a lot of opportunities for marketers to grow their brands and their businesses. How do you utilize them platform for maximum results? Let us know in the comments!
