Pinterest: Selling with “Buyable Pins”
Chances are most engaged and even single women have already planned their Pinterest wedding. This means she has a Pinterest board populated with several pins related to wedding decorations and details. If you are a woman reading this and a Pinterest user, I’m willing to guess you have either a wedding board, a baby board, or a house board. Pinterest is currently reporting over 100 million active users and 85% of those users are women. The company is reporting a whopping 11 billion in value and it gained a lot of momentum last summer when it rolled out one of its key features: Buyable Pins. In case you missed out, I will share with you several strategies that can help your business while using the Pinterest buyable pins.
Pinners are shoppers
A full 87% of Pinterest users admit making a purchase because of Pinterest. And for the few Pinterest users who haven’t made a purchase, they are planning on it. 93% of Pinterest members use Pinterest as a shopping list. Users pin products and store them as part of different category boards. Pinterest allows users to shop for a product on the spot.
What are Buyable Pins?
Buyable Pins, which are a type of pin that’s filled with richer data, including things like the item’s price and options, are meant to be the next logical step beyond product discovery and inspiration — which is what Pinterest is still known for today. One of the best elements about this feature is that the merchant keeps 100% of the sales, as Pinterest makes money through advertising. Brands pay Pinterest in order to gain more impressions on a pin. Additional to this, pins are mobile friendly with a design and experience that makes the experience easy. Buyable pins add to the experience by featuring easy checkout options and a seamless purchase process. The consumer buys products through Pinterest in a way that feels very natural to the platform.
Blue means you can buy
You’ll start seeing buyable Pins all over Pinterest — in your home feed, on boards you love, and in search results. When you spot a Pin with a blue price, that means you can buy the product displayed on the pin.
Say you’re on the hunt for a new jacket. Try a search, then swipe through all the buyable Pins at the top of your search results. Filter by price to hone in on the right Pin for you.
Helpful strategies for Pinterest Business pages
Use a Pinterest-friendly platform like Shopify: Shopify retailers are in luck. Pinterest has chosen to partner with Shopify and Demandware at the outset of the buyable pin era. If you use Shopify or Demandware to power your store, you can easily add the Pinterest sales channel to sell products. Pinterest boosts e-commerce sales without a buy button. Now, the boost will be even bigger than before through buyable pins. Shopify users are already pushing out buyable pins and enjoying the revenue difference that it makes. It really works!
Using Pinterest Analytics: Pinterest Analytics gives actionable information such the number of impressions, views, repins and clicks. Demographic information such as countries, languages, gender, and interests are also available. Marketers act on data, not hunches. If you want to sharpen your Pinterest strategy and to maximize your buyable pin strategy, you’re going to need data.
Test your approach on mobile: The current Pinterest mobile user base is at 75% and they are three times more likely to pin or like something. As a mobile-driven social site, you must be tuned in to your Pinterest mobile strategy. Pinterest buyable pins are designed to play directly into the platform’s mobile users. Hootsuite advises businesses, “Check out how your Pins stack up against others on a smartphone screen — you may be surprised at what you see.”
Optimize your promoted pins: Your promoted pins are a fantastic place to introduce your buyable pin strategy. With promoted pins, you can select your best pins, adjust your target audience, and pay for impressions or clickthroughs. By tracking the performance of your promoted pins, you can discover their value and ultimate effect. Use the information gathered from promoted pins in order to start testing buyable pins. Data shown in Pinterest analytics and reporting from promoted pins should help you decide on good candidate pins to use.
Buyable pins have been around for almost 6 months now and case studies have started rolling in. Several sites are publishing case studies, but Pinterest has a dedicated page on success stories. Find the page here: https://business.pinterest.com/en/success-stories. Pinterest is a platform that understands its user base well. The company has not created a lot of buzz lately, but it continues to show signs of growth as well as providing e-commerce businesses a way to tap into a spending audience through valuable engagement.
References:
Pater, N. (2015). 6 strategies to sell through Pinterest. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248927
Yamartino, M. (2015). Buyable pins start rolling out today! Pinterest. Retrieved from
https://blog.pinterest.com/en/buyable-pins-rolling-out-today
Berkun, S (2011). All ideas are made of other ideas. Creative thinking. Retrieved from
http://scottberkun.com/2011/ideas-are-made-of-other-ideas/
Perez, S (2015). Pinterest expands buyable pins. Techcrunch.
