How to Use Pinterest to Drive E-Commerce Sales
Looking for another platform to boost your e-commerce sales? Would you like to try something different? Then you might want to consider using Pinterest. It’s a versatile platform to help your business get recognized around the web- and it’s also aneffective way to drive e-commerce sales.
In case you don’t know what this is, Pinterest is a social network that has a software system designed to help users discover information on the Internet through using images, videos, and GIFs. It can be called a catalog of ideas, as it uses primarily visual content to help users discover things online.
Although Pinterest is not the most popular social network for advertising, it still has around 200 million monthly active users and over $11 billion market value. High versatility and quick access to any information, as well as the use of visual content make Pinterest a pretty good platform for marketing and advertising.
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Statista[/caption]
Image credit: Statista
Pinterest subscribers use this platform not only to create boards to pin ideas and collect interesting information. Reportedly, 93% of active pinners use Pinterest to plan for purchases, making this social network a great platform for e-commerce. Moreover, over 50% of Pinterest users have actually purchased a product after seeing it on Pinterest. This means that if you plan your Pinterest marketing campaign right, you’ll be able to substantially increase your e-commerce sales.
What can we offer to help you boost your e-commerce sales with the help of Pinterest? Take a look at the following tips. They will help you better understand this platform and how it can help you boost your sales.
#1 Apply SEO rules
To use Pinterest right, the first thing you need to understand that this platform is a search engine. Thus, all SEO rules apply here too. If you want to drive e-commerce sales for your business, it’s important to use the right keywords in order to help your pins rank higher.
Pinterest uses visual content to help users browse the web, however, each image on Pinterest has descriptions, where you can place keywords to rank your image. Unfortunately, some entrepreneurs don’t pay enough attention to the importance of image descriptions and that’s a very common SEO mistake.
When writing an image description on Pinterest, it’s important to be strategic. It’s crucial to use descriptive keywords that describe your product, connect to its purpose and mention your target audience.
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Dot&Bo pin[/caption]
Image credit: Pinterest/Dot & Bo
A practical Pinterest image description covers the following aspects:
- Purpose: on the image above you can see that description starts with the purpose of the product right away. You’ll be able to grab the attention of your potential customers by showing them how they can use your product in their everyday life;
- Description of the product: mention material, color, size and other aspects that describe your product. You can mention them several times in your description to boost your Pinterest SEO.
- Key feature: what makes your product different? The example above describes the tables with the removable wooden lid that also serve as a storage space for your blankets and pillows. Think of one or two features that help your product stand out and mention them a couple times throughout the description.
- Audience: who could potentially be interested in purchasing this product? Address your audience several times in the description.
A better way to increase your e-commerce sales with the help of Pinterest image descriptions is using long-tail keywords. They are longer, more specific keywords that help users find exactly what they want. For example, the short-tail keyword would be “designers” and its long-tail version for a more specific search could be “contemporary art-deco designers”.
Long-tail keywords make the search results more targeted: thus, it will be easier for your customers to find your product and purchase it. And if you want to drive e-commerce sales, the longer the tail of your keyword is, the better. Nevertheless, it’s still important to keep these keywords relevant. If they are misleading, they can negatively impact your traffic and your sales.
#2 Use Pinterest boards to categorize your products
Pinterest is all about organization. Keeping your own profile neat and organized will attract more attention to your pins.
Take a look at how Dot & Bo organized their Pinterest profile, using boards. Each board is named after its purpose and contains information about the company’s products and how they can be used in certain designs.
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Board Categorizing[/caption]
Image credit: Pinterest/Dot & Bo
Organizing your pins into boards will help your followers track them easily. It also helps create positive customer experience as well as build brand awareness. You can also include the logo of your business on the thumbnails like Dot & Bo did on the example above. This helps your profile stand out among other similar profiles.
You can also create new or join the existing Pinterest group boards. To start a group board, create a simple board first and then go to editing.
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Pinterest Group Board[/caption]
After including the name and the description of your board, as well as choosing the category, pay attention to the “Collaborators” part in the editing window. Here you can invite all companies or entrepreneurs to collaborate with you on your group board. This way you will not only be able to share your ideas with other professionals, but you’ll also gain access to their followers, who are subscribed to their Pinterest profiles.
By creating a group board, you can unite all other entrepreneurs, who share your interests. For example, Jo Ann Hines, the owner of the Pinterest profile named Packaging Diva owns a group board called Packaging Pick of the Day that has over a hundred pins and 441 group board followers. It’s a great way to give your brand more Internet exposure.
#3 Collaborate with Pinterest influencers
Leveraging social media influencers for your business is the latest digital marketing trend. It’s a great way to get some extra attention. If you want to use Pinterest to drive your e-commerce sales, bloggers and influencers can help you with that. Pinterest is famous for its non-celebrity influencers, collaboration with whom is considered more effective than with celebrities. Users tend to trust them more, as these influencers are paid to try out the product and promote it.
Consumers can relate to non-celebrity influencers and value their opinion. For a business, collaborating with a Pinterest influencer means getting the instant attention of their huge following base. Pinterest influencers can pin the post with your product and instantly share it with their followers.
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Bekka Palmer collaboration with Food52[/caption]
Image credit: Pinterest / Bekka Palmer
For instance, a famous Pinterest influencer Bekka Palmer pinned a photo by food 52 that depicts their space-saving dish rack. Bekka’s profile gets over 800 thousand monthly views from followers who regularly review her pins. Thus, all promotional pins on her profile get a lot of extra attention.
Collaborating with Pinterest influencers is not free. But in exchange, you’ll get great web exposure and attention from thousands of potential customers.
Note:
It’s important to remember that your e-commerce business should be interesting to an influencer. So when searching for one, keep in mind that the interests of your business should coincide with the interests of an influencer. Look through an influencer’s profile and read comments to understand their profile better.
Make Pinterest Useful
Pinterest is a platform with a great potential for e-commerce. It’s also a great alternative for your business, as using Instagram and Facebook for e-commerce promotion has become too clichéd. Hopefully, our tips will help you leverage Pinterest successfully and drive your e-commerce sales.
