Statistics don’t lie. With Pinterest, the platform has reached a whole new level of social growth in 2016. Pinterest’s monthly user-rate hit 150 million people, up 50% from the previous year.
Pinterest has become a force to be reckoned with in the social stratosphere, which is why ensuring your company has a comprehensive Pinterest marketing strategy is critical for success in 2017.
We’ve studied what works and what doesn’t for eCommerce businesses and have compiled the ultimate list of Pinterest marketing tips and tricks.
Implement these crafty Pinterest growth hacks, and see your social revenues skyrocket in the new year.
- Make pins buyable for easy availability to purchase on Pinterest.
- Leverage user-generated content from your customers.
- Engage Pinterest users with a contest to promote your business.
- Ensure that your brand is appealing to the growing male demographic using Pinterest.
- Use keywords within your Pinterest board that will resonate and rank well.
- Start collaborative boards that allow fellow pinners to generate content and connect with fellow shoppers.
Let’s get more in-depth about each of these Pinterest marketing strategies:
Pinterest Strategy 1: Make Your Pins Buyable!
As an eCommerce company, allowing your customers to purchase products through all available social platforms is critical for success. Not only does it allow for omni-channel optimization, but substantially increases both traffic and revenues as well.
Our friends at Shopify teamed up with Pinterest to nail down some metrics to back up this sentiment. According to their research, the AOV (Average Order Value) of Pinterest users is higher than every major social channel, at a whopping $50.
The same research found that 93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan purchases.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Take ShopHearts, a women’s online clothing boutique, as an example.
After realizing the competitive advantage they would have by implementing buyable pins, they noticed Pinterest users spending 30% more AOV than customers coming from their website.
The proof is in the pudding for eCommerce companies utilizing buyable pins within their Pinterest marketing strategy.
Pinterest Strategy 2: Leverage User-Generated Content
There is no replacement for images and reviews that come straight from your loyal shoppers.
They create a sense of brand loyalty around your business, a metric with endless potential.
Seeing customers actually enjoying the products you sell should be the end-goal for all eCommerce companies.
The Gap, who are Pinterest eCommerce giants, perhaps implement this Pinterest strategy better than anyone right now.
With an entire board dedicated solely to customers showing off their own outfits, the Gap has generated a loyal Pinterest following of more than 130,000 users.
Allowing your customers a space where they can both share and see user-generated content is a Pinterest marketing strategy that cannot be overlooked.
Pinterest Strategy 3: Engage Customers with a Contest
Who doesn’t love a good contest?
Promotional giveaways are a great way to increase engagement and create buzz around your business.
When considering the cost-benefit, promo giveaways may very well be one of the best investments you could make all year!
With Pinterest users being some of the most engaged, active social users online, it only makes sense to fuse these two strategies together when marketing on Pinterest.
Country Living magazine (who, by the way, is a Pinterest marketing boss), has ran multiple successful contests boosting both engagement and brand recognition.
One of their more popular promos was a contest titled, “My Country Living Dream Bedroom.”
The rules were simple: Pin 10 items, 5 of which had to be from Country Living themselves, and use relevant hashtags on each photo.
With the winner receiving their dream bedroom set, Country Living was able to generate thousands of comments, entries, extensive word-of-mouth marketing, and free press around the contest.
Bringing Country Living more than 500,000 followers, it seems as though this Pinterest marketing strategy is a definite winner.
Pinterest Strategy 4: Don’t Forget About the Guys
Men and shopping: two words that typically do not go well together.
Other than waiting in the designated “boyfriend section” outside the changing room, they would oftentimes rather be anywhere else in the world.
However, Pinterest is changing the game when it comes to eCommerce companies targeting male audiences.
Men have quickly become the fastest-growing user demographic on the platform, with more of them using Pinterest than reading Sports Illustrated and GQ combined!
Talk about an untapped market. One of our favorite male-centric businesses utilizing Pinterest for marketing is BeardBrand.
Focused on everything beard related, BeardBrand has done an awesome job of creating an online space that will appeal to gupys.
From clever user-generated hashtag boards such as #BeardDadGoals, to a board solely dedicated to bearded men and their dogs, they know where their bread is buttered.
Other companies may want to take notice of this newer effective social media strategy, and hop on the express train to making the for men great again.
Pinterest Strategy 5: Use Keywords That Will Resonate
No matter what social platform you use on the web these days, the words you are seeing are not by accident.
From blog posts to product descriptions, everything is targeted to be seen by the most relevant audience possible.
Well, guess what? Keywords on Pinterest are no different. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a Pinterest marketing strategy that most companies don’t necessarily utilize as an eCommerce resource.
From optimizing hashtags, pin descriptions, and even your URL, these sly marketing tweaks can help your business rank better than your competitors.
Nordstrom has done a fantastic job implementing SEO into its Pinterest marketing strategy. With more than 4.5 million followers, its highest engagement on any social channel by far, Nordstrom has optimized its board to consistently rank above the competition on both Google and Pinterest.
Outranking your competitors? Certainly a Pinterest growth hack we can get behind.
Pinterest Strategy 6: Start and Collaborate in Group Boards
Group boards. Often overlooked as a key Pinterest marketing strategy, you should not let this easy growth hack opportunity pass by so easily.
Group boards are a feature on Pinterest that allows for other pinners and contributors to upload their own content to your communal board. This can be a great tool to encompass several Pinterest growth hacks into one channel, such as UGC, customer engagement, and SEO.
One company killing it in the group board Pinterest strategy are the good people at Packaging Diva. With more than 450 group board members, 53,000 followers, and more than 100,000 pins, Packaging Diva has created a board that has endless reach to thousands of users.
Not a bad way to leverage that UGC in your visual marketing strategy.
Concluding Our Pinterest Marketing Strategy Hacks
Oftentimes overlooked compared to other channels, smart companies should see past the Pinterest social rhetoric.
For eCommerce platforms in particular, Pinterest should be an integral part of your marketing strategy.
The growth of its users is undeniable. Not only are they a more engaged audience, but they also use Pinterest while making advanced-stage purchasing decisions.
To our eCommerce friends, the choice is clear. Use our Pinterest marketing strategy growth hacks, and soar above the competition in 2017.
This article was originally published at Yotpo.com, by author Corey Bloom.
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