How to Market on Pinterest

Image Representing How to Market on Pinterest for Small Business

Not sure how to market on PinterestWith limited resources, small businesses find it tough to decide which social media to invest in. See if these tips help you decide if Pinterest is right for your marketing strategy.

How to Market on Pinterest

Still pigeon-holed by many as the women’s social media, small businesses who fail to notice the accelerating importance of Pinterest as a referring site will miss an opportunity. According to shareaholic.com, “Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.” Yes, go ahead and re-read that. I’ll wait… Convinced? Read on for tips on how to market on Pinterest so you can add this social media community to your small business marketing strategy.

Set up your Pinterest Account to Market on Pinterest

  • Create a business account.
  • Pick a username (15 characters maximum, so you will have to be creative). Use your company name, focus keyword, or other memorable, easy-to-spell idea that reflects your business.
  • In the About section, create a useful description that uses your target keywords to help Pinterest users and the search engines know what your business is about. Take time to edit the 200-character description to ensure it is both appealing and search-engine friendly. Need help selecting keywords, see keyword research for small businesses.
  • On the settings page, verify your website by clicking the verify button next to your website URL.

Make your Content Pinnable

  • Every page and every post on your website should have a high-quality, interesting image. This is good for your website and the only way you can pin your content to Pinterest.
  • If you sell products on your website, experiment with making the product photos more interesting by showing them in use, adding people, or any other idea that is more interesting than a product in a white background.
  • Add “share” buttons including a “Pin it” button to all your pages and posts to make it easy for visitors (and yourself) to pin your content.
  • Install the “Pin It” bookmarklet to your browser so you can pin others’ content that may not have the “Pin It” button.

Pin, Keyword, Link, Repeat!

  • Pin:
    • Your own:
      • Blog posts
      • Web pages
      • Landing pages with amazing offers
      • Videos (pin right from your favorite video channel like
    • Others’ content – sharing the content of thought leaders that you follow will increase your expert status. Seems counter-intuitive, but when you are sharing the best of the best (of which some is yours), then your account becomes the “go-to” place for insight into your market!
    • Use creative pinboard names that grab attention yet provide a clear indication of its contents. This is another place to use those keywords. Instead of “For the Bath”, try “Bathe in Luxury” or “Luxurious Bath Gifts”.
    • Use pinboards to separate topics or your store’s pins from others’ content you pin.
    • Let others pin for you with contributor boards. For instructions, see “how to let other people contribute to your board“.
  • Keyword:
    • The secret to how to market on Pinterest is to add your target keywords and their synonyms and related phrases to the description of each pin. You have a whopping 500 characters, so make them count! This helps your content be found on Pinterest…just like on your website. Use of your targeted keywords in the pin descriptions maximizes the referral benefits of Pinterest.
    • Use the words your customers use. Always consider who your buyers are, what they are interested in, and what advice or tips would help them.
    • Even if you are pinning others’ content, ensure you are using your targeted keywords that are relevant to the content. Remember, you are attracting users to your account so they can see what great content you offer.
    • Focus on making the pin so that it leads to the original content seamlessly. Using the same keywords on the pin as you used on your page of content will ensure that the Pinterest user finds what they expect which is a key to attracting the right visitors to your website.
  • Link:
    • Always include a link to a page or post on your website in every pin. Examples:
      • …we share more house painting tips as www.yourdomain .com/yourpage.
      • …not sure what emergency generator is for you, visit us at www.yourdomain .com.
      • …for installation instructions, see www.yourdomain .com/your page.
    • Never shorten URLs with tools like bit.ly or ow.ly as shortened links are sometimes marked as spam.
  • Repeat:
    • Like all social media communities, to be successful you have to participate.
    • Gain followers and keep them by providing useful, helpful, and interesting pins.
    • Use your focus keywords in every pin and pinboard description.
    • Now get pinning!

Do you have advice on how to market on Pinterest? Does your small business get referral traffic from Pinterest? Does it drive traffic to your blog? Has Pinterest participation increased your business? Have you used WaNeLo? Does it work better than Pinterest for you? Share your stories!

 

By Wanda Anglin

Wanda Anglin has a passion to help businesses and non-profits reach their goals by attracting more of the right website visitors. Her empathy and understanding for small business challenges comes from a background in project management, sales support, accounting, and business ownership. When not helping clients, Wanda is traveling, fixing her home, or tending to her 900 trees (really).

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