Businesses are constantly looking for way to expand their online marketing reach, and as time goes on content marketing becomes an increasingly valuable aspect of a company’s marketing strategy. Social media is a huge aspect of the content marketing strategy for businesses, but a social network that all too often gets left behind? Pinterest. With more than 250 million active users and over 100 billion pins to date, businesses are missing out on a gold mine for content marketing. Here at Responsival - your Pittsburgh content marketing experts - we work hard to make sure your content marketing strategies are optimized for your goals as a business. That’s why we’ve made a guide to unlocking Pinterest for your business’s content marketing strategy. We’ll start with a breakdown of why your business needs to be using Pinterest, then outline some of the best practices in Pinterest for business.

Why Your Business Needs to use Pinterest

A breakdown by the Pittsburgh Content Marketing Experts

As the premiere network for detailed visual content, Pinterest is an important aspect of the content marketing strategy for businesses across a variety of industries. The above graph from Statista outlines the categories in which pinners interact with. With business ranging from home contractors to fashion designers (and more!) having stake in these categories, Pinterest is a network all businesses need to take seriously. But the variety of industries Pinterest works with is just the beginning:

• Demographic Reach: One of the most valuable aspects of Pinterest for businesses is the unique demographic it reaches. More than 81% of Pinterest users are female and the site has median age near 40 (though the majority of users fall on the younger side). Additionally, 40% of pinners have an annual household income over $100,000, meaning businesses have access to an undeniably valuable portion of US and global consumers.
• Lifestyle Branding for All: Pinterest, in essence, is an idea board for the “ideal self,” full of clothing, home design, recipe, and ideas for better the self. Lifestyle branding is HUGE in content marketing right now, which is why influencers and lifestyle imaging are booming across platforms. With the ability to share everything from home improvement ideas, infographics, to well thought out outfit inspiration, the lifestyle branding capabilities of Pinterest surpass those of other content marketing platforms.
• Sales Power: The power of Pinterest for content marketing would be woefully understanded without mentioning its incredible sales power. More than 93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan their purchases and 87% have made purchases directly based on their findings on the site. On top of those impressive numbers, more than 5% of referral traffic to websites comes directly from Pinterest, making it more likely for users to purchase goods and services from the site.

With these statistics in mind, it’d be a mistake to ignore the content marketing powers of Pinterest for your business. So how do you get started? Calm down -- we’re getting there.

Getting Started with Pinterest for Business

Tips & Best Practices for Pinterest for Business

Of course, in order to garner all the benefits of Pinterest, you should take the time to make sure you’re doing everything you can to optimize your profile. Starting with setting up a profile and continuing to optimize your content, make sure you’re falling these best practices for Pinterest.

Building a quality profile

Setting up a quality profile is one of the most important aspects of a successful Pinterest business account. Start by signing up as a business account; this will give you the ability to view analytics and add a variety of your business’s information directly on your page, including:

• A link to your website
• Links to social media and Etsy accounts
• Pinterest widgets for your website

Upload a profile image - preferably a logo - in the optimal size of 165x165 pixels. When creating an About Me, be sure you use keywords that will help people find your business and the content you pin. For example, if you’re a wedding planner based in Philadelphia, use keywords like ‘Philadelphia weddings’ and ‘Pennsylvania wedding ideas’ in your about me to attract brides to your page and pins.

Be sure to confirm your website! This allows you to gain insight on what people pin from your site, adds your logo to all of your pins, and increasing the ranking of your pins when people search for them. All of these items are super valuable in allowing your pins and page to be seen.

Content Optimization

When it comes to pinterest, content is king. Not only do you want to create high-quality content, but unique and optimized content. We’ll break it down for you with a post that seems to be doing everything right.

Fabletics, in this post, follows many Pinterest ‘best practices’ for content marketing. Their image quality is high and the entire image is viewable (in other words, the image is smaller than a 1:2.8 ratio, or approximately 600 x 900 pixels). Text is used sparingly but effectively, showing the deal you recieve when shopping with them. Sice posts with image text lead to 23% more engagement and 31% more pins, their analytics on this post probably show an upward trend in interactions.

The other subtle portions of this post are perhaps the most important. The image contains a CTA, or ‘Call to Action’ in the black box that pushes users to ‘Take the Quiz.’ CTA’s increase the likelihood that pinners will click on the post that leads to their site… and eventually a sale!

Additionally, the post is promoted. Promoting a post not only increases exposure, but leads to 20% more organic clicks on your pin. Best of all, promoting a pin on Pinterest can take as little as 10 seconds, saving your business time and money spent on advertisement.

Post Time & Frequency

Much like other platforms, post frequency is all about balancing. Posting too frequently can be overbearing for your followers, but not posting frequently enough can lead them lose interest in your boards. So what do you do? Follow these best practices:

• Frequency: Once a day at the very least. Peak performance at around 11 pins per day, 9 of which are from sources other than your own.
• Pin Time: Evenings & Weekends
• Holiday Posts: At least 45 days prior to event (See graphic -- Pinterest Users are early planners!)

Think you’ve got it down? Start making your Pinterest work for you and get in touch with Responsival - the Pittsburgh Content Marketing Experts - to learn how to optimize your site, blog, and social media for your objectives this year and beyond!