When people hear the word “Pinterest”, they think about a lot of things, but for some reason, opportunity isn’t the word that comes to mind.
We know…
You probably think of crafts and DIY. But that’s actually our point. Pinterest marketing hasn’t become an overly commercialized platform. At least not yet. This gives marketers and business owners a golden opportunity to jump on this train and reap the benefits.
Strategize First
As with any Social Media Marketing strategy, you need an end goal. So start by considering what you’re specifically trying to accomplish and why. The sooner you can recite this in 1-2 lines, the more clear your vision will be. With a clear vision, comes great direction! Sadly, this is missing from a lot of strategies we see – brands do things just to be a part of them, rather than utilizing them as part of a larger, overarching campaign that resonates with their customers.
Bottom line – whatever strategy you decide on going with, it has to do one thing well. Provide value.
Showcase Your Value Without Selling It
There’s a question you should ask yourself before marketing on any social media platform, which should be “why do people use this social media platform?”
This is because the “why” people use a certain social media platform impacts “how” they use it, which directly impacts how they consume information and how you position your value.
Seriously, how they receive your message can make or break your success before you write your first headline. You have to set yourself up for success before you can start executing.
In this case, Pinterest is popular with people that want to learn new things and be inspired. That’s what a large percentage of Pinterest users are looking for, so that’s the angle you’re working with. Straying too far from this will cause your message to be ignored big time.
Frame your position to align with popular themes like DIY (Do It Yourself) home decor, recipes for people looking to lose weight, arts and crafts – things like that. From here, you have to consider how you can provide value to people using Pinterest marketing. Keep in mind the last thing these people are looking for is a sales pitch, the best way you can sell yourself is by providing useful (or entertaining) information that ties into your brand and the products/services your company offers.
If this doesn’t make sense at first, think of it this way…
Someone goes on Pinterest for inspiration, motivation, whatever… and a pin from your brand gives that to them. They’re then compelled to visit your board(s) and see what you’re about… in the long-term, this can lead to website traffic and sales. At the very least, people will be discovering and establishing trust in your brand, which you can leverage for other Digital Pinterest Marketing efforts.
Get Creative
So you have your strategy in place – a great start we all need to get the ball rolling. Now comes the tricky part – presenting real value that stands out from everything that everyone else is doing. This is when you have to think outside the box.
More times than not, this is what separates really good work from lazy, cookie-cutter marketing. If you phone this in, you’ll be wasting your time and resources. Get your message right and go all in!
At this point, ask yourself… what useful information can you provide potential customers, how will it help them and how can you deliver it in a way they’ll be receptive to?
Put some serious thought into your brand and the products/services you provide. It’s best to tie in the value of your content with the product/services you offer – that way, potential customers can get a taste of what to expect.
As far as what kind of content to create, it’s always best to test. Here are some solid ideas to consider:
✏️ Short-Form Blog Posts – great for answering a simple question
? Short Videos – concise, easily digestible content that is known to yield more social shares
✏️ Long-Form Blog Posts – excellent for in-depth guides for more complicated situations
? Long-Form Videos – best for more in-depth, story-styled content
? Infographics – nice graphics that visualize hard info, such as data
Remember – the content space is very competitive. Lots of brands and influencers are always trying to dominate their respective niches because they want their content to appear when people search for spaces, keywords, boards, hashtags, and general topics. With that said, professional content development takes time to succeed, which naturally requires lots of patience. Expect to fail and learn from your mistakes so you can get better little by little.
But what kind of content will really help you hit your mark?
Educate Your Audience
We’ve said this once and we’ll say it again… people use Pinterest for inspiration and motivation.
The best way to motivate or inspire someone? By teaching them something. Sharing useful tips, tricks, and step-by-step guides is a great way to establish credibility for your brand and provide Pinterest users incentive to follow your boards. After all, the value of any social media profile comes down to what they can offer their followers.
Entertain Your Audience
As much as people are seeking knowledge, they’re also looking to be entertained on some level. In a world where people are surrounded by media all day, every day, it’s become something unavoidable. Plus, it helps your cause in two other significant ways.
More interesting, entertaining content is more inclined to be noticed. Whether people are searching by topic, hashtag, or what’s being recommended to them, they’re going to be a victim to whatever grabs their attention.
Secondly, entertaining content turns more first-time viewers into engaged followers. In the eyes of a social media funnel, this is your ticket to organic customer acquisition.
Besides, who would be interested in dry content anyway?
Track Your Success
The digital world is an unpredictable place. You can theorize why a certain strategy or piece of content might be successful, but you’ll never know until you actually try it.
This is where things get important.
You have to establish goals and KPIs to adequately measure what’s working and not working. Let’s break this down briefly…
Your goal is what you’re trying to accomplish. A goal for an eCommerce site would be to increase sales, revenue, etc.
A KPI is more like a sub-goal that supports your main goal. So if your goal is to increase eCommerce sales, an example of a good KPI might be website traffic.
Makes sense?
We spend more time measuring KPIs because long-term goals can be very complicated, vague, and sometimes even arbitrary, making measuring them difficult. The bottom line, if you establish the right KPIs and work to improve them over time, they’ll directly benefit your main goal and your bottom line.
So how do you apply this utilizing Pinterest Marketing? Easy.
Think about what you’re trying to achieve. Your big picture objective – that’s your main goal. From there, establish smaller and more attainable goals to support that goal.
Finally, you can start looking at the nitty-gritty. We suggest making a spreadsheet where you list the metrics for each individual pin you post, followed by their main metrics (impressions, clicks, etc.) Once you’ve posted enough pins, you’ll have yourself a pool of data that you can reference in the future. Look at all the top-performing posts – what do they have in common? Same with the posts that don’t perform as well. Use this data to connect the dots and leverage this information to improve your future pins.
Yep, finding consistent success is harder than it sounds. That’s ok though – you can always pick our brains. We’ve been helping brands of all sizes and industries with Digital Marketing for over 20 years. Have a question? We’ll analyze your strategy for FREE! Just contact us here today or give us a call at (800) 978-3417.
