Our social media experts Adrianne and Esther will take your marketing plan from bored to boards with tips and tricks for using Pinterest. From rich to promoted pins, tune in to learn how to shape your Pinterest account into a business generating platform.
We’ve included the transcript of the video for your reading convenience. If you have any questions about Pinterest for Ecommerce, leave us a comment!
Esther: Hey everyone, thanks for joining us for our chat about Pinterest for Ecommerce! This is Esther and Adrianne from the Volusion Marketing Services Team here to help you out with your social media.
Adrianne: Today we’re going to talk about one of our favorite social media platforms for ecommerce and some great tips to keep in mind. Our agenda is going to include an overview of the platform, and then we’ll get into some recent developments that you’ll want to keep in mind. We’ll follow this up with our predictions for the future of the platform
Esther: First, let’s review what Pinterest is and why you should use it. Pinterest is a social media platform where you can create boards and pin things on them; it’s sort of like an inspiration board. This is a very visual platform, so it’s perfect for people who have products that really stand out.
Adrianne: You’re most likely to see people pin things that inspire them, which includes DIY projects, cooking, crafts, decorating, personal style and more. Even if you think your products don’t fit into these molds, give Pinterest a try; get creative with your products and help inspire other people. You might find a whole new group of customers you didn’t even know about!
Esther: The great thing about Pinterest compared to other social media platforms is the fact that the content lives on the platform much, much longer. While an extremely popular Facebook post might stick around for a few weeks at most, pins can get repinned for months. This means long-term exposure for your products.
Adrianne: One of the things we want to talk about today is promoted pins. These are still pretty new to the Pinterest platform, but they have quickly helped several business become more visible in the social media world. Promoted pins look like regular pins, but they're actually paid ads that get seen by more people. Not only can these pins increase brand awareness and engagement, they can also boost traffic to your website since they link directly to your content or your products.
Esther: To get started with promoted pins, pick one of your most popular blog posts or a product that sells really well. If you start with things you already know are successful, you can build traction while working on promoting other products and content. Promoted pins do well when you have great pictures, so really take the time to make sure your images are on point. You may also consider a long form image, like the one here, as Pinterest is a scrolling platform, so longer images will stay on a person’s screen for more time.
Adrianne: Promoted pins are charged on a cost-per-click basis, so you are charged only when someone takes an action with the pin. This is the same concept for several other types of online ads. You should also make sure your first few promoted pins are able to be shown for a long time. Once you’ve gotten some experience making these ads, and you have a better idea of what they will cost, you can start experimenting with seasonal, short term posts and see how your audience responds.
Esther: Check out some of the examples on your screen. These successful pins are all long-form, use eye-catching images with vivid colors, and include a great description with a couple keywords. Use these as inspiration when you make your own promoted pins. The best ones will make a pin out of something their customers need.
Adrianne: If you’re feeling confident in your Pinterest abilities, and if you’re also comfortable using custom code, you might consider checking out rich pins. These are pins that have real time pricing, availability and where to buy a pinned product. Rich pins are pretty advanced, so if you’re just starting out it’s a good idea to spend time on building out your Pinterest profile first.
Esther: Now that we’re all caught up on how to use rich pins and promoted pins, let’s make sure you know how to use them effectively. To get the most out of your Pinterest marketing, put your most basic SEO hat on and think optimization.
Adrianne: Pinterest is essentially a search engine just like Google, and users find what they’re looking for by entering keywords that are relevant to their search. The more of those keywords included in your titles and descriptions, the easier and more likely it is for visitors to find your products.
Esther: And the results are twofold, since Google acknowledges quality and consistent content on Pinterest with better organic rankings.
Adrianne: So, you might be wondering – how do I find these relevant keywords and where do I use them? We’ll go through a couple of our favorite methods, and they can even be used without leaving the Pinterest website. Since you’ll be optimizing pins on a more detailed, product level, you’ll need very targeted keywords to garner the attention you want. Thankfully, Pinterest’s in-house features are built for this long-tail type of search.
Esther: Absolutely! Just like a typical search engine, Pinterest has an autocomplete function in the search bar that helps users find what they’re looking for but also serves as a helpful tool for marketers. For example, if you type in “summer dress” in the search bar, Pinterest will automatically suggest popular searches related to it, such as “summer dresses for women”, “summer dresses for teens”, and “summer dresses for wedding guest”.
Adrianne: To get even more detailed, try entering one of those auto-populated phrases such as “summer dresses for teens”. You’ll see a scroll bar banner beneath the search bar with the most popular modifiers, like “cute,” “country,” “beach,” and “boho,” to filter even further for more specific searches - resulting in keyword phrases like “boho summer dresses for teens.” This is Pinterest’s Guided Search function, and we love using it to find those complicated and more niche long-tail keywords.
Esther: It all sounds much more difficult than it actually is! Just think of it this way: you simply want to be as descriptive and as relevant as possible. Some important fields you want to make sure to include these thoroughly researched keywords are your board names, pin descriptions, alt image tags and especially your profile. A properly optimized profile gives your business legitimacy and a solid base for the rest of your boards and pins.
Adrianne: Remember to ease these keywords in your content naturally! The last thing you’d want to do is throw a chunk of keywords at your potential customers in a disorganized manner.
Esther: To sum up – Create long, descriptive keywords with Pinterest’s in-house Autocomplete and Guided Search features, and incorporate those keywords naturally into your descriptions. Ideally, combining these methods would produce the best results, but we understand being a small business owner means a perpetual lack of time so test these tools out to find the one that works best for you!
Adrianne: When it comes to Pinterest ads specifically, targeting has come a long way since their first introduction. From extremely limited and generic targeting demographics such as gender, device, location and language to current diverse interest and keyword targeting, reaching a specific audience has become much easier. Soon you’ll be able to choose from over 400 interest options!
Esther: The most exciting change will be Pinterest’s new email targeting option. Later this year, small and medium sized businesses will have the capability to bulk import a list of at least 100 customer email addresses into Pinterest. Pinterest will then match the list of email addresses to specific user accounts, so you can target previous customers. This targeting method can be paired with the other targeting options we just mentioned, like interest targeting and keyword targeting.
Adrianne: If that doesn’t convince you to advertise your business and products on Pinterest, let’s get familiar with the simple facts: More than 75% of Pinners are browsing through the social network using their mobile devices and about 67% of those Pinners review their Pins on mobile while they’re shopping simultaneously.
Esther: In a more general sense, businesses are increasing their mobile marketing ad spend by 38% and social marketing ad spend by 15%.
Adrianne: This is a social network that attracts visitors with the intent to buy - whether they end up Pinning an item for later or purchasing it immediately. So not only do you want your retail business on Pinterest, but you want each and every one of your Pins to be impactful.
Esther: We’re basically saying that you’ll be able to display ads to people who have already purchased from you before... on a social network full of users with the mindset to purchase. Now that’s pretty powerful.
Adrianne: Besides all of the new targeting options to look forward to, Pinterest will be rolling out video ads in the near future. For such a visual platform, it makes so much sense! Merchants will be able to make cute video pins of product highlights, how-to or DIY videos, and much much more. For example, if you sell food-related products, you’ll be able to show potential customers cute and snappy cooking tutorials. It’s a wonderful opportunity to put your products in action.
Esther: We’re so excited to see these new developments and can’t wait for you to maximize your social selling and branding power with them. If you’re a retailer, Pinterest is where you need to be. If you’re not quite sure how to get started, Volusion is holding a special promotion for a free setup with a 3-month prepaid Social Media Marketing package or a 6-month commitment package.
Adrianne: Thank you so much for joining us today! Stop by our website and connect with us on our social media channels for more information!