Pinterest Marketing For Small Businesses: Are You Missing Out?

by SOS Media Corp — Posted on November 4, 2016

Marketing and advertising have been revolutionized by changes in technology and consumer behavior over the past decade. As a result, it’s now possible for small businesses to compete more easily with larger enterprises.

It’s no longer necessary to have a huge marketing budget to reach thousands of new customers every week.

Social media marketing is a proven and established way of building relationships and influencing people. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are now a key part of the marketing strategy for many companies. Other social networks also present opportunities for reaching new and existing customers, and some of these have seen rapid growth in recent years. The popularity of taking and sharing photographs has made Pinterest one of the largest social media networks, and there are now over 100 million users of the site.

Pinterest & Your Business

Pinterest allows users to create virtual pin boards on which you can display photographs and graphics. You can also “re-pin” and “like” pictures shared by other users. Used creatively, Pinterest offers the opportunity to create viral content, and an image can reach thousands of people if it’s popular.

If you can see the potential for marketing your enterprise with Pinterest, it’s important that you sign up as a business user rather than as a personal one. This enables you to plan your content in a structured way and track the popularity of your pins and boards. Select a profile photo that’s relevant to your business and consistent with your website and other social media accounts.

Let Your Existing Customers Find You

The first step to building a presence for your business on Pinterest is to let your existing customers and followers know that you have an account. Chances are, most will start to follow you and engage with you if they are already Pinterest users. Adding Pinterest buttons to your company website and email signatures is a quick and easy way of announcing your presence.

The nature of your business will determine the type of photos and images you will use for Pinterest marketing. If you manufacture or create products, there are obvious opportunities to publish pictures of them. Services and professions require a little more creativity. For example, a landscape gardening business could display pictures of the plants and shrubs you offer to customers. Pinterest can be used to show off your company’s personality and brand, so don’t think it’s all about product shots.

Using Boards to Reach New Customers

You can create several different Pinterest boards to market your business, and this is a great way of reaching different customer groups. For example, a professional photographer could have boards for wedding, portraits and baby photography. Give some thought to the descriptions you use for boards and pins, and include relevant keywords so they appear in searches. As you start to attract followers, it’s important that you pin new content on a regular basis to keep people interested. You can use text and video as well as photographs and graphics to make things more interesting.

In Summary…

The key to success with Pinterest marketing is to interact with other users and be genuine. Don’t give people a hard sell, or you’ll lose their interest. Follow users with similar content working in similar fields. For example, a wedding photographer could follow florists, dress designers and wedding planners. By providing quality content on your own boards and taking an interest in boards and pins displayed by other users, your following will increase.

Once you’ve set up the foundations of Pinterest marketing, you can move on to more advanced methods. You can use it run competitions, capture customer feedback and find other local businesses to partner with.