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Expanding Your Marketing with Pinterest
Why Pinterest?
Visual marketing has always been a popular tool for businesses. With the introduction of the camera phone, photos have become even more common both in business and recreation and, for many, sharing has become almost as second nature as breathing.
Is Pinterest Part of Your Marketing Strategy?
Up to this point, you may not have thought about Pinterest as a viable marketing outlet, however, every business has a story to tell. Visual marketing will help you tell your story.
Since its launch in 2010, Pinterest has grown to over 70 million users and 25 Billion pins. 500,000 of their users are business accounts. Pinterest’s audience is active and already very engaged. Taking advantage of this would be a good way to expand your marketing and drive more traffic and sales to your business.
Here we’ll look at how some national brands have utilized this particular type of social media to increase their product’s appeal to more buyers.
Don’t Just Show Your Products, Show the Lifestyle They Can Create
Currently, the most popular pins on the site are fashion, food, and home decor. Enter Lowe’s, a brand that has worked to customize its activity to appeal to Pinterest’s audience. Lowe’s Pinterest subjects include everything from inspiration for a new room design to gift ideas that link neatly to their online store.
The result is a digital arena of ideas and 3.5 million followers.
Bring Pinterest to You
Since there are still people who like the process of actually going to a store, finding an outfit, and trying it on, Nordstrom has advanced its marketing process to include Pinterest as an in-store promotional tool. The store highlights its most popular pins by showcasing on site in their store locations.
And, Nordstrom isn’t the only company integrating this new type of marketing approach. Target and others are also transitioning their in-store promotions.
Highlighting the most-pinned items in your store will encourage people to buy. Whether you sell exclusively online with eCommerce or have a brick-and-mortar location, you can highlight your most pinned products to draw more attention to them.
Humanize Your Business
Try forgoing the glossy marketing you may have been using up to now. Straightforward, down-to-earth images can be just as engaging. Just look at Ben and Jerry’s marketing to see how well it can work.
Ben & Jerry’s Pinterest boards include the History of the Company, and The People Behind the Pints. By telling their story through pictures, they’ve provided fans with an invitation to look at their brand’s wider mission.
Your staff, stores, customers, and hometown are all worth celebrating. Showing the human side of your brand builds a more personal relationship with your customers.
(A picture of the author on his morning walk around the soccer fields.)
Work to Inspire Your Audience
Most people would probably think GE would be the last company they would see on a Pinterest board. It would be hard to show the visual side of a manufacturing brand, so GE when another direction and chose to share the inspiration that drives them to innovate. They found a way to draw-in their followers by making the most of their stunning pictures.
Their boards highlight specific ways their products can be used, with titles like FABULOUS Kitchens, Brilliance in Motion, Gifts for Geeks, and Under the Microscope. GE has created an exciting, original profile that appeals just as much to style-conscious follows as it does to techies.
If you don’t think you have a Pinterest-friendly brand, try to think outside the box. Attract your followers through the images that inspire you and your brand’s innovation.
Pinterest is a great visual social platform that is increasingly becoming a powerful source of customers online for store owners.
Visual storytelling is the most popular way to reach your fans right now. Even if you don’t feel like you have the allure that most Pinterest users like remember, it is all about cultivating a body of images that can be used to inspire your followers.
For more ideas on how to make Pinterest the next stage of your marketing campaign, check out ArticulateMarketing.com.
About the Author Jim Keys
Currently, I am working with other entrepreneurs and new business startups on challenges they encounter by sharing my experience and knowledge, and through coaching and mentoring when opportunities arise. I enjoy helping others fine-tune their operations and succeed in business and life.