I have been repeating myself over and over again that Pinterest is one of the best marketing tools especially if you are running an e-commerce business or blog or basically anything that is online!
Why?
Well, that is because Pinterest users use Pinterest to “wishlist” the things they wanted to buy. In other words, Pinterest is a shopper-focused visual platform that is great for finding, saving and buying products. What that means for you as an online entrepreneur is using Pinterest as one of your advertising tools can result to a large number of leads and to add icing to the cake, the conversion rate is also high!
Anyways, enough with the convincing part and let us go to the main topic. In this article, I will teach you 4 steps that you can do to improve your Pinterest Marketing Skills!
So how can you improve your Pinterest Marketing Skills? Uhh, I already mentioned it in the title! Fake it Till You Make It! Hey, don’t belittle that strategy. China is now a global power because of it.
With all seriousness though, Pinterest marketing is not a science but an art. That means there is no cut and dry method that will ensure your success, rather, you need to learn from the “expert”, imitate what they are doing, make their method your own then tweak it until you are satisfied with the result.
Think of Pinterest marketing this way… if real estate agents’ motto for a successful real estate investing is location location location, my motto for a successful Pinterest marketing is observation observation observation. Observe your competition, observe your current and future customers behavior and observe your marketing strategy!
Okay, enough small talk and let’s dig deep to today’s main topic!
Best Practices to Improve in Pinterest Marketing
In this section, I will use my WealthBuilderTips’ Pinterest Business account as an example:
Find Your Competition and Stalk Them
Here are the ways how you can stalk your competition
First and foremost, you should at least know the niche or the market category your business is focusing on.
For example, my niche is personal finance and content marketing. This means that all Pins and Boards that you will find in my Pinterest are all related to personal finance and content marketing.
To give you a solid example, here are my top 5 most visited boards:
Budgeting Tips http://bit.ly/2GZZ1g1
Alternative Income http://bit.ly/2vyfXUl
Color Schemes http://bit.ly/2ZSy2KH
Personal Growth and Development http://bit.ly/2GXhBFn
Buy and Sell Guides http://bit.ly/2GZ21Jw
Next is to type in a niche-specific keyword in Pinterest’s search bar.
Notice that there three categories Pinterest will show as you type in a keyword. On the topmost, you will see suggested longtail keywords below it are “users” and at the bottom are “boards” that related to the one that you entered.
When you hit enter, Pinterest will show sub-categories on the top of the result page while it will show the Pins related to the keyword search that you did.
Your next move is to click a Pin that interest you then check the profile of the creator of the pin
You need to check the profile of the creator of the pin to determine whether they are an owner of a business or not. If they are then be sure to follow them and observe their daily marketing practices.
One way to determine whether they are a business owner or not is to find whether there is a linked URL on their Pinterest account. Business owner usually links their business URL to their Pinterest because they want to divert the traffic from Pinterest to their business website.
Now, there is a chance where a Pinterest account has a URL attached to it yet they are not actually a business. To spot which Pinterest account is a legit business account, first you need to read the business URL linked to the account. If it sounds/reads “businessy” then they probably are.
Next is to check their profile. Businesses will most likely going to fill in the descriptions nicely. Third, check their profile pictures.
Businesses uses their brand logo on their Pinterest accounts or sometimes a professional shot of themselves.
You can also check their boards and pins. It should all be related to their business.
Once you are able to identify whether a Pinterest user is a business owner then you can now move to the next step.
Make a List of Your Competition and Follow them… In Cognito
Is this step really needs an explanation? Nope. Well anyways, I’ll still be going to explain it.
Make a list so you remember who they are – well unless you have a photographic memory then you can skip this step.
You need to keep an eye on your competition especially as seasons change, holidays come and go, special events happen, etc. Your competition’s marketing strategy is most likely to change as new factors come in so it is nice to regularly visit them to constantly learn from them.
Also, you may want to use your personal account and not your business account when following your competition because their advertising behavior might change depending on to whom they are advertising their product. Most likely, they will not spend money advertising to their competition so if you are using your business account then you will not receive an advertisement from them.
Learn the Behavior of Your Target Customer
After you successfully stalk, learned, and imitate (but personalized) your competition’s marketing, it is now time to implement it. This, however, is not the final step.
It is imperative to collect data on how your customers reacts to your marketing strategy, analyze it, then make the necessary adjustment to your marketing plan to yield a much more efficient result.
There are many ways to study your target customer’s behavior and the first place you should go is to Pinterest’s own analytics.
In here, you will see all sorts of data that is helpful to your marketing strategy.
Here are some of the things that you can see (Note that this data is based on your followers who sees your posts):
See your follower’s age and gender
Once you know your audience age and gender, then you can create or re-pin Pins that are age and gender appropriate. Design or find Pins that would make your audience want to click and repin it!
Learn what “categories and interests” your followers are interested in
Knowing what categories and interest your followers are interested in will enable you to focus your energy in creating or repining pins in that particular area. No more guessing what type of Pins you should post or which Pins you should repin!
Know where they live and what devices they use
Knowing what country and what devices your followers use can also be of great benefit. For example, you can check if there is a holiday or a special event that is going on in that country then you can customize your pins so it is relevant for that season.
The information about the device they are using also gives you a lot of information that you can use when marketing your product. For example if they are web users then promote products that are suitable for web browsing. If they are using iPhones maybe you can start selling iPhone accessories, share iPhone tips and tricks article and so much more.
What I have shared about Pinterest Analytics is only the tip of an iceberg. There are so many things you can do from the data that you collect and Pinterest is pretty good in providing customer behavior data that will help you in your Pinterest marketing.
Bottom Line
Bottom line is there is no cookie cutter approach when doing Pinterest Marketing, rather, you always need to observe observe observe and adapt on what you see.
In the beggining, you will most likely not going to have enough followers to give you a decent data, so your best bet is to stalk and imitate what your competition is doing.
As you get more followers, thus more accurate data, then you will start studying the data your Pinterest Analytics provide and design a marketing strategy that will cater to your audience.
Thoughts?
Do you agree with this article? What part do you agree on and why?
Do you have an experience on using Pinterest for Business? If so, please help the community and share more helpful tips in the comment section.
Questions and objections are also welcome and I would like to hear those down below so I can continuously improve the articles that I provide.
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