How Does Pinterest Works for Business Growth and Advertising?

How does Pinterest work for business owners?

That is one of the top questions I’m asked when I tell people that I’m a Pinterest strategist that supports small businesses to implement Pinterest into their marketing plan.

I get it… Pinterest is the unknown of online marketing. It requires different graphic designs, intentional posting, purpose, and maybe even a funnel or two to make it all work.

And that is what makes Pinterest the smart choice for any business.

It’s purpose-driven. The whole point of putting a pin on Pinterest is to drive traffic back to your business website. The more traffic, the increase in leads and sales.

Pinterest is a Visual Search Engine.

It’s ranked as the 3rd largest search engine behind Google & YouTube.

People search Pinterest and then save pins that inspire them. Things they want to buy, create or have in their lives. It’s personal to them.

How To Get Started on Pinterest

The first thing every business should do is go to http://business.pinterest.com and open a Pinterest business account.

It’s free to get started and get’s your business going in the right direction.

It’s super easy to set up a business account, and if you want my step by step walk through, check out my post, How to Set up a Pinterest Business Account.

Once your account is set up you have a few options to get started.

1. Create your boards. Boards are place holders for your pins. Think of it like going to a library. A board would represent each section of the library.
   • Reference section
   • Kids section
   • Fiction section
   • Non-Fiction section
   • Business section
   • Study rooms
   • Check out desk
2. Create pins that are intentional. Make sure that pins are congruent with where you are taking the Pinner. We call this a ‘market to message match’. The pin makes a promise and the link destination fulfills on this promise.
   • Pins should be easy to read
   • Graphics should be high resolution
   • Pins are your mini billboards
   • Pins have to be saved to a board

Funnel Marketing

Pins that perform best on Pinterest are ones that are part of a marketing funnel. Meaning that the PIN leads to an optin for a freebie, an offer, a product, or blog content.

Funnels can be both complex and/or simple.

Simple funnel for Pinterest might look like a Pin that goes directly to a product the Pinner can buy. Etsy would be a good example of this.

Complex funnel might look like an email option –> to a sale offer –> to a purchase page with an email follow up sequence.

I’ve seen businesses use trip wires, which are low $7 offers that lead into one time offers…

At the end of the day the purpose of Pinterest is to get found when people do their search and to have at least a simple funnel in place where people can buy the product or service they are looking for.

There are a lot of tools out there that you can use, but I like to keep it simple so I use SamCart as my one-page offer and sales page. They convert beautifully and are super easy to set up. Plus with a free 14-day trial, you’ve got nothing to lose.

Promoted Pins (Ads)

When you think of how Pinterest works for business, promoted pins are amazing. They are low cost advertising with a longevity that no other platform offers.

Pinterest works with 2 types of Promoted Pin Methods.

1. Quick Ad Creation
   • Select your Pin
   • Fill out ad Details
   • Promote your Pin

This method is quick and simple. Similar to boosting a post on Facebook.

You will select your Pin, fill out the ad budget, have a few options for targeting and then click the promote button.

When you use this type of promoted pin, you have only three targeting options to choose from.

1. Interest – choose the interest categories that you think your audience might be searching inside of.
2. Age groups – choose select age ranges to target to.
3. Gender – choose male, female, or unspecified.

These types of promoted pins are good for exposure and getting your brand in front of more people quickly in the shortest amount of time.

2. Campaign Creation

Pinterest works by driving targeted traffic. Campaign creations let you create a more targeted audience. You can customize your targeting.

There are different types of audiences you can target with Pinterest.

• Audience Targeting – Create your own custom audiences
• Interest Targeting – Pick topics that are related to your brand so that you can reach people based on other pins they engage with.
• Keyword Targeting – know how your audience might search for you, use keywords to get ultra-targeted.
• Demographics – gender, age, locations, language, devices

With campaign creation you can set your budget, split test, expand your targeting, and optimize for delivery.

Of the two types, the best and recommended one by Pinterest Ad managers is the ‘Campaign Creation’ and specifically learning to use keywords in your targeting.

Over the last several years, I’ve tested hundreds of ads on Pinterest. From my own products, affiliate products, and paid media for my clients,

Pinterest ads are one of the best forms of marketing business owners can use in building their brand, getting traffic, generating leads, and making sales… all without breaking the budge.

As part of my Pinning Ingredients courses, I’ve put together a Promoted Pin course just for you. Inside you will learn everything from…

• Keyword Research (how to find keywords that convert)
• Pin Image Design – Optimize your pin for clicks and traffic
• Campaign Creation – Building a Targeted Campaign
• Private Pinterest Marketing Mastermind Group
• The Golden Report – The Metrics that expose how an ad is performing.

Get access to my one of a kind Pinterest training.

This is my simple recipe for understanding how to turn a pin into a profit with Pinterest and Promoted Pins.

Did you get value from my post on how Pinterest Works? If so, please share on Facebook, Pinterest, and WebTalk.

Yours in Gratitude,

Chef Katrina

P.S. How would you like to tap into the largest luxury incentive program to scale your business, generate leads, retain customers, reward employees, and build your brand authority in your industry?