Should Your Business Have a Pinterest Account?

There are a variety of reasons why businesses are hesitant to create Pinterest accounts. Many believe that Pinterest isn’t the place to connect with their target market. Others believe that Pinterest is for wedding planning or DIY inspiration, and that’s it.

These common misconceptions have prevented many from taking full advantage of the business features Pinterest has to offer. Before you decide to promote on Pinterest, it is important to determine if it is the right move for you.

How Does Pinterest Work?

So what makes Pinterest different from other social platforms? The first is that Pinterest may seem like a social platform, but it is really a search engine that allows users to save and organize images into mood boards based on their own personal preferences. Users can group images by categories, themes or interests by “pinning,” or in other words saving, them to their curated boards.

While it isn’t comparable to Google, Pinterest works in the same way. You log on to Pinterest, enter your search terms in the search bar and voila, a series of images appear. 

You want your business to rank high in the search results of Google, but do you want them to do the same on Pinterest? The short answer is yes!

Is Pinterest Relevant?

Pinterest’s growth in the US has slowed down in comparison to its earlier years. In the midst of this slow growth, the company has been promoting growth internationally by expanding into new languages. Pinterest reports that more than half of their current user base and 80% of new sign-ons are from outside of the US.

Pinterest doesn’t have the most impressive user rates in comparison to other popular online platforms. As of 2019, Pinterest boasts 291 million monthly active users. These numbers are small in comparison to Instagram and Facebook’s billions.

But Pinterest is still the fourth most popular social platform in the US, ranking above Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Snapchat. When it comes to marketing your business online, user rates don’t matter as much as influence does.

Is Pinterest a Good Fit for Your Business?

Pinterest is still relevant. The real question is whether or not your business should have a Pinterest account.

Pinterest has a powerful influence on the buying decisions of its users. It is reported that 61% of users have purchased something after seeing a promoted pin. Pinterest users are in discovery mode. They are looking to purchase and that is why the platform is so successful. 

Users go to Pinterest for inspiration to complete projects, plan events, make dinner, find a gift and more. In most recent months, millions of users turned to Pinterest to find the perfect Christmas gifts. 

If you sell items direct-to-consumer, Pinterest for Business is a no-brainer. Today’s shoppers have unlimited resources to make educated decisions. Pinterest makes shopping easy by providing an array of available product options. 

Pinterest promotes a quick conversion rate because users are only one click away from entering your e-commerce site when they come across one of your pins. 

If Pinterest is going to work for you, you need a website. Pinterest can put your products and services in front of the right people, but your website is ultimately responsible for making the conversion. 

What Types of Businesses are Successful on Pinterest?

You don’t need to sell products to be successful on Pinterest. Top performing brands on the platform include LitJoy Crate, BlendJet® and Noom®. If a book subscription service, a blender and a fitness app can all find success on Pinterest, who is to say your business can’t too?

If you are already creating content for your business, why not give Pinterest a try? Your blog posts, podcasts and YouTube videos all deserve a pin that drives traffic from Pinterest to your website and other social platforms.

No business is too big or too small to join Pinterest because the platform is dedicated to helping all the businesses it serves. In November 2019, Pinterest launched Pinterest Shop, a curated profile that showcases shoppable product pins from small businesses that have yet to build that brand recognition. 

On a platform that houses so many different products, it is easy to get lost. To ensure that this does not happen to you, take full advantage of the new features and tools that Pinterest rolls out.

How Do I Promote My Business on Pinterest?

First, begin by creating an account and uploading pins of your products or services. Business accounts are free and come with an analytics feature and keyword tool that allow you to track your engagement and better target potential customers.

Organic traction is ideal, but paid promotion is a Pinterest offering you don’t want to sleep on. Paid promotions are subtly placed in between unpaid pins to make them appear more organic. Paid promotions can target users who have already engaged with your website and users who share targeted interests.

How Does Pinterest Compare to Other Platforms?

Pins last forever. On other social platforms, most posts have time stamps. You see a post and you move on. 

Instagram tried to follow in Pinterest’s footsteps by creating a feature that allows followers to save posts and organize them into categories. When this feature was first released, in 2016, there was no way to track how many times a post had been saved or whether that save converted into a purchase. Now, Instagram business accounts can see how many times the post has been saved, using the insights tool. 

No other social platform functions as a search engine. While other social platforms limit searches to profile names, pages, locations and hashtags, Pinterest is the only one that allows users to make itemized searches. 

Pinterest also offers a feature called Pinterest Lens that allows you to search for items inspired by anything you point your camera at. Simply click the camera icon in the search bar, snap a picture and search results inspired by your picture will appear. You can also upload images from your camera roll.

Let’s Summarize

• Pinterest is a visual search engine with 291 million monthly active users.
• Pinterest is relevant and growing in popularity internationally.
• A variety of businesses can find success on Pinterest, as long as they have a website.
• Pinterest is the only social platform where posts, or pins, in this case, stand the test of time.

Still not sure whether your business should create a Pinterest account? Leave your questions and comments below!