If you’ve ever planned an event, searched for dinner recipes, DIY tips or the perfect pair of shoes – you’ve probably fallen down a Pinterest hole. Pinterest is the place people go to look for inspiration and visual ideas for products and projects; think endless window shopping. As a visual platform, the whole premise of Pinterest is to ‘reach people when they’re making decisions.’ As marketers or brand managers, capturing potential customers when they’re in the ‘purchase intent’ phase is akin to digital gold. With over 200 million monthly users and actively growing, could Pinterest be a powerful weapon in your digital arsenal and if you’re already using it, are you making the most of the opportunity?
To help you understand how to make the most of Pinterest, here’s what you need to know:
The Platform
When it comes to social media platforms, people use Pinterest for a different purpose than they do Facebook and Instagram. Easy to navigate and highly visual, Pinterest is where people go to seek inspiration and find new products. When it comes to influencing purchasing decisions, stats show 72% of Pinners find new brands and services on Pinterest, making it a valuable channel for eCommerce businesses.
As a rule of thumb, Pinterest has traditionally yielded much better results for B2C brands. But in saying that, B2B businesses can still use Pinterest to drive awareness and leads using promoted pins. Your decision to include Pinterest in your broader marketing strategy depends on whether your target users fit Pinterest’s demographic and whether it’s the right channel for your message.
Much like sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram, as a business, you can choose to increase your reach by using promoted pins on Pinterest. Promoted pins are just like regular pins, except they’re seen by more people which mean greater reach and returns. Being noticed by Pinners looking for ideas and products ultimately increases your brand reach and drives targetted referrals to your website.
Regardless of whether your pin is promoted or not, every time a user saves your pin, their followers see it too. This opens you to a wider yet targetted audience. Because 93% of people say they use Pinterest to plan purchases, it’s a golden opportunity for online brands to promote their content to the right audience.
The Influence
Pinterest is filled with inspiring ideas and products from all over the internet. By using a browser extension or clicking the save button within a website, customers can add anything to their Pinterest account, from any site or blog. Once that Pin is added, any other Pinterest user can see it and choose to add that Pin to one of their boards. The more people that add a Pin, the more people will see the Pin. Because each Pin links back to the image’s original online source, Pinterest is an excellent source of referral traffic.
Every interaction on Pinterest leads the user closer to action. This could take the form of searching for related pins, saving the pin to their board or clicking on the Pin’s URL to learn more, or shop. Because users interact with Pinterest during all stages of the buyer’s journey, it’s a highly influential platform.
According to recent stats released by Pinterest:
- 40 % more people on Pinterest than last year
- 93 % of Pinners use Pinterest to plan purchases
- 67 % of Pinners say they’ve discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest
- 1 in 2 people have purchased after seeing a Promoted Pin
In fact, Pinterest content is the most evergreen:
The Audience
With over 200 million people using Pinterest every month, the audience is varied and growing. While Pinterest users have very different interests – they’re all actively searching for ideas and inspiration.
According to Pinterest statistics:
- 40% of users have a household income of more than $100k per year, giving them substantial spending power
- 80% of Pinterest’s traffic comes from mobile users, and thanks to features like Buyable Pins, it’s easier for them to convert and complete a purchase
- The platform is skewed towards female users, however, 50%+ of new signups are men
The Opportunity
With a range of highly visual and demographically targetted advertising options, Pinterest presents a vast opportunity for B2C brands in the eCommerce space. In recent times, Pinterest has been rolling out a series of innovative ways brands and advertisers can make their content more shoppable – one of which is the Shop the Look Pins function. While buyable pins let Pinners buy your products without leaving the platform, Shop the Look Pins allow brands to curate looks and advertise multiple products within the same pin.
Another recent innovation was the introduction of Lens, a first-of-its-kind camera search that lets users search Pinterest using an image from their phone. For example, if you take a picture of a chair or a fruit or vegetable, Pinterest will either find those products or recipes, or present similar-looking products to the image. While still a relatively new service, users currently carry out more than 600 million visual searches with Lens every month.
These updates ultimately make Pinterest more appealing for online shoppers and in doing so, present a tremendous opportunity for online brands to reach new users.
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