Pinterest for small businesses can often take a backseat, with the priority focus on Facebook and Twitter.

However, Pinterest for small businesses is a great marketing platform. Pinterest can be a really powerful platform, especially those with products to sell.

Pinterest is totally different to other, more mainstream, social networks in how it works and how people use it.

It also offers up a whole range of new opportunities for small businesses to market their brand especially around seasonal periods!

Using Pinterest for small businesses is the way to go.

If you aren’t aware of what Pinterest is…

It works by catching the attention of a user through amazing visuals, inspiring ideas and designs.

It focuses on the power of images. Users can pin these images and save them to ‘boards’ which work like a real-life mood board for ideas.

The same principles as other social networks exist in that you can follow other users and they can follow you. Pinterest also isn’t self-contained so you can link to your website through descriptions on pins.

Using Pinterest for small businesses is a great way to showcase products and or services.   

Why set up a Pinterest account?

Here are a few facts about how popular Pinterest for small businesses is:

• 83% of users make a purchase based on content posted by brands they saw on Pinterest
• Six out of ten millennials use the social network to discover new products
• There are more than 320 million people using Pinterest every month worldwide
• Two billion pins are saved to four billion boards every month

It’s worth trying it out considering you can reach a wide- range of different demographics.

How to set up a Pinterest profile

Pinterest allows you to set-up a business account for your personal profile. They even have Pinterest for small businesses resources you can use!

To create a new business profile, follow these simple steps.

Step 1

Go to Pinterest for business and click sign up

You should see this page appear

Step 2

Fill in your details and press create account.

Step 3

Once you have done this click on your home feed under business and you should see this page where you’ll need to fill in other business details.

Pinterest basics

Think of Pinterest like Google but for searching images only.

or example, you could search “wedding dress” and thousands of results will appear on the site from different companies or general users.

Pinterest will suggest key words underneath the search bar to help users narrow down what they’re looking for.

The different types of Pinterest feeds

Pinterest has a range of different feeds so new ideas and inspirations can be discovered in different ways. The first is the home feed.

The Pinterest home feed is a collection of pins saved by other users. Collections of boards will appear based on your interests and will be inspired by your recent search activity.

The Pinterest following feed

Your following feed is where you’ll find the latest pins being saved by people and brands you follow. To view your following tab simply click following on the menu bar across the top.

More ideas for boards feed

Once you have created a board on your profile you can discover more things to add by clicking the ‘more ideas’ button above the board. A great tool for small businesses.

This will help you discover pins related to pins you have within the board. This allows you to easily build up a board which is great for creating curated content.

What are Pinterest boards?

Pinterest boards are a collection of pins that you have saved to your profile. A board on Pinterest is exactly like a real-life mood board. It is a place to collect all your ideas, inspirations, themes, colours and much more! Using Pinterest for small businesses is a great way to showcase your products.

As a brand or business this can be a very important factor as it means followers can easily access what you have to offer. For example, you can have a board purely dedicated to lipsticks that you sell. 

It’s a really easy way to help your followers find the information that interests them.

What are Pins?

Pinterest revolves around pin and they are basically high-quality images. Having pins with great imagery and captions is the main way to build a following on Pinterest. This will help your followers find information that interests them thus making your business a go-to resource within your sector!

You can also create pins which link directly to your website using Pinterest for small businesses is a great way of attracting organic traffic.

How to start pinning

To save a pin

that you have found on Pinterest, position the mouse over a pin that you would like to save.

Click on the pin if you would like to see more details relating to the image. Simply click on save and this will save the pin directly to a board within your profile.

To create a board from a pin.

Creating a board is also fairly simple once you have found a pin that you like. Click on the downward arrow next to save button and a page should appear like the one below.

Here you can name your board and the pin chosen will save directly to that.

Key Pinterest for small businesses tip: Remember if you want to change the board in which a pin is saved to use the downward arrow again and change the board.

Here’s an example. I wouldn’t want to save this recipe to my ‘Bohemian bedroom design’ board therefore I’ll select one that’s more suited so that it is organised.

Pinterest even suggests ideas for board names if you’re stuck on what to name one.

Creating a pin from an image on a website

If you’re looking through the internet and you stumble across an image that you’d like saving to your Pinterest board, follow these simple steps:

First, download the Pinterest browser button. When you find an image you would like to save to your profile, click on the Pinterest button in your toolbar and select the image you would like to pin. As an example, I have chosen Vogue.

Once you have clicked on the Pinterest button it will come with images which can be saved from the site into a board.  You can add or change the description of an image before saving it to a board.

Create a pin using images saved on your computer

To create a pin from images saved on your computer follow these simple steps.

Step 1

Go to your Pinterest profile

Step 2

Click on the plus sign and then click pin

Step 3

A screen should appear like this one, where you can give your image a title and add a description. Drag and drop an image of choice from your files. Then simply press publish.

Make your website Pinterest friendly

Having a Pinterest account is great way to reach goals as a small business. A good place to start is making your website ‘Pinnable’ so that users can save your images to their own boards. This means that your products have the potential to reach a wider audience.

You can add Pinterest buttons and widgets to your website and app including the Save button, Follow button and Pin, Profile or Board widgets.

Here is how to make your website Pinterest friendly

If you have a WordPress site like many of our clients do, here is information on the Pinterest Pin It plugin

If you would like some extra help integrating this into your website, give us a shout and we’d be happy to help!

Rich Pins

Rich pins give a richer experience for the user and increase engagement. How? They include real time information, pricing, availability, how to buy and much more. If something changes on the original website (e.g. yours!), then the Rich Pin is updated to reflect that!

There are currently four types of Rich Pins you can make use of including product pins, recipe pins, article pins and app pins.

Product pins

These are great for if you’re an online business. Having product pins makes shopping a lot easier for customers through Pinterest. These types of pins can include real-time pricing, stock availability and information on where to buy the product within the pin.

Recipe pins

Great if you own a food business of course! A recipe pin can give users an overview of a recipe with ingredients and cooking times available to view in one pin.

Article pins

These are ideal if you own a blogging site, as they make it easier for your followers to save and share your content. Each article pin will display the title, the headline, author and description.

App pins

These are great if you have an app for your business and want to expand your audience.

The app pin will either show an install button so that users never have to leave Pinterest to download it and or on desktop will have a link directly to site.

Note: The app download is only compatible with IOS devices.

If you want more an insight into Rich Pins click here.

Creating Pinterest boards and pins

Here are a few tips that you should follow when creating boards and pins. 

• Upload high-quality images so your products can be showcased in a good light. 89% of pinners will use Pinterest for purchase inspiration.
• Showcase your images well. Either edit them to improve brightness/contrast etc or bed them into templates with your logo on… Canva is a great tool for!
• Keep text on pins short and sweet as the main focus is the image.
• Try to post new content weekly so you’re more likely to be discovered in search.
• Write search friendly captions for your pins. This way you’re more likely to be ranking within the top page search results for those search terms.
• Create a brand aesthetic. Ensure that most of your pins have the same layout/colours so you’re easily identifiable as a brand.
• Try and pin every day so you can build a community.

Track your pins using Pinterest analytics

It’s a great way to know which pins are doing well and which need some work doing to them. This can all help tailor your marketing strategy and achieve your business goals!

With a business account you can access these within your profile and see things such as how many impressions were made on your profile and how much traffic is being gained to your website.

As you can see there are many marketing uses to Pinterest! Pinterest for small businesses is a great way of building up a following so potential customers can see your products.

We have only touched the surface on all the capabilities available on the platform. How you use it will depend on your business and what suits you best.

There are lots of different social media platforms you can use for your small business. When using social media as a business and marketing tool, we always recommend having a plan – or strategy – in mind.

Read our 7 reasons why SMES need a social media Strategy here

If you would like to chat about Pinterest for your business, give us a ring on 01427 808870 or email us at [email protected]