5 Tips on How to Use Pinterest for Business

Pinterest boasts a sizable, active user base with a high level of purchasing intent. It’s essentially where users go to figure out what they’ll buy for their next project, social event, or craft. With that, it enables visually appealing brand storytelling and unique opportunities for product promotion. 

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Users can easily find and “pin” ideas on “boards”, including products and services. Because of its one-of-a-kind search and discovery based user interface, Pinterest provides comprehensive audience information as well as advertising alternatives, and a smooth transition from pins to business websites and e-commerce platforms. If you’re new to navigating Pinterest, we have a few tips to get your business started.

                                                                       Photo courtesy of Szabo Viktor

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Tip #1: You’re going to need a Pinterest business account

Pinterest business accounts are different from personal accounts. We do not recommend using a personal account for your business as it could prevent you from optimizing your promotions. You don’t want to put all that work in for nothing, right?

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Some perks of using Pinterest for business:

• You get to add a nifty shop tab to your profile
• You can run ads through your account
• Most importantly, you can tell what the results are of your strategy using Pinterest’s analytics features

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How to set up your account:

1. Go to https://www.pinterest.com/ and click “Sign up” in the upper right corner of the page.

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2. Click “Create a free business account”.

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3. Here is where you can add your business details and click “Create account”.

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4. Add your business details into the platform.

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5. Great! You’re off to a good start and can decide how you best want to begin your journey with Pinterest by selecting from the next menu. We suggest you build your profile first.

6. Add a photo, fill in or edit your profile details.

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Tip #2: Get your Pins pulled together

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Pins are why customers come to Pinterest. They can be a variety of media types (carousel of images, static image, video, etc.), and, when collected together, are kept on “Boards”.

Pins can be promoted and advertised on the home feed, in category feeds or search results. When pins become popular, they are repinned across the site, gaining visibility to new users and increasing marketing reach. 

You can even utilize something called Rich Pins, which updates pins on your business Pinterest profile automatically. This could be useful if your business has frequent price changes or new product releases. There are a few types of Rich Pins you can utilize and we recommend you check them out: Article Rich Pins, Product Rich Pins and Recipe Rich Pins.

Pinterest recently launched the Idea Pin to allow creators and businesses to group multimedia content into one pin. If you’ve got a recipe to share, a new product to demo, or makeup look you want customers to shop, this could be a great format for your business.

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To get your first pin up, follow these steps:

1. Take a few steps back. Identify what you want your marketing strategy to be on Pinterest. Who is the audience you are trying to reach? Does Pinterest cater to that audience? Once you have that nailed down, get started on crafting your ideas for boards, messaging and individual pins.

                                                               Photo source: Pinterest Business, 2023

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2. Check out the competition! You don’t want to go into this blindly, put in all that hard work and get lost in the crowd. Identify how you’ll differentiate your business and strategy to ensure ROI.

3. Once you’ve got your homepage up and running, click on the little plus sign to the bottom right hand corner to create a board or pin. And that’s it! You’re all set.

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Okay, but what makes a pin, you know, pinnable? We know a few things for sure:

• Branding that is compelling and enticing will attract customers to your pins. So don’t be shy – make sure your branding is present and consistent.
• Images and videos should be high quality and crafted to view on mobile devices. We know you peruse Pinterest on your desktop during that exceptionally long all-hands meeting, but most users are browsing on their phones. Make sure you’re using a 2:3 aspect ratio on visuals.
• Work the SEO – always. Pinterest is no exception for prioritizing your SEO. Pin descriptions should be optimized and consistent with other messaging.
• Double check all links and make sure they function. We cannot stress this enough. Links that lead nowhere lose conversions and repins.

Okay – now go make some cool pins!

                                                                    Photo courtesy of Fahim Reza

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Tip #3: Arrange your boards

So you’ve got your pins drafted. Next would be to arrange them using boards. Boards are where Pins are stored and managed. Users can arrange pins in Boards that fit a range of categories depending on the pinner (think: vision boards). If you are a business, you can use pins and boards to tell a brand story and appeal to pinners across Pinterest. 

Boards are easy to use and share with others for a multitude of reasons, however, if you prefer to keep them secret, that is okay, too! Keeping a board secret might make sense if you are preparing it before the launch of a new product or marketing campaign. 

These types of boards do not show anywhere else on Pinterest and can only be seen or accessed through the creator/administrator’s profile. You can similarly protect boards, but if someone has a link they will be able to view it.

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Here are a couple of really cool boards that showcase smart brand marketing on Pinterest:

• Whole Foods utilizes a mix of boards highlighting tips and recipes using their products. It’s very possible they are also making the most of Rich Pins using their “What’s New” board, too.

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• Home Depot takes it to the next level by mixing the wildly popular DIY trend with design insight, gardening pins, and even color schemes. This mix of boards can be beneficial for cross-searching pins.

• A way to frame boards may not be so much what your product is, but how it can be appealing to your customers. How will a user utilize your product and implement that usage in everyday life? What are the trending terms for that product or service utilization? Make a list of terms before putting your boards together to help generate the most effective ideas.

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Tip #4: Use a social media tool to streamline posting to Pinterest

We know Pinterest is one in a growing line of social media marketing products that businesses are using to promote their brand and products to potential and existing customers. We’ve got a platform that can help you keep track of what’s what with Synup Social.

• Multi-channel connections. Connect up to 5 social media channels and get posting!
• Need to save time? We’ve got you covered. You can schedule posts out well in advance once you’ve got your content calendar nailed down.
• Streamline collaboration and improve execution. We know the best way to improve marketing reach and ROI is to focus on enabling teams with our tools. Synup Social can get you there by being a one stop shop for all of your social media platforms. 
• Track your metrics with our extensive analytics reporting feature. 

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Tip #5: Derive insights from Pinterest analytics to improve your marketing strategy

You can review metrics from Pinterest pin performance directly on the platform or through Synup Social. This enables insights from your marketing campaigns and promotions. We recommend using the analytics features to improve and inform your social media marketing strategy over time.

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Ready to get your business up and running on Pinterest? Synup is offering a free trial today to help your company reach more customers by uniting your social profiles on one platform. Start a conversation with us to find out how we’re making this process stress-free with maximized results.

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