Why Pinterest is the Secret Weapon for Ecommerce Marketing

Why Pinterest Deserves a Place in Your Marketing Mix

Pinterest is one of those eCommerce marketing mediums that is often overlooked by new and existing brands. Brands pour money into other forms of marketing to attract consumers, while overlooking websites like Pinterest that might have a smaller following but more committed users.

Pinterest has an average of 498 million users every month worldwide. Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest users come to the platform for ideas and inspiration. As a brand, you can advertise on Pinterest in the form of inspiration and ideas for projects. In a time when consumers are steadily losing interest in advertisements, Pinterest is that small niche where advertisements might actually have a higher conversion rate.

Pinterest is a visual platform that brands can use to showcase their products and redirect customers to a landing page via their postings. Users search for ideas to start a project, and your posting shows up not as an unrelated advertisement but as a legitimate search result. The best part: it is not as competitive as a Google search result.

By actively using Pinterest and creating more inspirational content, you can increase your brand awareness, drive traffic to your website and ultimately boost sales. This article looks at why you should use Pinterest as an eCommerce marketing medium, with effective tips to generate conversions through it.

Features and Benefits of Pinterest eCommerce Marketing

The visual nature of Pinterest opens up the opportunity for brands to elaborately showcase their products for users to interact with. Reaching potential customers on Pinterest is easier compared to other platforms, and the search terms used on Pinterest make it easier for brands to target potential consumers.

Pinterest postings are always linked to an article so users can read more. If the article attached to a picture helps a consumer with idea generation, they will follow through the link. Pinterest users can also pin and group ideas together on boards for inspiration, viewable by other users depending on privacy settings — a great way for users to get to know your products and brand.

Like other social platforms that allow purchases directly through them, Pinterest has a feature known as buyable pins. Once you create a business account with Pinterest, you can easily set this up. The Pinterest business profile dashboard helps you analyze and collect data to improve your eCommerce marketing on the platform. Rather than advertising, create useful content that Pinterest users will find helpful.

Tips for Optimizing Pinterest

Content your brand posts on Pinterest has to be improved so that it actually shows up — though unlike Google, Pinterest users scroll longer through search results, so the competition to be the first result matters less. Here are some tips to get started with Pinterest eCommerce marketing:

• Complete your profile. Pinterest requires an account before users can access the site, and as a business you should complete your profile with relevant details before posting. Write a clear and concise bio about your brand, adjust your logo to fit the profile picture dimensions, and add links to your online store or galleries — using a link shortener if a link is too long.

• Create boards. Boards are groups of pins that users build to collect inspiration for later reference — and brands can create them too. A jewelry brand, for example, can create boards for earrings, pendants and rings. When a user searches similar keywords, Pinterest shows relevant boards in the search results.

How Pinterest Is Revolutionizing eCommerce Advertising

Finding inspiration and ideas has always been Pinterest's strong suit, and brands across the board have hopped on to share ideas incorporating their own products. Since Pinterest introduced video uploading, more brands have adopted video as their preferred advertising format — short videos on Pinterest show a higher engagement rate compared to static images.

More and more social platforms let viewers purchase directly from a brand inside the app, and Pinterest has its own version known as shopping ads. Users can interact with these pins and shop right away through Pinterest.

When users log into Pinterest, they are flooded with ideas and inspiration based on their past searches — most users find inspiration without searching for it. The Pinterest algorithm has advanced targeting capabilities that reach target audiences every time they log in, letting brands show up on the home feed based on each user's interests. Pinterest is more than a place for cute pictures of dogs and cats.

Successful Pinterest Ad Campaigns

If you still feel eCommerce marketing on Pinterest is not worth it, consider these examples of successful Pinterest ad campaigns. Brands that have used Pinterest well have seen considerable increases in sales and brand awareness.

Merrell Canada, a leading footwear brand, increased their outbound click volume by 2.53 times with a 60% improvement in cost per outbound click. They used many content on Pinterest to get those numbers — video, carousel, collections, idea ads, and standard ads — to enhance the brand's appearance across formats for Pinterest users.

KitKat, a household name for chocolate lovers across the globe, used Pinterest to introduce their new line of Easter products. Pinterest helped the brand increase product awareness by 11%, with another 11% increase in purchase intent from people who weren't even planning to bake with chocolate. KitKat created a set of Easter recipes using their new line of Easter egg chocolates.

These are just two of the popular brands that have used Pinterest to increase their brand awareness and sales — and your brand can do the same.

Designing and Executing Pinterest Ad Campaigns

Like every other form of advertising, you need a clear idea of who your target audience is. Based on your preferred demographic data, craft content accordingly. To find the right audience and create content that converts, research the audience's preferences, interests and behaviors. Once you have enough data, you can start creating your Pinterest ad campaigns.

While creating content, always cross-reference it with your research data. Use high-quality images of your products, and don't reuse the same image across multiple campaigns — shoot multiple versions of the same product image so each ad gets its own. After the image comes the copy: write an eye-catching description that makes viewers want to know more about the product or service, and include relevant keywords so your post shows up on the home feeds of Pinterest users with similar interests.

Pinterest provides an array of analytics for business accounts. Track the performance of existing posts and create more content based on the analytics. Regular checks and content improvements are an effective way to make sure your brand posts show up in your target audience's feed.

Psychology and the Pinterest Customer Journey

Pinterest is a hub of ideas — a visual platform that helps users visualize their ideas and bring them to life. Brands need to tap into this as a marketing strategy. Pinterest boards help users find individually curated content from other users as a source of inspiration, and the personalization Pinterest offers, coupled with helping people bring their dreams into reality, makes it an ideal place for brands to showcase products.

For a generation that loves DIY projects and easy hacks to common problems, Pinterest is a source of knowledge. Brands that advertise on Pinterest know this, so they place their branding inside content that actually helps users achieve something. To make your content land psychologically, focus on visually appealing posts that tell the viewer the story of how your brand helps with their inspiration, in varying formats so users can engage with whichever appeals to them.

From inspiration to purchase — that is how Pinterest works for brands. Its visual appeal resonates with customers planning new projects: a user finds a post, pins it to their board, and comes back later when it is time to purchase. Brands can create multiple boards focusing on general and niche audiences simultaneously, and when a user visits the brand's profile they can explore every board, driving brand awareness and sales.

Create content not as advertisements but as inspiration and ideas Pinterest users can relate to, and make purchasing easy by enabling direct purchase through Pinterest or adding relevant links to the product page. Many brands overlook Pinterest's eCommerce marketing features — don't let yours be one of them. Pinterest has been a gateway for users to discover brands they would never have found elsewhere.

The Future of Pinterest eCommerce Marketing

Pinterest might seem like a platform no one uses anymore, but the numbers say otherwise. You don't always need a platform with billions of users and a low conversion rate. With about 500 million monthly users worldwide looking for inspiration for their next project, Pinterest is brimming with consumers. Unlike other search engines, Pinterest actively presents search results as well-crafted visuals, making it easier for users to find the right thing.

eCommerce stores can use Pinterest's visual nature to showcase products in a stunning way. Studies have shown that 85% of weekly visitors on Pinterest have made purchases via pins they came across. Its user-friendly design makes it accessible to all age groups, and as the eCommerce marketing landscape keeps evolving, Pinterest is developing along with it.

Don't disregard a digital marketing medium just because your competitors are not using it — see that as an advantage and find the platforms where your own target audience lives. Pinterest is overlooked precisely because brands spend their budgets on the platforms with billions of users. Even though Pinterest's audience is around 500 million monthly users, it provides a considerably higher conversion rate than other social platforms. By creating content that reflects the ideas and inspirations of your target audience, you will earn brand recognition that eventually converts to sales — and a strong payment processing setup ensures those sales complete smoothly.