How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business

When you’re developing your social media strategy, you probably consider the Big Three first: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. But if your business has a presence on these platforms alone, you may be missing out on a highly engaged audience via Pinterest.

If you don’t believe us, check out these numbers:

In this how-to, you’ll learn how to use Pinterest for business, from the formats that will help your pins stand out to the easy ways to build content that fits the platform.

Before you get started, it’s useful to understand the terminology of the Pinterest platform:

Pins – Think of a ‘pin’ as an individual post on Pinterest. Typically, it’s an image plus a URL. Users will ‘re-pin’ posts to share them (like Pinterest’s version of a retweet on Twitter).

Boards – Pinterest users build ‘boards’, which are collections of pins. Most users will create multiple boards to showcase different ideas, themes, moods, and styles.

Feeds – The Pinterest feed is what users see when logging in. It’s a collection of recent and popular pins from their follower list.

Your goals on Pinterest may be two-fold:

You can think of Pinterest as multiple collages of everything that users are interested in. Pinners often jump from one topic to the next–from planning a vacation to choosing what to wear to a wedding. It’s the explorability factor that helps you market to a wide pool of Pinterest users.

Pinners expect high-quality images in posts, so visual lifestyle brands are typically the best fit for the platform (think fashion, beauty, and travel). Creatives such as photographers can also do well.

But these aren’t the only brands and products that can win over audiences on Pinterest. With a bit of creativity, many types of content can shine. A perfect example of this is Greek Yogurt brand Chobani. Their account, on which the company shares recipes and healthy eating tips, has amassed over 100,000 followers and their content is consistently repinned.

If you’re a brand and want to use Pinterest, it’s best to create a Pinterest Business account. This unlocks features like analytics, which will help you understand what works and adapt your content. Pinterest for Business also enables the use of Pinterest’s advertising features, including Promoted Pins, which can help you boost your content into the feeds of non-followers.

Once you’ve decided to market on Pinterest, it helps to know how to build pins that are likely to be re-pinned and shared. Here are some tips to help grow your Pinterest account:

Your Pinterest images should align with the type of content that Pinterest users are accustomed to consuming. That means that every post you produce should be led by strong visuals.

One of the biggest challenges of running a social account is the need to consistently create fresh content. Instead of designing new pins from scratch, try using Pinterest templates to produce more content in less time. Pin templates are built with Pinterest in mind, catering to the vertical image format.

If you aren’t a graphic designer, try a browser-based Pinterest post maker, like Placeit. Or, if you’re more comfortable with Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, download a Pinterest template from Envato Elements (with a monthly or annual subscription) or Envato Market.

For a curated selection, check out our roundup of Pinterest Image Templates.

This might seem like basic advice, but too many brands treat social media marketing as an ad hoc pursuit. If you don’t see immediate traction, it’s tempting to walk away from the platform and re-dedicate your efforts elsewhere. But if you post consistently, your followers are more likely to engage with your content.

As always, you can use analytics as a feedback loop to improve your strategy. Review what’s working, then tailor your future posts to match.

You can also schedule posts in advance and in batches to take the pressure off on a daily basis. Using a Pinterest scheduler like Planable would make the process easier so you’d have time for anything else.

Pins include three key elements: an image or video, a URL, and a text description. Ensure your pins are searchable by including keywords that pinners are likely to use when looking for inspiration relating to your category. But don’t stuff your pins with keywords, or use keywords that don’t match the content that you’re posting.

Not many marketers are taking advantage of Promoted Pins. Take it directly from Pinterest’s recent filing to be publicly traded: “We’re still in the early stages of our monetization efforts.”

These ambitions mean that Pinterest’s platform will only grow in time, and using Promoted Pins now will make you an early adopter, giving you a chance to master advertising on the channel before everyone else jumps on board.

Don’t miss out on the audience and opportunity Pinterest offers. Make an account, design pins using the smart templates, and start sharing them with pinners on the platform.