Since we do a lot with social media, we thought it’d be fun to write a blog post series that tells you how to grow your eCommerce business using social channels. So to start this series off, let’s talk about Pinterest.

Why eCommerce Businesses Should Be on Pinterest

Pinterest has more than 150 million active users, and on average Pinterest users spend 14.2 minutes per Pinterest visit, while approximately 2 million Pinterest users save shopping pins to a personal board each day. But those aren’t the only reasons why having a business Pinterest account is essential to driving traffic to your website and sales growth. Here are some other Pinterest stats that help prove why you should be on Pinterest:

• 87% of pinners say they’ve bought a product because of Pinterest
• 83% of users prefer following brands over celebrities
• More than 5% of referral traffic to websites can come from Pinterest

Using the Right Type of Pins

Pinterest is the perfect platform for numerous kinds of product, and perhaps best of all, it’s a platform where customers can instantly see and buy your product from the platform. But in order to get your products in front of those millions of Pinterest users, you need to take advantage of Pinterest pins.

Promoted Pins

Promoted Pins are similar to organic pins. They help your products show up in relevant search results. The only exception is you pay to have more people see your pins. These pins aren’t distracting or in your face; they have a natural look and feel to them. According to Pinterest data, businesses that launch a Promoted Pin campaign see an average of 20% more clicks each month. Also worth noting, Pinterest users who engage with Promoted Pins spend seven times more than others. If you want to enable this feature successfully, follow these best practices for Promoted Pins:

• Create standout pins with good product images and descriptions.
• Optimize your pin by including specific and general keywords.
• Target the right audience with your Promoted Pins campaign.
• A/B test your campaign with different images and messages for each product.
• Align your campaign with big social events and holidays.
• Think in terms of longevity.
• Track your results.

Rich Pins

Rich Pins simply provide browsers with more information directly on the pin. For example, this swimsuit pin provides a detailed product description, as well as the price of the suit and that it’s currently in stock. Setting up Rich Pins for an eCommerce site improves the discoverability of your product pins and click-through rate to your website. And if you include the price on the pin, reducing that item’s price means someone who has pinned that product image receives an email from Pinterest letting them know the price has dropped—which could entice them to buy if they haven’t already.

Buyable Pins

Pinterest isn’t just a browsing or getting home decor ideas site anymore; it’s a shopping site. Pinterest realized this, and it’s why they now have Buyable Pins. These pins allow consumers to buy your product without having to leave Pinterest. By adding a blue “Buy it” button to your product pins, you give your business one more way to drive eCommerce sales. In fact, Daily Chic, a women’s clothing retailer, received a 30% increase in sales after integrating Buyable Pins. When you create Buyable Pins, it automatically enables Rich Pins (two for one, woohoo). Keep in mind this feature only works on certain commerce platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, Demandware, Magento and IBM Commerce).

Utilizing the Right Tools

Besides using the right commerce platform that’s compatible with Buyable Pins, there are also tools you can take advantage of to help drive sales via Pinterest. One of the best tool types for small startups and thriving eCommerce businesses is a Pinterest marketing/scheduling tool. Two of the top ones are BoardBooster and Tailwind. BoardBooster is mainly known as a pin scheduling tool. It lets you choose the boards you want to focus on and schedule pins to go out when you want. Its looping feature makes it seem like you’re active on Pinterest each day—even when you aren’t—while also giving your pins another chance to go viral. You can set up scheduled or random campaigns, and it provides clean, easy-to-read reports. Another raved about feature is BoardBooster’s Pin Doctor, which tests your pins and reports any problems, i.e. broken links, small images, duplicates, etc. Tailwind is an automation and management tool for Pinterest. It allows you to schedule pins, monitor your Pinterest account’s performance, shuffle items in your queue, as well as search on Pinterest and find several pins you want to highlight. Two things businesses really like about Tailwind are its robust reporting feature and its ability for you to add one big batch of saved pins to a board at once. Other helpful Pinterest tools to look into include graphics, alert/notifications and lead generation tools. Now that you know how to use Pinterest to drive traffic and sales, check back next week to learn how to do the same using Facebook.  ]]>