Why Pinterest is the Secret Ingredient to Driving Web Traffic

The marketing magic of Facebook and Twitter is well-known among businesses, but managers overlooking Pinterest are missing a trick.

No longer the quiet contender, Pinterest boosted its traffic-driving capacity from 4.79 per cent to 7.10 per cent in just three months at the start of March 2014. In the same year, the site’s user numbers doubled, and today Pinterest stands 19th in the 50 most visited websites in the US; 49th globally.

The growth has huge implications for brand exposure in digital marketing products across countless industries, with companies able to upload, save and share ‘pins’ which are then organized into ‘pinboards’.

Read on to find out more about why it is vital for the corporate sphere to take an interest in Pinterest. 

How does Pinterest work?

Pinterest is about simple exploration and discovery through sharing ‘pins’. A pin is an idea – be it an image, a recipe or a quote – which inspires its viewer and nods back to its creative source: your firm’s website.

Pins are collected and organized onto pinboards, each of which help weave an intricate online tapestry of a life that the user wishes to share. Other users can also follow the pinboards of pins that they like.

As pinterest’s users (pinners) scroll through searched categories or search for your brand’s name directly, they may find your board and spy content that gleams. As such, pinners become united through shared passions, tastes, values and aspirations, each of which can be used to inform and curate authentic, branded content that ushers traffic to your site.

Galvanising Brand

Pinterest allows you to personalize business names and logos to obtain maximum exposure every time an image is pinned. Descriptive paragraphs can also be added to pins, providing a corporate sketch that links back to relevant departments or the main webpage.

Products and services can be pinned to different pinboards according to target audience, so that the right users get invited towards the right areas of your company.

Driving Heavy Traffic

Pinterest provides a bird’s eye view of market trends so that you can see what consumers are hitting most. By analyzing how pinboards are built and by whom, you can trace behavior growths and tune into the products that are trending.

Use market research to develop your approach so that you become a trusted authority on Pinterest. Drive this with intelligently positioned images of high quality, accompanied by insightful description that tags in what’s trending. This can all be achieved on very little, or no, extra budget.

Targeted Marketing

Ahalogy’s 2015 study shows that 67 per cent of Pinterest users access pins on their mobile devices in store. Retailers employing high-quality pins that make a positive statement stand to reach this proactive demographic, helping them to see how a product works and why it is useful.

The service is used, 66 per cent of Pinners say, to save and collect items of interest and inspiration. Marketing teams that can curate an aspirational collection of actionable pins to give people creative ideas that can help them plan for the future while integrating with your brand. Encouragingly, brands are what 83 per cent of pinners want to connect with, as opposed to stores or celebrities. 

A recent study found that high numbers of Pinterst users are millennials who will be soon experiencing major life events; pinners are increasingly turning to pinboards for inspiration on locations to get married, where to buy a home, or guidance on bringing up a new-born, which makes them highly receptive to new ideas from energetic new brands.

Use keywords to bolster your SEO strategy and optimize your Pinterest reach. A simple Google search of keywords will likely direct you to numerous pinboards that contain what you are looking for.

Competition for Engagement

Contests, such as a photography competition, are easy to leverage and great for mobilising high numbers of user images with your logo on them. Executed correctly, competitions can send your logo viral as your brand gets shared among friends and new customers.

Infinite Exposure, Higher Sales

The average pin gets around three and a half months of exposure, 1,600 times longer than a Facebook post, which illustrates the beauty and unique power of Pinterest; pins do not have to be repeated over and over, but the exposure builds and builds.

According to Wisemetrics, a Tweet hits its view and retweet peak after 24 minutes, before fading out, whereas a Facebook post can last up to 90 minutes. However, Pinterest pins live forever. Seeing as discovery and search power Pinterest, content remains evergreen. Posts that are high quality and relevant are sure to bring results.

Conclusion

In tune with most social media marketing strategies, Pinterest sharing is done freely by other parties, so no money has to be spent while the magic keeps on happening 24/7. More than just a trend, this works because the platform is at the cutting edge of a culture.

More so than ever, Pinterest is relied upon to educate and curate an online image. Marketers have a huge opportunity to be part of this process, providing meaningful engagement that can keep corporates and consumers growing in tandem in an organic, efficient and cost-effective way.