Are you interested in raising your visibility on Pinterest? Do you know which Pinterest tactics work best? We found the best Pinterest marketing tips from businesses successfully selling on the social network.

I did a little digging to find current statistics on Pinterest demographics. Here are some of the impressive results:

  • Millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram. According to data from the Harvard Institute of Politics, millennials have bumped up their use of Pinterest more than any other social network. This is surprising given the popularity of other social networks including Snapchat and Tumblr.

Pinterest Marketing: % of US Millennials on different social netwoks

  • Median Pinterest user is aged 40. (I started off in college as a Statistics major, so I should know what the means. Quick stats primer: the median is the point where half are over and half under). According to Ahalogy, what this means is that half of all Pinterest users are Gen X or older, a demographic that might otherwise be overlooked. For small businesses and social media marketers, this means that there may be an audience for your message on Pinterest that you may not have considered.
  • Half of Pinterest users make $50K+. Here’s the kicker: the household income of half of Pinterest users is $50K or greater per year, with 10 percent of Pinteresting households making greater than $125K (according to Ahalogy). This income profile is very similar to Facebook and Twitter users. You can assume there is a good amount of affluence among Pinterest users.

 

4 Pinterest Marketing Pro Tips

Digging further into Pinterest for Business, I wanted to learn how a successful small business uses Pinterest and if it is possible to be “discovered” using Pinterest tools. Here are few excerpts from the experts with great Pinterest marketing advice and tips:

Business Showcase #1: Allrecipes (Industry: Media. Pins about: Food)

We curate relevant and timely content to fuel a dialogue around cooking. By cross-pollinating among Pinterest, allrecipes.com, and email marketing, we create a seamless experience that allows us to connect more deeply with our existing community and reach new audiences. – Esmme Williams, VP of Brand Marketing

Tool: Add the Pin It button to all of your images

The Pin It button lets people save your content back to Pinterest. You can add the (free) button to all of your site’s images. The button is also available on WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger and Wix, plus iOS and Android apps. Learn how to add the Pin It button to your site’s images.

Read more on how to: Include Full-sized Images when Cross-posting Pinterest Pins on Twitter and Facebook

Pro Tip: Add the Pin It button above the fold

After noticing a big surge in referral traffic from people on Pinterest, Allrecipes designed a new page template where the Pin It button is above the fold adjacent to recipe photos and videos, which made it easy to share recipes. Allrecipes saw dramatic results: within three months, more than 50,000 recipes were pinned resulting in 139 million Pinterest impressions, and clicks on Allrecipes’ Pinterest content increased more than 900%.

For St. Patrick’s Day, I just searched Allrecipes for slow cooked corned beef and cabbage. Here’s the screen shot with more then 12K+ Pins on the recipe. Impressive and yum!

Pinterest Marketing: Example of how Allrecipes uses the Pi n It button

Business Showcase #2: Artifact Uprising (Industry: Small Business. Pins about: Photography)

Artifact Uprising is a small business that makes tangible goods from digital photos. After one of their Pins took off, the company went from basement startup to multi-million dollar company seeing triple digit growth in less than 18-months. The Pinterest marketing tip that transformed this small company:

Unlike other analytics or social media channels, Pinterest allows us to see what other categories our followers are interested in. For example, analytics showed a strong overlap between people who like Artifact Uprising’s Pins and those who also spend a lot of time on DIY projects. That insight led to Artifact Uprising focusing efforts on targeting DIY followers and blogs, which has been successful. – Kate Thurmes, Chief Creative Officer

Tool: Pinterest Analytics. Pinterest offers their own analytics for businesses. You can use these insights to find out what people are pinning from your website, see what pinners like, what gets most repined or most clicked as well as other interesting information. Use the data to focus on the Pinterest marketing tactics that are driving the metric(s) you are after.

Pro Tip: #1 – Try Promoted Pins.

“Our company has always wanted to focus on awareness and Promoted Pins has given us a way to scale on an easy-to-use platform that we’ve been looking for,” Thurmes said. “We have learned more about our customer base and how to target and segment them from Promoted Pins than from any other media platform.”

Pro Tip: #2 – Add beautiful, high quality images that are a mix of contextual product shots, interesting use cases and inspiring lifestyle photography. Read more on how to: Automatically Post Photos from Pinterest.

Pinterest Marketing: Look at Artifacts Uprising most popular products as shared by you on Pinterest

Business Showcase #3: Moorea Seal (Industry: Small Business. Pins about: Products)

Pinterest is a huge source of traffic and sales for both our online store and storefront. I wouldn’t have opened our online store in the first place if it were not for Pinterest and the massive following that was  constantly asking where they could purchase all of the beautiful products I was Pinning. – Moorea Seal, Founder

Tool: Test Rich Pins. Rich Pins, also known as ‘Super Pins’ or ‘Enhanced Pins’ are a fairly new addition to Pinterest marketing features for business. These enhanced pins include extra information right on the Pin itself. There are currently six types of rich pins:

  • App Pins: Includes an install button, so Pinners can download your app without ever leaving Pinterest. (For now, App Pins are compatible with iOS apps only.)
  • Product Pins: Includes real time pricing, availability and where to buy. Pinners also get notifications when product Pins they’ve added drop in price.
  • Recipe Pins: Includes ingredients, cooking times and serving info to get Pinterest cooks excited to hit the kitchen.
  • Article Pins: Includes headline, author and story description, helping Pinners find and save stories that matter to them.
  • Movie Pins: Includes ratings, cast members and reviews to help Pinners learn about new flicks.
  • Place Pins: Includes a map, address, and phone number.

If your content falls within these categories, you can add additional contextual information (as an example you can add the price to a product) which will populate in Pinterest pins. To get started, you’ll need to prep your website with meta tags, test out your Rich Pins and apply to get them on Pinterest through Pinterest’s Rich Pin Validator.

Pro Tip: Add Pins that are natural, personal and lifestyle focused. Also, collect and promote images from your followers and customers.

“The most successful images are beautiful and memorable—not just because of the product but because of thoughtful styling and environments.” Moorea Seal stays on top of promoting new products on Pinterest with regular photo shoots, plus they also collect and promote images from their followers and customers.

Pinterest Marketing: Moorea-Seal

 

Have you setup your Pinterest business account? Just reading the success stories alone, should make you add Pinterest as a key ingredient in your social media mix.

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Have a few Pinterest marketing tips? What works for you? We would love to hear from you.