7 Tips to Generate Leads Online with Pinterest
In case you haven’t noticed, Pinterest is hot. In just the last year, the virtual pinboarding site has seen its web traffic grow from 700,000 unique visitors to 20 Million - half the unique visitors of Twitter. According to data from Compete’s Online Shopper Intelligence Survey, 1 in 4 consumers acknowledge that they are spending less time on other social media sites in favor of Pinterest. Brands are finding that a presence on Pinterest translates into sales. Roughly 25% of consumers reported purchasing a product or service after discovering it on Pinterest. Long presumed to be a social site dominated by women, Compete’s survey found that that 37% of males bought a product or service after seeing it on Pinterest, as opposed to just 17% of females.
The muscular traffic growth of Pinterest, coupled with the strong tendency of users to eventually purchase items discovered on the site, should be enough for marketers and business owners to sit up and take notice. Admittedly, from a workflow perspective, nobody wants to deal with another social network.
However, if these numbers have left you convinced, here are 7 tips to pin your way to the top: ²
- Post Blog Images: Get in the habit of pinning the main images from each of your blogs. Make sure to link each image back to the related blog post, and included CTAs and landing pages to capture prospect lead data.
- Info-Graphics: People love data that’s put into a visual format. Challenge your graphic designer to take company or industry data points and convert them into a compelling info-graphic.
- eBook and Whitepaper Covers: If your company has created an ebook or whitepaper, take the front cover and pin it onto your Pinterest brand page. As with blog images, make sure to link it to the corresponding eBook/whitepaper, and include a CTA and landing page.
- Photos of Satisfied Customers: Prospects love to see pics of happy customers. As an added bonus, link any pinned photos back to case studies or positive user reviews you’ve gotten from these happy campers. Just make sure to get permission from your customers first!
- Use Hashtags: Pinterest supports hashtags to make your content more search-friendly. If you’re promoting a new campaign or launching a new product/service, create a pinboard around it. Make sure to tag it with the same hashtag you’re using on Twitter and Google+ to synch your social marketing efforts.
- Create a Video Gallery: Many people don’t know that you can pin videos on Pinterest. In fact, the site’s homepage has a separate tab for videos. Make sure to add any business-related videos you may currently have on your website or YouTube to your Pinterest brand page. As with YouTube, you’ll want to add links and CTAs to give prospects a simple path down the sales funnel.
- Measure Results: As you add more images to Pinterest, use any analytics tools at your disposal to measure web traffic and lead generation performance in order to discern which images are working and which aren’t. Try to find patterns in successes and failures, so you can pin image and video content that is most likely to generate leads and convert sales.
Follow these seven tips, and your brand should be able to generate leads online with Pinterest in no time.
¹ Compete, “Pinning Down the Impact of Pinterest”
² Hubspot, “How to Use Pinterest for Business”
Info-graphic courtesy of Compete
