Pinterest is a great tool for people to discover things they are interested in or want to buy. The whole spectrum is covered — from products and services to creative ideas and places of interest and anything in between. It has an amazing search engine similar to Google.
By Anna Bennett
Two of the things I really love about Pinterest compared to other social media networks are how it can drive significant, qualified traffic back to a website and that it is easy to measure your results on Pinterest. Meaning it is easy to track your traffic to know if you are improving or getting a positive return on investment. Many businesses and entrepreneurs instinctively know that they need to embrace social media but which one?
If you’re singlehandedly managing your own social media accounts, that task can be daunting because you have to keep up with so many changes on multiple platforms. I suggest instead of getting spread too thin on many, you focus and do very well on one. I recommend Pinterest for a variety of reasons.
Pinterest attracts people with a buying intent versus Facebook & Twitter who attract their followers with a conversational intent. Isn’t that what you want, more buyers looking at your goods and services while they are shopping?
Pinterest is five years old and still in its infancy but you need to get Pinterest leverage because if you’re not you are definitely losing out on website traffic, market intelligence, brand awareness and so much more. Your competitors are mostly likely on Pinterest which means your potential social media traffic and conversions are being poached. Stop fretting about if you should be on Pinterest. I’m here to tell you yes, get on Pinterest and master it before your competition takes your market share using this powerful and rapidly growing social platform.
Here are some recent stats you need to know:
- Pinterest has firmly secured its position as the 2nd largest referrer of social traffic.
- Pinterest accounts for 90% of social media shares on the web.
- IBM analyzed trends across two leading sites, Facebook and Pinterest. Facebook referrals drove an average of $90 per order, while Pinterest referrals averaged $100 per order.
- Pinterest users spend more than two times as much online as the average American internet user.
Pinterest users shop more often and spend more than any other social network so if you’re an e-commerce site it’s a no brainer, you should be on Pinterest with serious consistent intent.
People visit Pinterest with a buying mindset and their intent is about the future. For marketers it’s heavenly because consumers are telling you what they love.
While many B2B businesses still think that Pinterest is just a bunch of pretty pictures and DIY crafts for women this is simply not the case. Let’s take a step back and understand how women use the internet to see how any business can benefit from Pinterest:
- 75% of women in the U.S. use the Internet for product information before making a purchase
- 35% research products and services online before buying offline
- Women account for 58% of all total online spending
- 22% of women shop online at least once a day
Are you kidding me? 22% of women shop on line every day. Pinterest has a search engine like Google, people come to Pinterest to look for things they like and want to buy. Why wouldn’t you want to dominate Pinterest in your category?
Pinterest is very important for creating a powerful online presence and attracting clients because it can help you rank on the first page of Google under your most important key words.
Step back and read that again. Pinterest can help you get on the first page of Google’s organic search using your keywords.
What that means to business people is more traffic and better traffic because they are self-selected and free traffic to their website. As the owner of a B2B business my number one source of traffic is Google organic search and my second largest source of website traffic is from Pinterest.
Bottom line: The longer you wait, the more you may have to lose. Pinterest marketing can lead to more customers, more traffic, and more conversions. It’s here to stay. If you’re not sure where to start get Chapter 1 from my Pinterest Marketing for Business course for free.
Anna Bennett is the owner of White Glove Social Media and co-founder of Peak Performance. Her 30+ years of experience in retail operations and business coaching is the rock solid foundation for her dynamic marketing and training services. She is the author of Pinterest Marketing For Business Master Online Course and How To Become A Pinterest Account Manager and has been featured in Forbes Magazine.
