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3 Reasons Pinterest Is A Great Marketing Tool For Small Businesses

Here are three convincing reasons why you should take a closer at marketing your small business on Pinterest.


Photo: Rebecca Honnan, digital media executive at Quality Formations; Source: Courtesy Photo
Photo: Rebecca Honnan, digital media executive at Quality Formations; Source: Courtesy Photo

Have you heard about Pinterest? Surprisingly, many entrepreneurs don’t give it the time of day. After all, the visual bookmarking tool launched in March 2010 and is still relatively new to some.

Its goal is to help users discover and save creative ideas, but let’s face it –not every business owner has the resources or time to sit around creating pretty pins all day. But the truth is, there’s a lot more to Pinterest than a pretty face. In fact, there’s no better place to generate new sales leads (if their demographics align with your marketing sweet spot).

According to Pew Research Center, “Some 28% of online adults use Pinterest, up from the 21% who did so in August 2013. Women continue to dominate the site … 42% of online women are Pinterest users” and “Pinterest remains popular among younger users.”

Given the founders goals to build the world’s first and biggest discovery engine and the nature of users to flock to the most visually appealing boards and re-share content, Pinterest is basically designed to be a never-ending waterfall of brand promotion. The business implications for that sort of exposure are enormous.

Constructing a quality Pinterest profile takes time and effort – and with a measly 47 million monthly active users in the U.S. this year alone—a lot of content marketers would rather try and tap into more mainstream sites pay to play platforms like Facebook. But to be honest, Facebook’s 1.44 billion monthly active users are statistically less likely to drive your company’s marketing efforts and generate a strong ROI.

Here are three convincing reasons why you should take a closer at marketing your small business on Pinterest.

 

  1. Pinterest users love to shop.

    At the end of the day, Pinterest is a shopping site. “Pinterest now generates over 400% more revenue per click over Twitter and 27% more than Facebook (Yahoo! Small Business).” This isn’t surprising.

    After all, Pinterest boards are essentially the modern equivalent of a store window display. But instead of your company wasting hours creating window displays to lure in customers, Pinterest empowers customers to create their own displays that tell you exactly what they want to buy. Not only are these boards extremely useful for market research, but they also ensure users are visiting your website.

  2. Pinterest users are early adopters.

    Gaining a decent social media following always feels like the hardest part of digital marketing – but it’s actually the easiest. The real work starts once you’ve got a group of followers. How will you turn social followers into customers? Well, Pinterest users are always keen to give new companies a try.

    According to researchers at Ahology, around two-thirds of Pinterest users like to think of themselves as “early adopters”. They are usually the first person in their group of friends to try out a new product, and take great pride in that fact. So, if your company is just starting out, chances are you’ll get a formidable initial response by marketing it through Pinterest. Likewise, if you’re testing the waters with a new product, Pinterest is probably the best place to start.

  3. Pinterest users are loyal brand enthusiasts.

    Unlike most social media platforms, Pinterest users don’t hop from site to site. They are heavily reliant on Pinterest as a trusted source, and don’t spend nearly as much time watching TV or reading magazines.

    According to a Pinterest Media Consumption study, “active Pinterest users already spend two or three fewer hours each week watching TV than non-users.” Meanwhile, “They read twice as many types of magazines on a regular basis … However, they also indicate that they’re starting to shift away from watching TV and reading print material while opting to use Pinterest instead.”

Pinterest isn’t necessarily the most low-maintenance social media platform on the web. If you want to establish a decent following, you must regularly create and share engaging and aesthetically-pleasing content that will attract would-be customers. However, if you’re willing to put in the time, your efforts will not go unrewarded.

If you’re ready to start pinning, set up a free Pinterest business account and “get discovered by millions of people looking for things to plan, buy and do.”

 

This article has been edited and condensed.

Rebecca Honnan is a digital media executive at Quality Formations, one of the UK’s leading company formation services. Connect with @Q_Formations on Twitter.

 

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