Pinterest is a very powerful social media platform for any handmade seller.
Pinterest is a visual search engine, and it’s a fantastic place for sellers to publish eye-catching photos of their products for sale.
A lot of the people browsing on Pinterest are actually shopping, that makes it perfect for sellers.
Users can like, follow, and even repin your pins.
I’m sure you would love to know how can you grow your following on Pinterest too.
But even more importantly, what does it take to actually turn those followers into real paying customers?
We’ll show you how you can do both.
Why Pinterest?
Many of you may be asking: “Why don’t I use a more popular and well-known social media site such as Twitter or Instagram to gain exposure and customers?”
Here’s why.
A study by Fastcodedesign.com shows that when a website visitor came from a Pin on Pinterest, they spent an average of 123.5% more money than a visitor who came from Facebook.
That same visitors spent 160% more money than visitors coming from Twitter.
A lot of users actually use Pinterest for shopping and that’s likely one of the reasons Pinterest users spend so much more money.
Also, because Pinterest is a search engine; it means you can get traffic from a Pin for months and months to come.
When you post an item to Facebook it will appear in the news feed for about a day and then get buried.
Pins will actually start to appear at the top of search results for big keywords and will stay there for months.
This means you may get visitors for 120 days or more from a pin versus 1-2 days from a Facebook post.
Using Rich Pins
If you own an Etsy shop or Shopify website then you need to be using “Rich Pins”.
When you pin an item directly from your Etsy listing the Pin will have the items price, an Etsy badge, and a link straight back to your listing.
If you update the listing price it will also update the price on your Pin.
Rich Pins help your followers find your products/photos more easily.
If you put your item on sale all the people who have repinned it will be able to see that the listing is on sale too. This can be very powerful for driving more orders with sales.
Quality Pinning
You must provide users with the best and most accurate photograph or description of the product so that they can make an informed decision on whether to buy it or not.
An important thing to consider in product photography is the background.
This is meant to make the item pop right off the screen and into the consumer’s lives.
Important concepts to consider in the description are the diction and terminology you use.
Choose bold and descriptive words that accurately capture the essence and purpose of the item.
Also if your consumers are assumed to be knowledgeable about the product, do not shy away from certain terminology to give an even better description.
Use What Works
Look at other successful companies and online businesses in your field on Pinterest and copy what they are doing in their advertising.
To be as large in followers they must be doing something right.
One thing in particular I have seen companies do is to cater to a specific audience.
For example, if you were in the food industry, pin pictures of your cuisine and décor of your restaurant if applicable.
Run Contests
A great way to get your product recognized and noticed is by running fun contests that give a grand prize of your services/item.
Popular hotel deal website Jetsetter used Pinterest contests to drive up their online traffic by 150%.
These contests need to be within the Pinterest parameters and guidelines and should be fun for the users.
As an example, Forever 21 put up a contest of creating an entire board on Pinterest with a grand prize of a $1000 gift card to their stores.
Apps like Gleam.io, Wishpond, and Woobox can help you organize and host contests on Pinterest.
