a simple guide to pinterest marketing


Table of Contents

INTRO: WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS PINTEREST ..................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER 1: WHAT MAKES PINTEREST TRAFFIC SO FANTASTIC? ............................................................... 4

CHAPTER 2: YOU MUST BE A REAL PERSON AND WHY ............................................................................. 8

CHAPTER 3: GETTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE FROM PINTEREST ............................................................. 11

CHAPTER 4: COVERSION - MORE THAN GETTING VISITORS FROM PINTEREST TO YOU ......................... 15

CONCLUSION: PINTEREST – GREAT MARKETING POTENTIAL .................................................................. 17


INTRO: WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS PINTEREST

Anyone that has been in business for even a short

period of time learns to rely on leads – in the past

these were advertisements and word of mouth that

lead the customer to your storefront or business.

Today, we STILL rely heavily on leads but much of

them IF NOT MOST are created online and using

social media.

Many businesses and marketers have recognized this and put their attention on

social networks to drive the traffic to their sites and stores. But there are

countless individuals that make a mistake, and it is a doozy: - They use only

Facebook and and maybe even Twitter for their social media lead generation.

Though these SM giants are still leading the world when it comes to users, they

definitely don’t lead the market when it comes to targeted spending traffic.

What do I mean? Well first off, I want to say having a presence on Facebook and

Twitter are important to your business. So definitely don’t get me wrong about

that. And you don’t need all your eggs in one basket. But when it comes to

generating leads that spend money, Pinterest rules as king. Test after test has

shown that visitors clicking from Pinterest to a site are far more likely to spend

money than on any social display on the internet.

The average post on Facebook has a half-life of 5-80 minutes. The average pin on

Pinterest has a half-life of 3.5 MONTHs. You heard that correctly. Pinterest not

only displays what you are selling, they also have far more holding power when it

comes to putting you on exhibit. So if you advertised on Facebook using the free

methods available – will it get you as far as doing so on Pinterest?

Companies and individual marketers alike need to be using Pinterest as one of

their top sources of driving traffic to their company’s presence. Why? What else

makes Pinterest such a rich source of opportunity? Isn’t it just a large

accumulation of images? No, this is far from what Pinterest is and this thinking is

what could be causing you to miss the awesome prospects that many are

generating there right now! Let’s investigate further.


CHAPTER 1: WHAT MAKES PINTEREST TRAFFIC SO FANTASTIC?

The catchphrase “follow the money” may sound simple,

but it fits here. If you are looking for hot spots that the

visitors will spend more and possibly come back and give

you more sales later – then Pinterest is indeed loaded with

this type of traffic. So if you can get visitors from Pinterest

to your site and/or storefront, then you have a greater

potential of making a sale than if the customer found you

say searching in Google or Bing.

Pinterest visitors have been proven to spend more money once they travel from

Pinterest to your site or business. Google even rewards those that have adsense

on their site with a higher paying click if the customer comes from Pinterest and

clicks on an ad. So if Google looks at this traffic as valuable, then we know it must

have a good bit of worth. But why is this the case? There is something that Google

knows that you probably don’t.

93 percent of Pinners shopped online within the past 6 months. And 64 percent of

Pinterest users earn MORE than 50,000 dollars a year. So on average, they are

more affluent than Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users. It would then be fair

to say these individuals have more disposable income at hand, so they would be

more apt to spend.

Because of this, it makes sense that Google would reward you with a higher CPC

(cost per click) if you had a visitor come from Pinterest to your site over one that

just dropped in from a search in their engine.

That is because, it is hit or miss if that visitor was really looking for what you have

on your site. Whereas Pinterest visitors are far more targeted because they are

clicking on a pin wanting to see where it goes. A pin that they were interested in.

If the pin deals with the same thing your site does, then the person is probably

going to be interested in what you have available as well.

We will talk more about this later but this helps you to see when you are pinning

on Pinterest, make sure that ALL of your pins deal with at least a variation of what

your site is about. This will drive the right traffic to your site.


Pinterest Accounts Give A Ton Of Residual Traffic

Traffic and sales from Pinterest pins occur much of the time long after this item

was pinned. As mentioned previously, according to Piqora, figures show that 50

percent of all visits happen 3.5 months AFTER they have been pinned. This is one

feature of this social media platform that stands above the rest. Facebook and

Twitter have a content half life of 5-80 minutes. So if you don’t get the customers

to see within that window, you have low odds of them seeing what you are

offering from that post or tweet again.

Why is that? Because Pinterest is all about image sharing, and they have made it

so easy to do so on your own account. Due to that people will share pins from

Pinterest days, months, and even years down the road.

As an example, I setup a Pinterest account and pinned to it, had followers,

interacted for about a month with a tool that I had. It was automated so I was

able to get quite a few pins and followers. This went on for a month and I set it

aside thinking I would eventually get back to it. This never happened, I got so busy

with other ventures.

Well I went back to Google Analytics 1 YEAR LATER and noticed that I still had an

analytics campaign tied to this domain. I checked it and there were still 73 visitors

from Pinterest the previous 30 days. You may be thinking that isn’t much for a

month, but for an account that was worked on for about a month, and didn’t get

touched for a year, that is amazing.

Here is another example. I have an account running on an automated system. It

will actually pin for me automatically over the course of the day, whatever

settings I put in whether it is 10 a day or 100. I forgot to load new pins into the

system for the account to pin. Did the traffic stop?

No. In fact I actually didn’t realize that the pins weren’t loaded into the system

because the traffic still KEPT growing, though slightly every day. It did this for

three weeks until it finally came to a halt. I realized what was going on so I

reloaded the automated pinner with pins and within 2 days the traffic really

boosted again. Why does this happen?

The reason is simple. The sharing of pins gives opportunity to get others to spread

your pins all around. If someone sees your account and likes one of the pins with

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your URL tied to it, they have the opportunity to share it to their boards (And

many do. They have fanatics out there and they really help!) If visitor A sees that

pin and repins it to their board, and then visitor B sees it and pins it to their

board, it creates a domino effect with the pin. People will continually repin and

repin until the Pins with your URL are all over Pinterest.

And if this pin keeps getting shared, added to other boards, liked and commented

on, then the traffic will keep coming LONG after you pinned it. This makes

Pinterest a powerful tool in order to generate leads to your site or storefront.

Pinterest Growth And What You Need To Know As A Business

In just two years after it debuted, Pinterest became the 3rd most popular Social

Media network in the United States. It was directly behind Twitter and Facebook,

the two social giants of the present time. This was beyond an incredible

achievement.

Since then, it has grown tremendously in scale adding various features such as

profile pages, rich pins, promoted pins, and an enhanced search. Now it has

become a social staple for consumers and companies alike. Even though this is

the case, there may still be a lot of things you don’t know about this platform.

Some of these are:

1. Many don’t realize that men use Pinterest. In fact, 1/3 of all signups on

Pinterest come from the male gender. A large number don’t recognize this

to be the case so they think marketing on Pinterest will only give them

women customers, but this isn’t so! Therefore a large variety of categories

can be marketed for both the male and female.

2. 75-85 percent of Pinterest users are on their mobile device. Especially on

the weekends and evenings is the mobile usage high. Because of this it

can’t be overemphasized that your mobile website is properly functioning.

It can mean the difference in a purchase or someone just saying “forget it,”

and moving somewhere else.

3. To expand on what was discussed earlier, according to Pinterest, almost

100 percent of pinners shopped on the internet within the last 6 months.

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There was a study performed a few years back that showed women used

Pinterest as more of a “wish list” and men would use it as a place to shop. It

appears that both genders now are making purchases. That is why it is

imperative that you double check your link location and that you are

sending potential customers to the proper pages. You want them to take

action, not get frustrated and give up.

4. The number of individuals that see your pins is a figure greater than your

followers. Most businesses use the amount of likes and followers to

measure their success. But on Pinterest, it doesn’t have the same role as

with other social services. While the motivation of most is to pin in order to

save items and images for themselves, whatever they repin ends up

spreading to their followers that are on the lookout to discover things that

are similar to their interests.

5. Images that don’t have a face on it get repinned almost 25 percent more

than those with one. It seems that with a human face on the image that it

would be more relatable, but within the Pinterest network it isn’t.

Apparently on a network of “things” faces can be a distraction. So the pin

does matter in getting visitors to your site.

So what does all of this mean? It means that yes, there are more visitors coming

from Pinterest that are ready to make purchases than other social platforms and

traffic streams – but also to get the traffic to your site you have to have the

account, including the pins, boards, and other features setup correctly to optimize

your campaigns. How is this done?


CHAPTER 2: YOU MUST BE A REAL PERSON AND WHY

Ok. You are ready to start using Pinterest in order to

send traffic to your site. What tricks do you have to

learn, or special techniques have to be taught to you in

order to do this? None. Wait, none? That’s right. To

market your URL or business there all you have to do is

have a real account and act like a real person would on

Pinterest.

What I mean is that you would take these steps:

1. Create a new account

2. Create a number of boards on the account

3. Add pins to each board that have your URL in at least some of them

4. Follow other people on Pinterest

You might be looking at those items and be thinking, “that isn’t anything more

than what a normal user would do on Pinterest.” And you are absolutely correct.

That is what a regular user would do. But that method of doing what a real person

would do is how you get others to see your pins, thus it is how you have others

click on the pins and go to your website. You have to present yourself to others as

a real person.

On Pinterest you definitely have to pin but you also want to make sure that you

are following. Depending on the niche or category that you go with, you will have

roughly 10-20 percent that follow you back. The more followers you have, the

larger audience of leads that you will have. But it is imperative that you maintain

that “real persona” because if not you will get banned in Pinterest. Why?

Pinterest Hates Spammers

One of the terms that you probably have heard throughout the realm of the

internet is “algorithm.” Without getting too technical, an algorithm is a step by

step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing something.


All social media platforms run complex algorithms in order to keep certain

individuals away from their network – spammers. Though you may not look at

yourself as a spammer, social networks such as Pinterest do if you don’t follow

every single rule that they have lined out for businesses. And even then,

sometimes you will ultimately fall into that category.

Due to this, when you setup your Pinterest account it is best to be sure that you

setup a business account on Pinterest instead of a personal one. Though you still

have to be very careful, they seem to be a bit more flexible when it comes to

businesses being full of promotions. So when you do decide to get an account

going, be sure that you choose the feature of making it a business account.

One thing is for certain, Pinterest and other social platforms pay good money to

hire people to create these algorithms to keep spammers out. Pinterest definitely

looks at an individual that pins the same URL over and over into their pins as

someone they don’t want using their network to promote your stuff. But isn’t that

the best way of getting people to a particular website? Pinning the same site over

and over in the images so that they will like at least one of them, click on the pin,

and go to where it takes them? Of course!

So then you need to create the account in such a way that you won’t look like a

spammer, and so that you won’t trigger a manual review of your Pinterest

account by a Pinterest employee. So what are some ways of doing this?

Again, first and foremost, you must make the account look like a real person is

running it. Someone that is actually interested in Pinterest for what it is supposed

to be used for and not for “ulterior motives.” To start, they have a section in your

profile that you can fill out and add your picture or avatar. Add an image. Tell a

little about yourself or at least put something in that field.

Next, you need to have a number of boards so that the account doesn’t look too

thin. A board on Pinterest is sort of like an open file where you add and save your

pins. Though there is no rule in Pinterest that says you need to have 20,30 or even

100 boards, the more boards you have, the more it looks like a real individual is

maintaining it and that you are actually interested in it.

There are various programs out there that can be used that automate the pinning,

following, and unfollowing processes on Pinterest. Issues that you will run into


with these tools is that this social network like all others, has algorithms that will

catch if someone is pinning, following, and unfollowing at speeds that aren’t what

a normal human can perform. So if you pin say 20 images to one of your boards

within a minute – that definitely isn’t something a real human could probably do

nor would they.

So if the tools that you are using have settings that take things slow, use them.

There are also security measures that they have to tell if it is a machine running

your account. If the account isn’t pinning or following at random speeds, but pins

say once every 3 minutes exactly – then a flag goes up and Pinterest knows you

are obviously a bot of some sort and a manual review is done on your account

and it is going to be banned.

If you are manually pinning and following, then you are definitely going to keep

your account the safest, and prevent it from getting the boot. But this is not only

a time consuming process, it is extremely tedious and is very, very repetitive. So it

is boring and time consuming. That is why so many turn to programs, software,

and tools that manually do the work for you. But unless you have a great

programmer that created it to work like a natural human would, then the tools

will prove to be a waste of money and effort.

Now, after all that is said, I do want to let you know something. We have several

test accounts that actually have the same URL in every single pin, and they aren’t

getting banned. So this means one of two things.

It could be that because we have REAL sites with REAL content, and these don’t

look anything like a marketing only site. Due to this fact it is possible that if

manual reviews have been done on these accounts, they let it slide because it

seems that we aren’t marketers.

On the other hand, we could also have just never had a manual review, but this is

probably not the case. That is because there are marketers that spend their day

turning in sites that aren’t legit in order to lower their competition. Which also

helps us to see – that if you are a marketer, the best categories on Pinterest

would be the ones that aren’t flooded by marketers and spam.


CHAPTER 3: GETTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE FROM PINTEREST

We have mentioned the obvious in the previous

chapters. If you want to get traffic to your site, then you

are going to have to have your site/ URL somewhere in

the pin.

This way someone will click the URL and head over

there. Is it that easy? No, not exactly. Humans are visual

by nature, and so various images attract their attention

more than others. So if you are manually pinning, then

here is what you need to do in order to up the chances of driving the visitor to

your site from the image.

First, keep in mind what was said in chapter 1. An image with a face is LESS likely

to get clicked than one that doesn’t have one. So if you are working with the

cooking category, a cake with just human hands will attract the potential

customer more than a large image with a person holding a small piece of cake.

Obviously, this isn’t the case with every single topic. For example, if you are

working with beauty and makeup, having a beautiful face with perfect features

will help sell the product. But we are talking about the majority here.

Quality Over Quantity

This rule of thumb has been long revered over just about anything. You need to

make it your mantra when it comes to Pinterest. Now volume DOES matter so

don’t just think you can have a few images and you will get a steady stream of

traffic. This isn’t the case. You have to keep fresh pins. But be sure that you are

pinning images that not only look good and attractive, but that appeal to your

category and will draw leads in. For example, which image below makes you

actually want some cake?


As simple as this sounds, many miss the mark and use any images thinking that

they will draw visitors to them. Some businesses that only pin their own products

to their Pinterest accounts will get professional photos of their items and product.

As a marketer, odds are you aren’t going to go that far, but you see what I mean.

Quality takes precedence over quantity to a large degree.

Color, Size, Timing, And Audience

Here is something to be aware of. 3.25 times more pins are repinned if they have

multiple dominant colors in them. You don’t want just a single color to stand out

in your images. Also, red images fair better than blue images. This could be

because red inspires excitement while blue calms you down. You have to

remember that because we are visual creatures by nature, then using visuals that

make people REACT properly is important. So we want to pin images that will

cause them in this case to react – or go -where we are directing them.

Image size does matter. Ideally, the images need to be 600px wide with the

optimal setting to be at 736 pixels wide. (This is the maximum display size). Taller

images have a higher likelihood of being repinned, so be sure that you add these

in as well.

Definitely pay attention to your analytics program and tracking results. It is always

good to see where the traffic is coming from the most. That way you can replicate

the higher traffic method. So be sure to keep track of your results. You need to

find out what attracts your target market – exactly. Don’t assume that because

one method of getting traffic with eyeliner will work the same with face cream.


They both go on the face, but the marketing tactics are different. This is where

time, patience, and trial and error come in.

Speaking of time, timing is everything when it comes to your pins. You need to pin

and engage when your potential customers are also doing the same. From 2-4 pm

and 8-11 pm are roughly the best times to pin, but it also can depend on the

customer base and who they are. Researchers for Pinterest also show that various

categories will perform better on specific days of the week. So how do you find

out which is best for your market? Once again, patience, as well as trial and error.

It takes time but you can figure this out. And if you are limited in time, it is best to

figure out when is best for your customers so you don’t spend time pinning willy-

nilly.

One last piece of advice about pins comes from the designer Moorea Seal. “Clear,

clean product images on a white or light grey background” are the way to go

when pinning. It puts the attention on the item and the item only, not the

background or anything else in the picture. She attributes 50 percent of her

business to Pinterest traffic. If you want to see examples of her carefully selected

images see her account here:

https://www.pinterest.com/mooreaseal

Where To Put The Link To Your Site Or Storefront

An essential point that need not be left out is where to actually put the link from

the pin itself to your site or storefront. Some will put it in just the pin and have a

description for the pin. Others will put it in the description only and not the pin.

Many will put the link in both the pin and the description. So which is the best

route?

The best route that we have found in testing is to put the link in the pin ONLY.

This isn’t just an opinion, testing has shown that by far the majority will click the

image itself to see where it leads them instead of looking for a link in the

description. Sometimes marketers miss this point because they are so used to

clicking links, building links, and working with links that they forget – most people

AREN’T marketers.

As repetitive as this may sound, humans are by nature prone to be visual beings.

They look for images over words. It’s faster and easier and we are more naturally

https://www.pinterest.com/mooreaseal


drawn to it. This being the case few people click the link in the description in

comparison to those that click the image in the pin itself.

You may be thinking “but won’t I miss out on those that look for the link in the

description?” And the simple answer is “no.” Very VERY few users don’t know

that you can click the image. And the few that you do miss isn’t worth risking

having the link in the description – and there is risk.

Once again, you are wanting to look like a regular user of Pinterest. And a normal

user won’t have the same URL in every single pin. So if you are doing that, and

also have the same link in every one of your descriptions of the pin, then it will

certainly be obvious that you are a spammer if they ever have to do a manual

review. Even if you don’t think this makes you a spammer, if you don’t follow all

of their protocols for a business account then you are considered just that. And

the same link in all the descriptions is going to put you in that class.

When setting up an account, what you need to take away from here is this: Be a

real person. Pin when others are engaging. Time and effort, as well as patience

will be your friend when it comes to finding out what is best for your market. So

make sure that you use these valuable tools in order to create your account and

add to it.


CHAPTER 4: COVERSION - MORE THAN GETTING VISITORS FROM

PINTEREST TO YOU

This point is short but I had to add it in because it

is so important. Great traffic doesn’t lead to great

conversion.

We have had a few that we setup Pinterest

campaigns that have gotten back with is in a

month or so of running their account, and they tell

us they don’t see any difference in the conversion

rate. We go to their site to check it out and it is a drab blog with few to no images,

has no “wow” and may have one or two items on it they are selling. Hopefully this

isn’t going to sound rude, but this ISN’T going to work.

If you spend all that time on your Pinterest account making it into a “real”

account that looks like it is run by a “real” person – don’t send them to a site or

storefront that is the opposite. There is nothing more disappointed to a

shopaholic that wants an item they see right then and there, go to the page and

see nothing similar or nothing at all.

This is where many that market with Pinterest fail. They will even spend money

on companies that drive plenty of traffic – good traffic (because if it is from

Pinterest it’s hard to get much better) to their sites and not sell a single thing, not

have any opt-ins, no lead generation. No return customer.

And then turn around and blame the one that drove that great traffic on the low

conversion rate. So once the traffic gets there – make sure that you take the same

amount of time working with Pinterest and put that effort into your site or

storefront. If you don’t then it will all be for nothing.

Lastly, you can have a beautiful site, and it doesn’t convert. I saw one not long

ago, and it was so colorful, plenty of images, and had plenty of great content. The

problem was I couldn’t see what the site owner was trying to accomplish because

the site had TOO much. You have to make the pages clean, with enough content

but not overloaded. One or two images between page folds only.


Another area that many marketers make mistakes is their opt-in boxes. Whether

these are pop-ups, pop overs, light boxes, or whatever, they need to be large.

They text needs to be very catchy. For example which one of these will grab your

attention more:

Get your free report on how to lose weight In the form below.

OR

Are you TIRED of never, EVER losing any weight? Then get my free report that

will show you exactly how to make the FAT MELT away and FAST!

Which one was it? Obvious isn’t it? But really how do As Seen On TV commercials

sound? They are fast paced, make you feel like you have to have the product, and

have to have it now or you will lose out! You need to do that too with your opt-in.

Oh, and it pays to have a good opt-in. Sometimes you can get away with a free

PLR ebook that was written by a 3 year old. But most of the time, spending even

10-15 dollars on a good give away item will make the customer think you have

valuable stuff. So when you email your subscribers with something to purchase,

they are more likely to do just that!


CONCLUSION: PINTEREST – GREAT MARKETING POTENTIAL

Pinterest may be new, but definitely don’t

doubt its potential because you are thinking “I

never would have my own Pinterest account.”

As mentioned previously, both men and

women use it and now research shows that

BOTH genders are potential buyers. So if you

haven’t started using it as of yet as one of the

marketing streams and lead generation, you are missing out.

Just keep these points in mind once you start a Pinterest account of your own.

Make sure it is a business account so that the flexibility will be there when you

start marketing. You don’t want them to frown on your account from the simple

mistake of changing the account from “regular” to “business.” It is that easy.

You want to treat this account like a normal user would. Pin, repin, comment,

follow. Pinterest has the cap at 50,000 that you can follow, so once you reach this

point it is time to start unfollowing. Manually this will take a long time to get

there, but there are some that do it.

Patience is a virtue with the category you choose to market with. It takes trial and

error to figure out when your target audience is online and working with this

platform. The images used to pin with is another process that you will have to

come to grips with if you want to figure out which ones work best for your

potential customers. Drawing them in is an art form, even when using social

media.

Keep these tips in mind and you can have success in driving traffic to your site

from one of the largest social networks of our day.

Waseem

Typewriter



a simple guide to pinterest marketing

Marketing