When it comes to using social media for eCommerce, Pinterest is probably the most underutilized platform out of all the major social networks. However, with more than 70 million registered users, Pinterest is not only a social media powerhouse, but also a highly effective platform to increase your online product sales. It has a very different kind of audience as compared to Facebook and Twitter since almost 80 percent of its users are women who love to share and discuss high-quality images.
Here are the best tips on how to increase online sales using Pinterest.
Group Products Around a Theme
A creative way of using your Pinterest brand page is to promote your products using a theme. This could be a theme around colors, designs, materials, ingredients, locations or anything else that’s interesting and can be categorized. After you choose a theme, create several boards based on that theme. For example, if you choose the color theme, create several boards where you plan to pin products of different colors. This is an ingenious way to market your business, as people can easily find products of their favorite color.
Use Rich Pins’ Product Pins
Product pins are a category of Pinterest’s rich pins. Rich pins attach additional information to the photo of your product, without requiring extra effort from users to view it. This information can include items such as price, brand/retailer, and where it can be purchased. Product pins deliver users further towards the purchase decision, advancing your online sales using Pinterest.
Use Hashtags in Your Pin Descriptions
Pinterest is on the hashtag bandwagon. It's good to include 1 to 3 hashtags in each of your pins and think outside the box. If you are a party planner, for example, use hashtags that include your location and any particular specialties you are offering with your pins. In addition to adding hashtags to your pin descriptions, be sure to include the words you want to be searched for. Pinterest lets you work with up to 500 characters to comment on your pins. Use this to make your images more enticing and easier to search by including keywords.
Think Visually With Product Photography
When adding any item directly to Pinterest, or even to a blog, website, sales page, or online catalog, use the most enticing shots possible. Remember that people can pin content from your blog and other web pages, so you want your content to look the best! Consider getting a professional photographer to take the photos. Do famous people use your product or service? Gather photographs and pin them. Nothing inspires people to buy more than knowing their heroes use a product.
Highlight Your Popular Products
When people know what products are selling well and that everyone else is buying it, they want it. Especially if quantities are dwindling. This is why there are bestseller lists and most viewed product lists. Once your products reach that list and are easily visible to your website visitors, they are likely to sell even better.
Track Progress and Make Adjustments
Pinterest has made major improvements to their analytics offering, making the lives of brands selling products on their platform much easier. If you’ve been quite active on Pinterest over the past years then use the analytics provided to you to identify what is and is not working. As you move forward in your new mandate to optimize your online sales using Pinterest, you will want to use their valuable analytical offering to monitor current activity so that you can make adjustments as needed.
The key to success on Pinterest lies in developing an engaged audience, publishing high quality content at the right times, and ultimately making it as easy as possible for your followers to make a purchases.
