Good exposure is everything.
The best products have a tendency to sell themselves. The challenge is getting your products in front of the right people at the right time. A good omnichannel marketing strategy is the key to that challenge.
One crucial component of an ideal omnichannel approach is an effective social strategy. A good organic social presence can do wonders for your brand, but that’s a science in and of itself. What I want to focus on here is a next-level social platform and marketing medium that remains underutilized by many.
Pinterest.
If you sell products online, you need to know about what Pinterest has to offer.
Why Pinterest?
When you think of social networks, does Pinterest come to mind? For over 440 million monthly active users, the answer is “absolutely.”
Realistically speaking though, like any other social platform, if you use it, you know what’s up. If you don’t... it can go under your radar. But that’s not to say you should keep ignoring it—it’s one of the few platforms you can’t afford to ignore.
The core of Pinterest is simple. Users curate visuals in the form of pins across idea boards. Brands and sellers do the same but with a shopping flair.
Pinterest offers a refreshingly simple interface with aesthetically pleasing presentation. There’s no fluff, just endless good content related to exactly what you’re looking for.
What if you had the best of real-world browsing, combined with the convenience of ecommerce? As more people shop on Pinterest than ever before, meet them where they are and grow your business.
While most social networks prioritize connection and engagement, Pinterest is more of an idea builder than a social network.
It's a place where people go to discover new things; to be inspired.
Pinterest and ecommerce
If you’re looking to be inspired, you’re likely in the market for something. Pinterest is a bit of a hotspot for shoppers looking to make a purchase.
At Pinterest, we believe there’s a difference between shopping and buying: inspiration. A more inspired online shopping experience takes the best of shopping everywhere and makes it possible anywhere.
Consider the following stats:
- 98% of Pinners report trying new things they find on Pinterest.
- 89% of Pinners use Pinterest for purchase inspiration.
- Shopping is a top priority for 48% of Pinners.
- 83% of weekly users have made a purchase based on brand content.
- Pinners are 39% more likely to be active retail shoppers—and when they shop, they spend 29% more than people who don’t use Pinterest.
There’s no doubt that the platform harbors great selling potential and that it empowers brands to seize that potential with its suite of merchant tools.
Becoming a merchant on Pinterest is as easy as uploading your product catalog and installing the Pinterest tag on your site. Check out Pinterest’s merchant guidelines.
Anyone with a website and product catalog can leverage Pinterest Business.
Branding & merchant storefront
All merchants can customize their profile cover with video or imagery to highlight their brand story. But your options really open up when you become a verified merchant.
Pinterest incentivizes high standards via their Verified Merchant Program. As long as you aren’t a spammer and take your business seriously, becoming a verified merchant is fairly straightforward.
Benefits of the program include:
Exclusive badge
Nothing says official like a badge. Verified merchants get an exclusive blue checkmark badge on their profile and product Pins to show that the brand was vetted by the Pinterest team. This badge is sure to catch shoppers’ eyes as they decide what to buy.
Shop tab
Verified merchants get a special ‘Shop’ tab on their profile that showcases all their products in one place. This tab features in-stock products organized by category, featured product groups, and dynamically-created recommendations.
Shopping experiences
Products from verified merchants can show up in dedicated shopping experiences like ‘related Pins.’ Shopping experiences put your products right in front of people looking for new brands.
Pins
Pins get your ideas and products in front of people. Every Pin contains an image or video, plus a link to your store or site.
Complete with product tagging, Pinterest is set on making it more seamless for shoppers to shop from a scene to make inspiration a reality.
Pin formats:
- Standard: Use eye-catching images to highlight products, recipes, photos, etc.
- Video: Capture people’s attention with sight, sound, and motion.
- Product: Pins that show real-time pricing and availability.
- Collections: Take people from inspo to action with multiple products in a single Pin.
- Story: Tell actionable, multi-page stories.
Discovery
An optimized product catalog can go far on Pinterest.
Pinterest understands when users are looking for visual references versus when there is a clear shopping intent. When Pinners search for shopping-related ideas on Pinterest, they’ll see recommended merchants based on the product category.
Ads
Since Pinterest embraces shopping as it does, advertising on Pinterest is a no-brainer.
With ads on Pinterest, you can reach people when they’re actively looking for new products. You can turn your favorite Pins into ads to help boost awareness, drive sales, or increase conversions.
95% of the top searches on Pinterest don’t reference a specific brand.
Pinterest offers ad formats for every goal:
- Standard: Showcase your content in a simple vertical or square image format.
- Video: Capture attention and tell a strong story with video.
- Shopping: Boost distribution by converting all your product Pins into ads.
- Carousel: Add layers of depth by letting people swipe through multiple images in a single ad.
- Collections: Display your products in action with a hybrid format that mixes lifestyle imagery with featured products.
Pinterest lets you create ads in two easy ways. You can turn any pin into an ad in the app or on desktop, or you can build out advanced campaigns via Ads Manager.
Leverage precise targeting tools to get your ads where they need to be:
- Automated targeting: Pinterest will pick your audience based on Pin details.
- Demographics: Narrow your audience by age, gender, location, language, etc.
- Interests: Reach people on their home feeds based on topics they like.
- Keywords: Reach people in search results and related Pins based on specific search terms.
- Customer lists: Reach people who have already engaged with your brand.
- Actalikes: Find new people with similar interests and behaviors as your existing customers.
Pinterest makes it easy to set your own budget according to your goals. A recent update introduced automatic bidding for catalog sales.
On average, advertisers who tested Automatic Bidding for Catalog Sales saw 28% more conversions when optimizing for the ‘Conversion’ event and nearly 29% more clicks when optimizing for ‘Click’ event for the same budget.
Analytics
Pinterest Business comes with advanced analytics to help you better understand your content and your audience.
With Conversion Insights, you can follow purchase journeys and compare multiple attribution views to prove impact.
Final thoughts
If you sell products, you don’t want to ignore Pinterest. Your audience is already there.
Pinterest does things differently, as do its users. They’re searching for inspiration and in many cases, they’re searching to buy.
GoDataFeed is an official catalog management provider for Pinterest. We fully integrate with the platform and power the feeds of countless merchants that leverage us to surface their products on Pinterest.
Got any questions? Looking for more info? Feel free to reach out to us!
