Apr 6, 2012

Five Ways Your Business Can Increase Traffic and Revenue Using Pinterest

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Five Ways Your Business Can Increase Traffic and Revenue Using Pinterest"]

[/caption] In our recent blog post on up and coming social juggernaut Pinterest, we introduced you to yet another social media site you must be visible and active on. We understand that social saturation has taken place, and that maintaining a Facebook page, Twitter handle, Google+ page, LinkedIn profile, Tumblr blog, and a company blog has become, well, tedious. But trust us when we say this…if you sell products online, you MUST be active on Pinterest. Where else can you leverage 2.2 million daily users and over 12 million a month¹? Pinterest gives you the ability to put your products in front of millions of potential customers. And yes, these are customers who are directly sent to your website or storefront via Pinterest ‘pinboards’ (a collection of images posted by a user). Take Wayfair, the second largest home goods retailer, for example. CEO Niraj Shah created a Pinterest account highlighting 1,500 inspirational images and products, resulting in a 10% increase in customer purchases and 70% increase in traffic, over social siblings Facebook and Twitter. “Visual imagery drives inspiration, it’s what makes you want to buy it,” Shah said via Mashable². As Pinterest continues to grow and influence order rates, companies will begin to invest on a greater scale in to the social site. So how does your small business leverage Pinterest? Here are five ways to get your profile off the ground, and customers visiting and buying from your site.

Create a profile. If you haven’t done this yet, it’s very easy. It is by invitation, but those usually show up in your inbox the next day.

Create a quality board. What is it? A board is where your pins (images) are. You can create several different boards with different themes, allowing you to create several different boards around specific product lines. An important thing to remember about boards, and Pinterest in general, is that you're using images to tell the story of your business³.

Products. Products. Products. You’re using Pinterest to help increase traffic to your site, and ultimately sales, right? So why wouldn’t you post images of all of the products you offer? High quality images that show/display your product go a long way in attracting fellow Pinterest users. This will also entice some to repin (think sharing on Facebook) your products to their own boards, thus continually increasing your reach⁴.

Tell people you’re on Pinterest. It’s a given you already have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ icons on your website. Now, it’s time to add the Pinterest icon so that your customers can now follow you on that site as well. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, you can also add a Pinterest share tab to images and content on your website, which will allow visitors to your site share products and content from you, directly to their Pinterest accounts.

Follow Up. Pinterest is a great way for you to test products and user engagement. Using the information you collect, you can create custom landing pages and different product groupings that will leverage specific referrals from Pinterest.

As you become more familiar with Pinterest, you will be able to tailor specific boards to your business. And hopefully, you can take advantage of the potential referral traffic from the 2.2 million daily users to help grow your business. For more information, visit: 1. How Pinterest Can Give Instant Growth to Your Brand (Infographic) 2. Pinterest Becomes Sales Driver for Major Home Goods Store 3. This is Everything You Need to know About Pinterest (Infographic) 4. How to Make Images Stand Out on Pinterest (Infographic)