5 Tips to Optimize Your Small Business Marketing with Pinterest
As a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats. You’re the CEO, the CFO, the CMO, and everything in between. But just because you’re a one-person show doesn’t mean you can’t have a strong presence on social media. In fact, social media is a great leveler—it gives small businesses the same platform as big businesses to reach out to customers and promote their brands. And one of the best social media platforms for small businesses is Pinterest.
Pinterest is a visual platform that allows users to save images (or “pins”) to virtual boards. These pins can be anything from recipes to fashion inspiration to DIY projects. And since most people use Pinterest for inspiration and planning purposes, it’s the perfect place for small businesses to promote their products and services.
If you’re new to Pinterest or you’re not sure how to optimize your account for maximum visibility, never fear! Here are 5 tips to help you get started:
1. Create Eye-Catching Pins
Remember that Pinterest is a visual platform, so your pins need to be visually appealing. Make sure your images are high-quality and hit the right balance between attractive and informative—you want users to be intrigued enough by your image to click through to your website, but you don’t want to give away too much information and risk losing their interest. In general, font should be kept to a minimum and images should be bright and colorful.
2. Use Keywords Strategically
Just like with any other form of marketing, keywords are important on Pinterest. Do some research on which keywords are most commonly used in relation to your business, and then incorporate those keywords into your pin descriptions. Remember to use keywords naturally—stuffing your description with keywords will not only turn off potential customers but will also get you flagged by Pinterest as spam.
3. Utilize Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to increase the reach of your pins and help users find content that interests them. When choosing hashtags, don’t just go with the most popular ones—choose ones that are specific enough that they accurately describe your pin but not so specific that no one is searching for them. A good rule of thumb is to use 3-5 hashtags per pin.
4. Pin Regularly…But Not Too Much!
Pinterest is similar to other social media platforms in that users are more likely to engage with active accounts regularly. That being said, you don’t want to go overboard and start spamming people’s feeds with too many pins—the key is quality over quantity. A good guideline is to post 5-10 times per day. Try using a tool like Tailwind or BoardBooster to schedule your pins in advance so that you don’t have to worry about manually posting every day.
5. Join Group Boards
Joining group boards is a great way to increase the visibility of your pins and reach new users organically (i.e., without having to pay for ads). Group boards are exactly what they sound like—boards where multiple users can contribute pins related to a certain topic or theme. When finding group boards relevant to your business, look for ones with high numbers of followers as well as active contributors—you want to make sure that your pins will actually be seen by people! Once you find some group boards you’d like to join, reach out to the board owner directly and ask if they would add you as a contributor. If you follow these tips, you should see an uptick in engagement on your Pinterest account in no time!
If you own a small business, Pinterest should definitely be part of your social media marketing strategy! It's a great platform for promoting your products or services visually, and it's easy to get started—just create some eye-catching pins, utilize hashtags strategically, join some relevant group boards, and post regularly (but not too often). Soon you'll start seeing an uptick in traffic from Pinterest!
