Boost your sales with Pinterest

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social platform where you can find inspiration and ideas – from products to recipes and quotes. You can use images from Pinterest (also called ‘pins’) on various boards and create separate categories. Other users (also known as ‘pinners’) can follow your boards and re-pin your pins on their own boards. This makes Pinterest the ideal channel to get in touch with people who have similar tastes and interests. Pinterest now boasts more than 70 million users worldwide.

How to use Pinterest for your online store

Using Pinterest to promote your business can significantly boost your traffic. Moreover, Pinterest has a positive influence on purchase intentions. No less than 93% of Pinterest users head to the platform when planning a purchase and over 80% of all users state they have made a purchase based on a pin. Re-pins are particularly valuable because the original link to your site always remains visible, so as more and more people see your pin, your visibility also gets a serious boost. You can create a professional Pinterest account free of charge. This account gives you access to statistics on your pins. Here you’ll find more information on this feature. 

Get the most out of Pinterest

Discover how to make great boards 

You can include your pins on various boards. Below you’ll find some useful tips to create a good board:

• Give your board a clear name (no more than 20 characters) and don’t forget to include a description. 
• Always add your board to a category.
• Make sure you use a fun theme. Don’t just stick to product boards, but also create inspiration boards, for example with a seasonal theme, such as a ‘winter look’ board.
• Give your boards a good cover, i.e. the image shown on the overview page. Make sure this image immediately shows what each board is about.
• Start off with a board that is only accessible to you and make it live for visitors once you’re entirely satisfied with it.
• Include a minimum of 10 pins on each board, because boards with fewer pins look unfinished and are less likely to be followed. 
• Place your most popular boards at the top, so that your visitors immediately see them.

How to create good pins

Have a look at the tips below, but remember this is not a checklist. Simply follow the tips that best match your store and your requirements:

• Include more than one product on a picture to appeal to different tastes.
• Text overlays encourage your visitors to take action.
• Use striking, detailed captions, e.g. for fashion, include the brand and materials. 
• Vertical pins are eye-catching and therefore attract more attention. Make sure they are no larger than 600 pixels in width.
• Call-to-action (CTA): gently encourage your visitors to click on your pins, e.g. by including messages such as “Discover these summer looks” or “For more information go to...”.
• Don’t just showcase your product, but also illustrate what people can do with it, e.g. how it works or how it is worn. 
• Create diverse content: 40% of motivating and inspiring pins, 40% of informative pins and 20% of pins about your brand.
• Use your own unique images to boost your branding. That’s much more effective than using stock images that other online merchants may be using as well.

Advertising via Pinterest

Unfortunately, at this moment advertising via promoted pins (which allow you to determine who sees your pins) is only available in the US, UK and Canada. The same goes for the special ‘Buy it’ button. However, it is expected that in 2016 these features will become available to users worldwide.

General tips:

A few more general tips to get the most out of your Pinterest page:

• Verify your site to automatically add your logo to each pin from your store.
• Use your logo as a profile image, preferably 160 by 165 pixels in size.
• Include an introduction to your store and an overview of your inspiration sources in your profile.
• Create a separate board with images that showcase customers using your products.
• Bear in mind your customers when you post an image and ask yourself whether you would re-pin it yourself.
• Make sure you have a responsive (mobile-friendly) website. 80% of users visit Pinterest via their cellphone. If they click on a pin to discover more information or buy a product and end up on a non-responsive website, you risk losing a potential sale.

We admit we followed the tips above as well when setting up our Pinterest account. Why not follow us there? :) (in Dutch, but still very nice ;)) Have you started using Pinterest for your online store yet?