Social media platforms like Pinterest have been flying under the radar for a while. But the visual search engine is a great place to engage audiences.
The social media site has its own target audience where you can share blog post graphics, create boards, and design Rich Pins to drive traffic to your site.
In this post, we’ll show you how to create a Pinterest marketing strategy, along with templates that you can use to design your own pins.
Don’t know how to create pins for your Pinterest account? With Venngage’s Pinterest templates, you can build inspiring content boards that will engage Pinterest users.
Click to jump ahead:
- What is Pinterest social media marketing?
- How does Pinterest for business work?
- Why are brands using Pinterest for business marketing?
- 5 best Pinterest templates for marketing
- FAQs about Pinterest marketing
What is Pinterest social media marketing?
Pinterest is a visual platform. Though it has some similarities to Instagram, the social media platform follows search engine optimization rules, much like Google.
There are more than 454 million active Pinterest users every month, and 80% of its weekly users discover a new brand on the platform. It is not surprising that a Pinterest business account has become a must-have.
How does Pinterest for business work?
Most Pinterest users look for education or entertaining visual content. Users can pin content, like the image below, to their Pinterest board and revisit it at a later date.
While any user can create a Pinterest page, the biggest perk of a Pinterest business account is access to analytics.
Like other social media platforms, Pinterest also uses algorithms to share content with users. You will want to leverage Pinterest analytics to ensure your content is reaching the right people.
For example, a simple Pinterest image, like the example above, works well to hold attention on the busy visual social media platform. Attractive photo backgrounds with a pop of text, accompanied by your brand logo, help with brand recall.
With Venngage’s My Brand Kit, you can import your branded content with just one click. Add your website and the editor imports your logo, colors, and fonts. You can then apply them to your designs with one click.
How do you market through Pinterest?
Remember that, unlike other social media channels, Pinterest is essentially a visual search engine. Your Pinterest marketing strategy needs to be visual and SEO-focused.
Below, we share the best Pinterest marketing strategies that social media marketers should follow.
Create engaging and captivating visual content
Since Pinterest is a visual platform, designing attractive images is a top priority. When creating a pin, use vertical images and double-check that it won’t be cropped on mobile screens.
There are Pinterest marketing tools, like Venngage, that will help you design visuals like the one below.
This Pinterest image is a great way to share a tutorial, along with a direct link to the associated blog post.
Remember not to make the pin description too long, which is something you can do with LinkedIn or Facebook posts. Too many words are challenging to the layout.
Pinterest users aren’t looking for text-heavy posts, though you should add some meta-data when creating Rich Pins.
Use search engine optimization rules
When you have a Pinterest business account, focus your efforts on Pinterest SEO. Insert keywords into your pin descriptions and even board titles. This will help your content, like this simple image example, appear in Pinterest searches.
An effective SEO technique is to add numbers to your headline or title. It tells the user what the content is about and how much time might be required of them when they read the blog article. This helps you increase website traffic or visits to your online store.
To get more clicks, add relevant icons to your Pinterest pins. Venngage’s library has over 40,000 icons, including diverse people icons, that you can use to engage your Pinterest audience.
Use Pinterest analytics
Pinterest analytics are crucial for understanding what kind of content users want to see from your inspiration board and the gaps that you could be filling.
Your Pinterest marketing efforts should be fueled by what you learn from the analytics generated by your Pinterest account.
That’s the best way to start designing your own content, like the example below, instead of just relying on a re-pin every other day.
Why are brands using Pinterest for business marketing?
There are several reasons why brands of all sizes are investing time and energy into a Pinterest marketing strategy.
Pinterest converts more leads to actual sales via referral traffic than other platforms. Engagement is also better as users love to share content that could help others, like this post below.
Tutorial-type posts are effective, and you can use the same for your Pinterest cover images. It goes without saying that the visuals used in pins and Pinterest ads should be related to your content.
5 best Pinterest templates for marketing
To make your Pinterest business account central to your digital marketing strategy, you need to build a Pinterest profile that is engaging.
The best way to do this is by designing attractive visual content that users will want to re-pin to their boards.
But if you’re a small business without graphic design help, that can be challenging. Fortunately, Venngage has customizable Pinterest post templates that will suit any type of brand.
World Teacher’s Day Pinterest Post Template
Your Pinterest marketing strategy needs to be surprising and interesting. It’s like any other social media channel, full of content vying for users’ attention. This visual can cut through the noise.
Generally, when people create designs for teachers, they include stereotypical icons and images. Think notebooks, books, boards, and pens.
But this one is different. It takes an unexpected approach by using interesting graphics coupled with a question. This increases engagement, and more people will be interested in checking out your main content.
Email Marketing Strategy Pinterest Design Template
Add a dash of creativity to your pin design with this template. It uses gradients to draw the eye but doesn’t overwhelm the design.
Notice the textured pattern in the background which helps the content stand out. With Venngage, you can use a variety of backgrounds when creating posts or Rich Pins.
Icon Trendy Poster Pinterest Template
This infographic design is perfect for a post and can be adopted for Pinterest ads. The design works well on its own but you can add some meta-data to Rich pins with this layout.
What makes this visual stand out is that each line of text is accompanied by relevant icons. It makes the message clearer to the user. The different hues also break the monotony making any visit to your Pinterest account a fulfilling one for users.
Icons Pinterest Post Template
One Pinterest marketing strategy is to create posts that educate users, like in this infographic.
Use the space on your Pinterest page to give visitors more information without creating an overcrowded design.
Content Marketing B2B Pinterest Post Template
This example uses the power of photos and text to make any Pinterest business account stand out from the crowd.
Use a professional photo as your background, and add your title and subtitle. If you don’t have branded images, you can use a stock photo from Venngage’s library. We have over 4 million photos to choose from.]
FAQs about Pinterest marketing
What is a Pinterest marketer?
A Pinterest marketing expert uses the platform to promote brands. What sets Pinterest apart from other social media platforms is that the content is mainly used for future reference. For Facebook and Instagram, the content is primarily for instant consumption.
A social media marketer on Pinterest will have the following tasks:
- Designing and optimizing relevant Pinterest boards
- Researching content for the target audience
- Pinning content to the right board
- Promoting Pinterest ads
- Running contests to increase engagement
- Examining Pinterest analytics to improve performance
How can marketers use Pinterest?
There are many uses for Pinterest. You can use the platform for your inbound marketing strategy where you can share your posts, Rich pins, and promoted pins. In addition, you can directly showcase your products and services. With this, you can generate leads and sales.
For others, they use Pinterest to conduct market research. You can take a look at what your competitors are doing. From there, you can improve your version of the content and get more followers. This leads us to the next question.
How can you get Pinterest followers?
If you want to gain more followers, here are the things you have to remember.
First, you have to be active on your Pinterest account. Make sure you pin regularly and engage in different Pinterest boards. When the timing is right, you can invite them to check out your content, too.
You can also check out your competitor’s followers and observe their behavior online. Don’t forget your hashtag and start your own group boards. These must be done on top of creating compelling Pinterest images.
Start building a Pinterest marketing strategy that converts
Pinterest marketing is an underrated social media tactic that businesses should be using. Create a business account and use the Pinterest marketing strategies we’ve outlined in this post.
To save you time, use a Pinterest template from Venngage, where you just need to pick a design and customize it according to your needs. Signing up is free, and there are tons of icons and images to design engaging pins for your audience.