1 Minute Marketing: Using Pinterest for Business

$\"1$ Compelling images are becoming more and more important online, and this is no surprise. Newspapers have long known that a fantastic photo or graphic above the fold (meaning you can see the photo when the paper is in the news rack) draws more readers and can promote sales. Now the online business community is learning that the right images can drive sales, too.

Facebook posts with images are more likely to get noticed, liked and shared, but Pinterest is all about images. You “pin” images with links to “boards,” and other people can repin and share your content. Whatever image you use will lead the show, so it needs to be compelling. Does it have to be shot by a pro? No. It does need to be clear and related to the content you are linking.

While Pinterest continues to grow, most of the people using this website regularly are women. You\’ll see pins and boards ranging from crochet to motivational quotes to nail art, along with almost any other topic.

Search engine marketing incorporates many channels, and Pinterest can be one, but how do you get your business started on Pinterest? Much like other social media marketing tactics, your Eureka CA business can benefit by creating content that is helpful and then sharing it via Pinterest. When you place a pin, it will pull the image from the link you are sharing. If there\’s no image, you can\’t pin it. Your strategic e-marketing plan should incorporate at least one image per blog post or page anyway, so just make sure it is interesting and relevant to the content.

Start a couple of boards that can provide helpful information to your target audience. If you operate a specialty grocery store, some of the boards you create could include “Recipes for Local Ingredients,” “Inspiration for Dinner Parties” and “Best Holiday Cooking Tips and Tricks.” You don\’t have to create all the content for each of these boards — you can share and repin high quality content from other sources, though you should stay away from your direct competition. The specialty grocery store could share or repin posts from some of the product brands it carries or from Better Homes and Gardens, but not other local grocers.

Your business can also contribute to group boards for additional exposure. Find a relevant group board and look over what pins are currently up. If the content is a high quality, then sharing pins to this board can benefit your business.

If you are strategic about the kinds of pins you place, then your e-marketing plan will benefit from the boost Pinterest can provide. In fact, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ combined.