How to Use Pinterest as a Marketing Tool [Infographic]

By Marco Mijatovic “A picture is worth a thousand words," so the saying goes, and we certainly can't underestimate the power of an image and its ability to evoke the emotions that can lead to purchasing decisions.

Images get more engagement

Smart marketers know that. Posts with images are getting more views, shares and likes on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. More importantly, image-centric social media network such as Pinterest and Instagram are growing fast. With over 100 million users, Pinterest is no longer just a place for bridezillas to hoard images about dream weddings, or Martha-Stewart-Wanna-Be’s to store the thousands of recipes they’ll never make.

Pinterest is great for online retailer

When you take a closer look at the Pinterest users demographic, you’ll see that it consists of 80% women. If you take into account that 70% of household purchasing decisions are made by women, it’s not difficult to understand why it’s a great platform to reach a large segment of consumers with spending power.Not to mention, the percentage of users who follow online retailers on Pinterest is the highest amongst the most popular social media platforms. Pins from retailers generate more sales per click than either Facebook posts or tweets.Because you can embed a URL in a pin and have visitors directed to your website on click, Pinterest is set up perfectly to drive referral traffic. In fact, it generates more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.

Expand your reach exponentially

If you create relevant and pinnable content, Pinterest is a great platform to reach a large new audience as 80% of pins generated by the 100 millions pinners worldwide are repins.That means when your followers see your pin and like it enough to repin it to their boards, their followers will see it. And if they like it enough to repin it, your reach can multiply exponentially very quickly.

Longer lifespan = more eyeballs

If you’re frustrated by the blink-of-an-eye half-life of tweets or Facebook status updates – you’re going to love Pinterest. Pins tend to have a much longer lifespan, which means they have the potential to travel further and reach more potential customers.Even though it may take longer to create an image than just typing up some text on Twitter, the potential broader reach can make it worth the effort.

Enhance your brand image

Pinterest is not just for businesses selling physical goods to showcase their product photos. In fact, if most of you pins are product shots, you’re not taking full advantage of this platform to expand your reach, enhance your brand image and create a culture/conversation around your brand.Pins that are positive and aspirational get the most engagement and repins, making Pinterest an ideal platform to engage your current customer base, spark a conversation, and build brand loyalty that leads to conversion and high customer life-time value.Quotes are popular among pinners. Notice how Buffer uses a hashtag to encourage engagement and spark a conversation.

Image source: http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-create-pinnable-content

How to use Pinterest for business

Like all social media platforms, you have to use Pinterest strategically to get the best results. The infographic below will show you:

• The best days and times to Pin
• The Top categories on Pinterest
• Sales stats and shopping behavior on Pinterest
• Content and engagement vitals
• How to find visual content to create your pins
• How to optimize for lead generation on Pinterest

If you like this infographic, don’t forget to use the “Pin It” button (which shows up when hover your mouse over the image) to share it out on Pinterest!