Weekly Campaign Idea: Use Pinterest for Holiday Marketing

Each week on Socially Stacked, we feature a social media marketing Campaign to inspire marketers and ShortStack users.

There are currently more than 70 million users on Pinterest and 500,000 business accounts on the social network.

What makes Pinterest an intriguing place for businesses? For one it's a powerful tool for traffic generation.

When you Pin an image on Pinterest you can link it back to any site you want so you're able to draw your audience in with an exciting picture and then sell them on a custom landing page or your website.

Another way businesses are seeing success on Pinterest is by running a Pinterest promotion. Pinterest promotions are easy to execute and offer a variety of options when it comes to creativity.

Planning a Pinterest Promotion

1. Pick the right promotion for you: There are a few different types of Pinterest promotions so deciding which one will meet your goals is crucial. Below is a diagram of common marketing goals and the best types of Pinterest promotions to meet them.

‍2. Create a custom landing page for your promotion: When you post on Pinterest you're limited to your one Pinterest photo (238 Pixels Wide). This doesn't leave a ton of room for a lot of content so it's best to create your Pinterest promotion on a landing page (like the example below). From here you can provide your entrants with the information they need to know in order to enter your promotion. You can publish your landing page to the web or as a Facebook app but we recommend publishing it to the web so that you can easily promote it across your social networks.

‍3. Make it Easy to Enter: Since there isn't an easy way for tracking pinned entries or awarding prizes you'll want to include an entry form on the landing page of your Pinterest promotion. We recommend keeping the requirements short and sweet.  Require fans to pin one or two images and then have a small form for entry that asks for name and email address.

‍4. Promote your contest on other networks: As with any promotion, one of the most important steps is promotion. Make sure you're promoting your Pinterest contest across all of your marketing channels including your social channels, email and website.

‍5. Have something worth Pinning: Pinterest promotions are not for every business. Obviously, photos are what drive Pinterest engagement so if you don't have anything that's worth Pinning then consider using a different network for your promotion. We always recommend choosing the network that works best to meet your goals and never hosting a promotion somewhere just because it's recommended.