Pinterest for Retail: How to Make Your Pins Pay Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Pinterest for Retail: How to Make Your Pins Pay Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Pinterest for Retail:
How to Make Your Pins Pay Off
Think about this: It’s estimated that by the end of 2019, just about one out of every three social
media users in the US will be using Pinterest.1 Since it launched in 2010, Pinterest has carved out
a successful niche for itself, developing its own lingo (“pins,” “pinning, “pinners”) and a fiercely
loyal following of users, mostly women, who use the site as a source of inspiration and a (largely
inspirational) reflection of their identities.
In a marketing landscape where many businesses set up social accounts because they feel like they should, or because everyone else
has them, signing up for yet another site isn’t necessarily the most strategic step you can take to advance your business. Except:
Pinterest is worth your time — really worth your time — if you sell consumer products online.
In this eBook, we’ll delve into the following Pinterest topics, as they apply to online retail.
1. Why Should You Be on Pinterest?
2. Getting Your Product Pinned
3. Product Rich Pins
3 Pinterest Stats Worth Pinning:
4. Promoted Pins
•1 million businesses on the site
5. Buyable Pins
•100 million users worldwide
6. Collaborate with an E-Commerce Partner
•80% of traffic comes from mobile
Sources:
1: https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/thanks-our-1-million-businesses
2: https://blog.pinterest.com/en/100-million-most-interesting-people-we-know
3: http://fortune.com/2015/05/19/pinterest-ad-formats/
1 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1012103
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Why Should You Be on
Pinterest?
Because of its visual nature, Pinterest has been a compelling site for branded
manufacturers and retailers since its inception. Individual users were sharing
product images even without brands and retailers taking the lead. But lately
Pinterest has been making even more e-commerce waves by rolling out
dedicated retail functionality such as the ability to include product details, as
well as an option to purchase items directly from Pinterest itself.
Pinterest’s functionality falls right in line with the product-driven advertising
that’s seen lots of recent success. Google PLAs, for example, have taken search marketing by storm, increasing their real estate on
the Google results page. Pinterest can work in a similar capacity, given the emphasis the company places on its search function, as
well as the way consumers are using the site to discover products and brands.
Pinterest takes on the additional role of giving users a space to display their style and tastes not just through what they own, but
what they would like to own. In fact, one study revealed that 93% of Pinterest users use the site to plan future purchases.2 This
inspirational component is a huge one in the retail space because it builds a contingency of brand ambassadors who, though
they may not be gliding down the street in your latest spring line, can be advertising it just the same — from their couch, wearing
sweatpants.
2 https://www.millwardbrowndigital.com/pinterest-and-the-power-of-future-intent/
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Getting Your Product Pinned
Having your products on Pinterest isn’t of much use if they’re not being pinned and shared with Pinterest users and potential buyers.
To help you make the most of your Pinterest presence, here are seven of our favorite tips:
Invest in
high-quality and
creative images.
Experiment with
vertical-oriented
images, text
overlay and
contrasting colors.
Create interesting
and engaging pins
and boards —
don’t worry about
posting your
entire catalog,
but focus instead
on seasonal or
other themes.
Track which products
are being pinned from
your site to help you
gauge which ones to
feature on your boards
and which might be
worth some additional
creative treatment.
Add a “Pin It” button to
your product pages.
That way, pinners can
pin your item without
having to leave your
site. This decreases the
need to push all your
products to Pinterest
yourself.
Match the
keywords in your
descriptions to
the words users
search with. The
same goes for
your board titles
and "About"
section.
An alternative to the Pin
It button is the
“on-hover Pin It button,”
which shows up only
when a user hovers over
an image on your site.
Review yo
ur
Pinterest’s metrics on
d
repinned c ashboard, including
ontent, the
n
users activ
ely pinning umber of
and the to
tal number your content
of pins.
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Product Pins
Product pins are a type of “rich pin” (we told you Pinterest had its own
special language). Rich pins take your average Pinterest pin and bump it up
a notch by allowing users to take action on it. In the retail world, this means
product pins enable you to include dynamic info: product title, price and
availability.
So instead of just looking at that photo of a bag and sharing it with her
friends, a pinner can actually find out where to get it and start carrying it
around in her real, three-dimensional life. Rich pins take inspiration and turn
it into reality.
How They Work: Rich pins are available through a free Pinterest business
account. Though you don’t need a product data feed to use rich pins, it’s
far easier to have one than not. If you don’t provide a data feed, you have to add
Every day, 2 million people pin product rich pins.3
markup to your site to indicate the data points the feed would contain.
(Psssst: If you need help with this, product feeds are ChannelAdvisor’s specialty.)
Why They’re Worth It:
• Reminding people of your products: People who pin your rich pin will receive email notifications when you reduce the price of the product —
keeping you top of mind and inciting purchases.
• Increased click-throughs: Some Pinterest users simply repin an image they like and that matches their style. But rich pins compel pinners to
actually click through because they realize they’re going to receive more information that’s relevant to them.
• Added to Gifts: Once you add your price to a pin, it will turn up in Pinterest’s Gifts section. More visibility!
3 http://wwd.com/media-news/digital/rich-pins-pinterests-marketing-play-10108470/
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Promoted Pins
Available to all advertisers since 2015, promoted pins are Pinterest’s foray into advertising. Retailers can promote specific pins to targeted
audiences so that they show up in relevant search results and in users’ home feeds.
Promoted pins can be priced by CPM (cost per impression), which
is helpful if your goal is to build your brand, or by CPC (cost per
click), which you’ll probably opt for if you want to generate traffic to
your website and increase sales. Pinterest notes that engagement
rates for promoted pins are 2-5%, which Pinterest notes is higher
than the industry average.4
According to Pinterest, promoted pins generate impressions even
after you finish a campaign. Promoted pins typically see a 5%
increase in earned impressions 30 days after a campaign ends,
giving you a bigger bang for your buck.5
4 https://business.pinterest.com/en/promoted-pins
5 https://business.pinterest.com/en/promoted-pins
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Buyable Pins
Buyable pins take rich pins to the the next level and
allow users to buy products directly from Pinterest itself.
Rolled out in June 2015, buyable pins feature prices in
blue, and users can filter searches by price.
Once a user enters their credit card or Apple Pay info,
Pinterest sends those details over to the seller, who
then handles the shipment and customer service as
they normally would. And good news for you, Pinterest
doesn’t collect a portion of the sale.
Buyable pins are still in their infancy, though. Pinterest
currently offers a waitlist for interested advertisers.
There’s lots of potential for this program, so make sure
to keep up to date on its progress and how you can get
involved.
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Summary
Your Pinterest strategy is just one piece of your larger digital marketing strategy, and the more you can automate tasks and integrate processes,
the more streamlined your life will be.
With ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing, you can use our feed transformation tools to optimize and send your product data over to Pinterest. We
can help you do things like improve your product titles along the way, as well as include tracking info in your product feed so you can better
analyze clicks and orders.
To learn more about how ChannelAdvisor can help you connect your e-commerce strategy with Pinterest, give
us a call at 866-264-8594 or email [email protected]. And for the latest social and e-commerce news
delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for ECOMmunicator, our free monthly e-newsletter.
Trust us. Be Seen.
To learn more:
Call US 866.264.8594 • UK 0203 014 2700 • AU 1300 887 239
Visit www.channeladvisor.com
Email [email protected]
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