Is Pinterest Right For Your Business?

There are a lot of social media platforms out there, so it can be tricky to find the right one or ones for marketing your business. So much is said about the big three – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Then there’s YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn… But, what about Pinterest?

Pinterest has been around for a long time now – it launched in January 2010 – and it has over 200 million monthly users globally. What’s more, the average user sits in the middle to higher income brackets, meaning they have plenty of spending power. The data also shows that Pinterest drives more sales than any other social media platform because the users are coming to the platform to find information and new products to buy.

The thing is, Pinterest has a unique appeal and isn’t really suitable to all businesses for marketing purposes. Here are some questions to ask yourself if you’re thinking about trying out the platform:

Does Your Brand Fit The Pinterest Demographics?

Pinterest may have a huge user base, but those users are quite specific. Unlike pretty much all other social media platforms, Pinterest really is skewed more towards female users. The numbers show that over 65% of all users on the platform are female between the ages of 25 and 54. It must be said though that in the last few years, more men are signing up to the platform and using it actively. This has definitely widened the net for marketers.

Is Your Offering Visual Enough For The Platform?

Another major consideration for Pinterest marketing is how the platform works. It may be a source of information, but it is also highly visual. It works with what they call Pins and Boards. Pins need to have an image or video to go with them and this is what will likely attract users to your account. The visuals you use need to be original, creative and interesting to your audience, otherwise you’ll never get noticed on the platform.

This is easy for businesses that operate in a creative field, such as photographers, home décor, food, beauty, fashion, crafts (a big one for the platform), events, weddings, landscaping. Even the mobile roulette apps offer have a creative angle.  These categories work really well on Pinterest. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get on well on Pinterest if your business is in fields like personal finance, health and wellness, marketing, and other industries that are considered less creative. All you need to do is figure out how to make your marketing visual enough that people will want to pin your content.

Will You Be Able To Spend Time On Your Boards?

As with any social media marketing, you need to have the time to spend on the platform. If you aren’t active on Pinterest, people in today’s hyperconnected world won’t be interested in what you post. Firstly, you need to ensure you set things up nicely, with Boards that make sense for your brand. These Boards then need to be updated regularly with your own content, as well as with Pins you find from other content providers. It can’t just be one sided, with you only posting your own content.

bOnce you’re going with content, you also need to spend time watching the numbers and the performance stats for your Pins. If you aren’t paying attention to this, you’ll be creating content and posting blind. It’s essential to see which Pins are getting the most traction with your audience, as well as seeing which ones are resulting in sales. This will help you with creating similar content to boost your traction and your sales over time.