How to Use Pinterest for Business? A Beginners’ Guide

Did you know that Pinterest can be a great way to promote your business?

Yes, it is a social media platform where users can share their user-generated content, images, videos, and articles they like with other users – not much different from other social platforms.

So why Pinterest for business? Because this platform has been growing like yeast dough in the last few years thanks to its users who are actually interested in products small businesses offer.

Don’t get this wrong; all the big names are using it, too, but what this platform can do for a small business is pure magic.

Let’s see how you can make the most out of Pinterest, even if you’re just starting out on it.

How does Pinterest work?

Basically, Pinterest is a platform for people to find ideas on various topics such as travel, cooking recipes, home decoration, and so many more.

Its basic purpose is to give the user inspiration by offering different styles and types of content that could be practically used.

We already mentioned that you can share various types of content on the platform.

What makes Pinterest unique is that those shared posts, called “pins,” can be organized into boards, which users can follow to go deeper into a specific topic.

Moreover, you can embed Pinterest boards on your website, and easily engage more people beyond the Pinterest app.

Users will browse through the Pinterest feed to get inspired and get even engaged into purchasing a product – mostly because people using Pinterst are already having the intent to search for something they actually need.

For example, if someone types “home lighting” in the search bar, they will get two options: Explore and Profiles.

This means they can browse through ideas for home lighting or business profiles that offer those services.

If you run a home lighting business you’d want those people to be able to find you.

You create your Pinterest for business account and design your profile specifically around that purpose.

You share images of your products, give ideas on interior lighting, or helpful tips for your audience, thus establishing your brand as a trustworthy go-to source.

The whole idea is to offer as much valuable content to your potential buyers.

And because we humans get hooked on the visual first, Pinterest for business will work best if you use high-quality images/videos with your written content.

Unlike the posts on other social media where you just share a link with a post, on Pinterest, you create the pins that will direct the user to the specific website. You can also create a captivating format to showcase your products, such as Pinterest story pins.

This is much better in terms that you offer two services at once: one giving a visual idea as an image and the other using that image to redirect the user to your preferred website.

Importance of Pinterest for any business (SEO)

It’s one task for you to target your ideal customer, it’s completely other for them to find you. This is where keywords and SEO (search engine optimization) help.

When you determine for which words or phrases you want your business to be found, make sure you include them in your pins, boards, and even your bio and profile.

These will help you with your organic traffic, i.e., when a user searches for a specific niche, your business will appear on their feed.

Pinterest will even help you by displaying similar phrases:

The best way to find which keywords are most important for you, you can install the Keywords Everywhere plugin and get some insight into what’s trending at the moment related to your area of expertise, of course.

Finding the most appropriate keywords will boost your chances to appear on the search engine result page (SERP) thus giving you better visibility as a brand.

How to create a Pinterest business account?

If you’re a complete newbie on Pinterest, this is what you do:

Step 1:

Go to https://www.pinterest.com/ and click the Sign up button

Step 2:

Go to the bottom of the page and click on the Are you a business? Get started here button

Step 3:

Type in your details and create your Pinterest for business

Step 4:

Build your business profile by adding your company name, website, and details about your business.

You will have to check a couple of boxes but this won’t take you more than a minute or two.

Step 5:

Start sharing your ideas or showcase your brand

If, however, you already have a private Pinterest account, you can easily convert it to a Pinterest for business account.

Just follow these simple steps:

Step 1:

Log in to your Pinterest account and go to Settings

Step 2:

Go to Account Management and click Convert account

Step 3:

Click on Upgrade at the bottom of the page

That’s it – your Pinterest is now an official business account.

How to post on Pinterest?

Step 1:

Log in to your Pinterest for business account and click + Create a pin at the top left on the page

Step 2:

Drag and drop, or upload your image from your computer, then add a title, description, and a destination link

Step 3:

Click the menu on the right to choose or create a new board and click Publish

What to post on Pinterest? Pinterest pins ideas

Pinterest – first and foremost – is intended for visuals.

Even if you offer services and don’t sell products, you catch your target audience’s attention with an image.

Be careful, though, users don’t appreciate an overly altered or filtered image.

Whatever you are selling, make sure you provide high-quality and concise imaging.

Also, you can always use Canva for this – even the free version!

Pin your products separately

If you’re selling products, your best bet is to pin each product separately.

You can then categorize them later in separate boards so users can browse them easily.

This way your potential customers can find exactly what they’re looking for much faster.

They will also have more information on product details, which website to visit, etc.

Pin what’s popular and trending

You want to show your audience that not only you do own your niche but are well informed on the latest trends in your industry.

This will also help you increase brand authority and credibility.

Like this example:

Pin tutorials i.e. How to pins

These are self-explanatory: you offer tips and tricks that you know your audience can benefit from.

In return, you increase organic traffic to your account and/or website while you build a dedicated army of followers.

Check out this awesome example of The Dark Knot, which sells ties and men’s accessories:

Pin infographics

Another way to show your expertise is to pin infographics on relevant subjects.

As we mentioned earlier, people respond better to imagery than text, so you can use this to your advantage.

Take a topic that has been elaborated on in a blog post and convert it into an infographic.

This way, your audience will learn what they need to without wasting too much time reading long content.

Also, they will definitely know where to come back for more digestible content.

Pin videos

Everything that has been said so far can be turned into video content.

How-to tutorials or DIYs, before and after videos, success stories about your brand, etc., are the best type of content for your video marketing strategy.

You can create your own videos as long as they are 15-20 seconds long by using your smartphone.

Or you can even pin videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or TikTok.

How to share Pinterest boards to expand your reach?

You can share your pins and even whole boards on other social platforms. Also, you can share them with people via email addresses.

This will increase your pin’s reach and with that your chances to reach a bigger number of potential clients.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1:

Click on the drop-down menu at the top-right corner and select Tune your home feed

Step 2:

Go to Boards and click on the one you want to share

Step 3:

Click on the three horizontal dots next to the name of the board and choose the Share option.

You can now choose how or where to share your board.

What key metrics to analyze? Pinterest Analytics

Having Pinterest for business allows you to track important metrics for your pins.

This means that you get to see how they are performing, learn from them, and improve where necessary.

These are the most important metrics to watch for, thanks to Pinterest Analytics:

• Impressions
• Engagements
• Pin clicks
• Outbound clicks
• Outbound click rate
• Video views
• Average video playtime
• Saves
• Pin click rate
• Play to 95%
• Total playtime (minutes)
• 10-seconds play
• Engagement rate
• Save rate
• Total audience
• Total engaged audience
• Monthly total audience
• A monthly total engaged audience
• Monthly views

10 Tips to make the most out of Pinterest / Achieve business goals

Create a marketing strategy for Pinterest

It goes without saying that before you join the market, you should have a carefully planned strategy.

Pinterest for business will only work if you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how to achieve it.

So, brainstorm some ideas, transform them into an actionable plan, and start testing the waters.

Start by answering these questions:

1. What do I want to accomplish?

2. Who is my specific audience?

3. What type of content will I be sharing?

4. Am I willing to participate in communication and build my network?

5. Can I keep track of important data related to my target audience?

Pay attention to what’s trending among Pinterest users

You want to be a worthy competitor, right?

One of the easiest ways to achieve that is to learn where the big sharks are swimming and why they’ve chosen exactly that place.

Look for buzzwords in your niche and join the party.

For example, if you are offering marketing services to prospective customers, part of your content strategy should be sharing news and trends related to the marketing industry – marketing trends for social media in the last year, statistics about buyer personas, reviews of the hottest marketing software – you get the picture.

Educate your audience

This is closely related to the previous section.

Once you know what your target audience is looking for, offer content that will be helpful and educational to them.

You’ll also build a solid foundation for brand awareness and credibility.

Plus, potential customers will know where to turn to once they’ve made a decision for purchase.

In translation, this means that you offer free stuff from your knowledge database.

Say you’re in the writing business: share tips on how to craft compelling headlines, do’s and don’ts of email sequence writing, tips for overcoming writer’s block, etc.

Combine images, videos, and text

Different personalities mean different preferences.

Although Pinterest at its core is a visual platform, your best bet for using the max out of it is to mix and match.

Make your pins strictly visual at times – like images or videos.

Other times try to include some text within those visuals – like infographics or motivational quotes.

Just make sure that your images and videos have high quality.

Optimize for SEO

This means that you look for relevant keywords and you include them in your descriptions or customized links.

Pinterest works like the other search engines, so you must optimize your content for it.

See how this food blog used hashtags in the description:

Pro tip: make sure your links are not broken, i.e., they will redirect your audience to the place you want them to go.

Connect your website via the Pin It button

This button gives visitors to your website the option to pin content directly from your website to one of their boards.

This way, you make it easier for them to share your content – and when something’s easy, it’s most likely to be frequently done.

To get started with the Pin button, go to Pinterest Widget builder and generate the code to display on your website.

Or, if you use a WordPress website, you can use social media icons plugin that will automatically add the pin button to all your posts.

Use ads

Pinterest is a platform for inspiration and ideas, which means people already have the intention to buy something.

That’s why the Pinterest crowd is more friendly to ads than on other social media platforms.

You can try the various types of ads available for your business, and the best part is that there are both free and paid advertising tools.

Track metrics

How will you know what’s working and what isn’t if you don’t analyze the data?

Pinterest Analytics is available to you once you create your Pinterest for business, and then it’s just tracking and measuring from there.

This will help you learn more about your audience’s behavior, so you can adjust your marketing strategy better.

For example, if you want to see how your different pins are performing, go to Analytics > Overview and choose the metric you want to see:

Combine with another social media platform

The more, the merrier, right?

Connecting Pinterest with your other social media accounts increases your chances of reaching a much better audience.

Sometimes the right customer will find you via a different platform, so why not use the opportunity?

All you have to do is click on the pin you want to share and click on the arrow next to it.

Then, you’ll get the option to share the pin on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and even email.

Be active and engage

Build your community and followers by showing up. Successfully marketing your business isn’t just advertising your brand.

You’ll get more success when you actively participate in conversations, follow back, or just pin other people’s (and businesses’) pins.

This way, you show the human side of your business – and people love engaging with people, not brands.

FAQ about Pinterest for business

Key takeaways

With more than 200 million users worldwide, Pinterest is the perfect place to showcase your business. We’ve shown you our step-by-step guide for ultimate success, and now we are going to mention the key points for running a successful business on Pinterest:

• The first and crucial step is to create a Pinterest business account
• See what’s trending and adjust your pins according to that
• Besides images, also post videos and infographics
• Share your Pinterest board on other social media channels as well
• Lastly, never forget to analyze your metrics

Now that you are all caught up, you can confidently start your Pinterest business journey!