6 Benefits of Using Pinterest for Business
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What's one of the biggest reasons you aren't using Pinterest for your business? I have been helping brands with Pinterest for going on eight years.
No matter what type of brand I work with, whether I am managing their Pinterest for them or they purchased a course or coaching program from me, there is a common reason that always comes up.
Can you guess what that reason is? Although they know about Pinterest, they aren't quite sure about the benefits of using it for their business.
I've seen firsthand how impactful Pinterest can be and in this blog post, I wanted to share six benefits of using Pinterest.
1. Evergreen Traffic Potential
The first thing we need to get out of the way is that Pinterest is not a social media platform; it's a visual discovery engine. When doing research about Pinterest, you'll probably see a lot of numbers thrown around about the lifespan of a pin. Most people get this wrong.
There is no specific timeline for how long a pin lasts, but what's important to know is that when you see blogs and content sharing that Pinterest pins can last a specific number of months, you can ignore that.
Pinterest pins take time to get indexed. What's exciting is that depending on your niche and business type, if you are consistent with your efforts, Pinterest can be a source of evergreen traffic for your brand. I always tell brands and entrepreneurs that I work with that they should compare the experience to ranking their blog content.
Setting expectations is so important because when you know what to expect, you'll understand that you have to be in it for the long run. It's not uncommon for me to pull reports for my clients and see pins that were shared three to five years ago, still driving traffic to my client's websites.
2. Perfect for Niche Audiences
One of the things I absolutely love about Pinterest is that the platform makes it so easy to do research before you start using Pinterest. You can successfully (and easily) do Pinterest keyword research directly on Pinterest using the various tools they have.
You can use tools like:
The Pinterest Trends tool which allows you to see how certain keywords trend over time.
The keyword tool in the ads dashboard.
The Pinterest search bar and guided search.
Suggested searches when browsing the platform.
Before creating your Pinterest strategy, use all the tools available to you to do keyword research to inspire and validate some of your content ideas.
3. Cost-Effective Marketing & Lead Generation
You don't need to run ads on Pinterest to see success, but over time, I recommend top-of-funnel ads to help you grow your list. Organic reach on Pinterest is substantial with the right keywords, SEO optimization, and content strategy.
How do sales and lead generation happen with the help of Pinterest?
Pinterest, as a visual discovery engine, can help drive traffic to your various sales pages, products, blog posts, affiliate links, and other sources such as your Medium blog or even your YouTube channel.
As a brand or entrepreneur, using any platform to market your products and services is only one part of the equation. What happens outside of Pinterest is just as important (or even more) since the experience where you send your traffic will influence the action of your potential reader or buyer.
If you are sending traffic to a landing page, you want to ensure that your landing page is optimized for conversions. The same applies to your blog posts, product pages, service pages, and so on.
When working with clients, I send monthly reports on reach, engagement, and traffic. I never guarantee an outcome outside of the metrics that I report on, as I cannot guarantee the action someone will take on a blog or a sales page.
One benefit of using Pinterest for business is that I typically share feedback and recommendations on blog and content topics based on Pinterest keyword research to help my clients in the process of validating ideas. This data is great because it can help brands understand the need for their specific idea or product on the platform.
Most clients I work with have their own unique processes for validating their products and services, such as introducing beta offers, surveying their community, reaching out to past clients and email lists to identify a need, etc.
4. Email List Growth
Speaking of email list, another one of my favorite benefits of using Pinterest for business is the ability to grow your email list on autopilot. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I am all about setting expectations.
I have been using Pinterest for a long time for my service-based business and my semi-anonymous blog, and between both accounts, I grow my email lists by about 250 to 400 new subscribers weekly.
If you stick with it, are consistent, and recognize that you will need to do deep audience research, really learn who they are and how they like to consume content. You'll then also need to ensure that your landing pages are optimized and that your copy is optimized for conversions.
For transparency, it normally takes me about six months to start seeing a lot of email list growth from a new freebie once I start pinning about it regularly on Pinterest.
5. Non-Branded Competition
When it comes to the benefits of using Pinterest for business, one thing that is often overlooked is that 96% of searches on Pinterest are non-branded. While some branded searches do happen, this gives brands, bloggers, and entrepreneurs so many opportunities to get discovered on the platform.
To stand out and rank in searches on Pinterest, you need to:
Optimize your account for SEO
Do keyword research
Give your pins time to get indexed (no two pins are the same :))
Post consistently
Optimize all of your pins
Create accessible content
Use video pins (I highly encourage this)
You will love Pinterest, and once you start generating traffic from Pinterest and see the impact, you'll be so glad you started using the platform.
6. Easy to Integrate With Your Content Strategy
One of the best things about Pinterest is how seamlessly it fits into an overall content strategy. If you're already producing content like blog posts, videos, or podcasts, you can easily create Pinterest pins to send traffic to that content.
Pinterest can serve as an extension of your existing content marketing, offering another way to repurpose and maximize the reach of everything you create. Plus, it helps extend the life of your content by reaching new people on an ongoing basis.
My best advice for anyone looking to get started with Pinterest is to take time to optimize their account, learn about Pinterest SEO and keyword research, be consistent, and sprinkle some patience in the mix. Always be curious about data and repeat what's working.
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