Social media marketing offers brands all kinds of benefits that are hard to ignore. However, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll have to adapt your strategy for each social network, as there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Besides driving traffic to your ecommerce website, one of your major aims on Pinterest will probably be getting your content repinned by other users to expand your reach. To do so, it’s essential that you share engaging posts that speak to your current and potential customers.
If you have no idea where to begin, that’s okay!
This article offers lots of inspiration for Pins that will make users curious about your business and want to know more.
What to pin on Pinterest
To help you get started with crafting a stellar Pinterest strategy for ecommerce, here are 15 great ideas for the types of content you can share to help your brand flourish on the platform.
1. Products
When you’re trying to determine how to sell on Pinterest with your online store, it only makes sense that you’ll want to show off your product catalog with your Pins!
What’s more, Pinterest statistics show that many users are using the social network for shopping purposes. According to Pinterest, 64% of Pinners use the platform to discover products and services that they feel confident purchasing.
Keep in mind that similar to Instagram, it’s all about the imagery on Pinterest. It’s essential that any product photos that you share are high quality and designed to allure anybody who happens upon your boards.
To further encourage Pinners to make purchases, you’ll want to take advantage of the platform’s product-tagging feature. In doing so, you’ll be able to tag up to eight products from your website in an image, making it super easy for people to locate any of your store’s items that they want to buy.
You can even create different boards for the items in your catalog to show them off in various ways with your Pins. For instance, you might divide your products into categories such as brand, season, type of product, color, price, etc. and create a board for each to highlight a specific group of products.
You could also design a board for your “New Arrivals” to share images of your ecommerce site’s latest products. Finally, you might find that creating a Pinterest board for your bestsellers is a great way to help your most popular goods shine!
Source: Cult Beauty
2. Before-and-after photos
This type of content is wonderful for demonstrating the benefits of your product to other Pinterest users and entice them to head to your website ASAP.
Consumers appreciate proof that a product works and does what the company says it will do. Furthermore, they may not quite understand how effective a product you have until they see what life looks like without it via a “before” photo.
You can obtain before-and-after images for Pins through your website perhaps by encouraging your followers on other social networks to share their photos after trying out your product.
3. Infographics
An abbreviation for the term “informational graphic,” an infographic takes a complex topic and summarizes important data in a way that’s visually appealing and compelling to readers. Infographics are big across all social networks, but they work especially well on Pinterest because of their visual nature.
Infographics are an excellent avenue for ecommerce entrepreneurs looking to elevate their content marketing strategy beyond the sharing of product photos and blog posts. They allow you to build your brand credibility and increase trust in your business, which in turn can help you to see more sales down the road!
It goes without saying that your infographic should offer interesting information that’ll be helpful for both your current and potential customers. However, to boost the chances of other Pinterest users repinning your infographic Pins, there are additional aspects to consider implementing.
- Description: Include a brief summary of what your infographic is about. Feel free to add a splash of personality here to get more clicks.
- Hashtags: Although you don’t want to go overboard with this, adding a few relevant hashtags to your infographic to the description can help you to reach a wider audience.
- Size: Yes, infographics can come in any size, but those shared on Pinterest tend to work best when they’re vertical–long and thin.
4. DIY guides or tutorials
Boost consumer trust in your brand by pinning DIY or tutorial posts that teach users how to do something themselves. It’s been shown that how-to Pins are a big hit, as many people head to the platform to learn new things or find inspiration for future projects.
You can opt to incorporate your products into your posts involving educational content or simply demonstrate how to complete a task or project that your target market is likely to be interested in.
As always, you’ll want to keep the visual aspect of your posts at the forefront to optimize your Pins. Consider using a multiple-image strategy for your DIY guides or tutorials, where you’ll insert numerous images (maximum of four is best) into one to create a single image for pinning.
Source: The Home Depot
5. Industry-leader features
While selling products is what your online store is all about, keep in mind that shoppers appreciate a human element to any business.
Find people who have made a difference in the world or have otherwise revolutionized your industry through their accomplishments and feature them in your Pins.
By sharing industry leaders’ achievements, ideas, and thoughts, you’ll inspire other Pinners and encourage them to dream big!
6. Blog posts
The articles you share on your ecommerce site’s blog likely take some time and effort to create. For this reason, you’ll want to make sure that as many people as possible see them once they’re published.
When used correctly, Pinterest can be very effective at boosting traffic to your website, so you’ll definitely want to take advantage of the platform to promote your blog. Consider designing a vertical graphic with a link to your site to share on Pinterest and announce to users that you have a new post live on your blog.
You can also utilize Pinterest’s “Pin It For Later” feature to allow other Pinners to save your Pin and check out your blog post when they have more time to devote to the task.
7. GIFs
As you’ve probably discovered in your own experience, though people often scroll through social media in hopes of discovering new information that can help them improve their lives, sometimes they just want to laugh!
Pinterest states that one million users view an animated GIF on the platform every day, making it a very tempting content option for your brand. If you opt to create GIF Pins, just ensure that they’re relevant to your target audience and are still somewhat professional.
8. Recipes
Okay, so if your online store doesn’t sell food or food-related products, you might be wondering why you’d even consider sharing recipes on Pinterest.
Well, to put it simply, people in general love to eat!
No matter the industry or target market, recipes are one of the top items to share on Pinterest. To make the most of this strategy for your own business, think about what your ideal customer is most likely to be interested in foodwise.
For example, if your ecommerce website sells sportswear, gym equipment, or yoga accessories, perhaps sharing recipes for health-conscious people would be your best bet.
What if your online store doesn’t offer products for humans and instead features pet-related items?
No problem!
People are increasingly concerned about their pets’ health these days, and many pet owners would likely love to discover recipes for wholesome treats to whip up at home.
Source: Chewy
9. Quick tips
As you’ve probably come to understand, the key to any great content marketing strategy when using social media for ecommerce is that the content you share offers your audience real value. Just like with infographics, providing people with quick tips to solve a specific issue or somehow make their lives easier can help to strengthen your brand credibility.
Though you won’t be able to get too in depth with the tips you share on Pinterest, handy hints that give users immediate results are sure to be appreciated!
This type of Pin can be shared in the form of a photo with a short caption, or you can create a simple graphic that clearly describes your pro tip(s).
10. Videos
With the growing emphasis on video content, it’s no surprise that it’s now possible to post videos from YouTube on Pinterest. Video Pins are perfect for sprucing up boards filled with images can be made to showcase a wide range of topics.
Common video content that you’ll find on Pinterest include behind-the-scenes videos, how-to demonstrations, interviews, testimonials, and more.
Don’t feel like you need to be an expert videographer to be able to create engaging videos for your audience!
While you’ll of course want your content to be professional, you should be able to create a short high-quality video with your smartphone alone.
11. Industry news
Help keep your audience informed by creating a board with Pins of articles on relevant industry news that will be of value to them. Of course, how often you’ll need to update this board will depend on the type of products that you sell.
Nevertheless, there’s a good chance that regardless of your industry, there will be changes from time to time, and consumers will like being kept in the know.
12. Behind the scenes
Offer your audience an insider’s look into your world by sharing behind-the-scenes content on Pinterest. Create Pins that highlight your office, team members, product production, etc. to better connect with customers and allow them to get to know your brand.
This kind of content can also provide users with a glimpse into the history of your ecommerce business and why you decided to launch your online store.
Source: Jelly Belly Candy Company
13. Recommendations
Shoppers appreciate when they feel that a brand sees them as more than a sale. A well-crafted content market strategy takes customers’ concerns into account and seeks to provide thoughtful solutions to those issues.
Why not share your knowledge and insights with other Pinners through the use of recommendation Pins?
Say that you sell several different versions of a product. You might create content that helps users decide which of these items best suits their needs.
Note that this type of Pin also works well even if you’re not talking about your products. For instance, if your online store sells camping equipment, and your business is based in Oregon in the US, you might create a Pin that details the top 10 places to camp in the Pacific Northwest.
14. Quotes
Another way to drive traffic to your Pinterest page is with the help of quotes. This is known to be an effective strategy due to the fact that people often visit Pinterest to get inspired. While this generally occurs through images, it can also be done through uplifting text.
Amplify users’ moods by sharing inspirational messages that are relevant to their everyday lives. Whether you pin your own quotes or those from other people, try not to make use of this type of content too often. It’s the kind of thing that works best in small doses!
15. Other users’ content
While it’s great to share original content for the majority of your Pins, don’t overlook the idea of repinning other users’ content. When done strategically, this action can help to further establish your brand as an expert in your industry.
Do some research to determine what topics are most likely to appeal to your target market, find high-quality content from other Pinners related to those topics, and repin away!
Keep in mind that you’ll probably want to avoid repinning content from your major competitors and relying on this strategy too often.
More inspiration = more sales
As you begin to work on your Pinterest strategy or rejuvenate your current efforts on the platform, don’t get discouraged if you discover that it takes some time to get your desired results. This is completely normal when it comes to any social network, whether you’re figuring out how to sell on Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram, and posting on Pinterest is certainly no exception.
Consider using the ideas mentioned in this article so that you can serve as a source of inspiration to your audience, encouraging them to imagine what your online store’s products could help them achieve.
This in turn should naturally lead to an increase in traffic to your ecommerce website and product sales, which is, of course, always a good thing!
