Are Pinners Purchasing?

The popularity of Pinterest has led many brands to utilize it for promoting their products and services. Though Pinterest hasn’t been on the scene for very long, it has quickly signed up millions of users, and is now the third most popular social networking site, just behind Facebook and Google. Though many people are devoting their time to the virtual pinboard, the question that most marketers want answered is: “Are pinners purchasing?”

Many websites and brands are seeing an increase in traffic from their Pinterest account, but the main question remains, does this traffic result in sales? In a study conducted by Vision Critical and Emily Carr University that involved 500 Pinterest users from the US, Canada, Australia and UK, they discovered a pretty high correlation between pinning and purchasing. It seems one out of five Pinterest users has pinned an item or product that they purchased eventually.

This is definitely a big discovery for brands. As a small business owner, you can’t ignore the reach of Pinterest, since it can potentially drive revenue. If you want to have a successful social marketing campaign, you need to utilize most of the tools at your disposal.

In another study by Shopify, they discovered that Pinterest users even spend more on average compared to their Facebook counterparts. Pinterest has become the third largest referral source to Shopify’s partner sites, with Facebook and Twitter continuing to lead. And Pinterest users also tend to shop more – they spend an average of $80 per order, which is double that of what they spend on Facebook.

Though Facebook continues to be the giant among social networking sites mainly due to the fact that it has the most number of users, Pinterest’s unique image-based site definitely offers a lot of potential for social marketing. Rakuten, an e-commerce giant based in Japan, recently made a $100 million investment on Pinterest. It plans to use the site together with the Rakuten ID, which is already being used by 75 percent of Japan’s population online, or roughly around 80 million people. This puts the value of Pinterest at $1.5 billion.

Though purchases may not be frequent and constant, still, brands can’t ignore the power that Pinterest holds nowadays. A significant number of people are raving about the site, using it to showcase the things they love, and sharing these things with their followers. Since this can translate to sales, it would be disadvantages for your small business to ignore Pinterest.

Even though pinners are purchasing, however, it’s important that you use Pinterest properly in order to increase the traffic to your site as well as increase sales. You can create pinboards of all the products you’re selling, but too much self-promotion can end up backfiring on you. So it’s important that you strike a balance between promoting your products and services, and sharing what you love on the site.

Mix and match what you post. Showcase your products with other things that complement them. Find unique ways to showcase the services you’re offering. If you sell make up for example, don’t just post pin pictures of your products – you can add make up tutorials, pictures of made up people that you like, and comparisons of what make up is best for day and for night.

Even if you’re someone who offers services, not products, you can make Pinterest work for you. As a lawyer, for example, you can showcase your advocacies through pictures. You can even show a bit of humor, since this lets people see you in a more personal way.

But of course, the real challenge is getting people to buy from you. Sure, it’s easy for people to follow your Pinterest account, join your contests, comment on your pinboards, like and share them on other social networking sites, and so on. But these things don’t always translate into sales.

Also, there remains the question: Are pinners purchasing what they pin, or are they pinning what they already decided to purchase? What comes first… the pin, or the plan to purchase? This is an interesting question to answer since it gives you an insight on what the users are doing. Does the pin come before the plan to purchase? Or the plan to purchase comes first before the pin?

If the pin comes first, then this can be really advantageous to brands. This means that people are pinning what they love, then they can’t resist purchasing. On the other hand, if the plan to purchase comes first, then it means that Pinterest may not exactly have anything to do with why the user is buying the product or service.

Truly, there is still a lot of uncharted territories with regards to Pinterest. As brands begin to learn what works on Pinterest or not, they can really come to engage their followers and increase their sales in the end.

Pinterest When You're a Service Provider

Lately, everyone seems to be on Pinterest. It’s really becoming one of the most popular social networking sites, as more and more people sign up to create virtual pinboards, share them with their network, as well as check out all the lovely creations of other Pinterest users.

Since more and more people are using Pinterest, this definitely puts pressure on personal and small business brands to learn the platform and use it to their advantage. Nowadays, it’s all about word of mouth marketing, as well as connecting and engaging with your clients and customers. So brands need to be where the people are, and right now, Pinterest is where many people are spending their time on.

Many personal and small business brands who sell products are taking advantage of Pinterest by creating pinboards that feature the items they sell. They host contests, interact with their followers, and basically create buzz marketing for their brand.

But what if you’re a service provider? What if your personal or small business brand doesn’t sell products, but offers services? Should you still use Pinterest in your small business marketing mix?

Before you can decide on that, here are some things you should ask yourself:

     1. Are you willing to devote time on this?
     2. Are you willing to share more about yourself?
     3. Are you willing to become a more “visual” brand?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you should definitely consider using Pinterest to market your brand. But how exactly do you do this? Here are some tips:

Show off your personality visually

Most people aren’t one-dimensional creatures. You may be a lawyer, an accountant, or a doctor, but it doesn’t mean that that’s your only interest. You may also be a great cook, an avid reader, or a music enthusiast. And you can definitely share these interests of yours on Pinterest.

Before you can sell your brand on Pinterest, you need to connect with the users there, which is why it’s a good idea to show off your personality and the things you like in order to create a good following. Create boards that are creative, inspiring and beautiful. Show off the things you like and love. Then once you have a good number of followers, you can start creating boards that are related to the service you provide so you can promote what you do and drive traffic to your site.

But of course, you need to utilize Pinterest on its terms first before you branch out to what Pinterest can do for your brand.

Consider your target audience

Who is your target audience? What are they most interested in? These are two important things you need to ask yourself so you can effectively promote your brand on Pinterest. You want to create pinboards that your target audience will be interested in, so that they can be directed to your website and avail of your services.

For example, as a cardiologist, your clients are likely to be people who are very concerned about managing their weight and maintaining a healthy heart, so you can create boards that are dedicated to helping people maintain their ideal weight and be heart-healthy.  One board could be about heart-healthy foods, while another board could be about exercises that are good for people with heart disease.

By becoming a good resource for your target audience, you can effectively promote your brand and sell your services.

Be active

Truly, the best way to market yourself on Pinterest as a service provider is to be active on the site. You need to regularly create boards, comment and re-pin other people’s images, encourage people to like and re-pin what you’ve posted, and so on. If you aren’t willing to devote your time to maintaining your Pinterest page, then it’s far better to just utilize other social networking sites that may help you connect and interact with your audience better.

Just like any other social networking site, time and effort needs to be devoted to Pinterest in order to successfully use it to sell your service brand.

Personal and small business brands can definitely utilize Pinterest in order to promote awareness of their brand and create buzz. Though brands who sell products definitely have the advantage since their brands are more “visual,” as a service provider, you can still create interest in your brand by showing off your personality, considering your target audience, and maintaining an active account on the site.

So don’t be afraid of using Pinterest to market your brand. Show off the things you like and love, and you can create a good following that directs traffic to your website as well as the services you offer.