An online presence is an important step for any business, blog, online store, forum or business website. It shows that you are serious about taking your business public, ready to take advantage of the benefits of the internet’s global reach. However, having a website isn’t all there is, as people have to visit your website in order to access whatever information you have to share.
Businesses go to great lengths to attract traffic to their sites by engaging SEO professionals, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), advertising on social media platforms, etc. Spending huge sums for these activities isn’t a guarantee for steady traffic, because the right strategy may be employed in the wrong platform, resulting in very little success. One obvious fact is that business owners need to really understand the online traffic landscape; knowing what category of people can be found in which social media platforms.
It is almost impossible to plan an online marketing strategy without social media marketing as a component. This is because social media marketing is the most effective marketing medium after word of mouth. The most common social media platforms in use are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. A lot of people are familiar with Pinterest, but are not aware of its potential to drive quality traffic to their sites.
This guide will give you the much needed details on how to best use Pinterest to grow your traffic.
Why Use Pinterest?
Whenever the top 3 social media sites are mentioned, you hardly hear Pinterest included among them. That’s because in terms of users, monthly visitors, and popularity, Pinterest comes behind Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. That is not to say that the social sharing website offers less benefit to your business. Records have it that Pinterest is the second biggest driver of referral traffic, even among the other ‘big’ social media platforms.
Pinterest is a social media site designed for users interested in sharing information through images, with an option of text. It was launched in January of 2010 as an image sharing platform, which has since witnessed massive growth presently having 291 million users. Its growth in popularity and users is proof that the service is of great value, 70% of which are residents outside the United States. This global audience cuts across both male and female folks, creating opportunities for businesses to reach geographically dispersed audiences.
The popularity of Pinterest among millennial is extremely high, with 50% of its users falling within this demography, with 34% of users falling within the age range of 18 to 29 years old. Pinterest isn’t all about staying connected, but users’ attention are mostly focused on discovering new things, shopping for information to aid in making buying decisions, and for inspiration. Users will discover websites that provide them with what they seek.
Pinterest users are generally perceived to be wealthier than the average social media users, with an average household income of $100,000. This uniqueness accounts for the kind of information shared on Pinterest, providing the opportunity for businesses to connect the right audience through their messages.
Learning to use Pinterest might seem complex for those who are new, but navigating through the platform becomes much simpler once you get a hang of it.
Are you still undecided on creating a social media marketing plan for Pinterest? Check out some awesome benefits of using the platform.
Benefits of Using Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Site
- Pinterest is an effective tool for boosting traffic to your website. With a well designed and executed Pinterest Traffic strategy, you can achieve traffic boost comparable with what other social media platforms will put together.
- A great platform for you to grow your audience, and engage users with your brand! Create strong messages, good communication, and excellent graphics to build awareness of your brand.
- Pinterest is big enough to give you plenty of referrals to your site. With an estimated 300 million users, even if your total reach is 0.1% which you are able to get exposure to, that’s a whopping 300,000 added to your monthly visitors.
- Users are spread all over the world, with more than 70% of users residing outside the United States. This gives your business limitless opportunities to tell the world about your brand.
- Pinterest is popular among millennial, with about 34% of its users between the age of 18 to 29 years old. If your business offers products that appeal to this class of people, you are offered your target audience on a platter of gold. Even if your product is one of a more general one, you can tailor it for the most populous set on the platform.
- Generally, Pinterest users fall under high income earners. A tailored audience for businesses that offer products that they need!
- More educated and enlightened users who appreciate quality content.
- You can share insights on new findings, important information, and inspirational content to appeal to the vast majority of users.
- As an expert in your chosen field, be generous about the information you have. Users are on the lookout for ideas on particular topics.
- Pinterest is a visual search engine with an estimated 2 billion searches a month. A good place to have images properly tagged with the right keywords to get noticed!
- The platform boasts of high engagement rate, with users spending an average of 14 minutes per session.
- Second largest driver of referral traffic, better results than most social media platforms including Facebook!
- Contain high quality content in comparison to other social media platforms. Businesses that feature their brands here are well respected.
- Pins visibility last longer than posts of other social media platforms! They come up as search results in other search engines long after the post date.
Setting up Business Profile on Pinterest
After all said and done, you will need to have a fully optimized Pinterest profile to get you started using the platform. Here are simple steps to follow in setting up a Business profile.
Step 1: Choosing a Name – It’s as simple as it sounds. Your brand name, blog, would suffice. Let it be a name that can be easily recognized by people and search engines.
Step 2: Create Business Profile – Business account was introduced by Pinterest in 2012, and has since gained popularity among brands. There are some important tools which are available to business accounts but not to personal accounts. Features like access to Pinterest Analytics to track Pins, educational resources, Rich Pins, Promoted Pins, and “Pin it” button for your website.
There are 2 ways of creating a business account – convert your current account to a business account, or create a fresh business account.
Visit Pinterest website and click on “Join Pinterest”. On the next page you have the options to continue with an existing profile, or sign out to create a new account after which you follow through on the steps provided.
Specify the name and type of the business and provide your website URL. Also, you can link your new account with other profiles in Instagram and YouTube.
Step 3: Build Profile – There are 5 components of your Business account namely:
I. Logo – Let your logo look as professional as possible. Remember that it is part of your branding, and should reflect the image of your brand. If your current logo doesn’t inspire you, change it. There are freelance graphic designers who would gladly create logos for you at an affordable rate. Upwork is a good place to begin the search for one.
II. Brand Name – I mentioned this earlier. Your brand name should be consistent with your business. This business account being set up was created to give traction to visitors for your website, and so should bear the same name. If for whatever reason this isn’t possible, use a fitting name to distinguish your account from the rest.
III. Website URL – Self-explanatory. The web address of the blog you wish to promote!
IV. Description – A sentence that describes what you do. This description might be what stands between you and getting a good deal. So, pay attention to what you write. You can optimize your description by adding relevant and popular keywords.
V. Boards – Boards are used to organize the content that you share on Pinterest. Depending on how they are tagged, your Pins are stored in boards. Create boards for different image categories you intend to share.
If there is a need to edit your profile in the future, you can do so by navigating to your profile, and click “edit profile” at the top right corner.
Step 4: Claim Your Website – It is recommended that you claim your website so you can enjoy additional features for your business account, one of which is access to valuable website analytics, and a globe icon placed next to your website URL on your profile. You also get attribution for your content already existing on Instagram.
The process is very easy if you have basic HTML knowledge, if not, it isn’t that much of a task.
It’s as simple as adding a metatag or HTML to your website’s source.
Step 5: Verify Your Account – A verified account lets users know that Pinterest recognizes your account as a credible and trustworthy source of information. You need to first claim your website and other social media accounts before being verified. Social media accounts like YouTube, Instagram and Etsy are required before your account is verified.
Once you are done, contact Pinterest from the Help Page. After your account is verified a red tick appears on your profile picture.
Step 6 – 4 Ideal Images That Appeal to Pinterest Users – Pinterest is an image-sharing platform, so your main focus is on the quality of images shared by you. Images communicate much faster than words, with the ability to say so much at just a glance. Investing therefore in excellent quality images is necessary if users are to be attracted. Here are 4 image types you should work with:
I. Infographics – Infographics can package so much information into an image. They are extremely educative and informative, depending on what you are passing across to users. Get your facts right, and organize the content to get mass appeal.
II. Custom images – Custom images could be hand drawn, or outlines made with image editing tools. A lot of free tools are available online, and for mobile devices.
III. Images with beautiful backgrounds – beautiful backgrounds, especially brightly colored will make your images lively. High quality pictures for background will give you the best result.
IV. Pictures of real people – Pictures of real people look great, and full of life. Indoor or outdoor, depending on your niche, they both work well. Use a camera with good picture quality, and ensure the room has bright lights.
My best tool for creating these images is Canva. It comes with tools that anyone can easily use, if you’re familiar with navigating a web page. There is a free account that gives you most of the needed tools and resources to achieve your aim. Premium accounts come with more tools and resources.
Step 7 – Social Button – Adding a social follow button on your site can be a great boost for building followers on your account. Add the button and link to your profile, and then encourage visitors to click and follow you on Pinterest.
Step 8 – Add Pin it in Posts – A reader who finds your blog post interesting should be able to share it as a pin in their profile. You can add the pin it button on the blog image, and whenever a reader hovers their mouse over it, the button will appear. Pinterest Widget Builder or any other WordPress plugin should help with this.
Step 9 – Adding Share Button – Share buttons in your post make it easier for readers to share your blog posts in their profiles. This helps to increase your audience and visibility. There are numerous WordPress plugins that can be used to add the share button to your blog posts.
There are many activities to help you build traffic to your website. Getting grounded in the basics is a great way to start.
Conclusion
Pinterest is a great platform to build followers, and attract quality traffic to your website. An effective Traffic building strategy will definitely pay off. Are you now willing to start up a personal blog so you can leverage the power of Pinterest? If yes, follow me through this route.