Why Use Pinterest for Business

At last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Pinterest president Tim Kendall opened the festival with a talk on cell phone addiction. He praised  the health benefits of offline activities. 

He ought to know. Pinterest leads at inspiring people to enjoy offline activities. Its virtual boards motivate readers to cultivate offline hobbies, projects, and experiences.

Pinterest is an image-based, idea-driven social network. Its more than 200 million users seek out and share inspiration for experiences, products, and tutorials that improve their daily lives. 

While some businesses may overlook Pinterest, they should first look at the data and success stories. Many brands succeeded on Pinterest when they couldn’t on other platforms. 

Here are 5 reasons your business should integrate Pinterest into your social media plan.

1.  Your Customers Love Pinterest

No matter what product or service you offer, chances are your audience is looking for it on Pinterest. 

The image-driven social media channel boasts over 50 billion pins, 1 billion boards, and 75 billion ideas. Every day, nearly 2 million people save product-related pins to their personal boards. 

Pinterest is known for its beautiful fashion, food, and travel posts. But it’s also a platform that can take ordinary topics and make them fun.

Computer programmers, digital marketers, and bankers all turn to Pinterest to learn or teach “dry” topics like banking and Javascript. Project managers and architects can browse the latest products and inspirations in their fields. WordPress users turn to the platform for helpful infographics and tutorials. 

Heavy topics can become light and entertaining on Pinterest.

2.  People on Pinterest are Ready to Buy Your Products

Pinterest users love exploring new products. 

Over 60% say they’ve discovered new brands or products from promoted pins. They spend 29% more on retail purchases than people who aren’t on Pinterest. 87% of pinners say they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest.

It makes sense. People typically come to Pinterest at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. They already know there’s something they’d like to buy or create, and they turn to this social network for ideas on what to purchase. 

For example, Alamo Rent A Car uses Pinterest to reach users as they begin planning family vacations. Knowing that families often turn to Pinterest for travel ideas like “Where will we go?” and “What kind of activities and attractions will we plan?”, the brand promotes pins that are helpful for planning vacations.

Reese’s corporation is among the many Pinterest success stories, as their senior brand manager explained: “We were able to showcase the Reese's brand in a fun, playful and engaging way. We successfully impacted purchase intent, brand favorability and familiarity…”

Pinterest targets users that are often interested in purchasing your products.

3.  Pinterest Can Boost Your Brand’s Performance

Pinterest can be a highly effective way to drive brand performance. Teach your customers how to use your product better, and your brand will sparkle. 

Typical product manuals and instructional videos offer pages of reading that customers often ignore or rush through. Pinterest gives you the chance to offer product training in a fun and entertaining format that people love to see.

Old El Paso uses promoted pins to share engaging videos that inspire modern Mexican food-making. Their fast-paced videos compel users to do more than just make tacos with their product line.

For example, on Pinterest you can find a creative recipe for “Taco Cheeseburger Tatchos.” 

Old El Paso’s Pinterest boards are packed with creative ideas and inspiration for Mexican food. And these delightful creations all have one ingredient in common: Old El Paso.

By showing people how to use your product better via Pinterest, you can boost your brand’s performance.

4. Make $2 in Profit for Every $1 Spent on Pinterest Advertising

Studies show Pinterest advertising outperforms other channels. For every $100 spent on Pinterest, brands earned $60 more profit than from other measured channels. 

The same study showed that Pinterest advertisers gained $2 in profit for every $1 spent on Pinterest advertising. 

For example, Babylist, a baby registry app, increased their revenue by 40% and account signups by 70% in one year with Pinterest.

Pinterest provides a variety of ways to market your brand through non-branded search, promoted pins, featured carousels, and more.

5.  Pinterest Brand Support is Incredible

Sometimes brands need a bit of inspiration for themselves. Pinterest delivers a bounty of ideas and support for businesses:

• Weekly business webinars offer 30-minute sessions on topics like:
  • Creative Pinterest strategies
  • How to fast-track your way to great content
  • Getting to know the parents of Pinterest 
• Pinterest’s business blog and newsletter share insights on marketing trends and customer success stories. 
• “Pinsights” is a business section that showcases brand marketing campaigns, so you can see how other companies became successful on the platform. 
• The Expanded Creative Program is a self-serve program open to companies of all sizes who run promoted pins. It helps brands develop content for Pinterest in 2 weeks or less.  
• The Pinterest Propel program offers individual guidance to brands and agencies that invest more than $100 a day in advertising.

Sprinkled throughout all of their support options is a never-ending stream of ideas, inspiration, and Pinterest success stories.

Fitness app 8Fit tried promoted app pins to drive signups directly from Pinterest. The results included a 90% lowered CPM (cost per thousand) and up to 50% higher subscription rates than other platforms.

“After a few months running Promoted App Pins, we're thrilled by the marketing performance as well as the support and advice we received to help us scale,” said 8Fit’s Thomas Petit.

Pinterest take good care of brands who use their platform, offering support and training at every level.

Why Should Brands Use Pinterest?

Pinterest offers brands the chance to reach customers as they’re in the process of making purchase decisions. It creates opportunities to provide engaging product education. And it boasts a higher-than-average ROI while offering a clear path on how to succeed on the platform.

Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Instagram are currently the most popular social channels for businesses. But Pinterest should not be overlooked, since it may be the most profitable for yours.