Pinterest for e-Commerce Tips: Boost Your Sales with These 6 Tactics
Pinterest for e-Commerce Tips – The potential of Pinterest for e-commerce is still vasty overlooked by many businesses. The way people engage on the platform is extremely well tailored to e-commerce. By understanding and leveraging the nuances of Pinterest, businesses can significantly enhance their online visibility, engage more effectively with their target audience, and boost product sales. Here are 7 tips to get you started!
Need help with this Pinterest stuff?
We’re here for you! Let’s talk.
Need help with this Pinterest stuff?
We’re here for you! Let’s talk.
1. Design a Pinterest sales funnel for your customer’s journey
Your starting point when considering to use Pinterest for e-commerce marketing is your sales funnel. On Pinterest, users are in discovery mode. Since they’re at the top of the sales funnel, they’re very open to discover new people, brands, ideas and solutions to their problems. People discover products and content on Pinterest through keyword searches and by clicking on visuals that they’re attracted to.
It’s important to be intentional about marketing on Pinterest and know your customer’s journey. On Pinterest, the customer journey is typically 2-3 months. Pinterest users are planners. They’re looking for ideas and saving them to their boards 2 to 3 months before they actually buy. They’re not ready to buy right now, unless they have a very pressing problem to solve.
Here’s an example of an intentional customer journey on Pinterest:
A potential client discovers your pin and clicks through to your website. This person “stumbles” across your image on Pinterest as a result of a keyword search or a visual search with their camera (Pinterest Lens).
Capture and nurture the interest shown by a person after click- through. Where do you tend to make most conversions? Lead them there. This could be your e-mail list, Facebook group, Instagram stories, YouTube,…
People buy from you when they know, like and trust you. When you build a relationship with your target audience and they come to know, like and trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you when you make an offer.
Did you know that this year, Pinners started to search for holiday ideas earlier than ever? Before 2020, people on Pinterest start making holiday plans in September. This year, they started searching and saving for holidays in April… There was a threefold increase in searches for “Christmas gift ideas”, 8 months before December!**
** Source: Earlier than ever
2. Optimise for SEO
Once you’re clear on the sales funnel and customer journey, you need to spend some time on building a solid foundation that will help you market your products on Pinterest. Your Pinterest page is your shop window. It needs to optimised for SEO, so that your target audience can actually find the products you have on offer. Boards play an important role in providing context to the Pinterest algorithm about your content. They are essentially the gateway to your audience. When saving your pins to the boards on your Pinterest page, make sure they are closely related to the board topic.
Pinterest page SEO optimisation in a nutshell:
Pinterest is a search engine. List the keywords and key phrases that people use to find your products. Use them in titles, descriptions, boards & pins.
Create/update 10 boards based on your target audience’s interests and related to your product(s). Use key phrases in board titles & descriptions.
Activate Product Pins* for your store. Post eye-catching product pins and any other relevant types of content. Write keyword-rich pin titles and descriptions.
*Product Pins are pins that link directly to your online store. They contain extra information such as the price, availability, and description. This information comes from your shop’s inventory. Any time you change this information in your store, the information in the Product Pin will change too. Consult the documentation for your e-commerce platform to find out how to activate them.
SEO value of product titles & descriptions
Product Pins pull meta-data, such as the product title and description, from your website. If the product title and description in your store do not contain your main keywords, the Pinterest algorithm is unlikely to pull up your products in keyword searches by your target audience.
Example: If you sell a model of men’s sandals with product title “Summer Chic” in your store, it will show up on Pinterest as a Product Pin with that same pin title. A much better product title would be “Men’s Leather Sandals | Men’s Strap Sandals | Summer Chic”. The more specific you are, the better your chances of the product being shown to the right audience. This will not only improve SEO ranking on Pinterest, but on other search engines too!
3. Create a Shopping experience
Uploading your product catalogue on Pinterest is another great way to get your products in front of the right people, when they’re deciding what to buy. Pinterest rolls out the red carpet for e-commerce businesses, offering a suite of features designed to simplify selling through the platform. By setting up shop on Pinterest, you’ll unlock tools that facilitate the search and purchase experiences of your prospective customers.
4. Be ready for camera shoppers
Shoppers on Pinterest do not only search with keywords. Pinterest’s mobile app also enables people to search with their camera. To increase your chances of having your product show up for searches with Lens (Pinterest’s camera search functionality), test if your own images generate relevant search results.
Pinterest Lens Test
Take a picture of a product you offer and check what kind of pin image designs appear in the search results. If your product shots are plain product shots without a background and the types of images that Pinterest pulls up for your type of product are mainly lifestyle pictures, then you may want try out lifestyle images for your product too. Also check the titles and descriptions to get inspiration for your own pins.
You can also do these searches with images from your camera roll. Give it a try!
5. Show off your products in a carousel pin
A carousel pin is a pin that consists of multiple images. Carousels enable you to showcase different features of a product, show off multiple products at once, or tell a story. You can swipe through each of these images and each of the images can be linked to a different URL.
How to create a carousel pin
A carousel pin is a pin that consists of multiple images. Carousels enable you to showcase different features of a product, show off multiple products at once, or tell a story. You can swipe through each of these images and each of the images can be linked to a different URL.
- Create a new pin in the usual way
- Upload the pin image. After the image has been uploaded, an option to create a carousel will appear below the image.
- You can now add up to 5 images
- If you want the images to be re-directed to different URLs, remove the check mark and add the relevant URL to each image.
6. Let them try on your product. Virtually!
Try On was first rolled out for lipstick in January 2020. This cool AR (augmented reality) feature lets you try on different shades of lipstick. It’s powered by using the Pinterest camera in the search bar. More product categories to “try on”, such as glasses are planned.
If you would like to try it out for your business, you need a Pinterest business account and your Product catalogue uploaded to Pinterest. Learn more about enabling Try on for your products here.
We’ll handle Pinterest. You enjoy the results.
Ready to drive traffic and sales with Pinterest but short on time or knowledge? Don’t worry—we’re here to help! Our team of Pinterest experts can take the reins, managing everything from content creation to pinning strategy, so you can focus on running your business. Whether you’re looking to optimise your existing Pinterest presence or start from scratch, we’ve got the tools and know-how to drive traffic and increase conversions. Let us handle the pinning while you enjoy the results—get in touch today!
We’ll handle Pinterest. You enjoy the results.
Ready to drive traffic and sales with Pinterest but short on time or knowledge? Don’t worry—we’re here to help! Our team of Pinterest experts can take the reins, managing everything from content creation to pinning strategy, so you can focus on running your business. Let us handle the pinning while you enjoy the results—get in touch today!
Pin for later!
Mary Lumley – Pinterest Marketing for eCommerce & Travel / Pinterest for e-Commerce Tips: Boost Your Sales with These 6 Tactics