As any e-commerce business owner will tell you, the key to making sales is to make them easy for the customer. One great way to do this is through the use of Pinterest Buyable Pins. While most social media platform users are connecting with each other, Pinterest is a platform where users search for items and inspiration and save these items to boards. By integrating product pins into your business posts on Pinterest, you make it easier for customers to purchase your product without having to search through your website to find the product they are looking at on Pinterest. Product pins allow you to link the pin directly to the product page of your website.
What Are Product Pins?
Product Pins allow users to purchase your products easily. Once a user has found a product they are interested in, they can click the visit button and be sent directly to the product page of your website. This ease of access to your products will help to increase the number of sales on your website.
How Effective Are Pinterest Buyable Pins for Business?
Like most social media platforms, Pinterest has approximately 200 million active users each month and that number is growing every day. What makes Pinterest different from other social media platforms is the interaction of users. While Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users typically interact with friends and family, Pinterest is all about finding inspiration and products.
Product pins allow them to immediately purchase the items they like as they search through pins and boards for inspiration. Businesses that use product pins have seen an increase in sales to new customers as well as an increase in website traffic. Statistics from business research noted that at least 20 percent of sales were driven by Pinterest Product Pins. And 90 percent of these sales were from new customers.
Setting Up Product Pins
Pinterest supports open Graph, Schema.org, and oEmbed to mark up pages to create product pins. If your eCommerce store is through Shopify, you will not have to mark the pages as they already have the correct metadata. Once you have marked all of your pages, you are ready to use Pinterest’s validator to complete the process.
Preparing Your Pins
Before you make your product pins public on Pinterest, you should create secret boards that only you can see. These boards will allow you to create a variety of pins while experimenting with different images, text overlay, descriptions, and ideas. Once you have found what works best for your products, you can then move the pins to a public board.
Selecting Images
Any time you are selling products online, the images must be top-rate and attention grabbing. The first impression your potential customers will have of your business and products will come from these images. This is especially true on Pinterest. Choose images that are high quality that capture your products at their best angle. How you show your products will depend on the type of product you are selling. Here are a few examples:
For clothing items, you can choose to model your products on a person to show your customers exactly what the outfit or items look like when worn or you may choose to display the items laying flat or on hangers. This depends on your personal preference as well as the availability of models for your items.
For furniture items, you should always display them as they would be placed in a home. This allows potential customers to see exactly what the furniture pieces could look like in their home.
Home décor items should always be displayed the way they would be in a home when being photographed. Remember Pinterest users are looking for inspiration for their own home. Seeing décor items as they would be displayed in their own home can draw them into a purchase.
Finally, if your business specializes in DIY projects and sells instructions for such projects, a collage image of your most popular projects will lead potential customers to become more interested than just seeing one project at a time. They will also be more inclined to click on your pin in order to see more project ideas.
Writing Your Descriptions
Descriptions are what lead users to your pin, keep them interested in your pin, and lead them to purchase your products. Therefore, it is important to create a description that uses keywords that potential customers may be searching for. You will also want to include a thorough description that includes information that you feel a potential consumer would want to know about your product before deciding to purchase the item. Make sure the tone of your pins and descriptions reflect your brand and connects with your consumers.
Saving and Promoting Your Pins on Public Boards
Once you have created the pins you want your potential customers to see, it is time to start placing them on public boards. By saving the pins to public boards, they become more easily accessible to Pinterest users. Existing followers will see these pins on their home feed and potential new customers will be reached when searching for similar items as well.
You may also choose to create a public group board where anyone on your team can post pins that are relevant to your business and products. If you choose to create a public group board, you will want to set strict guidelines as to what can and cannot be posted. You don’t want to alienate potential or existing customers due to an inappropriate or confusing pin.
Promoting pins can make it easier to get your pins viewed by your target audience. Promoted Pins are premium pins displayed in important positions and target specific demographics.
This can help you reach the right people with your product or service. By increasing your ability to reach your target audience, you will in turn increase your sales.
Below is an example of Promoted Pins by Target and Frigidaire.
Tracking Analytics
Just like any effort to increase your business and sales, it is important to track your Pinterest analytics. Pinterest provides useful analytics for your pins and audience. You can find out how users are engaging with your pins to determine what is working and what needs to be adjusted. These insights can help you to design your strategy for future pins.
Pros and Cons of Product Pins
With every new business endeavor, there are always pros and cons. In the case of product pins, the pros include:
The potential to:
- Increase sales
- Increase brand awareness
- Drive traffic to your eCommerce store
- Reach new customers
While there are a number of pros, there are also a few cons. These include:
- No guarantee that product pins will be seen by your target audience. (To increase your chances of reaching your target audience, you should consider paying to promote pins)
- Having to mark up each page you wish to use for your product pins using one of the three supported programs.
Obviously, the pros of using product pins far outweigh the cons. Product pins can make a difference in your online store sales and generate impressive results.
Pinterest Product Pins will help to increase your eCommerce business and achieve your conversion goals. These easy to create pins create a seamless experience for potential customers and enable you to reach a wider audience while increasing your brand awareness. Why wait? Start creating your product pins today!
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