Using Pinterest to drive traffic to your website

If you’re a marketer and you’re not on Pinterest, then you’re missing out on one of the biggest and the most flexible/powerful platforms out there. Pinterest may not be quite as big as Facebook in terms of pure users but it’s actually not as far behind as you might think. What’s more, it has a ton of unique features that present excellent opportunities for the savvy marketer.

The main problem that brands seem to have when it comes to Pinterest is that they don’t see how they can get it to relate to them. Pinterest is very visual and creative, it’s made up of images that people pin to their ‘boards’ and that others can then comment on or ‘re-pin’. Thus it clearly lends itself to companies that have an artistic, trendy, stylish or visual side. But how can this possibly be useful for a company that sells life insurance? Or for a blogger who is promoting the ‘work online’ lifestyle?

And seeing as Facebook and Twitter are so much bigger, does it really matter?

Well the first thing you should get out of your head is the idea that Pinterest isn’t that big. In fact, Pinterest currently has 100 million users which is really pretty massive – and a subset of the market that you just can’t ignore. Also interesting is that 85% of those 100 million users are female.

This is quite unique for any social network and provides you with a great way to reach a female audience – something that a lot of blogs and brands could stand to do a little more effectively. 42% of all adult women in the US use Pinterest which is massive – and actually 13% of males do which is still rather significant.

While Pinterest has a ton of users, it also has the advantage of being a platform that visitors can enjoy without signing up. That means that your potential reach is in fact much larger than you might at first have thought. .

So you need to be on Pinterest and this is especially true once you realise that there are plenty of ways you can succeed on the platform even if your niche isn’t terribly creative or visual.

How To Use Pinterest To Drive Traffic

Popularly referred to as visual social bookmarking site, Pinterest is an online “scrapbook” that allows users to upload or paste videos and images from websites to form collages.
Similar to other social networks, you can share and re-post content as well as follow others users. Although, Pinterest is increasingly becoming a site where people from all walks of life visit to read the articles of their choice, you may fail to get a lot of readers.
But why does this happen? Is it because you do not promote your blog post well in Pinterest? When you write a blog post, for instance, you need to drive traffic to it for a good ROI (Return On Investment). So, how do you do this?

The following four ways will help you learn how to use Pinterest to drive traffic:

Select Images

Pinterest is all about images. Yes, it may seem a bit counter-intuitive to provide stunning visuals when you want Pinners to read. Nevertheless, great images are one the effective ways to attract people to click through to your website or blog post. Imagine Pinterest as a lusciously enjoyable glossy magazine, filled with appealing eye candy. To capture the reader’s attention from the site, it is advisable that you make the visual appeal of your Pins stand out. Moreover, you should invoke your Pins to click through to your site or blog post.

Create Lifestyle Related Boards

You certainly have some Boards on your BPA (Business Pinterest Account). If not, you need to stop reading this and create Boards, which resonate with both your market and your business. Pin it full of mixed content such as lifestyle images, household tips, and products, among others. Remember, the content should revolve around the theme of your Board.

For instance, when you Pin blog articles this way, it is important to include:

A link directly to your blog article
A quote or brief summary of the article that relates to the Board theme
An outstanding image that connects with the theme of your Board

Engage on Pinterest

Like any vibrant social marketer, you need to engage with your Pinners. Engaging on Pinterest is beneficial, especially when you desire to turn your Followers into your blog readers. The more you connect with people on Pinterest, the more likely they will also want to engage with you on your sites and blog. But, how do you engage on Pinterest? With the following tips, you will successfully engage on this site:

Ask questions, which are answered in your website or blog
Be sure to Pin good, relevant and original content
Return the favor by following your Followers
Pin often and on a consistent basis so Pins get seen in the feeds of your Followers

Create a Contest Board

Post engaging and interactive content on your blog or website. Run contests directly on your site or blog, and then Pin it to your contest Board on Pinterest. When you host a contest, say on your blog, your aim is to drive traffic directly to your site. Garner more participation by promoting it on your Pinterest site. Contests are very engaging, and they will help you drive a lot of traffic using Pinterest.

Pinterest is no longer designed for images only. Today, the site has an active community of diverse readers. Use the above tips to grab the developing opportunities on Pinterest and expand your global boundary through this site.

Tips For Pinterest Marketing In Just Minutes Per Day

As you can tell by now, pinterest marketing may take too much time if you don’t implement the right strategies. A comprehensive Pinterest marketing campaign can deliver amazing results with very little effort. Here are 6 tips to help you market on Pinterest in just minutes a day.

1. Repin Each Day For A Few Minutes
You should take at least three minutes each day to repin and curate to your Pinterest boards. Type in keywords for your niche in Pinterest search and based on your initial search, you will see additional search terms. Click on one of the words under the search bar and you’ll be able to add them. This makes it easier for you to find the best content that you can share.

2. Schedule Pins
This is one of the best strategies to keep your account active during weekends. It is recommended that you do this for at least 5 minutes on Fridays after posting your daily pins. When Scheduling pins you can choose a number of tools including Tailwind, Buffer or Viralwoot to post images. Tailwind is a better option as it allows you to schedule pins through your browser extension.

3. Follow Pinners In Your Industry Or Niche
To ensure a successful Pinterest marketing campaign, you need to follow relevant pinners in your industry or niche. Ensure that you follow 3 to 5 pinners every day. But you should avoid following just anyone. Ensure that you review the profile of a pinner before following him/her. Spare sometime in the course of the day (at least 5 minutes) to search for new pninners.

4. Comment On A Pin Every Day
Always check out for relevant pins you can comment each day. You can like many pins but if a pin inspires you then you can contribute something to the conversation.
You should make at least one comment each day. Make the comments as short or as long as you want. But you should ensure that your comment is not self promotional.

5. Create Your Own Images
Create your own images and pin them to your Pinterest boards. These could be images that can be used with stand-alone graphics or blog posts. It is recommended that you do this all in one sitting. This saves time in production and concept.

6. Generate Content Ideas Using Analytics
Ensure that you review Pinterest analytics at least once a week. Evaluate your click progress, impression and repin. This will help you know which images and boards are attracting more attention.

If you look at Facebook, this is incredibly easy to understand right away. Facebook marketing involves posting things to your Facebook wall, which in turn will be seen by all your followers. And if some of those followers should like your content or share it, then it will also be seen by their connections on Facebook and thus your following will grow.

Methods For Driving Traffic From Pinterest

Did you know that Pinterest can be used to drive traffic to your website? Recent research indicates that it is growing rapidly as a tool to boost your social media presence and drive traffic.

But in order to get that traffic, you have to use the right methods. Just pinning your content will not help. The most important things on Pinterest are the images themselves. So make an extra effort to create compelling and irresistible images. Once that is taken care of, you can focus on how to drive traffic using Pinterest. Here are three actionable methods that can help you.

1. Add a Pin It Button to Your Website
The first thing you need to do is to add a Pin It button to your website that will appear on every piece of content having an image. You can do it just like you add any other social media buttons.
Doing this will help visitors to share your content on Pinterest that they find interesting. And when they do so, their followers will also see it and further share it. This way, your content will gain popularity and credibility.

2. Make Your Board Easily Searchable
Creating the board on Pinterest is not sufficient. You have to make it easily searchable. Name your board same as your website or blog name. Also add description, taglines and links that tell people what your blog and board are all about.
It will also make it easier to find your board on Pinterest as well as search engines. But make sure you don’t stuff your description with keywords just to rank higher.
Keep in mind that, ranking in searches will be of no use if you turn off your potential visitors.

3. Improve Engagement
You need to engage people to get traffic to your website. Regularly share images that are not only compelling but also invoking curiosity and interest in the viewers so that they click on it and go to your website. Also do research on your followers’ interests and the kind of images they like and share. Recently Pinterest has introduced the feature of Rich Pin. You can use it to add descriptions and specific information to your images to tell people more about the content they link to.
You see, if used the smart way, Pinterest can be a great source of referral traffic. If you implement the methods described above, you can attract a lot of visitors to your website.
But make sure you post images that are highly specific and relevant to your niche. This will help them to rank in searches and they will engage more viewers.

Seven Pinterest Tools for Automation

If you’re promoting your business through Pinterest, then you need to look for timesaving tools that will automate your marketing strategy hassle-free. There are many tools and services which can streamline the way you find and pin your content on Pinterest. Let’s have a look at seven major Pinterest tools that can be helpful to you as an online marketer.

1. Trigger Pin Posting With the IFTTT
If This Then That (IFTTT) service can allow you to freely automate tasks between different platforms such as apps, tools and social networks by creating recipes. You can easily trigger tasks based on when you like a pin on Pinterest, either from your profile or when you post any pin to your profile. Also, you can easily set up triggers from other channels that can lead to pinning of an image to a specified board on Pinterest. The IFTTT features more than 200 channels but you need to look for those that are image-centric and identify ones that can perfectly combine with smart automations for Pinterest. It’s one of the easiest automation tools you can use when designing an effective marketing strategy.

2. Schedule Pins with Buffer
If you’ve been scheduling social media updates though Buffer, then you can use the same to schedule pins to your pinterest board. For it to work effectively, you need to connect your Pinterest account, then create a schedule that will dictate when you would like pins to be published on the specified Pinterest profile.

3. Pin on the Go with Pinterest App
This is a Pinterest app designed for iOS and Android devices that allows users to add images to their Pinterest boards from anywhere and at any time. The app also makes possible sharing of photos taken from the smartphone to Pinterest board.

4. Inspirational Viral Tag Pins
Apart from giving you the Buffer-style scheduling and design of queuing posts, ViralTag can allow you to add some inspiration for the things you share. The platform also connects to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Tumblr. This tool allow you to create a one sharing schedule for all your connected accounts unlike the case with Buffer where you have to create a schedule for each connected account.

5. Tailwind for Creating and Scheduling Pins
Tailwind has been a major platform for marketers, brands and agencies who want a perfect tools to schedule pins and analyze trends. Under this platform, you can easily pin images by dragging and dropping them on the board with the help of Chrome Extensions and/ or syncing instagram.

6. Immediate Pinning Of Content Courtesy Of Pinterest Browser Buttons
Pinterest offers a variety of browser buttons that support Mozilla Firefox, Google chrome, Internet explorer as well as safari. This option can help you to pin images easily from your blogs or websites to your Pinterest boards. A browser button is a must-have tool as it will help complement other pinterest tools.

7. Achieve Automated Pin Publishing With Sendible
For easy automation and publishing of pins on pinterest, Sendible can be the ideal tool to go for. This service allows you to connect RSS feds right to your account as well as automatically publish news items to more than 20 established social networks, bookmarking sites and blogging platforms simultaneously. Sendible gives you the option of publishing pins immediately or adding them to a queue to publish at times that you specify. So the platform automatically selects the image from the URL selected with no additional steps required.

Conclusion

So there you have it. That’s a brief but thorough overview for how you can start utilizing Pinterest as a means for genearating traffic for your business, products, or any other website or offer.
In reality though, the most important learning and improving will actually take place while you’re implementing some of these tricks and also continuing to market on the Pinterest platform. You’ll start to notice trends or things that work better than others, and then you’ll be able to better adapt current or future campaigns and pins.

When you first jump in to marketing on Pinterest, it might seem quite daunting and complicated initially. But you’ll quickly find your footing through a little bit of tinkering around and even doing some research if necessary. Once you get used to marketing and working on Pinterest, it will honestly become a fair bit of fun.

Most of all, remember to have patience and take your time while engaging with marketing on Pinterest. It can take a while to see results, but as long as you invest a little bit of time and work regularly, that shouldn’t be an issue at all.
Lastly, you should know have a much better understanding of exactly how to use Pinterest for driving traffic anywhere you’d like. So I want to take a moment to thank you for going through this course. And, of course, I hope you’ve learned a few things that will help you improve your marketing efforts and your traffic.

With all of that said, good luck with your Pinterest marketing endeavours