3 Essential Steps to Drive Revenue & Conversions from Pinterest

The referral traffic opportunity from Pinterest is massive. But many companies are unclear about how and whether to develop a Pinterest-meets-conversion strategy. This blog post will explore ways to drive traffic to your site from Pinterest.

Step 1: Really Know Your Audience

As a visually-driven platform, Pinterest has become a highly engaging tool for people to curate their favorite images. Given that the majority of engaged Pinterest users are women, businesses have a tendency to stereotype the platform as one that is valuable for food, DIY, fashion, and home decor brands only.

Yes it’s true — lifestyle brands are a perfect fit for this platform. But there is more to the story, as Pinterest users are complex. The same folks who enjoy pinning images of office fashion are also reading up on entrepreneurship and career tips.

Entrepreneur Magazine is one example company that generates consistent engagement on Pinterest, and they do it with business content for males and females. Their secret to success is no secret at all — it’s highly engaging, inspirational visuals.

Know your audience beyond the general Pinterest statistics. If you’re not sure about whether Pinterest is the right marketing channel for you, just talk to your customers. Put up a Qualaroo survery up on your site and ask if people are using Pinterest. Or better yet, add “Pin it” buttons to your content pages and track clicks on them. If you find they are Pinning, next look at what types of content they’re engaging with on your boards. The answers to these questions will provide crucial direction to your Pinterest-meets-CRO strategy.

Enable Rich Pins to show price information on your pins.

Step 2: Inspire a ‘Buying Mindset’

People love Pinterest because they can curate their favorite products all in one place. As you can imagine, this shopping-focused mindset is invaluable for purchase conversions. Use Pinterest’s brand-friendly features to connect the dots.

Try discounting items on Pinterest every once in a while. Pinners will be alerted when prices change.

Use ‘Rich Pins’ to add extra details about the images you’re pinning. This feature will make your content more engaging by encouraging your audience to connect with your brand in a more interactive way. Product pins, for instance, include real-time information about pricing and details about where people can buy the items that they’re pinning.

Once you’ve enabled Rich Pins for your products, try dropping your prices every once in a while, as Pinterest alerts its users when the items they’re curating drop in price. This feedback loop can help drive conversions by reminding your audiences about the products that they love — it’s a way for brands to stay continuously engaged with their buyers.

Step 3: Include a Call-to-Action on Your Pins

Give pinners the option to Pin It, Like, Visit Site, Send, or Share by activating these buttons on your pin boards.

Audiences won’t read your mind. If you want people to take advantage of a sale, share your content, or visit your website, tell them. A little guidance will help connect the dots between your audience and your company’s marketing goals.

For inspiration, take a look at Urban Outfitters’ collection of pins. Every image is ‘brand friendly’ with the option to share content via likes and re-pins — or to visit the product page directly.

UO is streamlining the path to checkout by adding Pin It, Like, Visit Site, Send, and Share buttons on their pin boards. (Also check out our list of test ideas for the checkout funnel on urbanoutfitters.com.) Make sure that your profile is optimized so that each of your pins include these features. If pinning is important to your business then also be sure to give your shoppers the option to pin from your product pages. Then, Pinterest becomes a feedback loop of new customers and revenue for your business: from your site to Pinterest back to your site.

Add “Pin it” buttons to your product pages if pinning is important to your business.

Final Thoughts

Remember that web traffic is only part of the marketing equation. In addition to optimizing your Pinterest profile, you’ll also need to make sure that your website landing pages are tailored to this web traffic stream — but we’ll explain this topic in part 2 of this blog post. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, share your thoughts in the comments section below. What are your favorite CRO strategies for Pinterest?