How to sell on Pinterest
Now we’re onto the part you’ve been waiting for – how to sell on Pinterest and start earning money from the platform.
Before we begin, you should know that Pinterest Shopping is currently only available in the following countries:
Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, UK, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, United States.
There is no confirmation of when this functionality may be available in other countries yet, but Pinterest advises users to keep checking in for new developments in selling on Pinterest.
Here are our top tips to sell on Pinterest.
1. Pay close attention to your visuals
First and foremost, Pinterest is a visual platform. What that said, you will need to prioritize making visually appealing pins that make someone want to stop and click on them. Pins that catch users’ attention are likely to help you sell better on Pinterest.
Some of the essential elements to creating visually appealing pins include:
- High quality, high resolution photography
- Striking designs and graphics
- Using bold colours and typefaces
- Using unique graphics that match your business
- Using optimal graphic sizing for Pinterest
For instance, you should consider having professional photographs taken of your products, much like these couches below.
Don’t be afraid to use your branding within a Pin that entices your users to engage with your pins. This means that your audience should be saving, clicking on and purchasing your products from your pins.
You can also add your own flair, involving a branded visual or message in combination with a professional photo.
However you choose to do it, we suggest you spend some time on the platform looking at your competitors’ pins and seeing how they’re promoting their brands. You may find some tips from others that can help you sell more on Pinterest.
2. Optimize Pinterest SEO
Pinterest is basically a visual search engine. This means that it has its own algorithms and engine rules when it comes to optimizing your pins.
As with Google and other search engines, you should focus on major keywords and use them throughout your Pin titles and descriptions, as well as board titles and corresponding descriptions.
The key to SEO is to ensure that you’re using your keywords naturally to help your Pinterest SEO along. By focusing on SEO, you will expand the reach of your Pinterest content, increasing the likelihood that someone will buy from your Pinterest store.
3. Create Rich Pins
Rich Pins are a kind of pin you can make which will extract additional information from your website to display with normal pin info like the image, title, and description and so on.
Using a Rich Pin will display your website’s price and product descriptions within the pin itself so that users can view this information within Pinterest and they won’t have to leave the webpage. For mobile users, a ‘Shop’ button will be displayed next to your product.
If the information is available, Rich Pins can even let your customers know whether your product is in stock or not. This makes it way easier for you to sell on Pinterest because all of the required information is readily available.
Here is an example of a product Rich Pin:
You should know that Rich Pins will only work once you claim your website on Pinterest.
4. Promoting your Pins
If you want to ensure your Pins are at the top of Pinterest searches in addition to using SEO, then you’ll need to look into promoted Pins.
There is no limit to what you can promote – such as a website, blog post or your products.
Promoted Pins can be useful for generating more sales and work particularly well for products. This is because they will simply take the user to your website.
As you see below with the below Pin, users can see which company is promoting pins: .
When you set up your promoted Pins, you’ll target your audience by their interests, ages and gender. You are also able to start entire campaigns or quick ads for a one-time sale.
5. Leverage Pin Catalogs
Catalogs are a great way to promote your products using your Pinterest business account.
If you have data (also known as product data) of all your products and attributes, you will be able to upload this information into Pinterest. Once your data source has been approved, every time you add products to your website, Pinterest will automatically create product Pins for the corresponding items. You can then use these pins to create shopping ads.
If your data source is disapproved, then you’ll need to use Rich Pins instead. You can also use a solution like ShoppingFeeder to ensure that your products are never disapproved.
6. Using Shop the Look Pins to Tag your Products
Pinterest also has ‘Shop the Look’ Pins for business accounts. They are a great way to link several products within a single Pin. Whether you’re linking any clothes or home decor, every product in the photo that can be purchased is shown via a white dot. Users can click on this white dot to see more about your product.
See below:
You’ll need to set up Shop the Look pins manually, and there is no limit to the number of tagged products you can have once you’ve claimed your website and linked it to Pinterest.
7. Leverage user-generated content (UGC)
Are your customers taking photos of themselves using your product? Is there a well-known influencer who has bought from you? Use all of this to your advantage!
Setting up influencer marketing campaigns can help you generate content that is easily shareable on Pinterest and it will entice your audience to purchase from your store, depending on the quality of your campaign.
Social proof is essential. If a potential customer sees someone they follow using your products, they’ll be much more likely to buy from your store.
8. Starting using content marketing
There’s no reason that you can only advertise products on Pinterest. Blog posts and recipes are some of the most popular kinds of content on Pinterest.
Blog posts are perfect to share on Pinterest and can help with your conversion rates if the quality of your articles is high.
For instance, you could be sharing tutorials and guides, gift suggestions, new product features or monthly roundups.
Content on Pinterest will perform well if it adds value to your readers. Ideally, you want users to save and promote your content on Pinterest to gain more clicks and possibly conversions.
Sell on Pinterest: Conclusion
Selling on Pinterest can help you reach your desired audience.
If your products are likely to appeal to women, ShoppingFeeder strongly recommends trying out Pinterest as a sales channel.
Using the techniques displayed above, you may want to give it a try and see how your results measure up!
