Pinning to Get Customers Pinterested
How do Entrepreneurs Succeed in Pinterest Marketing
Entrepreneurs who do well in Pinterest make it their goal to show off well-taken pictures from their store. As Pinterest is a visual content sharing network, other businesses take a look at the most successful boards to see what pictures get the most likes, comments and ‘repins.’ The usual posts include photos of merchandise taken in a creative and appealing manner. Followers are encouraged to stay engaged as the page continues to get updates with more pictures that entice them to repin and buy. What other posts attract a lot of clicks? According to Synecore Technologies, here are other ways to engage your customers:
1. Display photos of your office.
People who haven’t gone to your office or store will be enticed to visit if you post beautiful pictures that present your place well. Allow your followers a view behind the scenes of your store, create digital scrapbooks of special events or introduce your staff in unique ways. This will make followers more curious to find out what your place looks like in reality.
The Scholastic Store offers a view of their main branch in New York in its Pinterest page. Here, you’ll see a set of dinosaur toys on display and three pictures from a Hunger Games party earlier this year.
Followers of The Scholastic Store will certainly find this amazing, especially the pictures from the Hunger Games event. This may tempt them to look for updates on the latest events that will allow them to join and have fun with other book lovers.
Michaels Stores, an arts and crafts retail shop provides art classes for children and adults. They show pictures from their sessions, student artworks, and an exhibit of paintings from their classes. This type of pins, which shows how the store engages customers, has a three-fold effect:
- Followers who have joined the art classes and had their pictures posted in this pinboard are sure to have been delighted with their inclusion in the store’s Pinterest page;
- Customers are encouraged to join the art classes, seeing how much fun the enrolled students have achieved; and,
- These pictures act as a marketing tool to entice more people to become customers of Michaels’ Stores.
2. Add a ‘Pin It’ and/or a ‘Follow Me on Pinterest’ button.
Engage your customers with your Pinterest page. Add on your website ‘Pin it’ buttons for users to click every time they want to share your content in their own Pinterest accounts. An ‘Add me on Pinterest’ button will also encourage your followers to stay up to date with your latest posts. This presents you more opportunity to connect to your customers and help them share your content more.
Mashable shows the ‘Pin it’ button in all its articles. Here’s a snip from Mashable.com:
Martha Stewart also connects to her fans and customers through Pinterest:
Start connecting to your followers today with a finely created Pinterest page. This will engage their attention and sustain their interest further with your business.
3. Allow users to post to your boards.
Make your page interactive for users and allow them to add their own photos on your page. Let them post pictures of themselves using your products, attending your events and mingling with your staff. This will show people how great it is to interact and perform transactions with you. As a result, this would encourage them to go to your website or store’s physical location to check out your merchandise and find out more about your business.
Birchbox, a company that provides beauty products, allows customers to submit their own videos that demonstrate how to use Birchbox merchandise and bring out women’s natural beauty. This encourages prospective clients to inquire and buy from Birchbox. Try this strategy on your business!
4. Use your pinboards to tell a story.
When creating a pinboard, think of a specific theme that would showcase your products well and interest your followers at the same time. This will engage your followers better and make them interact more with your page. Share pictures that your followers will find useful, exciting, funny or creative. Take a look, for example, at Whole Foods’ How Does Your Garden Grow pinboard (http://pinterest.com/wholefoods/how-does-your-garden-grow/).
Unique ideas, like Examples 1 and 3, elicit exclamations of wonder from followers. This type of posts exposes how creative Whole Foods is when thinking of marketing ideas that will make them stand out from their competition. Example 2, on the other hand, shares content followers may find useful about taking care of their own plants.
Post content like the examples given above to engage your followers. This will encourage them to interact with you face-to-face and transact with you to buy your merchandise.
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