Pinterest: How it works as a spot for boosting leads

However, just like every other network, companies want to get their hands on it, and we're finding that Pinterest is not only serving as a quality lead boosting tool, but a place to understand exactly what it takes to make a human connection with customers.

Plenty of tactics are available for pushing more people to come to your blog or online business. Some of these techniques include writing guest posts, participating in forums or optimising your blog. However, one of the most powerful methods for increasing site visitors and boosting leads is to focus on your social media.

And Pinterest could work perfectly for your business.

Figuring out whether or not Pinterest is a suitable platform for your company

When running an online business, you are bound to reach a point where considering different social media outlets is a logical next step in improving your sales. However, doing your research and determining whether or not Pinterest is right for your online business is key to your success.

After all, some companies might simply be doomed from the start, and it may have nothing to do with your execution on Pinterest. It's similar to selecting the shopping cart software to use for selling your products online. Some have wonderful tools for a specific industry, while others may hold you back a bit. See more comparisons here.

Therefore, you must start by looking at who typically uses Pinterest:

• Around 42% of online women are using Pinterest, as opposed to only 13% of online men.
  
• Pinterest is rather popular with young users, and the over 50 category is increasing.
  
• Non-hispanic whites are more prone to use Pinterest than blacks and hispanics.
  
• Half of Pinterest users make more than $50,000 per year.

In addition to taking demographics into consideration, it's prudent to see which categories are searched and browsed most, to decide whether your company would perform well on the platform.

Here are the most pinned and browsed categories:

• Food and drink.
  
• DIY and crafts.
  
• Home decor.
  
• Holidays and events.

The popular categories change a bit for the male users:

• Food and drink.
  
• Cars and motorcycles.
  
• Men's fashion.
  
• Technology.
  
• Humour.
  
• DIY and crafts.
  
• Gardening.
  
• Sports.
  
• Videos.

Engaging organic leads in a natural way

Since the inception of Pinterest, it has basically remained a place where ads are non-existent and promotional content is kept to a minimum. That's changed quite a bit, and we'll refer to that below. However, Pinterest is still one of the top social networks for engaging users organically.

That's why business owners must examine some of the top ways to make authentic, unique connections with customers.

Keeping it simple and elegant

The founder and CEO of a company called Wedding Republic has seen a 75% increase in website page views since starting with social media. Most of the traffic has come from Pinterest, and she attributes that to simple and elegant boards.

From wedding dress inspiration to wonderful wedding venues, each of the boards are organised in a way that makes them easy to browse through. Pictures are minimalistic, yet they offer high amounts of detail and usefulness to users. All of these convince people to click through and buy.

Don't only shove product down customer throats

Wedding Republic calls itself an alternative wedding registry for the important things in life, meaning you can create a quick registry for anything from big screen TVs to house down payments.

The company offers a Wedding Funnies board with hilarious images people captured at their weddings. Yes, it ties into the Wedding Republic theme, but the pictures generally don't promote any products at all. They are simply ways to get some laughs and create conversation.

Don't forget that other social media outlets can feed to Pinterest

As an online business owner, you must remember that, at least right now, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have bigger user bases than Pinterest. Therefore, it's not all that uncommon for companies to use those platforms to bring more people to their Pinterest pages.

Hold a contest or promotion and mention that people can only take advantage if they follow you on Pinterest and pin an image.

Contests and coupons

Although 69% of people who visit Pinterest have found an item they purchase or want to purchase (more than Facebook at 40%,) convincing customers to buy isn't as simple as posting a picture of a product or asking them to click through to your website.

Referring back to the Wedding Republic example, a couple photo contest gallery is but one of the contests you'll find on the page, showing that you need to provide value in order to boost leads to your actual website.

Ask yourself, why should people take the time out of their day to click through a Pinterest image and buy your products? Do they have a coupon code, or maybe an incentive to win a gift card?

Pinterest's strong potential as an advertising platform

Pinterest started without any promotional content, but it has recently rolled out what it calls Promoted Pins, where companies pay for additional clicks and impressions on organic content. It's early, but the Promoted Pins system is already delivering attractive audiences to marketers.

As expected, marketers are licking their chops at the idea of connecting through such a hyper targeted social network, since demographics like females ages 18 to 49 are well represented.

However, the most influential of numbers is the buying power, because Pinterest users are among the biggest online spenders. The average internet user has an online buying power index of 100, whereas a Pinterest visitor has a score of 211.

In conclusion

Overall, Pinterest offers an interesting opportunity for online businesses due to the fact that it grabs users somewhere in the middle of the sales funnel process. People are aware that they want to buy a product, complete a task or get creative, but they may need the inspiration to do so. On the other hand, platforms like Facebook are more for showing customers completely new products, which puts the users at the beginning of the sales funnel, and less likely to buy.

Pinterest is a hot option for many businesses, but it takes a bit of research to discover if it's worth your time. Complete your due diligence and maybe you'll find that it could boost your leads like many have found.