Are you aware that you can use Pinterest for the growth of your business? It’s one of the largest social sites. What’s even more fascinating is that it has more than 100 million active users. This is good news for you. The potential for reaching new customers for your business is huge. Who doesn’t want new customers? They are the ones who will help your expand your business.

To show you the impact Pinterest can have on the growth of your business, read what Artifact Uprising said, “We love Pinterest because there’s nothing else like it…its aspirational, visual and creative qualities make it an ideal channel for the kind of work we’re doing,” Thurmes said. “Pinterest represents an entirely new future for how brands can connect with potential customers and inspire those they already have.” Source

Within months 18, Artifact Uprising grew to a multi-million dollar company from a basement start-up. Not bad for a company that was discovered by a blogger after their photo books were repinned. The blogger’s post generated interest and the next week they had 48,000 visitors to their site. All because of repins on Pinterest.

How do you capitalize on Pinterest’s growing visual trend?

Some of the steps you need to take are listed below:

1. Set up a Professional Business Page on Pinterest

Start by creating a business account. Go to https://business.pinterest.com/en/set-your-business-account

Next, click on the ‘Join as a business’ link. It will take you to a page to create a new account and choose your business. See below:

After you’ve done that, you need to confirm your website. Pinterest allows you access to your website analytics (to check your stats). It may take up to 48 hours for this to be effective.

Another benefit is you’re able to add your business logo or profile picture to the Pins from your website or business blog.

After you’ve confirmed your website, your logo or profile picture will appear on any pins people save. Alongside your logo is a visit button, making it easy for people to click and go to your site.

The final stage is to add a Pin It button to your business website or blog linking to your content. Use relevant SEO keywords in your articles to get your target market to visit your site.

People who like your pins on Pinterest will save them, creating interest in your product or service. This has a ripple effect because their followers will repin those pins. One pin is usually repinned 11 times. Also, your pins will generate more traffic. When people click on the pins, they will be directed to your site or blog.

There is a huge possibility for business growth and sales from the popularity of the Pin It button.

“Three months after Allrecipes.com added the Pin It button, people added more than 50,000 recipes from their website, leading to 139 million impressions on Pinterest.” ~ Pinterest

As soon as you set up your account, you can get started by creating boards and pinning. This YouTube video will guide you through the process of setting up boards that will get your pins noticed and make your trademark on this platform.

2. Create boards with themes relevant to your target audience

Use Pinterest to give visitors a look into your business. Write content relevant to your market with images to give them a taste of what you offer. You can also include photos of your customers using your products (with their permission).

One of the main reasons why the boards on Pinterest go viral is because people love visuals. They also like to see what they’re going to buy before they make a purchase. For example, if you sell shoes, pin high-quality photographs of shoes. Images display best if they’re vertical. Include a few descriptive words.

Clear, good quality images relevant to your brand will get repinned. 80% of pins are repinned.

However, make sure you give your audience valuable content of interest to them. Don’t just bombard them with products to sell. Share useful tips, advice and once in a while offer a discount or special promotion.

Add a call to action button, your logo or website’s URL on the photos or images.

3. Share Tutorials to Inspire and Educate

Educate your readers with meaningful tutorials linking back to your website. Teach them how to do something beneficial. For example, you have a shoe business, create a tutorial showing your customers how to care for their feet.

Think outside the box. Teach about something engaging that’s connected to your brand. When you give your readers valuable, interesting information, they will come back to you for more.

You could even take it one step further and pin a video tutorial on your business board. The video pin (massage therapy techniques) below was created to as a gift for Valentine’s Day. This is a unique idea. Plus, it’s still keeping within the theme of your brand.

Because the foot massage is a Valentine’s gift idea, other people will repin the video. This is how you can make the most of on seasonal trends and make more sales. Upload videos from YouTube and pin them to your boards. Then promote the boards or pins to attract visitors to your site via Pinterest.

4. Market Your Business on Pinterest

Set up a marketing plan with a goal in mind. Having clarity about what you’re doing and what you hope to achieve will keep you focused.

Here are a few basic tips on getting started with marketing to get your business out there:

• After setting up your profile on Pinterest, link your social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to it. And include the URL of your website. Don’t forget to set up a Pin It button on your website.
• Give your boards memorable, interesting names. Be committed to pinning regularly to attract followers in your niche. Build relationships with them. Comment on and like their pins. Tag them by including their @username in the description copy of your pins. They will repin your pins if they are of value and visually enticing.
• Pin posts from your blogs. But, also, share other people’s images and videos from YouTube. Interact by sending direct messages if you have anything useful to say.
• To encourage others to share your blog post on Pinterest, include images when you write them. Your readers will pin the images and they will link back to your website or blog. Add thought-provoking descriptions to your images along with your business name.
• To increase traffic, share the latest tips, advice and resources in your industry. People will count on you for information they can’t find anywhere else. You’ll become the go-to person with sought-after, helpful knowledge.
• Draw more clients to your business by creating special offers and discounted pins. Use this method as an incentive to get new followers and as a thank you to loyal customers.

5. Use Pinterest Analytics to Find Out Who Your Customers Are

When you know what your customers like, you can tailor your content and pins to their needs. The analytics on Pinterest will help you measure the pins that are performing well. Not only that, you will also see the traffic that comes to your site from your pins.

Use this data to get a glimpse of your customer’s likes and other businesses that interest them. Find out where they live, their gender and if they use a mobile phone, laptop, iPad or desktop computer for pinning. Look at their favorite pins and boards.  Use that information to create customized pins for them and to identify how best to meet their pinning needs.

From the information above, it’s worth tapping into the world of Pinterest for business growth. Use it to explore fresh ideas. Test out new strategies. Get more inspiration for taking your business to another level. Pinterest is not a social site you should ignore if you’re serious about growing your business.