Your Brand and Pinterest

For many years, companies have shied away from utilizing the incredibly visual platform, Pinterest. We believe this is because from early on, Pinterest began to brand themselves to speak specifically to and address the needs of a younger female demographic.

But the tides are changing.

Now, more than ever, 40% of new sign-ups are actually men, says Pinterest. Pinterest is a massive platform, though not as large as say Instagram or Facebook. But it’s growing. Pinterest has 322 million global active users, which has 200 billion pins saved.

Pinterest, according to some of these analytics, means that this platform is nothing to shy away from when it comes to your brand. 

You see, Pinterest is unique in that it’s  a place where users go to do primarily two things:

1. They are going to make a purchase, and Pinterest helps users discover this.
2. Pinterest users may be trying to decide what they want, and go to Pinterest to discover what that actually is.

Pinterest has a whopping 83% of its weekly Pinners actually made purchases based on the content they saw while scrolling! Seventy-seven percent of weekly Pinners discovered a new brand. The bottom line here to note is that Pinterest is a place all about the user, and a place to create something for themselves.

However…

With all of these incredible metrics, did you know that an alarming 97% of the top pins are actually unbranded? When we talk about a brand, what we are meaning is a company identity as seen through their content. Almost all of the top-pins have no identity if you will. Do you know what this means? It means there is a massive void, and dare we say opportunity, for your brand to stand out in this vast space? We believe so. This factor, along with a few other points we will mention here in a minute, show us that Pinterest may just be the secret weapon your brand needs.

So here are some helpful tips on branding from Pinterest themselves

1. Brand Your Pins: As we stated earlier, 97% of top-searched pins are actually identity-less. They have no brand. This means that when you see a pin that may be performing well but may not be converting as well as it could because it’s not branded. According to Pinterest, when companies branded their pins and ensured there was a cross-platform brand continuity, they saw a 13% conversion rate increase! So before you go to post that pin, ask yourself if your image has a logo? What about the image itself; is it visually striking and clear? Is it vertically oriented? What about the text? Do you have a text overlay that is clear and to the point, along with clear titles, captions, and hashtags? These are just a few quick questions to ask yourself to help take your brand to the next level!
2. Think “mobile”: What we mean by this one, and we thought it was a brilliant point, is to design for the user’s cellphone, not necessarily a desktop. According to Pinterest, 85% of their users are accessing their platform through their phones. It’s important to use your content and the pages you are sending people to are mobile-friendly. This means ensuring the font is screen readable and content is optimized for a cellphone.
3. Brand Continuity: We touched on this a moment ago, but ensure that not only your pins but also the pages you are linking your pins to all have the same branding will help your users not feel as disjointed and create a more pleasant user experience. A simple audit of your accounts can help alleviate this with the same logos, banners, and color schemes being implemented. 
4. Set-Up Shop: You can also create an online shopping experience through Pinterest! And with their catalog feature, you can link your brand’s page to your Pinterest page to make shopping a breeze. And if you are worried that you will have to adjust your Pinterest every time you add an item to your eCommerce store, don’t worry! Their catalog updates your Pinterest automatically though the data link so updating is not a hassle across platforms. 

Some Freebies for you on your Brand’s Journey to harnessing Pinterest

• Pick and eye-catching image.
• Reference Pinterest’s incredible amount of free information such as their yearly calendar that shows trends to help you research and strategize with monthly and yearly data.
• Use video, and forget the audio (but don’t forget the text overlay).
• Think like your audience when curating content. Pinterest is a place where people go to discover what they want, or make purchases. 
• For more resources, check out their blog: https://business.pinterest.com/en/resources-and-guides

The more we at The AD Leaf ® research and utilize Pinterest, along with the shifting marketing landscape, the more we see Pinterest as becoming a heavy-hitter, especially for all of your visually strong brands and those who are selling items or services. If your brand is wanting to harness the power of Pinterest, or simply looking for some marketing help, The AD Leaf ® is ready to take your business to the next level today. For questions on who we can help, please visit us online at www.theadleaf.com.