8 ways to use Pinterest to sell product

It’s no secret that Pinterest is a major source of product discovery for social media users, and according to a new study by Piqora, a pin generates an average of 78 cents in sales. Many even go so far as to claim that the network generates more sales than Facebook or Twitter.

I am not too surprised with these findings or claims because I myself find literally tons of pins everyday that somehow maneuver my online buying behavior and the list of “items to buy”. For an ecommerce store, the network is a golden opportunity to entice an audience with beautiful images, videos, and displays of your product.

If you’re new this idea, here’s what you need to know about how to use Pinterest for marketing and promoting your products.

1. Snap fantastic photos

A major part of your ability to attract an audience lies in your skills as a photographer and image editor. Pinterest is, by and large, an image-sharing website and the most popular pins are usually the ones that have spectacular shots in the pin. Try to use the best pictures of your product to pin content from your blog. If need be, hire a professional to do it for you.

2. Make it easy for them to buy

Your leads may have found your product and they may have even pinned it to one of their boards. But is that all? No! They need to be able to find your products through a link that directs them to a sales page or a shopping cart on your website. Don’t forget to caption it in!

3. Use catchy words and phrases

Just like they would for a blog or a book summary on Amazon, keywords matter! One trick to utilizing your small caption is using words that would appeal to your audience. For example, if you’re selling clothes, you’d want to words such as “sassy” “classy” “stylish” or “perfect fit”. Minus the hashtags and plus the keywords.

4. Team up with an influencer

One thing that really sells well on social media is “social proof”, or in other words, someone using your products—and really liking it. Oh, and if you manage to find a popular blogger, influencer, or famous person to do the endorsing for you, you’re a lucky duck! Gather photos of your top customers and share a photo of them with your product, along with a short testimonial on what they thought about it.

5. Be in the mind of a female

Acknowledge the fact that a majority of Pinterest users are females. According to a recent report (2014), nearly 80% of Pinterest users are women, and 92% of pins are also made by women. This means that whether you, as a seller, are a woman or not, you’re going to need to use colors, pictures, products, and props that appeal to the female audience.

6. Follow a theme

It’s always best to have a theme to your pins and boards. That way, the overall look and feel of your product and offering are easily understood at glance. Based on your theme you can follow certain colors, designs, ingredients, and keywords. This also makes your boards easy to categorize.

For example The Body Shop uses vibrant colors, fruits, and natural ingredients to promote their products on Pinterest. They’ve used this theme to create a variety of boards such as “crazy for coconut”, “flaunt your flavor”, “mad for mango”, “cuckoo for cocoa butter” and so on.

7. Have a “Most Popular” board

Make sure you flaunt away your best products on Pinterest. You’re going to have a website or online store all ready, and the bestsellers are worth special attention everywhere you go. How to give them that much deserved attention on Pinterest? Simply create a board labeled “bestsellers” and pin the images of your most popular products. You potentials are bound to visit that board first while you put your best foot forward and make a lasting “first impression”.

8. Know your followers

One of the most important steps to marketing on social media is getting to know your leads and customers are and keeping them engaged. A simple way you can do this is by commenting, liking, re-pinning their pins that have to do with your services. Try not to be spammy, though. You don’t want to lose your followers!

As an addition to the point above, it’s also important to use analytics to figure out what’s working and what’s not. Pinterest analytics for business could give you better insight on how much traffic you are receiving from Pinterest to your website, which content (pins) are brining that traffic, what type of audience you’re bringing in to your blog, and more.

Given the statistics and popularity of Pinterest, don’t let this be only a place where you find products. Turn the tables around and make it a place where your products find you!