Early this year Pinterest announced that it would be opening up the marketing for ‘Promoted Pins’ to everyone. Promoted Pins are the Pinterest version of ads. Instead of displaying a typical ad however, there is a pin built into the users feed, which typically leads to a companies purchase page when clicked on. Currently, there is a type of waiting list but soon it should be available for all businesses. Pinterest gears these ads towards the consumers previous pins with hopes that each individual will actually want to see them.

So why should this matter to your company? Well, according to the most recent statistics I could find, Pinterest has a user base of 70 million people, 80% of those are women. This presents a huge opportunity for companies clamoring to influence the buying power in the home. Pinterest is not for every brand though. In my experience it seems that companies in the following areas have the most luck: travel, home and garden, clothing retail, beauty, accessories, food, hand-made goods, art, and visual tutorials. Though the industries listed here lend themselves very well to this social platform and its audience, there are many examples of less obvious consumer products and B2B manufacturers succeeding on Pinterest. Here I have created a step-by-step guide to setting up your account. These steps will help get you started on your own Pinterest business page.

Step One: The boring part

To begin, direct your web browser here and begin by filling out your information. I’m going to set up a page for a friend’s Etsy shop so things will be geared towards the jewelry sector and reaching younger women. You should tailor what you are doing towards you company’s preferred audience and interests.

sign-up-for-pinterest

After you have completed this basic part, Pinterest will ask you to pick what interests you. This can be changed later and will fluxuate over time as you follow different people. Choose interests that align with your brand. For example, an e-commerce business selling work-out clothing should be checking things like fitness, healthy eating, and running rather than cosplay or baby shower ideas. Pinterest will then ask you if you would like to add the ‘pin it’ button to your browser. This is an excellent idea if you want to pin things without having to go to the site. I highly recommend it. Also, check your inbox for a confirmation email and get that taken care of before moving on.

Step Two: Customizing your profile

Next let’s work on customizing your profile. From the home screen after you login, click on your Company’s name in the right-handed corner. This is your page. All of the boards you make will appear here. This is also where you can find who is following you and how many pins you’ve pinned. Now I’m sure your page is rather boring at this point so let’s make it look better. Click the “edit your profile” button and start branding your page. Upload your logo, fill-out the “about you” section, add a location, and verify your website.

edit-pinterest-profile

Step Three: Creating your own boards

Before you can start pinning away you’re going to need to come up with some boards to pin things to. This is where you have to decide what your company is going to curate. A cosmetics brand could create boards for some of the following: tools you love, trendy colors, lipsticks you love, hairstyles to compliment your look, contouring tips, etc. There are many possibilities depending on what sector your brand is in.

create-a-pinterest-board

You are also going to want to make a board with your products as well. You can brand this one and add pins by clicking the add pin button. From there you can take a pin from a URL or upload a photo. Check the description before you post, publishing copy that accurately describes your image while incorporating relevant keywords. Doing this for your most popular products will help create an easy way for people to find and buy them.

adding-your-pinterest-product

On each of your boards you’ll also be able to invite different people to pin. Let’s say you are a retailer and have a girl in the office that has impeccable taste in clothing. Ask her to pin tips and looks she loves to your style board. Simply click “invite” while viewing the desired board and type in her email address. Soon she’ll be able to help curate content with her own pins. This is a great idea as well if you’d like to have a specific influencer curate pins for a few days for your company. This is a trend that I expect to see more of in the future, similar to the way brands host guest photographers and celebrities on their Instagram or Snapchat accounts.

Step Four: Find people to follow

In order for your Pinterest boards to be filled with well-curated things you’re going to need to find some people to follow. Start this by searching for things you think would be good on your boards. Refine this by Pinners or Boards to find people or individual boards to follow. You can refine things further by adding additional words to your original search term. Each word shows up as it’s own qualifier.

search-pinterest

After you start following a good group of people, look through their pins and start putting them onto your boards. Find your own pins on the web and use either the browser extension or copy and paste the URL. Always use a specific URL as you want to make sure you give credit where credit is do.

Step Five: Tracking your pins

To check out your Pinterest analytics simply go to your company’s profile and click the settings icon, select analytics and you’ll be taken to a separate site to see what’s happening. Here you can look at your audience, number of impressions, and how people are interacting with your posted content. You can also view your top pins, giving you insight into what your audience likes. Once your website is verified you can look at what people are pinning from it. You can even export the data to analyze it further and filter by the device pinners are using to interact with your boards.

I hope this guide helps you! Give it some time and you’ll become a master pinner. Need a little more inspiration? Check out some of my favorite brands and their pages for guidance.

Décor – Pottery Barn
Food – Whole Foods
Style – Banana Republic
Outdoor Gear – Moosejaw
Travel – Conde Nast Travler