Pinterest isn’t just for making wedding planning boards, french bulldog pics, and too-good-to-be-true cooking recipes. Pinterest can be a fantastic marketing and promotional tool if you know how to use it correctly.

In the early days, yes, Pinterest was mainly used as a visual note-taking and reminder app, where you could save cool things for later viewing. But, over time, Pinterest has morphed into an entirely new beast, one that’s even better suited to promoting your business and e-commerce than you might think.

If you need some help figuring out how to utilize all the neat features available on Pinterest, we’ve got some tips to help you out.

Fill Out Your Info

In recent years, Pinterest has introduced a Pinterest for Business account option. The business account differs than the regular account in a number of ways, most notably it includes the addition of an analytics function, which we’ll talk more about later.

When you sign up for a business account, you need to make sure all of the relevant information is filled out on your profile page. Pinterest will ask you for certain information, such as your Business Type, Location, Website URL, Business Name, an About You section and more that will help Pinners find your profile more easily.

Pin Relevant Content

No one likes to see content that doesn’t interest them when they’re scrolling through their home feed. It’s annoying, especially since more and more people these days require businesses to cater to their needs, rather than stretching a wide net and seeing what gets caught in it.

You need to know your audience and know what they want to see on Pinterest. Most of the time, that means creating Pins with appealing visuals and good info. If you’re a restaurant, Pin photos of your dishes, or maybe a fun recipe for people to try at home. You never know what’s going to prompt people to look into your business and become a paying customer.

Make It Look Good

Pinterest is mainly used by people on the app version rather than the desktop version. That means most people will only see a few Pins on their phone screen at a time, which makes vertical Pins the best ones to use. Make your pictures long, vertical pictures so the customer has to stay on the Pin longer when they’re scrolling through. This makes it more likely that they’ll pay attention to what you’re Pinning. Just be sure to keep your Pins within Pinterest’s guidelines, an aspect ration of 2:3 to 1:2.8 and width of at least 600px.

Create Specific Boards

When Pinning on Pinterest, you don’t just Pin your items to one board, right? You have a variety of boards that are focused on specific interests. It makes organizing your pins so much easier, and you can find the things you need much faster!

Similarly, your customers want to be able to find your products organized into specific boards. It helps them to sift through your Pins at a quicker rate, and will give them the peace of mind they need to make a purchasing decision.

Measure Analytics

Now, to the data. Pinterest has now made access to your account’s analytics easier than ever. That means you can now see how many people your Pins are reaching, your average daily Pinterest profile impressions, which Pins are performing the best, how many people clicked your Pins, and so much more!

This data is highly important for measuring whether your Pinterest account is working, or failing to grab peoples’ attentions. It’s always easier to see what you’re doing right and wrong once you have the data in front of you.

You Can Sell On Pinterest

Pinterest recently released another new feature called Buyable Pins. These are Pins that you set up which allows Pinners to buy your products directly from Pinterest.

Pinners will see a “Buy It” button on a Buyable Pin. When they click this button, order details and payment info are sent to the merchant for processing, and the buyer is able to buy their favorite products directly on Pinterest!

Right now, only a select few Pinterest Business accounts have the ability to sell products through Buyable Pins, but if you’d like more info on how to get this setup, visit Pinterest’s FAQ page on Selling on Pinterest. 

Don’t underestimate Pinterest; it’s a powerful social media tool that can lead to more views on your website, more customers, and more sales!