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Whether you’re promoting awareness of a certain cause, want more traffic to your blog or are promoting your business, Pinterest offers a unique opportunity to get your message out there through the use of images.
Another great thing about Pinterest is that you don’t need have to have a lot of followers to be seen. Pinterest is a very open website and people are always searching for images and topics of interest, so it’s easy to get started right away.
Here are 5 ideas for marketing on Pinterest. Feel free to use them, adapt them and expand on them. There are so many possibilities.
#1 URL / Logo on Your Photos
Consider adding a little logo or URL to the images you place on your website. That way, when people pin your content or you pin your own, the source is immediately visible. Just make sure to keep it rather subtle. You don’t want to take away from the quality of your image as that may reduce the numbers of shares.
#2 Suggest Gifts
One of the things you may have noticed searching around Pinterest is that they have a gifts category. You can pin a gift idea simply by putting a $ amount in the description of your pin. When you enter the dollar amount, it is automatically added to the image and it will be listed in the gift ideas too.
Then when you search for gifts in the price range, yours will appear at the top.
#3 Photo Contests
Have fun with Pinterest and try running a photo contest. For example, if you sell craft kits or some type of DIY project kits, invite your customers to post their results photos for entry into your contest. Display the photos in a special photo contest board.
Or if you’re promoting a cause, have people submit photos on what the cause means for them and display the photos.
#4 Sweepstakes
Many companies are creating “Pin it to Win It” sweepstakes giveaways. In some cases, they, get people to repin an image with a specific description. In many of these contests, the winner receives the prize in the picture or you can come up with another prize if you’d like.
In others, companies are asking their customers to create a board of their favorite products and enter it for consideration in the contest. Lands End is good at creating these sweepstakes. If you’d like to learn more about how Lands’ End’s contest worked, here is a press release with the information: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lands-end-canvas-launches-pin-it-to-win-it-contest-on-pinterest-135591673.html
#5 Have Awesome Images to Pin
Your image should pull Pinterest users is, tell a story, and make them want to know more. A tall order, I know…but still very “do-able.” Free tools like PicMonkey allow people with very little Photo Shop or photography skills (like me) make some pretty darn cool shareable and oh-so Pinnable images on Pinterest.
Need some help creating simple (but very shareable) images for Pinterest? I’ve spent hours and hours on PicMonkey testing, experimenting and creating shareable images for blog posts and social media. I’ve rolled everything I’ve learning thusfar into one easy-to-understand (but thorough) how-to ebook, complete with over a dozen screenshots, to walk you through the process of creating your own images on PicMonkey. Check it out HERE.
