With over 400 million active users and a growth rate of 37% each year, Pinterest is not just “social media” as some would think, but it is a search engine that helps businesses grow by increasing traffic, sales or highlighting products in a digestible format like Instagram.
Pinterest sets itself apart from Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook by being a visual search engine. Think Google Images 2.0! Users on Pinterest respond well to ads and spend twice as much money shopping when compared to people who do not “pin”.
The results of a Pinterest marketing strategy can be exponential in increasing your business. You can pin for free or create ads and Pinterest uses one of the low CPCs in social media marketing.
Benefits of Pinterest For Black Business in 2022
Increase Brand Awareness
The majority of Pinterest’s demographic are women and they are looking to discover new products, ideas, and messages that are relatable to your business. 80% of weekly pinners discover a new product or brand on Pinterest and 55% are more likely to purchase compared to other platforms. Since the “pins” stay on your “boards” and never get deleted, it is a continual way to grow and engage with your audience. Adding Pinterest to your overall marketing strategy will help people discover and learn more about you. You can also use trends.pinterest.com to see what is actively trending on the site and cater your content to that!
Increase Website Traffic
Because it is a visual search engine, it helps increase traffic to your website. Pinterest drives so much traffic in comparison to the other platforms because of its Search Engine Optimization. Remember Pinterest is not “social media”, it is a search engine!
You can create Pins automatically since information like the price and availability from your site will appear in a shop tab similar to Instagram. These pins are called “idea” pins and appear to make more impressions than a regular pin because of the clickthrough.
Improve Reach
97% of top searches on Pinterest are “unbranded” but the small 3% market that is branded has seen increases in audience and impressions as well. One brand in California saw a >999% increase in their engaged audience after creating a marketing strategy and implementation after only 7 days.
Advertising
Running targeted ads and promotional pins is another way Pinterest can be a great business asset. The targeting options within the site know what people are looking for and will suggest interesting pins based on what people save to their boards. Pinterest is such a compelling platform with content users 3x more likely to click on a Pin and learn more. (Just make sure the link goes to your website and not a dead-end! )
Reports also suggest Pinterest ads are 2.3x cheaper per conversion than Facebook and Instagram ads, making them more viable and cost-effective for small black business owners.
Sales
Pinterest says 9 out 10 people plan their shopping and Pinterest users spend nearly 80% more on retail than non-pinners, and 50% of users in the US are using Pinterest to shop. Sales and conversions are proven quicker on Pinterest over any other funnel and it takes half as many impressions to convert someone on Pinterest compared to Instagram.
Email Marketing
Pinterest makes shopping extremely easy and user friendly with Product Pins. Metadata is formatted into the pins to let people know they are shoppable, therefore you can embed pins into your email marketing for easy click-through and instant sales. Pinterest recently introduced video pins which increased pinning activity by 55% when users purchase from a brand after seeing the video pin.
Chrome Extension
Chrome has a user-friendly extension that permits you to pin any image from any website to any of your boards. This makes your Pinterest board appear more personable and guides buying decisions based on real user experiences.
People come to Pinterest to discover new ideas, products, and businesses. Reports and statistics show Pinterest users spend more money, time, and awareness on the platform which means you have an untapped market waiting to support your brand and business.
