Pinterest for Small Business

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Small businesses looking for new opportunities to broaden business presence and market to a wider pool of potential customers should consider Pinterest. The platform has 290+ million users, largely women aged 18-50.

Pinterest pitches itself as a “catalog of ideas”, as opposed to a social network, and is worthy of consideration if your goal is to sell products. Up to 90% of weekly pinners use the platform to make purchase decisions? and 78% of pinners saying that they welcome content from brands.

Steps to Engage on Pinterest

  • Create a business profile. Use your logo and your keyword-based master message.
  • Post regularly to keep follower interest in your brand. Include links to helpful information.
  • As with Instagram, using a consistent visual aesthetic in your posts will create a more appealing Pinterest page.
  • Create boards that reflect your core offerings (and keywords!) to organize your pins.

Make Your Website Pinterest-Friendly

Most Pinterest users save and visit pins on mobile devices. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly so these users get a great experience. Also, add Pinterest save and follow tools to your website to make it easy for pinners to engage with you.

 

Social Media by the Numbers

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A lot of anecdotal information gets passed around about social media. That can be helpful in eyeing trends, but it is best to check with an authoritative data source to know the real numbers. For me, that is Pew. Here’s their latest snapshot.

Today around seven-in-ten Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. In all, 72% of Americans use some type of social media.

The social media user base is representative of the broader population. Young adults were among the earliest social media adopters and continue to use these sites at high levels, but usage by older adults has increased in recent years.

YouTube and Facebook are the most-widely used online platforms. Smaller shares of Americans use Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Pew Data on Social Platforms

For many users, social media is part of their daily routine. Roughly three-quarters of Facebook users – and around six-in-ten Instagram users – visit these sites at least once a day. Frequency is less on other platforms.

Hey You! I’m Talking to You

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Email marketing is a valuable marketing tool, with open and engagement rates that outstrip all social media channels. (Yes, even Facebook!) To get results, you have to format and compose emails that draw readers in.

Write Subjects that Grab Attention

It all starts with a great subject line and teaser text. That will be visible in inboxes and will be the deciding factor to read on or not.

Spend time carefully crafting the subject lines of your marketing emails. It will be the first thing your readers see. If the subject line isn’t interesting or engaging, they might decide that the email isn’t worth reading and click away before they get to your message.

The same is true for the first few lines of an email or text that you enter to appear in the email preview. If its boring or uninteresting, recipients will move it to trash without ever opening it.

Write the Headline Last 

Write your message and then write your subject and teaser text. Pull your best takeaway and highlight it.

Here are a few tips for writing great subject lines:

  • Keep it short — fewer than 50 characters is ideal
  • Speak to the reader
  • Use action verbs to entice clicks
  • Make it clear (and interesting) what’s inside the email

Make It Relevant

Your subject should make clear the relevancy for your reader. Make it clear to them from the first line why they should take the time to read your email.

Get to the point within the first few sentences. Make the subject interesting and engaging to draw readers to read the body of the email.