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5 Reasons You Need A Pinterest Business Account - Right Now!

Are you wondering what THE online marketing tool for 2012 will be? I put my bets down now: it’s Pinterest.

Pinterest is the new hip hangout for the savviest customers online – and the savviest businesses are already there. It’s aesthetically beautiful, oh-so-cool, and absolutely buzzing with marketing potential.

According to a report by Experian Hitwise, Pinterest is now the number three most-popular social network in the U.S., behind Facebook and Twitter.  A new report from the researcher shows Pinterest got 21.5 million visits during the week ending Jan. 28, a nearly 30-fold increase over a comparable week in July.

While many businesses have been burying their noses in their Facebook and Twitter profiles, the cool kids have been using Pinterest to increase brand engagement, boost SEO, gain viral exposure and drive traffic to their websites.

So why is Pinterest so popular for business marketing?

1.    Pinterest drives traffic to your website

Pinterest drives more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace combined. It currently brings 3.6% of overall referral traffic web-wide, while Twitter is just 3.61% (see more stats).

The traffic-building power of Pinterest comes from its simplicity: every image you pin, or your fans pin, can be linked back to your website. It also drives traffic to your Facebook page, and Pinterest referrals to Facebook are on the rise.  

2.    Pinterest boosts brand recognition

You can use Pinterest to showcase images that sell your brand’s benefits and lifestyle. Then, and here’s the real magic, people “repin” your images to share them with their friends. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s happening every day.

3.    Pinterest helps you engage with your target market

Your target market can find out more about your brand but you can also find out more about them. You can ask their opinion about your products. You can hold a contest that asks users to show what they love about your brand. Or you can interact with their pinboards to get a feel of your target market’s interests and needs.

4.    Pinterest can boost sales

Just like any other social media platform, it’s a mistake to focus on selling. However, if you add a sales pinboard among your other more engaging and personalised boards, you will speed up the sales cycle. There are less steps to buy, and Pinterest’s clear visual style makes it easy to keep your products in front of interested buyers.

5.    Pinterest increases inbound links & SEO

Pinterest is a legitimate and highly effective way of increasing your inbound links. Reputable inbound links not only boosts traffic to your site, they boost your search engine optimisation. Google loooves inbound links and every time you pin an image from your website, you create a backlink. It’s as simple as that.

The popularity of Pinterest is skyrocketing along with its marketing potential. Get in there now while it’s still cool, and start seeing the online marketing benefits for yourself!

Note: There’s been some talk recently around the risk of copyright infringement for Pinterest users when pinning someone else’s content. The best way to avoid this is to only use your own content by taking your own picture or only pinning from the original source and including a link back to the source. Here are more good tips from The Wall Street Journal.  However Pinterest has also updated their terms of service as of 6th April 2012 and we recommend reading these carefully to ensure you stay within the rules.

Are you on Pinterest? What effects have you noticed on your business? Share your experiences and tips here in the comments below.

Casey @ Cloud Marketing

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