If you haven’t caught on to the awesome power of Pinterest for your pet business yet, you could be missing a trick. Because users on Pinterest are far more likely to buy than on any other social platform. (Although, Pinterest is more like a visual search engine than a social media platform.)
Here are just a few mind-blowing stats for you to ponder.
- 48% of Pinterest users specifically come on Pinterest to shop.
- Pinterest users are 39% more likely to be active retail shoppers than non-users.
- 72% of Pinterest users are inspired to shop when using the platform even if they aren’t looking for anything in particular.
- 78% of Pinterest users say it’s useful to see brand content on the platform.
- There has been a 115% increase in product-related pins in recent years.
- 84% use the platform when they are undecided on which products to buy.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is untapped potential here for pet businesses to raise their profile online and drive revenue.
But there’s a caveat to this advice. What works for one pet business may not be the best approach for others.
Who is Pinterest best suited to?
Let me explain. Since Pinterest is more like a visual search engine, you need to post content that targets specific keywords related to your business. For online pet businesses like online product stores, this is easy. You can publish all types of content relating to pets and the products you offer, because it doesn’t matter where your visitors come from. Every visitor is a potential customer that could buy from your online store.
But for local based businesses, it can be more challenging. Challenging, but doable. You don’t want to attract pet parents from America if you’re a Cardiff based dog walker. They’re never going to be your customer. So you need to be clever with your strategy and the kind of content you promote. For your local business, you should publish content that talks about and includes keywords related to your area. It’s not as easy, but it can be done with the right strategy.
But when you do get those keywords right and you post a pin that links to a blog on your website that covers, for example, ’10 best dog walking routes in Devon’, you’re more likely to attract your ideal customer. And the best part – pins are indexed in Google too, so every pin you create has the potential to drive more visitors directly from the big search engines.
So my advice if you’re a local based business, is to use Pinterest as a secondary marketing option alongside your other social platforms. Use it to get your location relevant content out there to give you more opportunities to attract relevant people into your business.
The ultimate formula to market your pet business on Pinterest
Set up your account
The first important step is to start with a Pinterest business account and not a personal account. This will give you access to Pinterest analytics which is useful for seeing which pins are performing well.
Then add rich pins to your profile. This gives your followers extra information within the pin itself and makes your whole account feel more professional and trustworthy. There are currently four types of rich pins you can sign up for.
- Product pins – includes the price of a product, availability and where to buy
- Recipe pins – includes ingredients, cooking times and serving sizes
- Article pins – includes a headline, description and author
- App pins – Includes an install button so people can download the app without leaving Pinterest. (Only available with iOS)
In this case, choose ‘article pins’ as your rich pin of choice. Then Pinterest will generate a piece of code you need to put onto your website. It’s a good idea to speak to your web developer if you’re not savvy with this kind of tech.
With rich pins you also get the added bonus of having a follow button within each of your pins. This isn’t available without rich pins, so it’s well worth following this step.
Optimise your profile
Choose a professional photo for your profile picture. This could be your logo or a headshot of you if you’re more of a personal, local brand.
Then choose a cover photo that reflects your business. You can even include some text about your latest offer or entice people to get in touch.
Next include a keyword rich bio that shares more about what you do and how you help pet parents. It’s important to choose keywords that you know your ideal customers are searching for. This will ensure your profile is more easily found by people searching Pinterest for the products or services you offer.
Create your boards
Then create a few boards that are relevant to your business. Here’s an example to get you thinking about the kind of boards you should create for your profile:
I worked with Tails.com, and since they provide tailored nutrition for dogs, we created boards around ‘Dog Nutrition Tips, Dog Health Tips, Dog Care Tips, Dog Breeds, Dog Training Tips etc. You get the idea. It all relates to the products they offer so they can strategically create and promote content that will attract the right people.
If you have an online pet product store, start by creating boards for the various different products you have. For example, one board for dog beds, another for dog food, another for dog treats. These will house all the different product pins which will link back to each product on your website.
Be sure to include a cover image for each board too. This will give your profile an instantly recognisable identity and brand uniformity. Again, head over to Tails.com’s Pinterest profile for inspiration for your cover images.
This is an important part of the strategy, so don’t miss this one out. After you’ve created your staple boards, create another that will house all the articles you create for your blog. Name it ‘From the blog’ or ‘Our Top Articles’ so you have a designated area for all your great content.
Create pin graphics
Next, you want to create a pin graphic for all your existing blog posts and products, as well as any you create in the future. Each pin graphic will then be added to your ‘articles board’ or relevant product board.
To design your graphics, head over to Canva and set up a free account. They have plenty of brilliant templates you can adapt and use for free. Check out Tails.com’s article board for design inspiration.
Notice how the pin image is crisp and uncluttered. We included their logo to instantly boost brand awareness, an eye-grabbing image, and the title of the blog post so users know exactly what they’ll get when they click.
Upload your pins
Now it’s time to upload your newly designed pin to your profile. Simply click on the cross on the top right of your profile to get started. Upload your new pin from your computer, add the title of your blog post in the headline section and include a keyword rich description. It’s also a good idea to include a call to action here, like ‘Click the pin to read more…’.
Of course, you can also follow this step to add all your product pins too.
As with most social media platforms, Pinterest also allows you to add hashtags within the description. This means you can add popular hashtags to help your pin get found easier for particular search queries. It’s beneficial to add a handful here for that very reason.
Then pop in the url to the relevant blog post or product and add to your relevant board.
Join group boards
Joining group boards is an important part of the strategy to ensure your content is seen and shared by more people. Group boards have multiple collaborators and can often have hundreds of thousands of followers. This gives you the potential to increase your content’s reach exponentially.
Joining group boards is as simple as asking the owner if you can become a collaborator. They often have instructions within the group board to join, so it’s a good idea to follow these. Some people will ask you to email, direct message, or comment on their pin to join. Asking to join is not a sexy process. It takes time, but if you build this step into your strategy every week, it will pay off.
To find group boards to join, hunt down other businesses related to yours and look at the group boards they’re in. You’ll know it’s a group board when the profile picture is divided into different profiles. Click on each one individually and follow the process above to request to join. You want to join as many group boards as possible so you can expand your reach. Then be sure to only add your most relevant pins to the relevant group boards. Set aside just 30 minutes each week to go in and make those requests.
Leverage Tailwind
I want to say this is the most important part of the strategy, but really, every step is as crucial as the last. Tailwind is a scheduling app that’s specifically designed for Pinterest.
With Tailwind you can set up your posting schedule to send out a bunch of pins every day. The sweet spot is around 25-30 pins a day. You should aim to send out our own pins and other people’s pins across your own boards and the group boards you collaborate on.
You can then download the Tailwind chrome extension to make posting pins a breeze. Within Pinterest, you can click on the scheduling tab on any pin, and this will automatically be added to your drafts within Tailwind. This alone has revolutionised the way I schedule content from Pinterest. You can even bulk schedule pins at once streamlining the process even further.
Then add all the different boards you want your pin to go out to and this will populate your posting plan automatically.
You can also use Tailwind tribes to get even more eyeballs on your content. Within Tailwind itself, you can join different tribes where others will share your content with their audience. There really is no beating collaboration – where likeminded people come together to push each other’s businesses and content forwards.
Tailwind has been fundamental to my Pinterest marketing strategy. Helping me and my clients consistently publish great content on a daily basis with little effort. If you’d like to check out Tailwind for yourself, you can do so here.
Then continue with this strategy to expand your reach, grow your following and boost your revenue. If you have any questions about the strategy, don’t hesitate to email me or leave a comment below. And if you’d like to grab a handy checklist that includes all the tips you’ve learned here today, head over here to grab that.