When it comes to e-commerce, being active on social media matters. But don’t take my word for it. Shopify analyzed the data from 37 million social media visits that led to 529,000 orders. And the results?
Unsurprisingly Facebook dominated social traffic and sales, with 85% of all orders from social media coming from Facebook.
But, what may (or may not) surprise you is that Pinterest was the second largest source of traffic, ahead of Twitter. It also had the third highest average order value, ahead of Facebook.
If that hasn’t got you standing in line to use this platform, consider that you can make sales long after you’ve pinned an item. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, your content has a longer shelf life. See how Anna’s post continued to generate traffic after 49 weeks:
And this is more common than you may think. According to Piqora, “50% of orders happen 2.5 months after pinning”.
That’s not to mention that e-commerce store owners can generate 78 cents per pin. Yes, Pinterest is a gold mine. However, it’s not for everyone. As BigCommerce says, it’s “popular with a particular niche of users and for specific types of products.”
More specifically it works well if you’re a business that sells visual products, such as food or clothes. It’s no surprise then that it works well for ecommerce stores that so rely on visuals.
Once you’ve decided that Pinterest is right for you, you still need to use the correct strategies to harness its power. In this post, we share 4 that will help you skyrocket your sales.
Let’s have a look
1. Include “Pin it” Buttons for Referral Traffic
By including Pin-it buttons, a Pinterest logo will appear on your images so visitors can pin content to their Pinterest boards. This, in turn, has the power to increase impressions and generate referral traffic.
For example, according to Pinterest, three months after AllRecipes.com added this button, 50,000 recipes were saved, generating impressions of 130 million.
If you need help adding Pinterest widgets and buttons, visit the Pinterest widget builder page.
2. Harness the Power of Rich Pins
Pinterest says that “Rich Pins provide more context about an idea because they show extra information directly on a Pin.”
This extra information helps customers make a purchase decision and drives traffic to your site. You get four kinds of rich pins: product, app, article, and recipe.
Let’s look at the first three:
Product Pins
These include real-time pricing, stock availability, and where you can buy. For example, see how The Land of Nod does it with their geometric lamps:
If someone pins a product pin, for example, they’ll receive information on when the price drops and receive a prompt to buy.
App Pins
These are ideal if you have an online store, and an app. Visitors will see “install” instead of “visit” on the pin and can download the app directly from Pinterest. Unfortunately, these pins are only compatible with iOS.
Article Pins
These are ideal if you want to increase traffic to your blog. These pins include an author byline, headline, and brief description of what the post is about. See how mydomaine.com does it.
3. Create Pinnable Images
Of course, including “Pin it” buttons and rich pins is pointless if your images aren’t pinnable to begin with.
In a Shopify post, Eva Jorgensen of Sycamore Street Press revealed how she invests in product photo shoots to create quality product images. As a result, the Shopify store owner gets most of his traffic from Pinterest compared to other social networks.
If you need help to create pinnable images, we provide some tips below. These tips are based on a study by the Curalate team who reviewed over half a million photos on Pinterest to see what got the most repins, likes and shares. Here are some of their findings:
Colour is Crucial
- The images with the most repins have multiple dominant colors.
- Light and dark images don’t get as many pins as those with medium lightness.
- Red, orange and brown images get more repins than blue images.
Anonymity Plays a Role
- Images without faces get 23% more repins.
- Images with 40% or more background area get 2 to 4 times less repins.
Other factors not mentioned in the study, but that you should consider are size and text.
Size Also Matters
You’re probably aware that Pinterest prefers vertical images. Vertical images get more impressions and repins because they take up more space on your Pinterest board. That’s not to mention that they’re ideal for mobile users.
But what exactly is the perfect size for your image?
An aspect ratio of between 2:3 and 4:5 is preferred with a minimum width of 600 pixels. This means that if your width is 650, your height is 975.
Text Grabs Attention
There are many pins on Pinterest that include text overlays to get clicks and more repins.
And they work: after trying a host of Pinterest marketing tips – Buffer found that pins with text were the most significant source of engagement.
Take a look:
Of course, though too much text can create clutter and hurt engagement. You need to strike a balance. If you need free tools to create text overlays, use PicMonkey or even Canva. Blogging Wizard also shares a killer article on how to add text to your images.
4. Include Pinterest Tab on Facebook
You can increase engagement by integrating your social media channels. For example, Facebook lets you add a Pinterest tab to your page so that your Pinterest boards are visible.
Not sure how to do that? It’s simple:
Go to your personal Facebook page and type in “tab for Pinterest”:
Click “Use Now”:
Select “Install App”:
Choose your Facebook page you want the pin to appear on, followed by “add page”:
Finally, update your setting with Your Pinterest URL, and you’re good to go:
Conclusion
Pinterest is a goldmine for e-commerce store owners and business owners. The shelf life of content is longer than other social media channels, and the value per pin is as much as 78 cents.
But to realize the value of Pinterest, you need to use the right strategies:
- Include “Pin it” buttons for referral traffic
- Harness the power of rich pins
- Create pinnable images to drive traffic and engagement
- Connect the platform with other social networks – such as Facebook – to increase visibility
Do that, and you will be well set to boost your sales.
Do you use Pinterest? What strategies do you use to drive traffic and generate sales?