10 Pinterest ideas for posts and marketing effectiveness
Summary/Overview
Above all else, Pinterest is a platform focused on inspiration. Pinterest allows you to share images and videos, as well as “pin” content that you discover from others, enabling you to post as well as curate content for your audience.
While Pinterest is most popular among women (more than 75% of Pinterest users are women), and the highest age demographic is between ages 50-64, Pinterest’s audience isn’t as broad as that of most social media channels.
However, Pinterest’s audience is expanding, with Gen Z and male Pinterest users rising by 40% every year. As a result, there are plenty of opportunities for businesses to build their community and market their products or services on the platform.
Using Pinterest for business
When it comes to marketing on Pinterest and using Pinterest for business, there are a number of ways that businesses can really benefit from building a presence on Pinterest.
Pinterest is one of the few social media platforms that allows your content to be discoverable outside of the platform via search engines. As a result, you can take steps to optimize your content to appear higher in search engine results and bring more eyes to your brand. When posting on Pinterest, your content has the potential to reach so many more people than just those within the Pinterest platform.
In terms of other benefits, Pinterest can be very lucrative for those in creative industries, particularly those related to fashion, home decor, DIY practices, arts and crafts, cooking/baking, jewelry, or beauty. Pinterest is big on inspiration and creativity so businesses who can create content to satisfy this need are sure to receive plenty of engagement.
Thanks to a few Pinterest marketing features, such as Product Pins, Shopping Lists, Catalogs, and the ability to run Pinterest ads, there are also many opportunities for brands to bring attention to their products. Brands can create boards to collate their product offerings as well as make use of Pinterest analytics to understand their audience better and learn how to improve their performance on the platform.
Pinterest is incredibly popular as a platform for shopping with 64% of Pinners saying they go to Pinterest to shop. Statistics also indicate that Pinners are seven times more likely to buy things that they pin, demonstrating just how worthwhile building a Pinterest presence can be for businesses.
Further reading: How to use Pinterest to boost traffic and sales for your business
10 Pinterest ideas you can try now
Direct to other content
On Pinterest, any post can include a URL that easily sends your audience to a location of your choice, whether it be your website to buy products or read a blog, or to another social channel such as YouTube to consume your longer-form content.
If you’re creating content outside of Pinterest, this feature can be incredibly useful in allowing you to post images and short videos to promote content that lives elsewhere.
Create Pinterest posts that promote your content using our range of templates in Adobe Express:
Pinterest ideas: Share newsletter-style content
Many brands like to transform their newsletters into Pinterest images to enable their newsletter content to reach people outside of their mailing list. It’s fairly common on Pinterest to find newsletter content transformed into images that users can scroll through and read. Remember to include a link to your newsletter sign-up page.
Product marketing on Pinterest
Marketing on Pinterest can be very successful — especially given the shoppable nature of the platform. Many people use Pinterest to shop and discover new products and look for inspiration so it’s the perfect platform to get your products in front of your target market. Every product you sell should be listed on your Pinterest account somewhere with links to where you can purchase those products. Don’t be shy about including pricing information or feeling the need to be subtle with your product promotion like you might on other social media channels.
Pinterest tips and tricks
Everyone loves hacks, tips, and tricks to make life easier. Try sharing tips and info related to your industry or your products. For example, a business who sells photography equipment might share photography-related tips or advice on how to use their products more effectively.
Pinterest ideas: Before and after pictures
Pinterest is the perfect place for any before and after pictures such as home renovation reveals, hair style transformations, or really any DIY or craft project processes and results. Again, if you can relate your before and after pictures back to the products or services you are selling, then additional engagement will surely follow.
How-to tutorials
How-to tutorials are the perfect type of content for Pinterest. People go to Pinterest for inspiration and ideas, but also to learn. Show your audience either how to use your product or complete something industry-relevant, and then present this information in a visual and digestible way.
Pinterest ideas: Infographics on Pinterest
As a visual way to present statistics, information, and facts, infographics will fit right in on Pinterest. If you’ve got something interesting or curious to share in relation to your industry, then creating an infographic is a helpful way to present this information to your Pinterest audience.
Behind the scenes
Behind the scenes-style Pinterest posts can be great for showing a more human side to your brand. Posts of this nature could include an office tour, a “making of” process to show how your products come to be, or a day-in-the-life walk-through. Video pins work especially well for content of this nature.
Share useful resources
If you find something useful, it’s likely your followers will find it useful too. Use a Pinterest board to collate all the useful information and resources you’ve discovered to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Re-pin content
Although we don’t recommend leaning too heavily on re-pinning, there’s absolutely no pressure on Pinterest to be constantly creating 100% original content all the time. Re-pinning content is like a retweet on Twitter where you can display someone else's post on your page. For businesses, this can be a great way to share user-generated content or content from those in the same industry (although hopefully not from direct competitors).
Further reading: 33 social media post ideas to boost your business
Pinterest FAQs
What makes a good Pinterest post?
Pinterest is often used on mobile devices so creating vertical content would be the recommended approach. Your Pinterest content should also be SEO-optimized (using keywords in the title and description) and be of high image or video quality. As a business, your content is expected to be fully branded and include a link in every pin to send traffic to other sources, such as your website or other content.
What are the types of Pinterest posts?
There are six types of Pinterest posts:
- Static pins: Static pins are created using one single image.
- Ideas pins: Ideas pins allow you to upload up to 20 images or videos to one pin.
- Video pins: Video pins feature a single video. They will play automatically when they appear in the feed.
- Rich pins: Rich pins will automatically sync information from your website to your pins. There are three types of rich pins, which are:
- Recipe Pins: These allow you to add a title, serving size, cook time, ratings, diet preferences, and a list of ingredients to recipes that you save from your website.
- Article Pins: These allow you to add a description, author, and headline or title of an article or blog post from your website.
- Product Pins: These include the most up-to-date pricing, availability, and product information on your pin. Product Pins also allow users to click to buy your products by either being redirected to your website, or by completing the purchase from within Pinterest.
- Collection Pins: Collection pins are product pins that have been grouped together. When a person clicks a product pin, they can shop all products within the collection.
- Try-on product pins: Try-on is a feature that lets people virtually try on products they find on the Pinterest app using Pinterest Lens.
Ready to create your first Pinterest post? Check out our range of templates available in Adobe Express:
Is a Pinterest business account free?
Pinterest is completely free to sign up for as a business or as a personal user.
What is the difference between Pinterest and Pinterest for business?
Pinterest business accounts include features that are helpful to business owners and marketers such as the Pinterest Business Hub and Pinterest Analytics. Business accounts can also become merchants and upload catalogues as well as create all types of pins. Pinterest personal accounts can only create static or idea pins.
How do beginners use Pinterest for marketing?
Those just getting started on Pinterest should focus on publishing content, re-pinning content, and engaging with others on the platform. This approach will allow you to gradually build a solid Pinterest presence with a good level of visibility. As a business, a great starting point is also to upload every single one of your products to Pinterest to allow users to shop and make purchases from you. You should also be creating collections to make shopping even easier. If you’re looking to grow quicker, it’s worth considering promoting your pins to reach a larger audience than usual.
Is a Pinterest business account worth it?
Without a Pinterest business account, you’ll find it significantly harder to sell your products or create engaging content for your audience as personal profiles are limited to only static pins and idea pins. A Pinterest business account provides you with the analytics you need to succeed, as well as access to the Pinterest Business Hub. Many business owners consider having a Pinterest business account to be very beneficial.
What are the disadvantages of Pinterest?
As we touched on earlier, Pinterest’s primary audience is women aged between 50-64. If that’s your target market, then you're all set — but if you’re a business who’s looking to market to a broader audience, then there are other social media channels that might be a better fit.
Aside from that, Pinterest can be a demanding platform, as you should be posting or pinning on Pinterest between 4 to 10 times per day in order to get your boards noticed — which can be difficult for many marketers to keep on top of amidst other duties.
Further reading: Why small businesses need to post on social media at least once per week
How many followers do you need on Pinterest to make money?
There is no specific number of followers you can get that will guarantee your ability to make money on Pinterest. For creators, your Pinterest can be monetized through partnering with brands (as you would on other social media channels), while businesses will be able to earn money from Pinterest by promoting their products. However, neither of these approaches to making money require a certain number of followers.
With that being said, having a high number of followers is extremely beneficial to making money on social media and it’s unlikely that you will find money-making on Pinterest to be successful until you have more than a thousand followers.