Top 5 Reasons to Market Your Business on Pinterest

The key to social media success is to understand the platforms that best sync with your business. You must first be aware of the different platforms available, the benefits of each, and how you can leverage these benefits to promote your business online.

With more than 70 million users around the world (Semiocast), Pinterest is one such platform that can help boost your business in more ways than one. So, why exactly should you market your business on Pinterest? Here are five great reasons.

1. Build Trust & Loyalty: Every online business owner understands the value of gaining trust on the Internet. It would mean quicker conversions, better brand recognition and even positive referrals. When you upload pictures on your website or blog and ask people to 'pin' your photographs, you are instantly connecting with the online world. Showcasing your business offerings will help potential buyers to develop a better understanding of what you're selling. By pinning relevant and helpful resources, you will attract followers, increase your authority, and build the trust of your followers, which can lead to increased customer loyalty and positive referrals.

2. Increase Brand Visibility & Website Traffic: More than 80% of pins are repins (source: RJMetrics) which means it is very likely that your potential customer will pin your product images to their wall, resulting in increased brand visibility. According to a Pinterest study, 69% of Pinterest users have found at least one item that they bought or were interested in buying.

3. Promote Your Products/Services: Pinterest allows you to include a text description with every pin you post. You can leverage that space to promote your product and/or service offerings or explain to users how that given pin can relate to a person's personal interest. By doing so, the likelihood of a user repining your pin on their own board will increase.

You can use your Pinterest board as an advertising canvas for a promotional offer, a brand message or even a product launch. Utilising this feature could be vital for the growth of your business.

4. Leverage Third Party Tool to Increase Your Pinterest ROI: There are many third party Pinterest tools that can help you enhance your social media marketing experience. These resources could help you in many ways, from understanding live trends to even editing tools. An example of a few Pinterest tools include:

- Piqora: a powerful marketing and analytical suite that monitors how your pins and boards are performing.

- Pin Alerts: is a real-time Pinterest monitoring system that will send you automatic notifications every time someone pins something from your website.

- Pinstamatic: allows you to create custom pin-able links for your Pinterest board. This tool can turn locations, music, quotes, calendar dates, Twitter profile links, sticky notes and websites into pinnable links for others to share.

5. Reach Targeted Audiences: Pinterest allows people with shared interests to connect and share content with one another. You can leverage this activity by targeting niche audiences who can relate to your products and/or services. Use images that you know your target audience would "like", share, or comment on. At the same time make sure you use relevant keywords. By using the correct keywords for your business, it is likely you'll receive more shares by bloggers, a vital aspect for your company website.

If you want to learn a bit more about how your brand can benefit from using Pinterest, check out this 6 part video series from Social Influence Academy

This guest article was written by Jessica Hooper from Going Social.