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This is Episode 20 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.
If you have been ignoring Pinterest for growing your business, you may be surprised to learn that it often drives more traffic than sites such LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit … combined!
Do I have your attention now? I thought so.
Many of us set up our Pinterest accounts years ago and then walked away because we were not quite certain how to use it, or why. Cynthia helps us with both in this episode.
You’ll learn that Pinterest marketing really is quite simple to learn, and powerful for both attracting and sustaining more relevant traffic to your website.
Our Featured Guest: Cynthia Sanchez
Cynthia Sanchez is the CEO and founder of Oh So Pinteresting. Her clients range from companies in the mobile app industry to Beverly Hills jewelers. Cynthia is an international speaker, author, and podcaster – and she has been featured by Social Media Examiner and Entrepreneur as a leading Pinterest expert.
Pinterest is Visual Discovery
Once you understand the structure of Pinterest, everything makes a lot of sense.
Pinterest describes itself as a visual disovery tool. Think of your Pinterest account as a file cabinet. Within it are your Pinterest boards, which are collections of photos. Think of those boards as drawers within a file cabinet.
How you organize your Pinterest boards is up to you. However, your objective from a marketing standpoint is to make your visiual content discoverable by the customers or communities your business serves. Thus, your boards are ideally organized for them, which means using relevant language and keywords for which they are searching.
Each of your Pinterest photos has at least one link back to your website. So, when a photo you publish is pinned or shared on another board, it creates another link to your business from its new location.
As Cynthia points out in our interview, that new location may be a board of a highly influential individual or business, which means big traffic to your website.
Pinterest Demographics are Changing
One of the reasons many businesses do not embrace Pinterest is they view it as a site populated primarily by women trading recipes. For whatever reason, the early arrivers to Pinterest were midwestern, middle-aged, college educated women with children. That demographic still dominates.
I think back to the days of owning my landscape business. These women were the majority of my customers. How about your business?
Cynthia suggests this will change as have so many other things social media. In the meantime, if your business serves a different type of demographic, you have the opportunity to stand out now before your competitors build their presence on Pinterest.
Pinterest is a Visual, Mobile Search Engine
Just like Instagram, Pinterest is a visual, mobile search engine. And just like Instagram, the photos pinned to Pinterest accounts have staying power, unlike content that flows through Facebook and Twitter, never to be seen again.
Cynthia often experiences a surge in traffic from photos published months and even years ago. Thus, in many ways your Pinterest boards are visual content that tells the story of your business, and you as a person, much like LinkedIn Publisher articles do for your LinkedIn profile.
In our digital world visual content is red-hot. This is likely due to the fact that it instantly makes meaningful, emotional connections. Now you know why smart businesses are reconnecting with Pinterest marketing to build sustainable traffic to their websites.
How is your business planning to use Pinterest marketing?
Lighting Round Tips and Advice
Cynthia’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Be helpful. Be a resource. Give people additional information.
Her Favorite Productivity Tip – Put your cell phone in your drawer where you cannot see it.
A Quote that has Inspired Cynthia’s Success – “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” Mark Twain
Key Take-Aways
- Listen to the audio for details for linking your Pinterest photos to videos on your website.
- Cynthia recommends PicMonkey and Canva for creating or enhancing images for Pinterest.
- Check out our previous episode on Instagram marketing with Sue B Zimmerman. The two platforms have a lot in common for business marketers.
- Join over 2,000 social media marketers and see me and Cynthia live in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World 2015.
- You can learn more about Cynthia at Oh So Pintersting.
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About the Author: Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.
He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+
Sue B. Zimmerman, otherwise known as the #InstagramGal and #TheInstagramExpert is a master at Instagram for Business. She teaches entrepreneurs, business executives, and marketing professionals how to leverage the power of Instagram for business marketing. Sue B. is the author of Instagram Basics for Your Business, a speaker, business coach, and the founder of Sue B. Do and a number of other businesses.
