B2B marketers who use Pinterest can increase website traffic, generate leads and increase awareness.
Time Magazine named Pinterest one of the top 50 websites for 2011. It is already one of the top ten social networks, already besting the likes of LinkedIn and Google+.
“Pinterest is a pinboard-styled social photo sharing website. The service allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections. The site’s mission statement is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Wikipedia
In a Hubspot ebook, “How to Use Pinterest for Business,” it outlines 4 key benefits to B2B marketers of using Pinterest:
- Traffic – if more website traffic can increase sales, you should consider using Pinterest. Early research indicates that Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic than other social media sites, including Facebook.
- Links – Adding a “Pin It” button to your product pages or blog posts will allow your customers and readers to pin your products onto Pinterest, thus providing a link back to the source.
- Leads – If you have closed-loop marketing analytics on your website, you can measure how those links become leads.
- Social Sharing – Pinterest enables users to log in using their Twitter or Facebook profiles. This enables users to automatically post new pins to their Facebook and Twitter feeds for others to see. That makes for more eyes getting access to your pictures.
One of the challenges some B2B marketers might face is a lack of visual content. However, there are some visuals that you can use:
- Existing visual content – executive headshots and bios, employees at work or at company events.
- Visuals from your website and blog articles – product visuals, offices, images from your company blog.
- Infographics and data charts – Infographics are becoming very popular. And even data charts made in Excel can be pinned.
- Ebook and book covers – Take a picture of the covers of any ebooks or whitepapers that your company has authored, pin them up and include a link to request the actual publication.
- Pictures of your customers – It’s a great way to show how your product or service helps the user.
One B2B marketer using Pinterest is GE. They have a board specifically devoted to the “badass machines” the company produces. It also has an “archive” board with a visual history of the company’s products through the years.
Surprisingly, access to Pinterest is by invitation only. You can request an invitation from Pinterest, or even faster, ask someone with a Pinterest account to invite you. If you email us, we will send you an invitation.
Click here to download a copy of “An Introduction to Pinterest For Business.”
