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Pinterest for B2B Marketing. Really!??

 

Hello there! As a marketer, you are always on the lookout for newer ways to connect with your potential customers and you understand the power of social media in reaching your prospective customers.
While Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook are used predominantly used in B2B marketing, their cousin Pinterest is sadly labelled as ‘Perfect for B2C’. But, is this true? Well, not really.

“You must be kidding! Pinterest as a B2B marketing channel? No way! ” I hear you say.

Before you dismiss Pinterest as a platform for DIY crafts, home decoration, cooking or for selling consumer goods primarily for women and not for B2B marketing, let me take you through why and how you can use Pinterest for your B2B marketing.

Demystifying Pinterest. Why Pinterest at all?

Pinterest has been branded as the go-to place for ideas on decorating your home, planning your wedding, fashion trends and not certainly a pedestal for showcasing industry thought leadership content. But, this certainly is not the case.

Pinterest is a channel where you can share and curate your ideas, and believe me it is not limited to DIY. Do you know that many Fortune 500 B2B companies like Cisco, IBM, Oracle, HP are active on Pinterest?
Pinterest has much more to offer than a digital scrapbook. In fact, it is a clean whiteboard waiting to be written. All you need is an open marketing mind!

IBM's Official Pinterest Page
IBM’s Official Pinterest Page

With over 250 million active users, 3 billion boards and over 175 billion pins, you can hardly afford to ignore Pinterest anymore. Let me dissect why you should consider Pinterest as one of your marketing channels.

#1 High engagement value. Pinterest is all about being visual, and the market share of a visually rich social network is high. The average time spent by a visitor per day on Pinterest is a whopping 88.3 minutes. Pinterest is a close third behind Facebook and Tumblr on user engagement level.

#2 Excellent lifespan. An average Pinterest post or Pin has a half-life of 4 months! Half-life is the time taken by a social media post to reach 50 percent of its total engagement.

Content's Lifespan
Content’s Lifespan

As against a tweet that lasts for 18 minutes or a Facebook post at 5 hours, a pin surely has a long lifespan.

#3 Boost your SEO, drive traffic to your website. With intelligently named Pinterest boards that match closely with your keywords, enhance your search result rankings. You can also build backlinks to your website by adding a link in every pin you publish. One other thing is that the Pinterest is a search engine by itself.

How can you tailor your marketing strategy for Pinterest?

Now, let me throw some light on how you can use Pinterest strategically to drive traffic, generate leads and increase sales.

#1 Repurpose and Reuse existing content

Convert your existing assets like blogs or ebooks into visually compelling infographic and an eye-catching caption. Do you have an interesting blog? Add the infographic to your blog and pin it to your Pinterest page. You probably have a library of content already. Give this content a new breath of life. Create boards for various types of content like blogs, media mentions, whitepapers, ebooks, customer testimonials, etc. You can also create a collaborative board inviting followers to add their own pins. This will help promote your brand and expand your network.

Pinterest Collaborative Board
Pinterest Collaborative Board

#2 Showcase your Products

The fundamental idea behind doing this exercise is for potential customers take notice of your products. Isn’t it? Create a board displaying all your products to pique their interest and generate leads. Include backlinks to your products. This gives your potential customer opportunity to know more about your products. It also helps customer gain confidence in your company.

GE's Badass Machine onPinterest
GE’s Badass Machine on Pinterest

GE’s Badass Machines board showcases GE’s products from light bulbs to compressors to wind turbines.

#3 Humanize your company

Showcase your company, give your Pinterest followers a sneak peek into your company – what you do, your employees, etc. Help your prospective customer be familiar with your company. Know a little more. You can link the media mentions, employee interviews or the company’s YouTube account.

Microsoft's Life at Microsoft Board on Pinterest
Microsoft’s Life at Microsoft Board on Pinterest

An excellent example of how this is Microsoft’s ‘Life at Microsoft’ board.

#4 Generate Leads

Most importantly, generate traffic to your website by intelligently using your content – whether new or existing. Upon leading your targeted potential customers to your landing pages, use techniques that increase the likelihood of conversion. You can use the call-to-action approach and lead them to engage with your business.

#5 Check your progress

After the daunting exercise, check where you stand and what works for you using Pinterest Analytics. The analytics tool provides you actionable metrics like number of pins and repins from your website, content reach, number of visitors and visit and also the most repinned and clicked post. You can use the insights from these metrics to improve your marketing strategy.

Are you still deliberating on using Pinterest as a B2B marketing channel?

Stop thinking, start Pinning!

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Sources:

Pinterest by the Numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts


https://blog.madisonmilesmedia.com/blog/how-to-use-pinterest-for-b2b-marketing

5 Pinterest Hacks That Can Be Used For B2B Marketing

Social Media Marketing: 7 Opportunities for B2B Brands to Rock Pinterest

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