Pinterest has been ramping up its eCommerce push of late, introducing a range of new on-platform functionalities and advertising tools to boost its viability as an online marketplace. And this week they've released a report which further underlines the potential for brands via Pin.
As their first ever trend report for business, Pinterest has focused on one of the key areas of interest for Pinners - the beauty sector.
According to the report:
"Pinterest is the largest beauty platform in the world, with more than 38.5 million unique viewers of hair and beauty content. People are looking to experts for everything from the latest products to try, to tips and tutorials for everyday looks and special occasions."
That's a pretty bold claim, but the numbers do back this up - Pinterest looked at the last year's worth of data (from January to December 2015) to provide an overview of stats and trends from this sector.
If you're looking to market beauty products, you need to check this report out.
Here are some of the highlights.
Brands Welcome
Pinterest has previously reported that 75% of all saved Pins come from businesses. Which is impressive, but what exactly that means - 'saved Pins' is not Pins overall - is a little unclear. Pinterest clarifies this in the report:
"Commercial content on other platforms tends to feel disruptive or fleeting. But on Pinterest, 75% of content comes from businesses-people actively seek out ideas from brands, so it's easy to influence both browsers and shoppers."
You pair that with Pinterest's 100 million monthly active users and the 93% of Pinners who say they use the platform to plan for purchases and that's a huge amount of buying potential. And while 100 million is no where near the 1.65 billion MAU of Facebook, Pinterest's audience is clearly more focused on eCommerce and shopping, an aspect that cannot be ignored in assessing the platform's potential.
Underlining this, Pinterest also notes that people are 2.1x more likely to buy your products in store if they've seen your products on Pinterest.
In addition, 29% of active Pinners browse Pinterest on their phones while shopping in stores for makeup and skin care specifically, while one out of every five men are also active on the platform.
"More and more of these men are looking for hair and beauty ideas on Pinterest-from haircuts to skin care guides."
Beauty Trends
More than 43 million Pinners searched for the term "hair" specifically on Pinterest in 2015, with 670 million queries about hair and hair styles. Of those, hair styles were the most popular related trend.
In terms of skin care, 10 million people searched for skin care ideas on the platform, with the topics of most interest changing with each season.
This graph in particular is really interesting - while beauty marketers would already have some idea of how the changing seasons impact product popularity, to see them mapped out in wider trends, across all of Pinterest, is definitely beneficial and could change the way you approach your marketing plan.
It also highlights the potential Pinterest has as a product discovery data engine.
In terms of make-up, the report also highlights specific trends among Pinners relating to different types of make-up, with four out of the top 8 searches for eye shadow including a reference to eye colour - an important note for Pinterest SEO
Expanding Opportunity
While Pinterest gets less attention than the bigger players in the social space, it's definitely gaining traction - and as highlighted by this report, it's within specific markets and market sectors where Pinterest really shines.
Is Pinterest a good platform for your brand? The only way to know for sure is to research - head over the Pinterest and conduct searches for your brand keywords, see what people are looking based on the Guided Search matches that show up and check out the engagement levels on related Pins and similar brand profiles.
Maybe you have a look and come away convinced that Pinterest's not for your brand, that there's not much there to suggest having a presence will increase your sales. But if you find the opposite, and there is interest in your products, the opportunities - as noted in this data - can be significant.
The purchase intent of Pinners is higher than users on any other social platform. That's why Pinterest is going so hard on building their eCommerce offerings, how Pinterest plans to make their company into a multi-billion dollar machine. In order to do that, they'll need to keep adding in new features and tools to help brands maximize the potential of the platform.
And if Pinterest is for you, that could make it an even bigger opportunity as it evolves.
There's a heap more data and insights in the full Pinterest 2016 Beauty Trend Report, which is available here. On a related note, Pinterest have also released a new series of videos on how to make best use of the platform which are also worth a look.