Literally out of nowhere Pinterest has become the fastest standalone site in the history of the internet to break the ten million unique visitor mark. The growth of this pinboard-type social image sharing site is nothing short of staggering, with visits doubling every six weeks - especially among women!
This online pinboard has so captivated its female audience that women are spending approximately 98 minutes every month pinning images of whatever interests them, from wedding bouquets to photos of dogs wearing sunglasses.
At first glance a small business might not be immediately struck by how Pinterest can be a valid marketing channel to women, but with a little insight you may find that the site is a natural fit for your company.
Pinterest is an adult female playground
Pinterest is dominated by adult females. Only 13% of visitors are male, and 9% of all are under the age of 25, with half of the users having children. Women between the ages of 25 and 54 make up four out of every five Pinteresters, with seven out of ten having a household income between $25,000 and $75,000.
This is not the optimal market for Rolexes, Harley Davidsons, or white label mac-and-cheese, but a respectable, solid, female-oriented middle class audience.
Massive driver of referral traffic
One of the greatest advantages of Pinterest is that it strongly drives referral traffic. According to data from Shareaholic, the site drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube combined! This level of traffic is equal to that derived from the Google search engine, which is one of the most impressive statistics of all.
This powerful driver has not gone unnoticed as many major brands have taken the Pinterest plunge and are racking up stratospheric engagement figures:
- Perfect Palette - 244,000 followers
- Etsy - 50,000 followers
- The Beauty Department - 30,000 followers
- Real Simple - 35,000 followers
- HGTV - 18,000 followers
- Kate Spade New York - 17,000 followers
- Better Homes & Gardens - 16,000 followers
If you can see the pattern by now you're well on the way to determining whether your small business is a good fit for Pinterest. The brands which are obtaining the greatest success on the site are the ones in the "conventional adult female" market of fashion, home, and weddings. If that is your niche, the only question that remains is why aren't you on Pinterest yet?
Learn from the brands successfully marketing on the site
If you've made the determination that the site is for you, launching your Pinterest presence is easy and quick.
- Add a Pin It button to your website - Having a Pin It button will allow your site visitors to quickly and easily pin your selected images to their boards.
- An image sells a thousand words - The primary reason why visitors find Pinterest so addicting is the visual experience, so examine what gets repinned, then ratchet up the number and quality of your website's images.
- It's not just selling - Websites which facilitate the pinning of their product catalogs alone will perform poorly on Pinterest, so post tips, news, funny/cute photos, and even your competitor's products!
- Go with the pros - Follow what the more successful brands are doing and learn from them everything that is worth emulating for your small business.
Don't detract from the purity of an image
The Pinterest community frowns on anything which detracts from the "purity" of the image, so brand logos, watermarking, and price tags are out. If your small business deals in items which are not overly visual, then you're going to have to get creative.
Perhaps images of office workers engaged in some antics, or a particularly striking shot of autumn leaves falling around your location might make a better pin than a dry screenshot of your software's control panel.
On one hand you can state that Pinterest has managed to concoct the world's greatest image intellectual property plagiarism site, while on the other hand you have to admit that the fascination with posting visuals as a substitute for written blogging has created a community which is highly receptive to the right kind of marketing approach.
While any type of business can find success with women on Facebook, Pinterest rewards a more refined and narrow-casted stratagem. Use this specialized focus to your advantage by pinning highly visual, interesting content to grow your female audience.