Should Your Brand Be on Pinterest? - Chicago | Elevate · ELEVATE STUDIOS 328 S JEFFERSON S T....
Transcript of Should Your Brand Be on Pinterest? - Chicago | Elevate · ELEVATE STUDIOS 328 S JEFFERSON S T....
ELEVATE STUDIOS | 328 S JEffErSOn ST. SUITE 540, ChICAgO, IL 60661 | PhOnE (312) 932-1104elevatestudios.com
Should Your BrandBe on Pinterest?
Pinterest allows marketers to leverage their brand
equity and captivate their audiences in a more visual
way than other social media networks. Though
Pinterest was once seen as simply a place for a
mainly female audience to share craft ideas and
recipes, the Pinterest audience and their interests
have diversified, making it a valuable social media
tool for marketers. As brands experiment with
creating unique engagement opportunities on
Pinterest, the social network is proving to be an
increasingly effective direct traffic driver to brand
sites. This dossier reviews the changing audience
of Pinterest and their behaviors, provides usage
guidelines and showcases several successful
brand examples.
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Contents
The Pinterest Audience
Usage Trends on Pinterest
Pinterest’s Global Usage
Pinterest’s Localized Approach to Global
Top Brands on Pinterest
Case Studies
Creative Pin Examples
Pinterest Best Practices
Pinterest Brand Usage Tips
Quick Guide to Pinterest Images
Pinterest Resources
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8% $25k
42% $25k - $50k
29% $50k - $75k
12% $75k - $100k
6% $100k - $150k
3% $150k
Users Household Income $
The Pinterest Audience
• Audience is diversifying
More men are taking an interest in Pinterest.
The percentage of male users has reached 28%
and is still growing.1 Also, according to Forbes
Social Intelligence Report, there were 5,000,000
conversations about Pinterest across other social
sites over the past year and 40% of participants
were male.
• Audience doesn’t skew very young or old
80% of users are between the age of 25-54.1
• Audience is engaged
The average time spent on Pinterest per visit
is 14.2 minutes.1
• Audience is exploratory
Pinterest’s referral rates are increasing while
those of Twitter and Facebook are decreasing.2
• Audience has above average incomes 1
• Audience is tech savvy
The Pinterest iPhone app has been downloaded
almost 250,000 times.3
1. Google Analytics, 23 April 20122. Shareaholic https://blog.shareaholic.com/pinterest-referral-traffic-2/3. Wayfair Study http://mashable.com/2012/04/02/pinterest-wayfair/
Pinterest can be a valuable communication tool for your
brand if your unique audience is on Pinterest. If they are, it
is important to understand how their behavior on the site
differs from their behavior on other social platforms. Here
are a few insights about the Pinterest audience at large.
Clicks & Conversions?One of the strengths behind Pinterest as
a marketing tool is that it is increasingly
e�ective at driving tra�c back to brand
sites. How can marketers best leverage this
strength to create a continual relationship
with their brand’s audience?
Recommendation:Create a dedicated landing page experience
or greeting for visitors who come to your
brand’s site from Pinterest. This helps connect
the user's recent experience with your brand
on Pinterest with the experience they are
about to have on your site. Invite them to
follow your brand on Pinterest since they have
already shown interest in your pinned content.
Pinterest followers will be more likely to return
to your site regularly in the future.
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Are Pinterest users motivated to purchase?
Though Facebook is still currently leading referral traffic,
Pinterest is better at driving the big spenders. Pinterest
shoppers outspend Facebook shoppers significantly when
it comes to average order value.9
Usage Trends on Pinterest
Once you have determined that your target audience is
using Pinterest, your next step is to understand what they
are doing on the site. Learning about audience behavior
and engagement patterns can help you decide what
content your audience will want to see, when you should
post it and what success metrics you should use to track
the success of your initiatives. Here are a few emerging
behavior trends.
1 Fashion Design & Collections
2 Music Art & Memorabilia
3 Vineyards & Wine Tourism
4 Utah
5 Crafts
6 Public Relations
7 Venture Capital
8 Iowa
9 SEO & Marketing
10 Graphic design
Top Interests on Pinterest5
100repins
24likes
1comment
Best time to post during the day: 2PM-4PM EST
Best time to post in the evening: 8PM-1AM EST
AVOID: Posting in late afternoon PEAK TIME: Saturday morning
$85$153
When should you post?
While Facebook and
Twitter traffic is often at its
highest during commuting
hours, Pinterest traffic is
highest in the afternoon
and late evening.6
What are Pinterest users interested in?
Everything. Pinterest users’ interests are diversifying and
Pinterest is no longer just for recipes and craft ideas.
Brands in any vertical can connect with the Pinterest
audience as long as they are creating valuable and
engaging content.
How are users interacting with content?
Knowing the common ratio of repins to likes to comments
can help you establish reasonable goals and success
metrics for your content. Users are 100 times more likely
to repin than comment.4
What categories are users repinning most?
Aligning your brand’s content with any of the followings
categories may increase your number of repins.
Is Pinterest driving users to brand sites?
Yes, at a growing rate. Pinterest referral rates have now
surpassed Twitter’s and though Facebook is still the
leader in referral traffic for sites, its referral rate is
declining.7 According to the retail deal site ideeli.com,
Pinterest has brought a 446% increase in web traffic to
their business’ site.8
Facebook Referrals (% of all tra�c)
Pinterest Referrals (%)
6.92 6.38
.85 1.05
Jan. 2012 Feb. 2012
4. Unmetric Pindustry Report. unmetric.com5. Google Analytics, 23 April 20126. Pinerly Inc. 20127. http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/09/pinterest-now-beating-google-referral-traffic-plus-bing-twitter-stumbleupon/ Jan. 20128. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222740#9. Richrelevance shopping Insights TM, richrelevance.com
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Pinterest has seen incredible success and growth within the United States, becoming the 16th most popular website in the
U.S. according to Alexa traffic data.
However, Pinterest’s US success has yet to be repeated in global markets. Nearly half of Pinterest’s users are Americans
and the rest of their users are highly dispersed globally. No single country besides the US accounts for more that 5% of all
page views. Pinterest is currently looking to tap into the growth potential of non-US markets and has dedicated a portion of
its recently-raised funding towards international growth initiatives. Pinterest already offered users the ability to customize
their experience by choosing from English, French, Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese for their language setting, but Pinterest
is now working to localize the experience even more by curating content based on a user’s country to attract additional
international users.
Pinterest is the fastest growing social site hitting 10M U.S. monthly visits, more than any standalone site - ever.
- Forbes Social Intelligence Report
“”
Pinterest’s Global Usage
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French pinners will see more local content in Search and category feeds, a well as links to more French domains and pins with descriptions in French. We hope today’s updates
will help French pinners discover more relevant pins, and faster than ever before.
– blog.pinterest.com
10. http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/10/pinterest-pushes-global-growth-with-a-localized-version-for-france-its-first-non-english-site/
“
”
Pinterest’s Localized Approach to Globalization
Pinterest began its global localization efforts in May by launching a UK-specific version of Pinterest.com, along with the
addition of British English to the language settings. In June, Pinterest launched their second localized version for the French
market. The beauty of Pinterest’s new localized versions is that most users won’t even realize they are now accessing a
new version. The domain name and look of the site remains exactly the same for all users and all users still have access
to the same global content that exists on Pinterest. However, content that is specific to a user’s country is prioritized when
available, so that users are being shown the content that is most relevant to them.
When Pinterest launched the UK version they initiated a #pinitforwardUK campaign. To get the word out that Pinterest now
has a more tailored content experience for UK users, Pinterest invited 300 UK bloggers to share their Pinterest stories and
pins on their own blogs. Pinterest repeated the Pin It Forward campaign in France with the help of 300 French bloggers.
Through the Pin It Forward France (Epingler c’est partager) campaign, Pinterest intends to spread the word that for French
users, Pinterest will now be even more French.
Why France?(GROWTH)
While France currently accounts for only 1% of Pinterest’s tra�c, the amount of tra�c from French users has grown 20% over the last 6 months. The US still has the highest tra�c rate at 70%, but US tra�c has declined 8% over the last 6 months.10
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Top Brands on Pinterest
Perfect Palette
429,272 Followers
200 Boards
36,396 Pins
Perfect Palette helps audiences looking for color
themes or inspiration for weddings, apartments and
fashion on Pinterest.
Real Simple
340,301 Followers
110 Boards
6,043 Pins
Time’s Real Simple magazine is a natural match for
Pinterest. Their boards feature tips for everyday
decorating, event preparation, cooking and styling.
The Beauty Department
815,993 Followers
26 Boards
855 Pins
Dubbed “your daily dose of pretty,” The Beauty
Department blog gives women tips on how to apply
makeup and style their hair on Pinterest.
HGTV
316,043 Followers
63 Boards
6,854 Pins
HGTV’s Pinterest presence offers lots of tips on
beautifying your home.
Kate Spade NY
142,799 Followers
11 Boards
2,569 Pins
The front-running fashion brand on Pinterest, Kate Spade
New York offers tips on how to live and dress “colorfully.”
Better Homes and Gardens
391,745 Followers
121 Boards
5,776 Pins
Better Homes and Gardens has successfully created a
Pinterest following for their brand. They regularly devote a
whole board to guest pinners, which has been extremely
successful in generating pins and traffic.
Whole Foods
141,125 Followers
55 Boards
2,437 Pins
Whole Foods’ Pinterest boards address a range of
activities related to the organic lifestyle including
gardening, recycling and, of course, recipes.
West Elm
178,050 Followers
53 Boards
5,301 Pins
West Elm, a furniture company, uses Pinterest to showcase
its products in natural settings and offers decorating tips.
Mashable
1,478,278 Followers
39 Boards
3.993 Pins
Mashable’s sharp community team seized on Pinterest
early and has loaded their boards with memes, tips &
tricks and, perhaps best of all, a section on Pinterest.
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Case Study
Sony: Launching on Pinterest
Sony has become hugely successful on Pinterest, with
over 2300 followers, more than 1200 likes on Sony pins
and more than 2500 pins from the Sony website. Most
importantly, according to Callan Green, Senior Social
Media Specialist for Sony Electronics, they have seen
an 800% increase in traffic from Pinterest to the Sony
Store site. Pinterest now drives 2.5 times more traffic
than Twitter, despite the fact they have 169,000 Twitter
followers and only 35,000 Pinterest followers.
Before launching, Sony looked at what pins already
existed on Pinterest about the Sony brand and products.
Their research showed that Pinterest users were not only
pinning current products, as expected, but that they were
also pinning retro products, as well as fan-made items like
a Sony Walkman cake. Sony realized that their audience
was excited about new products but also had nostalgia for
some older products.
Sony then continued with a soft launch on Pinterest. They
used this three-month period to test content, as well
as the frequency and timing of their posts, before they
invested time and resources into actively promoting their
Pinterest presence. During this period they also put Pin It
buttons on their brand site.
Based on their initial audience research and the results
of their content tests during the soft launch period, Sony
determined that their Pinterest strategy should focus on
three goals to ensure diverse and effective content:
1. Drive sales through product boards
2. Create brand affinity with boards that focus on the
brand over individual products (ex. retro Sony board)
3. Build community acquisition by tapping into other
interests of their audience (ex. pinning photos that
have to do with Harry Potter, Star Wars, comics etc.)
When Sony was ready for their hard launch, they used
other social media channels to promote their Pinterest
page and also increased the frequency of their pins to
four times daily so that new followers would see them as
valuable and interesting content creators. They continue
to promote their Pinterest presence via emails, social
channels and by reaching out to the media and bloggers
to maintain their growth.
As part of their effort to create branded images people would want to share, Sony pinned a creative heart-shaped collage of Sony products and the Sony logo. It became one of their most popular pins and
is now their profile image.
In preparation for Mother’s Day, Sony created a board – “For the Moms”
– that showcased Sony product gift ideas, but also included a variety of non-gadget gift ideas, comics about being a mom, quotes about motherhood and odes to moms.
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Case Study
Sephora: Driving Site Traffic
Sephora noticed that many Pinterest users were pinning
their favorite beauty products onto their boards and that
a lot of those images were from the Sephora site. As part
of a planned site redesign project, Sephora added Pin It
buttons to all of the products on their site, making it even
easier for Pinterest users to add them to their boards.
They then used this connection with Pinterest to help
familiarize users with their new site and to test its search
and navigation usability. The “Sephora Color Wash”
campaign encouraged Pinterest users to explore
Sephora.com and pin color coordinated images from
the site to their boards. The boards that pinners created
then became additional traffic drivers to the Sephora site,
making Pinterest a top ten referring site to Sephora.com.11
One of Sephora’s top consumer engagement efforts is
their email marketing program. Sephora decided to see if
Pinterest could help increase the impact of these emails.
Sephora began creating Pinterest-centric emails that
included actual Pin It buttons within the emails. This gave
their busy email audience the opportunity to pin items that
interested them for later purchase.
Sephora Pinnable Email Results:
•14,000repinsgeneratedbyoneemail 11
•60%increaseinPinterestreferraltraffictoSephora.com
in the month following its first pinnable email campaign11
•15timesmoremoneyspentonSephora.comby
the average Pinterest follower than the average
Facebook fan11
Jetsetter: Engaging Promotions
Jetsetter has launched several successful promotions
using Pinterest that invite their audience to interact with
their site. In order to discover what content interested their
audience most, Jetsetter launched a “Jetsetter Curator”
promotion, inviting over a million of their members to
create boards about inspiring travel destinations by
pinning content from the Jetsetter site. According to
Jetsetter Social Media Manager, Jon Goldmann, “When we
unleashed our community to share their favorite Jetsetter
content on Pinterest, it generated a ton of ideas for how to
make our own Pinterest boards more compelling. We also
learned which photos on our site resonate the most with
our users and it’s since influenced our content strategy.”
Jetsetter also created a Pinterest challenge to help them
test the user experience of their site. In the “Pin Your Way
to Paradise” scavenger hunt, members were given daily
clues and asked to pin photos from the site that best
matched those clues, promoting the exploration of their
site. Jetsetter observed how participants navigated the
site to find relevant images and gained valuable insight
into how they could improve their user experience. They
also learned a valuable lesson about Pinterest promotions
in general: simplicity drives participation.
Jetsetter Curator Promotion Results:
• 50,000 images pinned12
• 100% increase in Pinterest referral traffic
to Jetsetter.com12
• 150% increase in Jetsetter page views12
11. http://business.pinterest.com/case-study-sephora/12. http://business.pinterest.com/case-study-jetsetter/
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ELLE: Live Pinning and Content Testing
During New York Fashion Week, ELLE gave its followers
access to the shows as they happened, pinning each look
as the models came down the runway. Brian Madden of
ELLE said, “Watching the images in the Pinterest stream
is like being in the front row at Fashion Week - users are
able to experience each collection and each designer’s
vision in its entirety.” The Runway Trends boards were
some of ELLE’S most successful, increasing referral traffic
to their site throughout the week by 13%.13
ELLE regularly uses Pinterest to get a pulse on what
content their audience is most interested in without
needing to conduct qualitative research studies. ELLE
simply looks at the Most Repinned and Most Clicked tabs
within Pinterest’s web analytics to learn what content their
audience is most interested in. This content can then be
more highly promoted within their site and other social
feeds. Pinterest enables ELLE to learn an immense
amount about their audience while also creating an
engaging experience.
ELLE Live Runway Trends Results:
• 7x more activity than ELLE’s other boards13
• More than 16,000 repins and 4,000 likes during
Fashion Week alone13
• 13% increase in Pinterest referral traffic to ELLE.com13
Case Study
BHG and Nars: Guest Pinners
Guest pinners are typically very successful on Pinterest
and are a great way to leverage the following that others
have created to introduce new people to your brand. Two
brands, Better Homes and Gardens and Nars, illustrate two
different approaches to incorporating guest pinners.
Better Homes and Gardens spotlighted ten of their
biggest fans by inviting them to participate and contribute
to a group board on the BHG Pinterest page dedicated
to the guest pinners. The board, titled “Blogger Faves
From BHG. com” attracted a lot of audience engagement
from BHG’s followers, as well as the followers of their
guest pinners, and became one of the most successful
branded boards. Among branded boards it had the second
most repins, third most likes and fourth highest number
of comments.14
The cosmetics company Nars also used guest pinners, but
instead of inviting them to pin on a board on the brand’s
Pinterest page, they had the guest pinners pin Nars related
images on their own accounts as part of a campaign for
Nars’ new lip pencil collection. Nars used the analytics
tool Pinfluencer to identify three Pinterest users who had
already driven significant traffic to the Nars website by
pinning images from it and reached out to them to create
partnerships. Taking advantage of those users’ far larger
followings, Nars provided the three pinners with exclusive
access to their new collection and asked them to create
boards that complimented the collection’s three color
categories and included the product images in order to
lead potential buyers back to the Nars site.
13. http://business.pinterest.com/case-study-elle/14. http://mashable.com/2013/05/08/pinterest-most-popular-brand-boards/
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Instructional
Sephora does an effective job in promoting JULEP nail
polish by displaying a color palette and visual steps for a
how-to manicure.
Creative Pin Examples
Inspirational
Minted.com created a contest where users designed
inspiration boards around minted.com’s themed card
designs and then submitted them on their site. This
created a lot of content for minted.com to use on their
own site and on other forms of social media.
A pin it button instantly goes on every design uploaded
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Strive for engagement over size
Gathering a large number of followers should not be
the most important goal for your brand. Rather than
constantly hunting down new followers/pinners, we
recommend you create a valued environment that benefits
your existing followers and keeps bringing them back as
customers. Engaging followers who support the brand is
much more beneficial than establishing a larger but
less-engaged audience.
Be positive
Pinterest is a positive and creative space. In contrast to
other forms of social media, where consumers often use
brand pages to share their opinions about or problems
with a product, the goal of Pinterest is to engage your
audience visually. Help your brand keep it positive!
Share inspiring ideas
People go to Pinterest for ideas, but Pinterest users have
the means to make purchases. Use your boards to support
the purchase process by putting products in context,
supplying additional valued information (such as how to
put together outfits) and offering how-tos (in the form of
recipes and patterns). Empower your audience with the
help of your products and expertise.
Promote your boards
Promote your Pinterest presence across all social media
channels with clear links to your boards. Many consumers
will go to Facebook and Twitter before they think to head
on over to Pinterest, so you will need to drive traffic to
your boards. Make sure you add the “Pin It” button to all of
your product and content pages on your website and blog.
Visuals matter
Pinterest is a highly-visual experience laid out in a
large grid-based page. People often scan until they find
something that catches their eye. Make sure your images
stand out. Refer to our quick guide on pg 13 for tips on
creating highly repinnable images.
Don’t be overly promotional
Pinterest’s main use is to foster ideas and creativity, so try
not to be overtly promotional. For example, clothing lines
may highlight sales on their boards but do so with style
photography that links back to their website pages where
explicit pricing information is available. While sweepstakes,
giveaways and coupon campaigns are not very successful
at driving direct sales on Pinterest, these initiatives can
increase brand awareness and engagement among
followers and brand loyalists.
Focus on lifestyles, not products
Straightforward product photos are not effective on
Pinterest. Images of products should be styled and/or
include context. Pinterest is best at initiating indirect or
organic sales processes. For example, Whole Foods is
known for not pinning items that are directly available in
their stores. Instead they pin products as they relate to a
lifestyle that can be created by shopping in their stores.
Pinterest Best Practices
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Profile
• Make your name easy to find
• Make sure to verify your web page
• Remember: Top 3 people you repin appear on the top right of your Pinterest page
Pins
• Use creative pin titles
• Tag others using @ symbol
• Use calls to action
Copyright
• State source when pinning
• Display URL on pin
• Always credit photos
Contests
• Hold monthly board contest so users return regularly
• Integrate with FB, Twitter
• Pin image of contest rules
Boards
• Use playful, fun titles and include keywords in description
• Mix content: yours + others
• Create a board to showcase your latest, best-selling products
Images
• Make infographic text LARGE
• Make all photos optimized for size & visually appealing
Collaboration
• Create theme group boards
• Ask friends, colleagues etc. to repin
• Comment on, like, share and follow other relevant boards
Evaluation
• Monitor competitors’ boards
• Identify & track Pinterest marketing goals
• How is your brand converting?
• What boards get repinned?
• Is Pinterest driving traffic?
15. http://sparkandhustle.com/takeaway-tips/pinterest-marketing-strategies/
Pinterest Brand Usage Tips
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Image Size
How Images Are Displayed
Optimizing Your Profile
Maximum Image
No image is too big to pin. Images that
are significantly wider than they are long
get compressed. Make the most of the
fact there is no vertical size contraint.
Narrow, long pins are much more
eye-catching than short images.
Minimum Image
Both the length and width of an image
must be 81 pixels or greater.
192 Pixels Wide in Stream
554 Pixels Wide on Pin Page
Profile PicSize
165px x 165px
Board Cover Size
222px x 207px
Maximum Bio Characters
200
Links Supported In
Your Profile
Web, Facebook & Twitter
81 px
81
px
Atleast81 px
eye-catching
Quick Guide to Pinterest Images
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Pinterest Resources
Getting started on Pinterest
You simply need to:
1. Create a business account.
2. Verify your brand’s site so pinners know it’s trustworthy.
3. Add the Pin It button to your site.
For more information and direct links to get started visit:
http://business.pinterest.com/setup/
Pinterest Web Analytics
To view the available data in this free tool provided
by Pinterest, you simply have to verify your site with
Pinterest. Pinterest Web Analytics provides the
following information:
Pins/Pinners:
“Pins” tells you how many times people have pinned
content directly from your site on Pinterest. “Pinners” tell
you how many different users have done so.
Repins/Repinners:
“Repins” tells you how many times content from your site
has been discovered by users on Pinterest and repinned
to their own boards. “Repinners” tells you how many
different users have done so.
Impressions/Reach:
“Impressions” tells you the number of times your images
have been viewed by someone on Pinterest, either in the
main feed or through viewing a board or search results.
“Reach” tells you how many different users have seen
your images.
Clicks/Visitors:
“Clicks” tells you the number of times people clicked on
an image and viewed your site. “Visitors” tells you the
number of different users who have done so.
You can learn more about Pinterest Web Analytics here:
http://business.pinterest.com/analytics/
Other Resources
Postris:
Postris helps you discover what pins, boards and
pinners are trending on Pinterest. It also allows you
to track specific interests and tags.
http://postris.com/
Viral Tag:
Viral Tag is a service that helps you schedule your pins
on Pinterest. It also provides image editing tools, metrics,
Google Analytics integration and a dashboard to manage
multiple accounts.
https://www.viraltag.com/
Elevate StudiosWe are a digital agency with teams
in Chicago and New York.
Want to continue the conversation?
Contact us at elevatestudios.com/contact
to learn about how we can help you
maximize your digital presence.