Pinterest: How eTailers Can (and Should) Use it to Their Advantage

A maxymiser CREATED BY @MAXYMISER Optimizing Every Customer Experience Pinterest Deconstructed For eTailers and Content Marketers The Who, What, Where, S & When of Pinterest... %24 BUYING DOING SEEKING And How you can use it NOW. If your website is a destination for people interested in buying, doing or seeking... An active group of people who are willing to tell the world Who's using it? about the things they How do Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook stack-up in terms of referral traffic? Pinterest > Twitter, want, identify with, and recommend. but Facebook > Pinterest Interest generated of all referral traffic. Twitter Pinterest Facebook Also, their Facebook and Twitter friends, considering users can only sign up for Pinterest by integrating one of these two accounts. .82% 1.05% 6.38% SOURCE SHAREAHOLIC.COM, FEB 2012 That's nice, but who exactly? WOMEN BRANDS + COMPANIES PUBLICATIONS, TV NETWORKS + NEWS OUTLETS Women comprised north of 90% of Pinterest's There are a whole bunch of Whether hi-tech or old population as of March 2012. them, and they're using it for a bunch of different (and similar) reasons. school... TIME TIME Kate Spade New York REALSIMPLE Real Simple WHOI FOODS Whole Foods HGIV HGTV Domino Domino Sugar food The Food Network Benjamin Moore Paints MEN Benjamin Móore Pants The number of guys using Pinterest is growing quickly thanks to the diverse number of companies, organizations, sites and industries that are jumping on board. And again, WSJ Wall Street Journal COLD Coldwell Banker M Mashable And so on... dhe PARIS The Paris Review the whole Facebook and REVIEW Twitter thing... OK! OK! ...they're on Pinterest PERSONAL BRANDS + PERSONALITIES ETAILERS + DIRECT- TO-CONSUMER SITES ellen Ellen DeGeneres R Ryan Seacrest BLOGGERS, WRITERS & ARTISTS Etsy Etsy NNA GARCIA Nina Garcia From big blogs that are monetizing their work (Apartment Therapy and BlogHer) to small blogs that are simply passionate about their topics (SF Girl by Bay), bloggers are driving traffic to their sites through Pinterest. Either intentionally, or not. west elm West Elm Martha Stewart Home Depot HOME Relele RueLala And, like, everyone else. Also, authors, content producers, designers, painters, and other artists... Anyone else? More like everyone else. You've got publishers, airlines, nonprofits, universities, department stores, sports teams, wineries, professional service firms... The list goes on. AT HOME MOBILE AT WORK Where? It started in the Midwest, the nucleus from which ONLINE it's rapidly extending ON THE GO outward. When do they use it? Regularly. Monthly APPROXIMATELY Daily 12 million APPROXIMATELY ACTIVE USERS 2.2 million ACTIVE USERS (These numbers will no doubt continue to increase rapidly.) Why should eTailers and content marketers take note...now? Linked in Google+ You Tube Pinterest is inspiring Rumor has it the site is driving more people to websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. It's a recommendation engine, and a source of widespread awareness and sales. action. What are they all doing? Expressing themselves through pictures and images relevant to their lives. These are your buyer personas This activity is comparable to: self-identification with product, focus group insight, active consumer hand raising Reminding themselves of things they want to do, buy or revisit. These are your near-future buyers. This activity is comparable to: bookmarking, creating online wishlists Sharing and recommending things that they thỉnk others should know about. These are potential advocates and influencers. This activity is comparable to: Online product recommendations and reviews Learning about and exploring specific or random topics. These are your This activity is comparable to: window shopping, careful adoption, informed decision-making long-term buyers. Searching for and discovering new or specific things to do, buy, look at, or read. These are your immediate buyers and/or self-identified prospects. This activity is comparable to: targeted online searches, content downloads, product research And all of them are acting as members of an online word-of-mouth marketing team that's directing buyers, doers and seekers to your online and mobile properties. So how can eTailers and Marketers use Pinterest to spread the word about their sites and prepare for an increase in qualified traffic once they do? Create boards that help you tell your story to the audiences you want to tell it to. Like any other good approach to marketing, you don't want to use Pinterest to talk about Hire a photographer and/or a great graphic designer. yourself directly; you want to use it to appeal to the people you cater to by showing them that you get them, you are like them, and that you offer those things that will fill a gap in their lives. Do this by sharing things you like, things you know they would like, things that are helpful, and things that represent your promise to them. Tell your story by telling theirs. Not only do Pinterest users have to like your product, they've gotta like the image you represent it with. Create a Pinterest account for your brand, company or self. Tell people you're on Pinterest by adding the icon to your site. ............ Request an Invite » Presumably you've got Facebook and Twitter icons on your site already; you're going to want to add a Pinterest Pair every product, page or important piece of content you want to draw attention to with a great image. Membership is currently by invite only, but you can request one. Start there. icon right along with them so people will follow your updates. The more people who see them, the more likely they are to get repinned and liked. Product and content awareness is driven by images here, so no matter how great your offerings, they're not going to spread if they're not paired with an image users want to identify with and share with the world. Add a Pinterest share tab to your great images. Next to Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is easily the sharing option that marketers and etailers are scrambling to get on their sites the fastest. Test, target and segment your website content based on what you learn. Have you ever wanted to know what your customers look like, act like and care about? Here's a great place to learn all of that. Once you are more familiar with your individual customers or even your buyer Encourage engagement and pinning activity by allowing others to post their pins to your profile. By doing this, users are more likely to post more of your products because each time they do, they get more exposure for their own profiles. Like other public social media networks, Pinterest offers users the personas, you can test and target specifically for them. And knowing that different buyer personas are going to be drawn to certain products, you can create custom landing pages on your site, grouped by product type, that will cater to incoming referrals from Pinterest. These landing pages might contain calls-to-action for other products this buyer persona tends to be interested in, as well as content created with them in mind, etc. immediate gratification that comes with knowing people have taken an interest in what they have to say. So offer them that by letting them pin to your site (and make sure they know that's the case). In return, they'll post more of your stuff. CREATED BY @MAXYMISER maxymiser° MAXYMISER.COM FACEBOOK.COM/MAXYMISER Optimizing Every Customer Experience