Depending on your business and your audience, it could pay to look beyond the trusted staple of articles at more visual, and creative, ways to build engagement and traction online.
Content marketing means more than articles. People consume content in various different formats – including images, video and audio, as well as text.
Should Pinterest Be Of Interest?
Pinterest has become one of the prominent social media platforms for sharing images. It’s designed, through its pinboard function, to make it incredibly easy to save and discover visual information.
Pinterest’s active user base grew 26% to 335 million last year. Over the past 12 months, Pinterest gained 70 million monthly active Pinners.
It now has over 320 million users worldwide. Over half are US-based, and in the UK, the figure is just over 10.5 million pinners.
So it’s not small and it’s not a platform businesses should readily overlook.
Right for your audience?
We know of course that there is an abundance of social media channels and that for businesses, and smaller businesses in particular, it’s a challenge to create and distribute content across all social platforms.
So it’s important to make an assessment of whether a social platform is right for your audience and your product or service.
More than two-thirds of Pinterest’s base is women aged between 18 to 34 years old, and most have children. High income households are also twice as likely to use Pinterest as those on lower incomes.
It’s become the platform for people to find inspiration and ideas for their interests and hobbies. Businesses in areas such as fashion and retail, arts and crafts, home and interior design, holidays, food and other lifestyle have built huge and lucrative Pinterest followings, so if your business in one of these lines, it could be worth considering this platform as part of your content strategy.
Right for your business?
Not just great for brand exposure and building a following, Pins can also link back to your website, so Pinterest can also be great for driving traffic and sales.
So while Pinterest users offer great marketing potential for small businesses, it’s all in how you approach your content.
If you choose to go with it, you’ll need to commit to content creation as with any other social channel.
Be creative and brainstorm the kind of images that will show the personality of your brand and make sure you pin strong visuals. The more immediately captivating an image is, the more likely it is to be repinned.
Remember that Pinterest is ideal for showcasing your products and services. Use it as an information resource for so many users preparing to make a purchase.
If your target audience is on Pinterest and you haven’t yet tapped into it as part of your content strategy, you could be missing out on reaching potential new customers for your business.
Author
Gill Laing is a qualified Legal Researcher & Analyst with niche specialisms in Law, Tax, Human Resources, Immigration & Employment Law.
Gill is a Multiple Business Owner and the Managing Director of Prof Services Limited - a Marketing & Content Agency for the Professional Services Sector.
