If a picture is worth a thousand words, a Pinterest picture can be worth thousands of dollars to your online business.
Pinterest (pronounced like interest with a p at the beginning) has rapidly become one of the best ways to show the world what you sell…
You can use Pinterest to get more brand visibility and gain new customers!
(Whether you sell on Amazon, eBay or your from your own website.)
Best of all, Pinterest is quick and easy to use, and lends itself perfectly to the visual marketing power that drives product sales.
Pinterest and online sales go together like peanut butter and jelly. 
Pinterest Power
At this point, you may be wondering if Pinterest is just the “latest and greatest” social media craze to hit the Internet. (Or even worse, another giant time-sink.)
Quite the contrary. As you’re about to see, Pinterest has “marketing chops”.
- Pinterest currently gets 12 million unique visitors per month. (That’s up from 1 million per month in July 2011.)
But even more importantly…
- Pinterest currently refers more traffic to external sites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn COMBINED.
- In one case study, Pinterest referral traffic to five specialty retailers rose 289% between July and Decmember 2011.
- Pinterest has 9 million connected Facebook users, which means your Pinterest marketing can do double duty on Facebook!
More marketing bang for your efforts is ALWAYS a good thing!
How Pinterest Works
Pinterest is an online “social bulletin board” that allows you to post images that can be shared with others.
1. Each image you post links directly back to your website or product listing.
2. When you post an image, it’s displayed on the Pinterst boards for everyone to see.
3. When Pinterest users known as “Pinners” see an image they like, they can either:
Click the image and be taken directly to your store and make a purchase
Re-pin your image (with a link to your store) for all their Pinterest friends to see
Give you product a public endorsement by clicking the Like button for all to see
Interact with you on Pinterest in the comments
This adorable baby party dress from Spool.No72 has been repinned over 400 times.
You can see why the website referral traffic on Pinterest is so high.
You can also post Pin It buttons on your website so that visitors to your website who are also on Pinterest can pin a product for you!
(Think of a Facebook “Like” with a visual “Pow!”)
The Pinterest Difference
The biggest difference between Pinterest and other types of social media marketing is the emphasis on visual images.
There is no lengthy written content required!
One of the biggest roadblocks for business owners to overcome is that they struggle with what to post about their business.
On Pinterest, your product image does the talking! All you do is add a short comment or caption below your product image and allow the Pinterest community to do the rest!
Another thing I like about Pinterest is the ease of interaction. Because it’s all about the images, you can Pin an image from your website in seconds.
Re-pinning, Liking and engaging with the Pinterest community is relaxing, easy and fun!
Most importantly, shoppers are only ONE CLICK away from your product page every time you pin an image.
Getting Started on Pinterest
Pinterest is currently accepting users by invitation only.
To get your own Pinterest invitation, click here.
You’ll be taken to a page that looks like this:
I received my Pinterest invitation in about 5 days. It many take up to 14 days to receive an invitation. It will come to you via email.
If you’re already on Pinterest, click the button below to follow me on Pinterest…
I’m Pinning Product Trends, Products I Love, Things Worth Reading and more over on Pinterest.
I’m also actively sharing products I’ve love that are sold by my clients and students, readers!
There’s much more to know about using Pinterest for Ecommerce.
Coming up on March 1st, I’ll be sharing more about this exciting new social marketing tool!
Like what you’ve read? Pin It
-Lisa
Read All the March Marketing Madness! Posts
- Day 1 It’s March Marketing Madness!
- Day 2 Reaching New Customers with Signal Marketing
- Day 3 Content Marketing: The Secret Sauce for Your Online Business
- Day 4 Pinterest for Ecommerce
- Day 5 Helping Shoppers Buy with Customized Gift Lists
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for the artical it was very useful. I am new to Pinterest and had no idea what to do on it. Now I know that there is more to it. Again Thank you. Epi Albonico(Quote)
Hi Epi,
And there’s even more to it! I’ve only just scratched the surface in this first blog post. Watch for my second installment on March 1st.
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
one comment I would make is to make sure that you use a few key words for your pinned item to take advantage of the Pinterest search feature. You have several characters so you should put the game title in the pin description. Vicki(Quote)
Great tip Vicki!
Thanks!
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Thanks Lisa,
You always show us the way. To be honest with you, I had never heard of Pinterest until you sent out this blog. Great stuff.
Cheers
Ralph and Bronnie Ralph Meharry(Quote)
Hi Ralph and Bronnie,
Come follow my Pinterest board “Products I Love” and “Trends” – I’m putting together a visual product sourcing gallery there.
I’m glad to be the one to introduce you to Pinterest! It’s great for product sourcing ideas as well as marketing.
Would love to see you Pinning from Australia!
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Hi Lisa:
I used the link to request an invitation to Pinterest. An image of your link appeared in a new page but nothing indicated that I actually submitted a request. Is that how the request link works?
Diana Diana Dwyer(Quote)
Hi Diana,
Let me re-check my link!
Meanwhile…
Give it another try at http://pinterest.com , I just checked it and it takes you to the request an invite page.
Or you can go directly to this page http://pinterest.com/landing/
See you there!
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Thanks for this blog post, Lisa. I have been excited about Pinterest since I first read about it and knew it would take off, since the beauty of the internet is that everything is so visual. (I’m a real visual person; I use Google Image a lot of times to search for things on the internet).
My question regarding pinning for one’s business: Would it be annoying for other users if you use Pinterest to promote your business? Would it backfire if too many people do this? I’d be interested in learning how and when to use Pinterest to my greatest advantage.
Thanks! Serena(Quote)
Hi Serena,
Yes there is a Pinterest etiquette that you want to follow so as not to post in a “spammy” fashion. I’ll be addressing that in my next Pinterest blog post on March 1st.
Posting something that has a unique quality, visual imagery or relevance to it and would be of value to others (is it new, different, timely, helpful, a good reminder, etc.) is a good guide for “What should I post?”.
Unfortunately there are some people who are post cheesy ads, but those don’t get repinned by the Pinterest community and roll off the page. (There will always be some who try to ruin a good thing.)
But with 12 million unique visitors a month, the Pinterest SPAM level is amazingly low.
Hope to see you there!
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Hi Lisa, I tried to request an invite for pinterest, but the link doesn’t seem to work. Yuliana(Quote)
Hi Yuliana,
Give it another try at http://pinterest.com , I just checked it and it takes you to the request an invite page.
Or you can go directly to this page http://pinterest.com/landing/
See you there!
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Okay, Lisa. Now we know what you have been up to lately! Christie(Quote)
Hi Christie,
Once you get your Pinterest account, follow me on Pinterest and subscribe to my Trends and Products I Love board. I’m pinning products and trends ideas for online sellers. Also, you’ll see how Pinterest can be used to market your products on Amazon!
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
I joined Pinterest some time ago when a friend recommended it, but I thought it was only to show stuff they liked. I’m glad that it can be used as a way of making sales, too. I’ll have to check it out to see how to link it to my artwork and my Ebay products. Thanks for the tip. Donna(Quote)
Hi Donna, it lends itself perfectly to both artists who sell their artwork and eBay sellers!
Take a couple of your best images (both your art and eBay) and Pin them to Pinterest. Add a short title and link directly to your product listings. You’ll also want to create a Pinterest Board themed around your different products.
Let’s connect on Pinterest! I’m at:
http://pinterest.com/lisasuttora/
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Lisa, thanks for sharing about Pinterest. I’m trying it out and immediately got some likes and repins. How long does it normally take for your keywords to show up in the search results? I put in some puzzles I like about two days ago, but they have not yet shown up in the search results for the keywords I used. Mitchell(Quote)
Hi Mitchell, That’s a good question! And one that I’m looking into. Some things that I’ve pinned have shown up in search the same day. Others have not. I’ll reply here when I get more info.
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Lisa:
I was excited to use Pinterest at first, but now I see reports of how Pinterest can claim ownership of the photographs that are uploaded as pins. I saw on your board that you have an Amazon product. Wouldn’t that be affected? Maureen(Quote)
Hi Maureen,
Pinterest’s user agreement is very broad, just like Facebook’s and all of the other social networking sites. They do that to protect themselves. Not with the intent that they are going to claim users images as their own. That’s not the business they’re in. So you can use Pinterest just like you do Facebook and Twitter!
Looking forward to connecting with you on Pinterest! http://pinterest.com/lisasuttora
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Add a Pinterest “Pin It” button to your Magento Product pages with Pinterest Mojo. There’s NO code to add/modify within your Magento template files. Installation is easy and Integration is seamless.
FREE Download:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/pinterest-mojo-6678.html Mitch(Quote)
Awesome Mitch! Thanks for the tip!
Love Magento, BTW. Great product(s).
-Lisa Lisa Suttora(Quote)
Hi,
Great blog information Lisa! Good luck with your March Challenge!
I just can’t figure out how to “pin” an image of a book I am selling on Amazon.com.
Is there a “pinning images from Amazon” for Dummies?
Thanks Dale(Quote)
Do you find that Pinterest only draws looky-loos and not serious buyers? I get a lot of pins and some referrals to my blog (which has pricing info for featured products and links to my ecommerce sites) but no real sales. What I find is that “pinners” are creating wish lists and albums of pretty photos but aren’t necessarily looking to buy. Am I missing something? Shar(Quote)
Hi Lisa,
I love Pinterest although I think their terms concerning copyright of photos are a bit unethical! Please check out my pinboards http://pinterest.com/peonieswedding/ My favorite part is when people repin my pins! Paula @ Peonies Wedding(Quote)
Hi Lisa,
Loved reading your Pinterest ideas. Currently, we are trying to get our new product on there and have an invite but the Pinterest sent via email is just not working. Any ideas? And any ideas on marketing our product, Silpoura at http://www.silpoura.com. Thanks Kimberlee(Quote)
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