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Re-Purposing Pinterest for B2B Marketing

As more and more business marketers shift their attention toward social media, we’re all trying to catch the next trend, even before it’s trending.  In the digital realm where content is king, B2B sales reps mustn’t overlook the value of Pinterest, a social network driven entirely by sharing and curating content.

Despite optimal conditions for promotion and sales, businesses account for a mere 500,000 or the 70 million Pinterest profiles.  The demographics lean heavily toward U.S. consumers, specifically women, but, as social media platforms continue to be re-packaged for the B2B markets, Pinterest can be utilized as a hub for storing visual content.

Here are some quick and easy methods for companies to leverage a Pinterest account to boost conversions.

1 – Infographics

As attention spans decrease, the value of visual communication increases.  Engaging your audience with images and graphs is generally more effective than expecting them to read a dense block of text.

Brands like kissmetrics have already made a name for themselves in this department, churning out content that’s as entertaining as it is informative.

Also, infographics tend to stretch a page length at the very least, and tall images are more likely to get re-pinned.  How did we know that?  We learned it from this infographic!

2 – Industry Events

Pinterest is also a fantastic way to publicize your company’s participation in larger industry events and conferences.  By pinning content from competitors and business partners, you can position yourself at the center of relevant conversations and promote your involvement in current industry development.  Add event images, marketing materials, booth photos, and any other visual assets created as part of the event.  This is a prime tactic for business-to-business networking.

3 – Building a Culture

As Pinterest lingers in the sphere of informal, consumer-driven interaction, B2B marketers can use that buttoned-down atmosphere to test-drive their more personalized branding strategies.

Share pins featuring pets, employees, the best aspects of your workspace, and community-building activities to establish a warm and friendly work culture.  It’s also great for cultivating specific emotional appeal for your brand, like in the case of American Airlines and their board Timeless America

 

 

 

 

 

 

By collecting vintage pins, American Airlines evokes nostalgia and places themselves at the center of a “Classically American” culture.

Not only will this entreat future clients to do business with you, but it promotes an inviting atmosphere for future employees as well

4 – Promoting Content

If you’re really trying to curb the market in thought leadership, you’ve probably invested quite a bit of time in developing your own e-books, white papers, or technical guides.  While these are great resources for industry engagement, they can be difficult to promote, especially if they’re only being promoted through your company’s website or blog.

Pinterest might be just the bait you need to catch attention and draw in leads.  Obviously, you won’t be able to pin your entire e-book page by page, but with a compelling cover that gets the message across, you can use your Pinterest board to herd B2B traffic back to your business page.  Hubspot has built a reputation for doing this exceptionally well.

Pinterest has recently debuted its Rich Pins feature, which offers a variety of customizations to help integrate outside content with your board’s visual format.  Features include article titles, authors bylines, and product pins to help customers jump right to that point of sale.

5 – Optimizing Content

In many ways, Pinterest functions as a search engine for shareable content, so it’s important to match your pins with the best possible keywords.  Take the time to optimize each pin to draw in relevant searches.  Hashtags also play a big part in this (the ideal pin has 3), as well as links to circulate traffic to your website, blog, or other social media pages.

In the world of Pinterest, shareability is the ultimate currency.  Even if your content is great, if it isn’t the kind of thing someone would share, you’re wasting your time posting it.  Make an effort to tailor each and every one of your pins for multi-layered appeal.

6 – Connecting With Fans

Where social media is concerned, engagement is everything, and one of the best ways to raise engagement is to establish a personal connection with your clientele.  By setting aside Pinterest for casual interaction and fun engagement, you can establish a base line of trust with your fans.

Pin links back to your company’s Facebook or Twitter pages for more regimented marketing and brand management, or funnel traffic to LinkedIn to do serious business, but let Pinterest be your playground for free-form personalized branding techniques.  Try out new tactics, take risks, and dare to reveal your personal side, because odds are: if other companies have ventured onto Pinterest, they’re doing the same thing.

Conclusion

In many ways, Pinterest advocates a return to a more classic era of advertising.  Driven by striking images and raw emotional appeal, Pinterest is for businesses that want to break down the cold, professional structure to make marketing fun.  And if this widespread shift toward visual content and social media indicates anything, it’s that one of the modern market’s main selling points is fun.