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