Using Pinterest to Build Your B2B Brand by lisafugere

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Using Pinterest to Build Your B2B Brand
by lisafugere

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media platforms on the market today, but B2B organizations haven't all figured out how to make it work for them. Some are skeptical that their audience even spends time on Pinterest. Given that the largest demographic in Pinterest's user base is Mid-western females between the ages of 25 and 54, they might be right.

However, just because Pinterest's users today aren't the target audience for most B2B salespeople doesn't mean Pinterest's user base will stay that way. As Pinterest grows and attracts more professionals to its user base, will your brand be ready to drive leads from the site, or will it completely ignore a potential lead generation tool?

Spend a few hours building up your Pinterest page, and give it a chance to perform. At most, Pinterest is a place where potential customers can organically discover your brand. At least, Pinterest is a repository for your brand content.

Optimize Your Pinterest Profile

Take a look at Grey Poupon's Pinterest page. A branded icon defines each pin board, and when you click on each icon, you're taken to a pin that describes the category. Most B2B organizations aim to own certain SEO terms and host information about those terms on their websites to drive link traffic and increase their Google search value. We have no way to know where Pinterest is going, but we think Pinterest traffic will play an increasingly important role in search rankings. Optimize your Pinterest page with a different board for each of the SEO terms your brand wants to own, and Pin all your content to those boards. Create clean branded icons for a finished, professional look, and have them linked to SEO terms on your site. Make those Pins the board covers.

Describe What You Do

Pinterest users may visit the site to discover and share photos, but when they encounter your brand profile page, you want to capture their information and count them as leads. How can you go about doing so? Describe your products on your Pinterest profile page, and include Pins that link directly to landing pages where visitors fill out forms. Pin the Webcasts you host and the events you'll attend. Pin your sales demos. A prospect might be attracted by the photos you pin, but quickly lose interest when they hit your profile. According to Inc. Magazine, it is mandatory to have sufficient information on your profile about your business. Links to your websites and your presence in other social networks is a definite plus for you.

Create Unique Content

PInterest works especially well for companies that are content powerhouses. Pinterest works much the same way as Twitter and Facebook: the more content you post, the more often your content will get in front of your audience. Consumers today aren't looking for content, they're waiting for it to come to them. If you post one Pin every day, you won't see a lot of traffic. If you post lots of original Pins in one day, your prospects will have even more opportunities to click on content that takes them to your brand. This way, you are able to create an perpetual brand.

Determine Your Pinterest Audience

Are you pinning to attract new business, or to engage current customers? In her article, Jennifer Lonoff Schiff advises business owners on the pros of considering customer needs on pinterest. As much as pinning photos about your business and products will help customers understand how to use your products, it might draw new prospects' interest. Don't just Pin everything. Develop a strategy.

Always Have a Call to Action

Include calls to action in marketing content is requisite for pretty much every campaign, so why would Pinterest be any different?  Don't just write Pinterest off as a marketing experiment and Pin a bunch of random things. Pin content that's relevant to your brand, and don't Pin it unless it has a call to action.

According to eConsultancy, engaging and interactive digital imagery increases the chance of click-throughs and actual product purchase. So Pinterest, because of its image-based philosophy, is already primed for lead conversion; you just have to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.