Pinterest is a treasure trove of more than 450 million prospects, yet many brands aren’t using it as part of their digital marketing strategy. Lauren Petrullo, founder of Mongoose Media, grows brands from 0 to 100,000 views on Pinterest in under 90 days. She took the stage at Traffic & Conversion Summit to explain the value of Pinterest for marketers and the winning formula to get great results.
When to Use Pinterest (or Not)
Lauren uses Pinterest because it allows you to find customers 6 to 9 weeks before your competitors. She explains that 90% of people searching for a project or product on the platform ultimately become buyers. If you can get in front of them early, you can help guide their decision toward your brand.
Despite this enthusiasm, Lauren acknowledges that Pinterest isn’t the best solution for every situation. It focuses on discovery, so she recommends starting with other social media platforms before bringing your content there.
What Pinterest Does for You
Pinterest is a low-maintenance platform with significant advantages compared to other platforms. When you use it correctly, it supports improved engagement, Google ranking, and external traffic.
Fostering Audience Interaction
Lauren describes Pinterest as the only social media provider that wants users to leave their site and make a purchase or start a project. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, which want to keep users scrolling, Pinterest rewards you when you direct users to take action and visit your website.
Increasing Your Visibility on Google
Like all other online content, Google indexes Pinterest posts. The difference is that they remain visible for 6 months or more, 1200 times longer than most social media content! They’ll continue to improve your visibility and can potentially generate traffic years after your initial post…
Providing Quality Backlinks
Pinterest also generates high-authority clicks because it curates and shares your content with the world. It provides quality backlinks to your website, helping you rank on Google and boosting your brand’s exposure.
Pinterest Marketing in Action
Lauren lays out evidence of Pinterest’s potential by sharing examples of 90-day results from niches that work with her company:
- Content creators saw their total audience increase by more than 1000%
- High ticket sales saw impressions rise from 662 to more than 483 thousand
- eCommerce companies grew their total audience by nearly 4300%
- Food businesses increased saves by 9550%
- Jewelry brands grew their outbound clicks from 0 to more than 3000
She emphasizes that Pinterest marketing is an asset to all brands. Even huge social media companies, such as TikTok, use the platform because they understand its power as a social media engine.
The Winning Pinterest Formula
Making these kinds of numbers a reality sounds difficult, but Lauren has put together a formula to get you started:
- Visual discovery: Use high-quality photos and incorporate your logo or URL
- Optimized descriptions: Find keywords through Pinterest’s predictive search and put them in your descriptions and titles
- Strategic pinning with consistency: Post regularly, and Pinterest will reward you for your continued effort
- Rich pins: Using the Pinterest extension on Google Chrome, right-click on images on your blog or website for instant pins
- Direct linking: Connect your URL to measure outbound clicks
- Pinterest Analytics: Use Pinterest Analytics and Pinterest Trends to get information about which pins are converting well and what products are trending
This combination of elements puts you in a position to go up against juggernaut brands with minimal effort and financial investment.
Subscriber and Customer Acquisition
Once you’ve generated substantial traffic, conversions are the next step. Lauren recommends skipping discounts because customers don’t know yet what solution they need.
Instead, she suggests directing them to a lead form where they get a free but valuable lead magnet. This inspires them to become a social warrior for your company and share information with others.
Dig Deeper With T&C Insights
Lauren refers to Pinterest as one of the laziest forms of social media marketing available. It drives big results but doesn’t require dedicated staff, endless hours of content creation, or intensive SEO research and optimization.
If you missed the last T&C but still want to learn all her tricks and tips, plus get free access to her Pinterest starter kit with ChatGPT prompts and templates of optimized pins, we’ve got you covered. Get your T&C recordings with hundreds of hours of tactical content, including Lauren’s, so you can grow your new or scaling business on Pinterest and beyond.
