Another social media channel? Do you have to? Well, there are very good reasons to at least consider adding Pinterest marketing to your content distribution. For example, a 2018 study found that among nearly 6,000 marketers, only 49 percent said their Facebook marketing was effective. Fifty-two percent even experienced a reduction in organic reach there.

Of course, like 67 percent of these CMOs surveyed, you can increase your Facebook Ads budget in 2019. That way, you can offset at least some of the loss of organic reach through paid media. Or you can - without spending any money - market your business on Pinterest, where you have the opportunity to reach around 200 million users from all over the world, 83 percent of whom prefer to follow brands rather than celebrities.

In this respect, Pinterest clearly stands out from its competitor Instagram and represents a real alternative for B2B companies. We'll show you how to turn the screws to become more visually successful with Pinterest marketing.

Fact Check: This is important for a Pinterest marketing strategy

As with any other social media, you need a strategy for successful Pinterest marketing. To do this, you need to know a few basics about Pinterest. We'll explain below what you need to know to integrate Pinterest into your B2B marketing.

1. What is Pinterest? In short, Pinterest is an image search platform similar to Instagram. The social media network was launched in 2009 and has become the second-largest source of traffic after Facebook in recent years. The platform has experienced a particular boost since Facebook changed its algorithm to the detriment of fan pages to private profiles.
2. What are the most important features of Pinterest? For effective B2B marketing, it makes sense to create a business account and a few strategically thought-out boards. More on that below. You can also generate reach with Rich Pins, Promoted and Buyable Pins, your own communities and so-called carousels in addition to re-pins.
3. How does Pinterest work? The most important requirements for Pinterest to bring you the desired effect are a good marketing strategy, regular pins, re-pins and republishments, relevant keywords, hashtags and interaction. It takes an average of about 3.5 months for a pin to experience 50 percent of its total engagement rate. This makes Pinterest more sustainable than other social networks.

What Pinterest is - interesting facts, figures and data for marketers

After Pinterest had some initial teething problems in Europe, 3 million users from Germany alone were registered in 2017. Every month, several hundred million users make around 2 billion search queries on the platform.

Only 20 percent of the more than 14 million pins on the platform every day are originals. On average, each pin receives eleven re-pins. These account for 80 percent and generate a 50 percent higher conversion rate than other platforms.

But it's not just the re-pin option that makes Pinterest such a strong referral site. The portal offers plenty of other options for placing URLs to the pin - for example, in the description. In addition, when hovering over a pin, the linked web address is displayed as a button, which provides a nice click incentive for interested users.

This means that you can place targeted domains in each pin and use the descriptions perfectly for call-to-actions. This allows you to optimize your Pinterest activities for lead generation with little effort. Just like B2B marketing and content distribution, Pinterest thrives on high-quality content that can be uploaded in the form of exciting images, entertaining videos or interesting podcasts. This commonality forms the basis for successful Pinterest marketing for B2B companies.

These are the features you should know (and use) for your B2B Pinterest marketing.

Posting and re-pinning pins are the absolute basics of Pinterest use, available to any private profile. For companies, however, it is essential to create a business account. This is free and very easy to do by first creating a private account, which is then converted into a business profile. Additional features are then available via this business profile, such as the Anlaytics tool.

What else you need to know to use Pinterest effectively:

• What pinboards, also called boards, are,
• how selected pinboards work,
• what pin descriptions are for and how you formulate them,
• how you use the re-pin function,
• what rich pins and
• Promoted Pins or Pinterest Ads are,
• what content and formats you can upload to Pinterest,
• How often you should pin,
• under which conditions images promise particularly high engagement rates,
• how to use the publication planning tool,
• what communities and group boards are and
• what the latest feature, the carousel, can do.

How to get started with Pinterest

Pinterest Integration:

For Pinterest marketing in B2B, it makes sense to integrate Pinterest into your blog or website in the form of a code snippet or plugin. If content is shared directly from your blog on the platform, the link URL is retained. So the user not only shares your content, but also your domain on his Pinterest profile.

Account and board creation:

Create your own account and create some boards there. More tips on which boards with which content make sense for a B2B company can be found below. Give these pinboards appropriate names and descriptions - feel free to use one or two useful hashtags. Google indexes Pinterest boards by now. A detailed and content- and keyword-relevant description of your pinboards is essential to rank in the SERPs.

For each board, choose a category and optionally a cover image. On your profile page, you can then personalize the pinboard order if you see fit. This is as simple as drag'n'drop. I recommend pinning at least your most important board or your most active pinboard at the top of your profile, so it's always the first thing visitors to your profile notice. You can use the Showcase feature to highlight up to five of your boards in this way.

>Pin Description:

Describe each pin individually and assign a direct link to the corresponding content on your blog or website. Include hashtags and list the URL here as well. Include a call-to-action. Pinterest provides you with 500 characters. However, since it is primarily a mobile medium, you should have already said the most important things in the first 100 characters. This is because no more will be displayed via the smartphone app.

Rich Pins and Buyable Pins:

Two options that do not necessarily make sense in B2B. Rich Pins allow longer descriptions and, for example, the display of a product price. And Buyable Pins enable the purchase of items and products directly from the app. However, both tools are designed more for B2C profiles that want to reach customers and buyers directly via Pinterest marketing.

Promoted Pins:

They are the equivalent of ads on Google and Facebook. You can use them to increase the reach of selected pins. Especially at the beginning of your Pinterest marketing efforts, this can also be useful in B2B marketing.

Perfect pin formats:

Although Pinterest started out as a pure image network, it is now also possible to pin videos and sound files from selected platforms. These options are particularly interesting in B2B, for example, to promote image clips and podcast episodes in addition to classic blog articles.

Pin Frequency:

If you're already using Pinterest, be sure to rely on your analytics results for pin frequency. Otherwise, start with about 10 to 20 pins per day to begin with. Don't panic: You don't have to upload 20 pins of your own. Use the 20:80 rate I mentioned above. For every own pin, always repin four foreign ones.

Schedule Pins:

This feature plays into your hands when publishing. Similar to Facebook, Pinterest also allows you to pre-schedule pins and automate their publication. This makes profile maintenance easier. Just select "publish later" and set the date and time when you upload an image to pin.

Image Design:

A few tricks in image composition increase the chance of re-pins. Create vertical images with an aspect ratio of 2:3 or 4:5 and a minimum width of 600 pixels. An analysis has shown that images with several dominant colors, especially red and orange tones, are re-pinned especially often. In addition, images are more likely to be pinned if no faces are depicted and the surface texture is smooth. Perfect conditions for B2B use, in other words.

Communities, group boards and carousels:

Pin to group boards and create your own group boards to which you invite other users. This way you can improve your reach even without having a large number of followers. Using carousels, you can upload up to five images for one URL, each with its own description - this eliminates long pin descriptions. Pinterest communities are not so much for self-promotion, but more of a discussion board similar to Facebook groups. A great way to get in touch with customers and colleagues or to create FAQs and promote webinars, for example.

Tips for your Pinterest marketing that you can implement right away

Need some ideas to create a successful B2B profile and get started with Pinterest marketing for your business? How about this?

• Create a board with infographics of your business.
• Create a board where you promote your products or services.
• Open individual pinboards for your blog, your video channel, your podcasts.
• Post screenshots of your newsletters and link the pins to your subscription link.
• Design pinboards for case studies, whitepapers, webinars, SlideShares, and eBooks.
• Introduce your employees in a separate board.
• Create a behind-the-scenes pinboard where you pin impressions from the company's everyday life.
• Create a board for events you participate in.
• Share on your own pinboard your customers, colleagues, partners or employees of the month.

Add Pinterest to your content marketing

It may not look like it at first glance, but Pinterest can be a compelling generator of reach, traffic and leads in B2B as well. You just have to have a little imagination when it comes to pinboard design and be prepared to present your company transparently and authentically on the platform.

Pinterest marketing can certainly pay off in B2B. However, it should be accompanied by appropriate tactics and, of course, only be part of a comprehensive distribution strategy. In any case, Pinterest is certainly more interesting for B2B businesses than Instagram, for example, which is more about self-promotion than sustainable social media maintenance.

You can learn how to design, implement and automate such a strategy for seeding your content on social media in the 6-week Content Marketing Academy. Register right here with one click:

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