Your Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for eCommerce 2019 and Beyond

Is your e-Commerce Store making money with Pinterest yet?

Tell you what, following the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal, most of ours and other UK/Europe based marketers FB Ads started tanking like no man’s business…That was a wake up call for us as we had kinda put other platforms on a passive burner…Including our beloved Pinterest!  Yeah you heard! 

About the same time, one of our JetSet coaching academy clients, an e-Commerce store owner and fashion designer asked me: How can I increase sales to my store? Its my passion and I hope you can help!

While I know facebook Live’s can be great for brand exposure, I know hands down for traffic getting and sales a Savvy marketer should use Pinterest for eCommerce esp. Fashion. And that’s what I suggested.

So, she asked me Why Pinterest? Well, here is Why.

She admitted that, she was told Pinterest is the bombdigity when it comes to eCommerce and Shopify type online stores. Obviously, I agree…

Mind you, she wasn’t that interested in Facebook Ads.

Now, you may or may not know, that I am gaga about Pinterest. I’ve shared how I blew my Pinterest traffic target by 185% in 90 days you can download the Steps FREE. I wrote a book about Pinterest Profits, I show marketers how to Dominate on Pinterest….

Frankly speaking it was long overdue to share our strategy for eCommerce on Pinterest on here. The two go hand in gloves kinda thing!

Why would you consider Pinterest for e-Commerce though? Well, tell you what;

Over 72% of pinterest users, use it to search for and find ideas for their everyday life needs.

• We plan ahead for events and projects on there.
• Typically, we look for gift ideas for our loved ones for any occasion.
• Holiday décor ideas? Ditto!
• Easy meal recipes.
• An outfit for cousin Jane’s wedding or is it Joe’s Baptism dress coded pair of shoes?
• DIY home renovation tips.
• Vacation ideas for the summer.
• Even our pet pooch’s new outfit… the list is endless. You get the picture?

Obviously, you gotta set up right to make things happen. And for your set up and all under the-trenches basics, I highly recommend you head on to Amazon and grab The Art of Pinterest Profits.

Then check out the Essential Foundations below, that way I don’t have to re-invent the wheel, yes yes?

Now that you are up to speed with the Foundations, let’s talk about your E-Commerce store strategy to more sales.

What I am sharing in this episode, has not been shared before in such detail on this platform.

Also, whatever is out online that’s older than 12 months is probably not showing the right interface on Pinterest. So, this is your Guide to using Pinterest for eCommerce for 2019 and beyond.

[RELATED: DOUBLE YOUR TRAFFIC IN 90 DAYS OR LESS]

Find out what attracts your Target Audience! Click to Tweet

Let’s get started:

#1. Pinterest for eCommerce – DO YOUR RESEARCH.

Find out what attracts your Target Audience!

Spend some time checking and scoping out various brands:  Pin boards and Pin images in YOUR NICHE, already on Pinterest!

To do this, simply login to your Pinterest account and type your keyword in the search bar Sloooowly… See the drop-down menu of suggested trending words/pins/topics — Create your list of similar product pins and in no time, you’ll find what resonates the most with your target market that’s already out there. (Red Ocean)

I completely urge you to scope out your competitors’ Pinterest action! How do they present their Products i.e. Pin image types, descriptions. Check their Boards:  the descriptions, what products are they pinning in there. In other words, what strategies are they using to promote their products on Pinterest.

Here are some below…

? Everybody Loves a Gift – Gift Boards

You have an eCommerce store, so you can create gift boxes, gift guides and Boards. These are all great ways for driving traffic to your eCommerce Store. Especially if you promote them offers on your other Social media platforms.

Thing is, if a visitor is browsing today, they may come back later or another day and purchase! They also could share the promo with others they know, definitely they may save your Pin… Talking of which here is How to get others to Pin your content.

Again, do some research on pinterest on gift boards, you will find lots of inspiration for your gift ideas. And of course create a Board with a similar theme. Pin trending stuff on that board, simply type “Trending ideas” in the search bar!

? Run a Contest or Bogof

Over 80% of Pinterest users repin content i.e. Share other people’s pin images linked to their offers/websites.

Cater to this desire! Ask your visitors to share your post for a discount or any other goodies i.e. a contest. Or run a “Buy one Get one free” aka Bogof offer. 

If you have been using our FREE Content Calendar resource, you are already miles ahead with; whats trending every single month, months in Advance and creating your Sale offers accordingly. For instance, Easter, Halloween, Black Friday, St Paddy’s etc. 

Example: We run a giveaway contest when we launched the Art of Pinterest Profits. We asked both pinners, our audience and subscribers to “pin it to win it”.

It worked a treat for the book sales at launch! Talking of books…

? Write up Your Fav Book List

What books have inspired and impacted your life over the years? How about you share those in a post on your website? E.g. In the summer we published our best beach reads on our Lifestyle blog. DO a similar one, make it an ULTIMATE list!

Obviously only if you run a blog on your e-Commerce site! Publish a post of your reading list or any list related to your niche.

Pin that to your Gift Board too or create a Best reads Board!

Keep this updated with more book and refresh your “List Pin” every so often. See how it does, if it picks up traction, you can even do a Promoted pin on it. #Boom.

More traffic to your eComm site and I bet you they buy!

Also, how-to articles and posts usually have decent click through rates from the mobile app, so do some of those too!

? And you have a Funny Bone, yes? Pin some Jokes

Create a Jokes and Inspirational Gifs Board and go to town sharing your fun side. Pinners like other Social media users love a joke, they love to let stress off, So serve them.

Any marketer who makes their potential customers smile, usually leaves a mark and gets a return visit and sale.

According to research, when people experience positive emotions, they are more likely to buy. And guess what will be shared? Of course, your Pin Image, gif or joke and your brand goes with it…

Want more followers and re-pins, show your funny bone! 😉  Check out this Pin image, shared thousands of times! 

? Add a Follow Button and Widget to your eCommerce store

Sounds clichéd does it? You’d be surprised how many eCommerce store owners do not have them added.

So, go ahead and add them. Our Follow Widget is a Pop up by MiloTree, go create your free account and Add one to yours too!

The Buttons slide in from the side and on every public page/post and those we created with the Social Warfare Plugin. Well worth the $29/year trust me on this! 

You too will be bringing Pinterest closer to your audience and this will in turn drive potential customers to your Pinterest page and offers too!

You could even Tag friends or even Influencers in your pin description… Just add @Juleskalpauli to tag’em.

Ensure the person you tag won’t take offence first!

[RECOMMENDED: MORE PINTEREST FOLLOWERS AND SHARES]

#2. Ever Tried Buyable or Shop the Look Pins?

This is superb news for eCommerce stores because, buyable Pins allow people to buy your products right on Pinterest. So do “Shop the Look Pins“. So, pinners don’t have to click through off of Pinterest to purchase.

Each buyable pin points to a specific product in your eCommerce store.

Savvy Shopify users have been leveraging buyable pins with great success.

As a marketer and eComm store owner, you have to apply and be approved for Buyable Pins. Unless you are on the big eComm platforms like Etsy, Shopify, BigCommerce, etc!

Beauty is, once Pinterest approves, people will see your Pins with “Product Price” clearly marked and your Website highlighted in Blue like the Luulla image above!

When users click your link, they are taken directly to a shopping cart page which allows them to checkout right there. Pretty sweet, right?

With “Shop the Look” pins, the pin image has white dots which if a user clicks on you can shop each item you see directly. AI at its best! 

Very Important: Check if your products are eligible for “Shopping the look or Buyable Pins”.

The following categories aren’t eligible at time of publishing:

• Adult services and products esp. if highly sexualized.
• Customizable products – I suggest you showcase your product as easy to buy without customizing. (Discuss with client different available options in a different way)!
• Digital Products incl. downloads.
• Non-physical products.

? Also, to ensure your pin-link isn’t blocked avoid these types of URLs:

? Shortened URLs like tinyurl, bit.do, goo.gl, etc.

? Redirect URLs e.g. pretty links, incl. URLs with domains that don’t match your verified website on Pinterest.

? URLs that point to product category. Aka multiple products!

At first only USA residents could use Buyable pins. Today, they’re available to most users, in UK they were launched in April 2016 hurrah! 

And you can learn more about Shop the Look Pins here.

Want to Learn How to Start & Grow a Profitable Business Online in 90 Days? Sign Up for Our FREE Masterclass below!

Our Effective Steps for Getting More Sales with Buyable Pins

If you aren’t yet drooling over what pinterest can do for your eCommerce store, then let these Ahalogy statistics seal the deal for you. Esp. if you’re into fashion & clothing, just like our eComm client!

? Yet, before you run off to spend some ad dollar, you cannot get away from Market research my friend.  And it can be as simple as:

Scoping out successful product Pin images and creating/taking similar ones. So, ask yourself:

? Who is successful in my niche?

? Check out successful pinners or brands in your niche. How do they showcase their products?

? Scan through their pin boards, messages, images. Focus on the background, are their images magnified aka zoomed.

? Create Own Pin Images and don’t forget your Logo as a smart watermark of course.

In short, identify what’s working already in your niche, MODEL SUCCESS and see it come to you as well!

? I always ensure that we create several images for the same piece of Content and Offer.  Definitely we tweak the description a bit so that you hit different senses and mental thought processes of your target audience. We aim for a minimum 5 images for each piece of content or offer.

? Test Pins in Secret: Use a secret board to make sure your Pin looks great before you publish. When you’re happy make the board public. This avoids missing descriptions or non-optimized photos being made public.

#3. Pinterest for eCommerce Stores – Did I hear Rich Pins:

Okay we definitely last talked about types of rich pins in our very first Pinterest post.

The details still apply so do take a moment to dig in. ?

To enable rich pins on your eCommerce store/website, login to your Pinterest click on the “Analytics” tab and if you have claimed your site you are good to go.

If not, you need to add the Pinterest metadata to your eCommerce header and Validate your site on Pinterest. May take up to 48 hours, usually it’s less than 3 hours!

Now you are Rich pin enabled.

For Etsy, Shopify and some other eCommerce sites rich pins are automatically enabled. So, your real time pricing will show up on your Buyable and even Product pins. #Coolbeans

There are 5 types of rich pins on Pinterest, for eCommerce success, we shall focus on: “Product and Article rich pins.”

So, What are Product Pins?

Okay for those of you who cannot utilize “buyable pins” this is your solution.

Product Pins will give people a link that points them directly to your website, where they can learn more about the offer/service/product and make a buying decision.

So, a pinner won’t be able to directly buy through a product pin, but they can get information on availability, colours, pricing and a link to find your offers.

In other words, Product Pins make it easier for users to see information about the products you sell.

Unlike Buyable Pins, these aren’t “Buy enabled”, this strategy is to Drive massive traffic to Your Store and thus encourage More sales that way.

You see by using a “Product pin” the price and visual detail of your product are still on display. Learn more about Product Pins here.

Article Pins and eCommerce

We have been using “article pins” to boost organic traffic to our online real estate. If you have a blog attached to your eComm store or you are a blogger you should be spreading your net with Pinterest article pins, they have proved to be very time saving.

So, what does an article pin look like?

Ever seen those “recipe pins” with details of the recipe. Or a List type Pins image, Infographs make great Article pins. In short, create bullet points of your blog post Create an Image pin. Pin away. These images do grab users’ attention.

The “rich Article Pin” features a: headline, article description, the publisher (your store/blog), and a “Read it” call to action.

This article is a direct “Back link” to your blog/store, and it will drive organic traffic. Pinterest SEO at its best!  

In this example, our blog article has been turned into an Article Rich Pin. The cover image visually describes the content of the article and relates to my book The Art of Pinterest Profits, to which I drive traffic and sales via Pinterest!

[bctt tweet=”I recommend you find that best performing Pin image and give it a further boost.” username=”Juleskalpauli”]

#4. ADVERTISE aka Promoted Pins

Good news is it will take you less than 5 mins to create a Promoted Pin ad.

Unlike facebook Ads, at time of publishing; it’s not rocket science to create a Pinterest Traffic campaign, thank goodness!

You should by now have a Pinterest business account and claimed your website as advised in the Foundation Essential Steps above. Then you can advertise your products/services/offers on Pinterest. It is called a “Promoted Pin.”

For details on how to best optimize your Ad for maximum results, I recommend you read the Chapter on Pinterest Advertising in The Art of Pinterest Profits. Hand in hand with our comprehensive post on promoted pins.

So, now that you got the dibs on how to advertise, you know not to promote any old pin image/content.

I recommend you find that best performing Pin image and give it a further boost.

Someone may advise you to: just click on the pin image you wish to promote and fill in the ad campaign details.

I say DON’T Do that. Just like “Boosting a Post” on Facebook, you won’t get the best results, or ROI.

So, my advice is going via the Pinterest Ads Platform as below. Click on the “Ads” link and Follow the Instructions laid out.

? Click on Create Ad, choose the Pin Image you wish to Boost.

? Set a daily budget and define a target audience based on interests and Desired End Result.

? You can also let the campaign run continuously or Set the number of days. (I suggest you let it run for at least 7-14 days.)

? Double check that the URL points to your desired destination… (A pinner may have pinned your post or used your image to point to their assets.)

? Add at least 5-10 Keywords to help Pinterest spread the word to more people. Or people searching will find your Pin/content faster too.

AND, your cost per click also depends on the type of keywords you use. So, choose them with care.

In the below campaign we got £0.26 per click. This can go even lower or higher so keyword research is an essential part of this process!

#5. Be sure to TRACK your Efforts

Of course, the only way to get Pinterest Analytics is to have a business account. It is free to activate or get started right, so, be sure to have done that already!

Now, whether you advertise with pinterest or go the organic route, your pinterest for eCommerce store success needs tracking.

You can track how your Profile is doing, more followers, re-pins etc. and optimize it better if necessary.

You will see your reach, follower numbers, engagement on your pins and content…Great stuff!

You can track how your Pins are doing, and improve, scale etc.

Most importantly Your click through rate and results thereof. You will know if the traffic you are getting is any good or do you need to check your Pinterest marketing strategy!

Understand that, what you track you can scale or stop depending on your results:

ROAS = Return in Ad Spend… and

ROI = Return on Investment, don’t mix the two up! And if you want to know more about them Download our FREE Formula to Increase Business Growth Fast Here.

The sales you get via your promoted pins can be tracked and so you know if your efforts and investment is worth scaling up or canning.

You want to automate your business? Advertise and use resources like Tailwind to Automate your pinning efforts! I like this app because we get the best Pinterest Analytics and stats, increase our follower base and get way more Traffic from Pinterest. Period.

Pinterest for eCommerce Success – Bonus Tip

As always I love to give you more, its just what I do. And my surprise tip is simple.

Now that you have downloaded our FREE Content Calendar, be sure to VARY your BOARD Positioning in alignment with the season or trending event. 

Pinterest traffic is driven by trends, seasons and events inclusion seasons and holidays. For our super busy clients, we create seasonal Boards that we revamp and update Every Year in that season.

We turn them into “Secret Boards” or move them to the bottom of our Board positioning when the event/season is done. That way they show up as fresh when we replenish, refresh and Move them back on top or re-publish them at least 6 weeks to the season/event.

Part of your Boards Strategy should be focused on the seasons and events and how they impact your sales. You got this my friend!

Pinterest for eCommerce Store – Let’s Wrap it up:

Remember Pinners are NOT on Pinterest to socialize, chat, watch memes etc. They are there for inspiration, research, ideas, and 80% to BUY!

Chew on that as you wait for a spirit guide reading s’more… Or Lets get your eCommerce store smashing your sales Goals!

If they can do it, so can you.

As stated earlier, our client didn’t want to do Facebook Ads. She was more interested in Pinterest for eCommerce because she got the above FACT!

Of course, we totally got her covered-on traffic getting via pinterest in much more detail as she was a JetSet academy Coaching client. You can consider that option if you want to Sky rocket your growth too.

The other Option may be you just dont wish to bother your creative mind with all this. If this is You, you can ship the whole process out to our Efficient team. Learn more about that option here. 

Now you understand why Pinterest is a much more effective tool for eCommerce than any other social platform including Facebook? The average sale via pinterest is $50 way more than others…Now, it’s time to go rock your eCommerce sales pronto! ? 

Are you ready to Turbo charge your eCommerce Store traffic, optins and sales via Pinterest? Get Instant Access to our Full Ultimate Pinterest Roadmap Here!

Are you super excited yet?

I am and I know this was a massive cuisine to take in.

As always You deserve More

Live. Learn. Love

Julie Syl Kalungi