Using Pinterest to Build Traffic for Small Business

So, you’ve got your Pinterest account all set up with pretty pictures and boards. Now, what to do, what to do! How do you get those boards to boost and increase your website traffic?

In this article I have rounded up the best minds on the subject of how you can increase traffic using Pinterest for your website and small business.

Pinterest is a social media platform with a high number of 18 to 55 year old females using the platform. If you are a small business with online products or services,and this is your demographic then you should be using Pinterest to drive traffic.

That said, almost any niche can do well, provided thye give sufficient thought to the project and position themselves in the right kind of company on Pinterest.

How to Get Targeted niche specific Traffic from Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the latest gold mines for traffic which will convert very well in almost all niches. I personally had witnessed this huge traffic source without doing much work. A while back ago I had decided to check out Pinterest and so I just created a blogger blog around wedding niche and posted some cool wedding dress pics.

After that I created a Pinterest profile and then pinned the images .Also I sent out some requests to join some relevant group boards and got accepted to few. Two days later I got around 500 unique visitors just from Pinterest.

To get the most traffic out of Pinterest

• Group boards creates more traffic
• Try to get into the niche specific group boards and start sharing your pins there.
• Use unique images
• Pinterest is able to check the uniqueness of the pictures so sharing unique images will always get you more exposure.
• Use Pinterest business account
• A Pinterest business account is free and has a great little Analytics feature.

Casey Markee from Media Wyse suggests Building Traffic to Pinterest with Custom Content, and it’s a good idea. If you are a photographer with a new website or starting out, this can be a great way of drawing attention to your portfolio.

Most people don’t know that over 80% of Pinterest traffic is generated by repins. What this means is that if you are just focusing on repinning other people’s content you won’t get anywhere.

To generate traffic and really dominate Pinterest consider the following…

Using Infographics

These are still incredibly popular on Pinterest and are fantastic ways to drive traffic to your website. Find out which Infographics are doing well and emulate them. Make sure to maintain your own Infographic board and update it regularly.
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Host a Contest

Pinterest users love contests. Run a contest where users are required to pin a custom graphic from your site or generate the most repins on the graphic from your site. Then award a cool prize.

Leveraging Trending Topics

Use the Popular on Pinterest page to find and target hot trending topics on Pinterest. Find what’s popular with users and tailor your content accordingly. Pinterest can be effectively leveraged to generate noticeable traffic to your site. Doing the above is a good way to jump start that process.

Pinterest is just like any of the other social networks. People respond better to personal posts or pins in this case. so mix in some family pictures, photos of your dog or cat along side your products.

If you are selling hand made products then where possible put yourself your family and your pets in the photos. Max Ivey from the Blind Blogger (who is legally blind, which makes his opinions on Pinterest fascinating) talks about how he wishes he had more photos of his weight loss process because he knows those would have gotten traffic.

“The idea was suggested by a friend who mentioned that her Youtube Channel was a ghost town until she started sprinkling videos of her cat and dog in amongst those of her photography projects.”

If that won’t work for your boards, try adding a sideline of fun facts in amongst your other pins. People like little known trivia they can share with their friends at work or on social media.

Krista Wiltbank threw her hat in to the ring with these suggestions.

Utilize Your Blog

Use blog images to create the pin & lead it back to the company website.  Depending on the type of small business – a “gallery” of Pins.

By that I mean a pin for each image on a photo gallery page of a website. This could be especially helpful for a salon/spa, a photographer’s page, or an art gallery (as examples).

For small businesses that have started into eCommerce, Pinterest can link back to product pages on a website. Pinterest’s upcoming “Buy” button could be helpful to this end when it is released.

Link to a small business Videos

Small Business Video’s can now easily be added to a Pin Board. use videos that are live on the website. There’s plenty of ways to host the video on YouTube or Vimeo, Just iFrame the video into the website.
Pinterest is a great platform for sharing visual content. Small businesses can easily take advantage of it by create visual content on their blog. If they have written content, they can make it “Pinterest-friendly” by including eye-catching photos on the post.

Need more traffic ideas? Angie Nelson from The Work at Home Wife also has a whole bunch of ideas to increase traffic to Pinterest.

Check out her article for more inspiration.Share your Pinterest Success Story and Tips below.