Should I Try Pinterest? Here’s a Test to See if Pinterest Would Work for You

Imagine wading through an ocean of text (like the one you find on Google), desperately searching for a recipe that sparks inspiration. That’s what using a traditional search engine for visual ideas can feel like. Enter Pinterest. Pinterest, unlike Google and Bing, is a visual search engine. It’s a platform where inspiration flows like a vibrant coral reef, through images and videos that grab your attention and compel you to browse and explore further.

Unlike Google’s text-based approach, where your searches yield text-based answers to your queries, Pinterest lets you search visually, using pictures or even your own camera to find exactly what you’re looking for, or use textual searches to find something visual as an answer to your search query. If you don’t know what we mean here, you need to check Pinterest out for yourselves first, before you proceed that is.

Pinterest is indeed a goldmine for businesses that thrive on the visual, from fashion designers showcasing their latest collections to interior decorators displaying dream home renovations. Here, captivating imagery is the key to unlocking a treasure trove of potential customers. Pinterest can bring you a ton of targeted traffic and even increase your sales. What’s even better, it can be slightly easier to rank your pins on Pinterest, then it seems to be to rank on Google these days (after the recent Helpful Content Update from Google that is).

But then the question remains – is Pinterest for you? Can Pinterest work for your business? Should you get on the Pinterest bandwagon in search for those elusive customers too? And here’s the simple answer – you need to ask yourself 3 important questions. And if the answer to any or all of these is a resounding YES, and you have the bandwidth in terms of time and resources to dedicate to Pinterest growth, Pinterest is indeed for you. And the 3 Questions are:

Should You Be on Pinterest Q1: Is Your Business Visual?

What works on Pinterest are visuals. So any business that can product attractive visuals or offer visual solutions to problems (in terms of services) can and should work on Pinterest. So definitely blogs that offer solid visual content such as travel blogs, cute pet blogs, blogs offering movie and drama reviews, etc. work well on Pinterest. In terms of products, attractive products or products that can offer good visuals, such as fashion products, craft products, handmade/homemade products, sleek electronics, etc. work on Pinterest, both on your own ecommerce website, also on third-part ecommerce sites such as Etsy, StanStore, etc. It is important to note that since Pinterest is also predominantly a B2C portal for businesses, if your business is offering products for other business such as automotive spare parts, engineering products, etc. they might not do well on Pinterest. That said, if you offer B2B services such as social media marketing training for small businesses, how to start and run a blog trainings for new bloggers, etc. these do do well on Pinterest. You can also do in-depth research on what is trending on Pinterest and see if your business aligns with these Pinterest trends before you proceed to invest in it as a marketing portal for your business.

Should You Be on Pinterest Q1: Does Your Business Require Web Traffic?

If you are trying to grow the traffic on your website (either because your monetize your blog or website using ad space rental or use the traffic numbers to market ancillary products as an influencer) Pinterest can be a great tool to bring in hordes of global traffic. Of course the rules of what works on Pinterest still apply here. So if you cannot offer captivating product or service visuals, you may need to improvise on your visuals and offer better hooks on pins and put in more effort on Pinterest SEO, but Pinterest would definitely reward you with lots of traffic.

Should You Be on Pinterest Q1: Does Your Business Deal with Products and/or Services That Don’t Have Geographical Limitations?

You cannot be a local brink-and-mortar business that cannot ship their products to a wider audience, say like a neighborhood coffee shop, and expect Pinterest to reward you with better footfall and customers. Similarly, you cannot be offering products that can only be shipped within a province or country (especially if the country is small, like say South Africa), and expect Pinterest to give you targeted customers only from that region. You can offer apply the principles of local SEO to your Pinterest pins but you cannot limit your audience to only, say South Africa. Hence, to get the most from Pinterest, your product or service cannot be limited by geographical boundaries.

Just like Google, Pinterest requires a lot of strategy and persistence to show results. Talk to us at SayMe, should you need assistance with Pinterest marketing.