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Writer's pictureFavour Obasi-ike (@flaevbeatz)

How to Use Pinterest for Business: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Updated: Mar 18, 2023

The Beginner's Guide to Using Pinterest for Business. Pinterest course for 2023, with regular updates, made for artists, bloggers, businesses, creators, and serious entrepreneurs.



Search Engine Optimization is vital for your business so why not start with the most important part of your consumer behavior strategy?


Pinterest for Business is a work of art that pays you back, both visually and monetarily. Why?


Because this substantially untapped social digital brand resource could be the perfect place for you to showcase your brand and business to an engaged, niche marketplace that's ready to spend.


One major note is that Pinterest for Business is known as a positive, self-influential, and rewarding search engine, and not a social media platform using non-expiring pins, boards, stories, and so much more.





Fun Fact: There are over 322 million monthly Pinterest users worldwide, all seeking and sharing helpful, inspiring ideas on the platform:- Sprout Social


According to Leading countries based on Pinterest audience size as of October 2020 (in millions), here are the list of countries using Pinterest by the last quarter of 2020:

Source: statista.com


Using Pinterest for business is perfect for showcasing products and services as Pinterest often acts as an information resource for so many users preparing to make a purchase. With 40% of Pinterest users having a household income of $100k+, there's a huge audience with a strong spending power just waiting to be introduced to your business!


Ready to get started? Here's how to use Pinterest for business:



Reaching Your Business Goals With Pinterest

Pinterest is a social network where people can find inspiration and ideas for their interests and hobbies. Every idea is represented by a Pin, which is an image that is searched for and saved by Pinterest users. Pins can also link back to websites, podcasts, social media posts, and so much more which is why Pinterest is great for driving traffic and sales. And most importantly for businesses, Pins help people find more information on products they're looking to buy.


When using Pinterest for business, you should always include a link to your website with each pin – this could be a blog post, an online store, or a company website. When comparing Pinterest to Instagram, the ability to easily add links is what sets Pinterest apart from Instagram as a powerful marketing strategy. Adding links to pins makes it super-easy for a Pinterest user to find out more about the Pin that has caught their eye, and potentially go on to make a purchase.


Fun Fact #2: Pinterest drives 3.8 times more sales than other platforms and 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.

But with 200 million monthly users, Pinterest may not be a social media powerhouse if you compare it to Facebook and Instagram audiences. That's why it's important to take a look at who is using Pinterest, and if this group matches your business' target audience!

So let's start by taking a closer look at Pinterest's audience:

  • Half of all U.S. millennials use Pinterest every month, and of its global audience, 66% is female aged 25-54.

  • The most significant interest areas on Pinterest range from fashion, food, auto, interiors, and travel, so there are touch-points for a huge variety of users.

  • When it comes to spending power, a recent survey by Pinterest found that 93% of Pinners use Pinterest to plan purchases, and 40% of Pinners have a household income of $100k+.

  • For businesses, that's a huge amount of users ready, willing, and able to spend based on what they discover on Pinterest.




Setting Up Your Pinterest for Business Profile


If your target audience is on Pinterest and you haven't tapped into it as part of your business strategy, you could be missing out on the chance to reach potential new customers every time they log on!



Here are 9 definite reasons why you should have a Pinterest for Business account:

A great website to use for content planning: later.com

1. How to Convert Your Personal Account to a Pinterest for Business Profile

If you already have a personal account and want to make the move to a Pinterest for Business account, making the switch is easy! First, log in to your profile.

Next, click on the three dots symbol on the top right-hand corner of your screen and select “Upgrade your account”. You can also follow this link to convert to a Pinterest for Business account.

You'll need to fill out the information about your business and who will be managing your account, and once you've completed the form, just click “Done”.

Once you've completed these steps, you will now see all the Pinterest for Business profile features like Pinterest Analytics. Pinterest Trends, Pinterest Videos, and Pinterest Ads!


2. Why use Pinterest for business?

These are some of the top reasons Pinterest marketing may be right for your company.

Pinterest is the fourth most popular It ranks ahead of Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, and Snapchat. Approximately 28% of US adults have a Pinterest account. That's more than one in every four people, and one in two US millennials (according to proprietary user data from Pinterest).


3. How to Use Pinterest for Business: "Getting Started" Guide for Beginners

Pinterest Social Media Tips FACT: the half-life of a Pinterest pin is 1,600 times longer than a Facebook post.
FACT: the average Pinterest user spends 14.2 minutes pinning every time they log in.

With numbers like these, it's easy to see what a powerhouse Pinterest has become.

It's growing like mad & the engagement rates are off the chart! And most importantly, your content has a longer shelf life on Pinterest.

Imagine your best content popping up in the Pinterest feed 4 or 5 months after it was first pinned! This is common occurance on Pinterest.

Compare that to the fast-paced Twitter stream or the hyper-competitive Facebook news feed and you'll quickly understand the value.

Can you imagine the benefits of a social network where your content doesn't lose steam in the first few hours -- but can actually get MORE visibility over time & still be sending traffic months after it was published?



4. Pinterest basics

On Pinterest, users share and save content to virtual collections called boards. Most of the 175 million active U.S. Pinterest members are female (81 percent). Some 2 million of those members save content to a shopping board on a daily basis.

While you can find just about anything on Pinterest – the website's categories include everything from art to technology – the site is known as a hub for craft projects, recipes, fashion, home decor and health-related information.

For businesses, it's important to sign up for a business account.

You can use the main sign-up page to create personal accounts. If you already have a personal account, you can switch over to business or just create a new account. Business accounts, which are free, give you access to features such as analytics.


Editor's note: Looking for information on social media management services for your business? Fill the quiz here to understand more about what your actual needs are.


5. Pinterest has a strong global footprint, too.

From 2018 to Q3 2019, the platform's international base of monthly active users grew 38%, from 171 million to 235 million.


6. Visual search is on the rise.

As a “visual discovery engine,” Pinterest is the only social media platform to offer visual search. That's huge since 62% of Gen Zers and millennials say they'd like to be able to search by image. According to the company, Pinterest Lens can now identify more than 2.5 billion home and fashion objects.

You don't see anyone Google Search images, back then yes, but now aesthetics help organic reach via Google, YouTube, and Pinterest.


7. Setting clear and realistic goals for an organized approach.

What do you expect to gain out of your Pinterest marketing efforts? Do you want to get better brand visibility and increase brand awareness? Perhaps you want to drive more traffic to your brand website. Or maybe you want to maximize your product sales.



Pinterest for brands can help you achieve all of this and more. It's a good idea to define exactly what your goals are so you can take a more intentional approach and know what success looks like to you. Your goals will be able to guide your content and marketing strategies on any new social channel you're looking to expand into, as well as your budget and time commitment toward Pinterest for business.


Like any social network, Pinterest has unique value propositions and can play a specific role in meeting the key goals of your entire social marketing strategy. Since Pinterest has a huge presence as a visual search engine with plenty of organic reach, your Pinterest follower count is just the floor of the potential reach you could attain with highly relevant and engaging content. Plus, the importance of search on Pinterest means that there is a longer-tail effect for both paid and organic content.


8. Following creative best practices to create pins that stand out.

While eye-catching imagery should be a vital element in your Pinterest for business content strategy, it's a bit challenging to create them.

If you want to create more visually compelling pins, make sure you follow the creative best practices from Pinterest.


These Pinterest best practices include:


Maintaining a 2:3 aspect ratio

Including your brand logo

Adding text overlay with concise, targeted copy to tell better stories

Choosing images that show context – this includes showing a product or service in a lifestyle setting or showing a use case in action that brings it to life.




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