10 Pinterest Hacks to Boost Traffic and Grow Sales

Posted by Alesia Hsiao

This is a guest post – Alesia Hsiao has helped numerous businesses create social content strategies. When she is not doing this, you can find her blogging at FindVietnam.com.

Welcome Alesia…

Pinterest showcases potential buyers from all over the world.

Most interesting of all is that 28.7% of Pinterest users have a household income of over $100,000. This means they have money to spend. But making sure they spend money on your website, over someone else’s can be a challenge.

Here are 10 Pinterest hacks that will enhance the amount of traffic to your website and increase the number of on-site conversions.

1. Use Guided Search

Guided search is an example of Pinterest SEO. This is designed to help users cut through the millions of pins across the social network.

To take advantage of guided search, your pins need to be punchy and hit your target audience (which you should have already researched).

• Continue to use the keywords you would for Google. Find out what these keywords are and sprinkle them onto your various boards and image descriptions.
• Connect your account to Pinterest analytics. This is how you are going to find out whether your guided search strategy is working or not. Knowing what’s going on at any given time takes away much of the frustration involved with Pinterest marketing.
• Using Tailwind’s Word Clouds enables you to easily see what users are talking about whenever they share your content.

2. Share Viral Content

You don’t have to produce any viral content to take full advantage of it. Benefit from the viral content of others by sharing it on Pinterest. Viral content is easy to use because if they like it on Twitter and Facebook they’re going to like it on Pinterest.

The key is to produce images relating to viral content and the latest trends. However, make sure you brand any content you produce. Don’t just share someone else’s image. Create a variation so people know whom it came from.

Viral content tends to go viral because of the trend not because of the specific image used.

3. Embed Boards

Connect your website or blog to your boards on Pinterest. If your boards are relevant to the content on your site, you can bring images and written content together so it gives people a chance to really dive into a topic.

From a practical point, it creates a link between Pinterest and your website, therefore driving traffic between the two.

4. Collaborate with Leaders in Your Field

Discover the top sharers in your industry. This is easy because you can usually rank pins by industry. You’ll soon see which accounts are always at the top of the list.

When someone responds to content by an industry leader, they do so because they know it’s a trusted source.

For now, you may not have this reputation. So instead, utilise someone else’s reputation by following industry leaders and sharing their content alongside yours. If you’re lucky, you may even be able to collaborate directly with them.

5. Cross-Promote Your Content

The latest studies reveal 52% of adults use one or more social media networks. The chances are a fair amount of your Facebook and Twitter followers also use Pinterest. So try and attract these people to follow you on Pinterest.

But don’t take it for granted that your entire following on one network will immediately follow you on another. You have to sell yourself repeatedly.

Create unique content for each social media network to make people believe they need to follow you on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and your website to get the full experience.

6. Create a Giveaway

An occasional giveaway is another way of bringing in people to your website and promoting your products and services. For example, if you sell car insurance, you could provide customers with free apps for drivers. To increase urgency, you could make these free apps available for a limited period only.

Just make sure people are interacting with you for the right reasons. That’s why any prize you do offer shouldn’t be too valuable and should relate to your products or services.

Don’t just give away an MP3 player!

7. Utilise Newsletter Marketing

Newsletter marketing is a gold mine if you’re looking to market your products. Make Pinterest a priority by including some of the most popular pins and boards within your industry.

Try to include your own boards, but spread the love. Show off what’s popular right now from other people too.

Make your newsletter useful not a chance to aggressively market yourself all the time.

8. Follow the Right People

Sourcing great content from others is one way to drive traffic to your website from Pinterest. But avoid filling your news feed with irrelevant nonsense. Follow the right people who are already producing great content.

For example, if you were reading this, following someone like Peg Fitzpatrick would be a good idea because he shares tips via Pinterest on how to increase your traffic through the network.

Refrain from following too many people too quickly, though, or your account might be flagged by the administrators.

9. Pin at All Hours

We’re creatures of habit, so the chances are you post new pins at roughly the same time each day. This isn’t always the best time to get the most interaction. Use a social media marketing scheduling programme to post your pins when you aren’t around.

Experiment with posting at different times and use analytics to see when you get the best results. This often varies depending on the countries, niches, and audience you are targeting.

Sometimes three in the morning really can be the best time!

10. Use Hashtags Properly

It’s easy to fall into the trap of using hashtags like you would on Twitter or Facebook.

On Pinterest, hashtags are clickable only in the descriptions of pins. Outside of descriptions, they serve no purpose at all. In fact, it looks unprofessional.

You may need to play around with your tone, type, and number of hashtags to get the desired results.

Conclusion

These 10 Pinterest hacks for increasing traffic and sales to your website allow you to use the full power of one of the fastest-growing social networks in the world. If you’re having trouble getting the traffic and sales you want, this could be the option for you.

On a side note, make sure that you split test any changes you make to your strategy. This is the only effective way of knowing you’re making a positive difference.

About Alesia

Alesia Hsiao has helped numerous businesses create social content strategies. When she is not doing this, you can find her blogging at FindVietnam.com.

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