Pinterest Marketing Tips for the Holiday Season

“Just keep pinning, just keep pinning.”

Although Finding Nemo has little to do with the holiday season, this motto could translate to the hopes of retailers going into the months of November and December. The goal? Keep consumers pinning! Then convert those pins into sales – the more pins, the more product awareness, and therefore more opportunity for conversions.

Pinterest has made reaching that goal even easier with their introduction of Pinterest for Business. Companies can now sign up specifically as a business on the site, and those with existing profiles can convert. You then verify your website URL to receive a badge on your Pinterest homepage next to your domain name. New tools, guidelines, brand case studies and best practices are also provided.

An optimized brand site is critical because it’s expected to be a record year for online shopping, with a 12% year-over-year revenue growth projected for digital sales. Half of consumers cite social media as an influence when making online purchases, and a little over a third of consumers have made a purchase as a direct result of a promotion on social media.

All signs point to Pinterest for leading social networks in online conversions. In fact, it is expected to account for 40% of all social media driven purchases this year. The platform includes the option to put prices on each individual pin, making them 36% more likely to covert. The site also has an entire section devoted to “gifts,” in which you can choose a price range in which to browse.

According to Shop.Org, the top five categories from which consumers purchase the most are as follows:

1. Clothing and Apparel
2. Jewelry, handbags and accessories
3. Arts and Hobbies
4. Home and Garden
5. Health and Beauty

Marketers promoting products and services related to the above categories, along with all others, should keep in mind their target audience. Around 80% of the over 10 million users on Pinterest are women. Going into the holidays, this can be beneficial for all brands, even those who don’t typically attract a large portion of that demographic.

For example, the MLB (Major League Baseball) shop is upping its Pinterest game this season, along with other sports brands like the Boston Celtics. They believe Pinterest is the perfect way to target a new fan base – who might not see their merchandise otherwise – and their products give female holiday shoppers new gift ideas. So far, the brands report good conversion rates.

Cross-promotion is critical for all marketers on Pinterest. Sharing your pins on other social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, increases visibility. Luxury fashion brand Gucci even recently integrated their Pinterest and advertising tactics by creating a “pinnable” banner ad.

Once you’ve built up your Pinterest presence, it’s important to quantify your efforts. Our S2 platform allows you to track your brand on social networks to further optimize for better results.