Pinterest once started out mostly as an app that acted as a novelty. Sharing photos of desks made from reclaimed wood and the best chicken pot pie recipes you will find online were the norm (still kinda are). However, Pinterest has evolved over the years into some thing much different. An evolution that spawned an industry of B2B marketers to take a second look at the social platform in order to spread the good word on their own businesses.

 

 

We asked 7 industry marketing experts to weigh in and discuss their thoughts on B2B marketing on Pinterest.

This is what they had to say.

Zach Murphy, Content Marketing Specialist, PB&J

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As with any B2B initiative, clarity is king. The faster and more simple the point can be communicated, the better off you’ll be. In a world convoluted by buzzwords and complex product descriptions, images can often accomplish a fair amount in a much quicker format. Many businesses fall into the trap of listing product descriptions and attributes, to which prospects are left to deduce the eventual value on their own. By providing a visual of the solution itself, people can quickly see what a company has to offer. It’s very important that these images also connect people to relevant further information. For instance, when featuring a series of products, don’t simply link each photo to the homepage of your company. This product has captured somebody’s attention so take them to the product page on a website so that they could potentially purchase immediately or find more information about the product. The faster you can communicate and connect people to items they need, the better. 

 

Brittney Borowicz, Marketing Manager, Grid Connect

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Not all brands are meant for Pinterest. Just as with other social media channels, your audience may just not respond well. Brands and companies should not be on ALL social media platforms. If Pinterest may be a good platform for your brand, take the time to do it right and measure your success.

 

Melissa Megginson, Marketing Manager, Tailwind

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*Don’t only pin your own content*. This is huge. DO NOT ONLY PIN YOUR OWN  CONTENT. Pinterest users do not want blatant advertisements all over their Pinterest feed. So, rather than only pinning your content, pin articles related to your sector, interesting images, funny memes and mix in your products and articles.”

*Repin, repin, repin!* You know how great it feels to be repinned, so make sure to pass the feeling forward! You get to pass on the warm fuzzies and, also, guarantee that the content you send out to your followers is not overly self promotional.

 

Parisnicole Payton, Public Relations, The PNP Agency

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A Pinterest marketing tip for anyone interested in growing their online presence, you must have a high social influence. In business, communal influence is essential, and it’s a prevalent business function to all entrepreneurs seeking national exposure, recognition. It’s imperative to utilize all social mediums to advertise, and market your business and industry expertise. The social media marketing strategy needs to be broad and quantify a social influence on Pinterest. To have a successful following on Pinterest, the marketing tip is to remain consistent in the conscious message of the brand. The marketing idea has to be creative, and demonstrate a social presence by building an influential impression. You can implement short video clips, insert your blog, and add news clippings. In essence, submit daily Pinterest postings, which provide relevant content in distributing and sharing information about the brand. The marketing needs to be unique in being informative, engaging and increasing brand awareness, which will result in local and national recognition.

 

Inga Van Riper, BuildtheStore

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Mix things up: Followers will get bored with you very quickly if you post the same stuff. As I stated before, we only thought of Pinterest as being a showcase for products and manufacturers. It quickly evolved to so much more. It is exciting to visit a customer and see that they are using one of the display ideas that we created in one of boards.

 

Katie Mayberry, Principal Owner, Spyglass Digital

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Pinterest is a great tool for B2B’s if they have the capacity for it. The key is thinking beyond your brand specifically and consider what is related to your brand but of broader interest to your market. GE is a great example of this. Their Pinterest description is #Pinning things that inspire us to build, power, move and cure the world. Their boards range from the informative, inspiring and humorous. These pins will show up in followers news feeds and make people think of GE. 

Finally, you can optimize your Pinterest pins so that they show up in search results not only within Pinterest but also broader search engines. This furthers your brand reach and adds additional benefit to your social media activity.

 

Tena Pettis, tena.cious

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Be Visual. You can’t have a Pinterest board without turning your ideas into graphics. Your custom content is necessary to gain momentum on this social media platform. Just sharing other content won’t put $ in your bank account.