Using Pinterest for business is more than just having a good place to share visuals. While it might not be your typical social media platform, it's a good space for sharing your brand in an inspiring way. 

Pinterest has a dedicated user base and has grown in popularity since its launch in 2012. There are now well over 500 million monthly active users. A large number of those users are female and between the ages of 18 and 34 – so if that's your target demographic, you should be on this platform. The platform has also found particular popularity among Gen Z, who love to find their latest “aesthetic” through visual exploration.

It’s all about creating visually appealing Pinterest pins tailored for this platform that drives audience engagement.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to create a winning Pinterest business account, optimize your Pinterest profile, and make the most of a few powerful tools to drive growth.

In this guide:

Getting started with your Pinterest business account

To unlock the full potential of Pinterest, you'll need a dedicated Pinterest business account rather than an existing personal account. If needed, it's possible to turn a personal account into a business account.

A Pinterest business account will grant you access to advanced analytics, Pinterest ads, and rich pins that make your content stand out.

Create your business account

If you haven't already created a business account already, the first step you'll need to take is to visit Pinterest for Business and sign up for one. 

Even if you currently use a personal account, converting to a business account is important, as it will give you access to all of the tools you need to grow your business on Pinterest.

Optimize your profile

Next, it's time to ensure that your profile appears polished and provides potential customers with all the information they need.

To get started, upload a clear profile picture (your brand logo is a good place to start), a compelling bio, and include some relevant keywords.

Remember, a well-optimized Pinterest account helps you connect with your target audience and sets the stage for a successful online store or business.

Why Pinterest? The power of a visual search engine

There's a lot of debate about whether Pinterest is a social media platform or not. Though it does generally fall into this category, it's actually better described as a visual search engine. This means that it helps users discover ideas, products, and new brands, through the use of images. 

Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest is designed to be a visual platform for an audience actively seeking aesthetic inspiration. The search function is really sensitive, so you've got a high chance of finding exactly what you're looking for – something that isn't always the case with other social media platforms.

Engage with Pinterest users

When you use Pinterest for business, you’re not just posting pretty pictures – you’re engaging with a community of Pinterest users who actively search for ideas on a social media platform that doubles as a search engine.

To ensure users can find your content, it's important to use a variety of relevant keywords and post a variety of useful content.

Utilize Pinterest advertising

With Pinterest, you can run ads that seamlessly integrate into users’ feeds, ensuring your content appears natural and engaging.

Whether you’re launching Pinterest ads or using promoted pins, the goal should always be to run ads that resonate with your target audience. To get the best results from your ads, it's always good practice to use a strong call to action like “sign up now” or “take our quiz” to encourage engagement.

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Building a winning Pinterest content strategy

Creating Pinterest content that people love involves more than posting images – it’s about weaving together compelling visuals, keyword-rich descriptions, and a strategic content calendar.

In this section, we'll look at the best ways to approach content creation and managing your pins, as well as how to back that all up with branding and search-friendly keywords.

1. Content creation and board management

There are a couple of different ways that you can save or upload content to your Pinterest profile. The most obvious of these is to use the save button to find existing content when scrolling or use the Pinterest extension to save content from your own website or others. 

Alternatively, you can navigate to "create pin" via the Pinterest menu and “create content” tab. This method isn't as quick as using the “Pin” button, but it's best if you're uploading your own content since you can add a title and description filled with relevant keywords, and tagged products and topics.

Creating boards

The next step is to organize your content by creating boards on topics that your target audience might find useful. Clear board descriptions and relevant keywords are helpful here, such as "Living Room Ideas" or "Art and Gallery Walls" for an interiors-based account.

Using relevant keywords

If you're choosing to upload your own pins from scratch, including relevant keywords like “living room,” “interior paint colors,” and “home inspiration” can help. The trick is to thread these relevant keywords naturally through your title and description so that both the Pinterest audience and search engine algorithm recognize your content’s value.

2. Visual and textual integration

While Pinterest is mostly a platform for images rather than words, text is still very important in search and providing context for information-rich pins.

High-quality visuals

Every pin should be visually appealing. Pinterest is all about aesthetics, after all. Make sure your photos are well shot and any graphics are professionally produced. 

If you want to provide more information in your visuals, it can be good to add a text overlay that reinforces your message (for example “Five Easy Dinner Ideas for Busy Families”). This text overlay not only captures attention but also embeds keywords in your content.

Consistent branding

It's also important to maintain consistency by ensuring that your brand is appearing frequently. For instance, your brand name should appear naturally throughout your content. Or you might choose to stick to a color scheme or style for all your posts. Be consistent with your captions, too, and you’ll start to develop an audience around your regular keyword clusters.

Tools and scheduling

There are some great third-party schedulers, like Brandwatch and CisionOne, that can help you plan and schedule pins. These tools will also help you monitor performance on the go so that you can make necessary tweaks to your strategy to ensure your Pinterest business account remains active and engaging.

Advertising on Pinterest: How to run ads that convert

Pinterest ads are a great way to reach a wider audience and encourage people to visit your site or online store. 

A well-executed Pinterest advertising strategy should boost your organic content as well as your paid content, since your presence on the platform grows. You can focus on the exact message that you want to share and target specific audiences.

Setting up Pinterest ads

You can set up and launch Pinterest ads through your Pinterest business account. Set up your ad campaigns with clear goals – whether to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, or boost conversions. Use phrases like "find out more" or "shop now" to encourage the action you're hoping to see. You can also use a tool like Brandwatch Advertise to create your ad strategy and oversee every step of the process.

Ad formats and targeting

Pinterest offers several ad formats, including promoted pins and shopping ads. With precise targeting options, you can tweak your ads so that they reach very specific audience segments. For example, maybe a carousel image format suits your product ads, and you want to target a specific gender, age range, or location.

Analyzing ad performance

As with any digital marketing strategy, regularly monitoring your ad performance is key. Pinterest analytics is a good starting point to refine your advertising strategy, as you can adjust your ad spend and targeting based on data insights and emerging trending topics. For deeper insights, consider a social media management tool like Brandwatch.

Learning from top brands: Real-world case studies

Examining how established brands use Pinterest for business is a good way to find inspiration for your own strategy.

Below are examples of brand combinations and case studies that reflect successful Pinterest campaigns.

Benefit Cosmetics

Benefit's Pinterest page is absolutely bursting with personality. From bright, product-laden images, to board titles ("Benefit Knows Brows" and "All We Need is MASCARA"), it feels like they know their target audience inside out and understand exactly what they want.

With almost 100,000 followers and over two million monthly views, the strategy is definitely working.

IKEA

As a low-cost furniture giant, it's not surprising that IKEA has found an absolutely massive following on Pinterest (750,000 and counting, and over 10 million monthly views). 

They've gone for a practical approach to their boards – from "Kitchens" to "Bathrooms" and everything in between – but this organized approach feels intuitive and easy to navigate. As a nod to the huge social media trend for “IKEA hacks”, there's also a "DIY Inspiration" board, and another for "Small Space Living". The images they've pinned are optimized so that the IKEA logo is prominent, and text like "Dreaming of a boho bedroom?" is immediately followed by a call to action button like "Shop bedrooms".

Hyatt Hotels

While their following is relatively low compared to some other big brands at just under 15,000, Hyatt Hotels has put a lot of effort into providing inspiration and curating travel ideas via Pinterest. The platform feels like a very natural home for their content, which features lots of stunning hotels (as you might expect) alongside some beautiful scenery from all over the world and other things related to travel, food, and drink.

Hyatt has also made the most of the various posting formats available on Pinterest, with still images being presented alongside video clips and rotating image carousels. As a bonus, their branding and tagline ("Be more here") is always clear and present.

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Advanced strategies for Pinterest success

Once you're comfortable with posting on Pinterest, there are a few strategies you can use to take your content to the next level.

Making the most of tools and analytics

Social media management tools can be great if you want to schedule pins in advance or pinpoint the best keywords to use to promote your content.

On that second point, it's always good to refine your content by integrating relevant keywords into your pin descriptions, board titles, and business account bio.

To find what keywords are working, take a closer look at your analytics – either via Pinterest's own offering or by accessing this data through your management tool. 

Engaging your target audience

To engage your target audience, you could try participating in group boards and interacting with both active Pinterest users and non-pinners. This approach not only broadens your reach across the social media platform but also supports a cycle of engagement that benefits both your Pinterest business account and overall brand presence.

Fresh ideas can also generate more engagement. If you've recently added a new board that centers around a trending topic, make sure you populate it with lots of similar content so that people saving one image are likely to see the others in their feed, too.

Integrating cross-platform strategies

Since Pinterest is somewhere between a social media platform and a social search engine, Pinterest strategies are most effective when used in tandem with other social media sites. 

For example, you could save all the images from your Instagram to Pinterest, or share Pinterest boards to Facebook. Cross-platform integration has plenty of benefits.

For a start, your Pinterest presence should feel like it fits with your brand’s presence on other platforms to achieve wider brand consistency. This means sticking to the same branding whether you're on Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest, and using your content to share the same messages.

Do it right and you should achieve higher brand awareness rates across your social media platforms.

Since Pinterest is mainly used as a search engine and visual platform, it’s really easy to reach a wider audience. This is because people are coming to Pinterest to find specific ideas, rather than just browsing through the things that people are posting.

And when they search, you have a chance of coming up in their results. To make sure that your content stays visible, use tactics applicable to other social media sites, such as including keywords in your titles and descriptions. If you find your Facebook captions are improving reach on that platform, consider duplicating them for Pinterest and then tracking performance to see if it’s working.

Time to start driving business growth with Pinterest

If you follow this guide, you'll have everything you need to maximize your Pinterest presence and transform your digital marketing strategy.

From setting up a beautiful-looking Pinterest business account to making the most of Pinterest ads and advanced analytics, every step will get you closer to a highly engaged Pinterest audience.

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