Getting Pinterested In Email

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The online world is abuzz about the virtual pinboard site Pinterest these days, and for good reason: it’s blowing up! Launched in March 2010, Pinterest already had 11.7 million unique visitors as of January 2012, having surpassed the 10 million unique visitors mark more quickly than any standalone site in history. These days, it drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined.

So, as an email marketer, what’s your next move? How should you determine if Pinterest is right for you, and what’s the best way to get a piece of the Pinterest pie?

Get ready: Know who uses it and what they use it for.  People use Pinterest for collecting images of products and things they like. This allows users to visually represent themselves to their networks through collages of “found” imagery, and it also facilitates group online shopping when the “things they like” are for sale somewhere.

Almost 70% of Pinterest users are women, half have children and nearly a third earn more than $100,000 per year. While there is significant representation of users between 18 and 54 years old, the largest age group represented is 25-35, according to ABC News.

If that demographic and behavior sounds like your brand’s kind of people, Pinterest is likely a good fit.

Get Set: Know where your brand fits and what you need to get started.

• Your Brand

Brands that are currently staking out a position on Pinterest are primarily those centered on food, furniture & home accessories, fashion, travel, design and culture. If your brand fits into one of these categories, there’s already a place for you on Pinterest. If not, that doesn’t mean there won’t be soon -- or that you can’t help carve out your brand’s Pinterest niche. Keep the primary demographic in mind and ask yourself if your brand’s offerings would make an impression on a pinboard.  

• Your Customers

When thinking about which products to feature as “pin-worthy,” it’s important to realize that Pinterest is used as a tool to lead your customers to content, images and ideas that inspire them, not necessarily to promote products or services. Whole Foods does this really well. Because the company understands its customers, it can curate more than just the products it sells. Its pinboards collect kitchen gadgets, gardening inspiration, decorations and more.

• Your Brand Imagery and Assets

To make an impression on Pinterest, your imagery needs to be visually compelling and inspirational. Users should want to use your imagery to represent an aspect of who they are and what they like.

Further, Pinterest will change the size of your photography to fit its layout, so you can proactively collect assets that will make for the best user experience. Pinterest can show images as big as 600 pixels wide, so make sure you have images at that size available to provide striking experiences on pinboards.

Go! Integrate Pinterest into your email program in two primary ways:

• Include links in your emails to follow your brand on Pinterest. Get your brand set up with a Pinterest presence by creating your own curated collections of product imagery. Then send out a dedicated email announcing your presence to subscribers and inviting them to follow you, or add a Pinterest link to your consistent social media bar.

• Include “Pin it” links in your email creative. Enable subscribers to directly pin your images to their own pinboards. We’ve already seen two major brands -- Toys R Us and Tablespoon.com --successfully add “Pin it” links to their email creative.

Pinterest is still new, and it remains to be seen where all the energy it’s garnering will ultimately be channeled. As email marketers, though, we want to be on the cutting edge of this hot new trend in social media. So go pin it while it’s hot.

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2 comments on "Getting Pinterested In Email".

1. Janet Roberts from Content by Janet Roberts
   

   commented on: March 13, 2012 at 11:01 a.m.
   Also, post an invite to subscribe to email and a link to your opt-in site in the About section of your Profile. For B2B emailers, GE has an excellent set of boards to copy.
2. Becky Sangha from The Online Video Marketer
   

   commented on: March 22, 2012 at 12:37 a.m.
   This article is useful to me as I help my clients think about what social media outlets will best help generate leads... gives me the right questions to ask them about their demographics and what type of imagery can be created to brand their business, yet inspire others.

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