• by Krishna Subramanian , November 12, 2018

In September 2018, Pinterest introduced its API to the greater public, making it easier for brands and influencers to track pin performance and analytics.

Since this announcement, the platform has seen refreshed interest from marketers. As the holiday season fast approaches, here are a few statistics, mostly from Omnicore, on why Pinterest should be top-of-mind:

— There are 175+ billion Pins on Pinterest.
— Every day 2 million Pinners are saving shopping pins to their boards.
— 87% of Pinners have made a purchase due to Pinterest.
— 62.7 million people visit the site to get gift inspiration and ideas for the holidays.

Pinterest users are  “content seekers,” meaning there is brand potential to inspire users to convert into customers this holiday retail season.  To help your brand win its share of holiday retail dollars, check out these tips:

Activate an influencer to inspire: At the core of the platform is the notion of inspiration. In a Guardian post, company CEO Ben Silbermann describes the platform as a “catalogue of ideas” designed to inspire users to go out and achieve goals, dreams, and more.

If users want to travel during the holidays, they can create a category board filled to the brim with travel destinations, sample itineraries, and packing lists. Partnering with an influencer who can translate enthusiasm into inspiration, can create interest and excitement among shoppers who visit Pinterest. Check out this Pin by Rice Krispies that inspires people to smile.

Use a Rich Pin: Rich Pins are perfect during the holidays as they can create quick driving action to your brand/product. There are four different types of Rich Pins:

Product Pins are shoppable pins that provide details such as cost and location of where to purchase the product. Product pins are perfect for fashion, décor, or style brands looking to drive a sale.

Recipe Pins provide specifics such as what ingredients to cook with, what portions to use, what stores carry ingredients, and how long to cook the desired dish.

Article Pins are attached to a specific work/article, providing into on the author or editor, a story synopsis, and a link to the article.

App Pins allow users to download an app while remaining in the Pinterest app (only within iOS).

Maximize Pin real estate: Pinterest provides ad specs for image size and video size/length. Assess your product, brand, campaign messaging, and goal before deciding whether to use an image of a Christmas tree and whitespace, or a text overlay of Santa’s Naughty or Nice list on a video. Pinterest suggests video ad length to be 10-20 seconds long, which means brands have to make an impact fast.

Create a holiday/seasonal aesthetic: Pinterest is all about creating and viewing the most interesting, eye-catching, and beautiful social content.  Pinterest research suggests that Pins that featured a seasonal aesthetic had a 22% increase in sales. Here is an example of Crate and Barrel sharing a beautiful holiday dinner spread.

Use paid media to promote Pins: With the amount of content on the site, marketers are smart to  promote pins. According to Oracle research, promoted pins led to 5x greater in-store sales than ads on other platforms.

Teach them something new: People enjoy maximizing and learning.  So make sure your content educates viewers on something they can use this holiday season —   
whether it’s a new spin on an old tradition like setting a holiday dinner table, or starting a brand-new holiday tradition.