4 Pinterest Success Stories and What You Can Learn from Them

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The majority of businesses I work with include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn in their social media strategies, but leave Pinterest untouched and, often, completely ignored. However, whilst there is an element of ‘social’ to Pinterest, it’s actually more of a search engine than a social media platform, and so, just as with Google and YouTube, it can drive major traffic and produce staggering results.

According to Pinterest, 459 million people use the platform every month to “find ideas and inspire their next purchase”. In the UK alone, 61% of pinners say that Pinterest is where they go to start a new project and 46% of pinners have discovered new brands or products on the platform. This means there are lots of opportunities for brands to get noticed.

If you’re interested in exploring how Pinterest might work for your business, take a look at the four success stories below, along with my analysis of what you can learn from them.

1. Use Pinterest to drive traffic

When your goal is to drive traffic and get as many eyes on your website as possible, Pinterest can play a big role.

Buzzfeed began trialling Pinterest in 2012 and saw quick success. Through experimenting with both content and strategy, they’ve been able to build upon that success and continue to drive traffic.

The team found that compelling pins (that are funny, for example) may get an instant click-through but may not be saved, whereas other pins (that contain beautiful photos, for example) will get a lot of saves and later visits but not so many instant clicks. Both are valuable to Buzzfeed, but what would work for your business?

Key takeaway: Experiment with different content types, descriptions, and categories to learn what works for you. Even when you’ve found the perfect balance, continue trying new ideas and monitoring your results, as what works will shift over time.

2. Interact with your audience via Pinterest

Engagement is key if you want to cut through the noise and build a connection with your followers.

US coffee retailer, Caribou Coffee, began using Pinterest to inspire their customers, sharing pins like memorable quotes, inspiring images, and attractive photos of coffee drinks. But Caribou wanted to take inspiration from their customers and so they developed a Pinterest campaign that would drive engagement. They asked their Pinterest followers to share images that could inspire a new flavour combination using the hashtag #InspireCaribou. The campaign was a huge success, amassing millions of media impressions and impressive Facebook and Twitter clickthrough rates.

Key takeaway: Look for ways to use Pinterest to involve your customers and give them an opportunity to inspire you.

3. Sell products via Pinterest

If you’re a retailer looking to get your products in front of a ready-to-buy audience, buyable Pins could be the way to go.

Small business FlyAway BlueJay, seller of handmade artisan pieces, used Pinterest’s mobile-first buyable Pins to increase sales and reach new customers.

100% of the Buyable Pin sales FlyAway BlueJay acquired came from brand new customers and Pinterest drove 20% of their overall sales and 28% of overall website traffic.

Key takeaway: Take advantage of Pinterest’s business features, such as buyable Pins, to capture new customers and increase sales.

4. Bridge the gap between online and offline

Already using Pinterest for your business? Let’s look at how you can take what’s happening online and use it to influence customers in-store.

By labelling ‘Top Pinned Items’ with a Pinterest logo in-store, Nordstrom is drawing attention to those products that are most popular online.

Key takeaway: We often focus on bringing our business’s offline world online with the use of images, video, and storytelling to show what’s going on in the real world. Turn the tables and look at how you can show off your online successes in real life.

Whether it’s traffic, engagement, or sales that you’re looking for more of, Pinterest can certainly deliver the goods. For plenty more Pinterest success stories visit their website.

If Pinterest isn’t part of your social media strategy yet, then you may want to consider it. If you want to understand which social media platforms you should be on, I can help. Discover my social media strategy services and then get in touch.

Have you had any big wins from Pinterest? I’d love to know! Join the conversation on social media.