How to Use Pinterest for a Small Trade Business: 2022 Guide

Pinterest can be a powerful marketing tool for small trade and service businesses if used correctly. However, many Aussie businesses are missing out on the benefits of Pinterest marketing. Want to learn whether Pinterest could help your tradie business succeed? This is the guide you need!

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking website where users can post images of anything they like, plus follow other user’s pins and boards. You can display your products and services on this platform in an aesthetic way, making it ideal for trade businesses.

The most important thing about posting on Pinterest is finding the right content for the board; no one wants to see endless pins promoting the same product or service over and over – this not only gets boring quickly but also makes your followers less likely to engage with your pins.

When using Pinterest for a small trade business, it’s important to find the right content to pin, mix up your pins regularly, and use relevant keywords to help people find you. And, of course, make sure you optimise your website for Pinterest marketing!

For more tips and tricks on using Pinterest for tradie lead generation, keep reading!

What is Pinterest?

If you’re not already familiar with Pinterest, it’s a social media platform where users can post and share images, referred to as pins, of anything they like. Pinboards are collections of these pins, and you can follow other users’ boards to get a glimpse into their interests.

Pinterest is different to other social media platforms because it’s a visual medium. This means that users are far more likely to engage with content that is curated in an aesthetically pleasing way. For Aussie trade businesses, this is a great opportunity to showcase your household products and services attractively.

Pinterest also allows you to link your images back to your website, making it an effective way to drive traffic back to your site. Your pin can link to a specific service page, product page, blog post, or even your homepage. This allows you to drive traffic directly to your most important pages – including the ones that best sell your services.

What Do People Use Pinterest For?

One of the great things about Pinterest is that you can use it for a wide range of purposes. Here are some of the most popular ways users employ Pinterest:

  • Collecting ideas for hobbies or interests – such as DIY projects, home decor and gardening
  • Planning and organising events – such as weddings or parties
  • Buying and selling products – especially homewares and fashion
  • Finding inspiration – including for home renovations and decorating

If you’re a business owner, one of the best ways to use Pinterest is to create an individual board for each product or service you offer. This way, potential customers can see everything that you offer in one place. You can also use boards to showcase your brand’s personality and pin images that reflect your company values.

Should I Use Pinterest to Promote My Trade Business?

While Pinterest is a great social media platform for many Aussie businesses, it is not the ideal way to promote all services. While Pinterest is a unique visual platform, some trade businesses may still find better results from other social media apps like Facebook and Instagram. 

Pinterest is a great way for a trade business to reach out to potential customers who are already interested in what you offer. By encouraging people who already show interest in what you sell and your services to visit your website, it can be a low-cost advertising strategy.

Compared to other social media platforms, Pinterest makes it extremely easy to drive traffic to your external website. So if the goal for your trade businesses is to increase your website traffic, Pinterest is a good promotional tool.

However, if you don’t have time to take high-quality photos of your work within your business, then Pinterest will not be a great benefit to you. As the Pinterest platform relies on visuals, you will need to constantly update your boards with original photos of your work. If this isn’t something your business can manage, ‌consider other social media marketing options like Facebook marketing.

A big factor businesses should also consider is their target audience’s demographics. Social media research shows that Pinterest users are still 60% women. So if you want to largely target men, Pinterest may not be useful. Pinterest has generally been more popular amongst the middle-aged population, but more and more young people are also getting involved on Pinterest. Pinterest users also tend to be higher-income earners, so be sure to compare your ideal demographic with Pinterest’s most common users.

If you are a trade or service business owner and want to increase your online presence, Pinterest marketing can be a great way to do it if you have the means and the time to dedicate to it. You need to weigh up the pros and cons and your individual business circumstances to make an informed decision about using Pinterest for your business.

Here are some of the pros and cons of Pinterest for marketing:

Pros of Using Pinterest to Promote Your Business

  • Great for Visual Businesses: Pinterest is perfect for businesses that have a visual representation of their products or services – such as a variety of household trade businesses. Your customers will enjoy seeing before and after images of your services and having a visual example of how your services can help them.
  • Easy to Direct People to Your Website: When you create a pin, you can include a link to your website. This makes it easy for potential customers to visit your website and learn more about your services. You can choose exactly what webpage or blog you want your image to link to.
  • Huge User Base: Pinterest has over 175 million active users, so it is likely many of your potential customers are using the platform. With so many users, you are bound to find customers requiring your services in your local area.
  • Reaches a New Pool of Clients: By using Pinterest, you can reach out to a new pool of potential customers that you may have been missing out on beforehand. These are people who are actively seeking services such as yours and who are interested in what you offer.
  • Proven High Conversion Rates: When compared to other social media platforms, Pinterest tends to have higher conversion and spending rates. Pinterest has a conversion rate of 8.5% for purchases under $200, though bigger-ticket items may require more dedicated customer follow-up to secure a sale.
  • It’s Free to Get Started on Pinterest: If you’re a small or new business without a lot of money to spare on advertising, Pinterest is a good option because a business profile is free.

Cons of Using Pinterest to Promote Your Business

  • Needs Time Investment to Growing: Pinterest isn’t a quick and easy platform to grow on. You need to dedicate time and effort to creating pins that are both interesting and engaging. If you are not prepared to do this, then Pinterest may not be the best platform for you.
  • Very Specific User Base: Pinterest isn’t a platform that will reach everyone. Your target market needs to be users who are interested in visuals and are active on the platform. If your target market demographics differ from Pinterest’s users, then you may not be able to reach them.
  • Only Works for Visually Appealing Businesses: If your business isn’t visually appealing, Pinterest may not be the best platform for you. This is because Pinterest is built around photos and graphics. If your business is non-visual, you may not be able to communicate effectively through pins.
  • Less Locally Targeted: When you run a local small business and only service your surrounding suburbs, Pinterest may not be very helpful. You will need to narrow down your keywords to reach your specific, local audience. You will have to be careful and precise when promoting your pins to reach your specific audience.
  • Lack of Automation & Scheduling: When compared with other social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest lacks advanced scheduling and tracking tools. This can make posting regularly more difficult and time-consuming, especially for busy business owners.

What Businesses Do Well on Pinterest?

Pinterest is a great platform for businesses that are visually appealing and produce a lot of engaging content. Many trades and handyman businesses will excel in Pinterest, thanks to the visually appealing nature of their services. These businesses also offer a great opportunity for satisfying before and after images, which can be very appealing to clients.

Consider the following trade and service-based businesses and imagine how they could create great visual content on Pinterest:

Businesses such as these will do well by sharing their content on Pinterest. Customers who need these kinds of services will want to see evidence that your business can do a good job and images are the best way to do that. By creating pins that are both interesting and helpful, you can reach plenty of people who need your services.

If you’re willing to be creative – especially in creating your own infographics or other visual content, you could even use Pinterest to grow a pest control service or a building inspection company. It all depends on how much effort you’re willing to put into creating visual images or taking photos.

You can then link these images directly to your service page, or a new blog post you’ve created in the topic. There’s often room above or beside your pins where you can add details about the image and the service it’s linked to. This makes it easy for viewers to learn more about your services without having to click away from Pinterest.

So if you run a service-based business or work within the trade industry, your business may have success using Pinterest as a marketing tool.

If Pinterest marketing isn’t right for your small business, consider some of these lead generation alternatives:

How to Use Pinterest in Your Trades Business

If Pinterest sounds like a marketing tool you want to employ in your business, then check out the following tips on how to use Pinterest for small business marketing.

Understand Your Audience

One of the most important things to do when using Pinterest for your business is to understand your audience. What people are you trying to reach with your pins? Understanding this helps you determine what type of content to post so that it connects with these audiences.

You can use Pinterest to target several demographics, including location, age and gender. Once you know your target audience, it becomes easier to curate content that will appeal to them. If you aren’t already gathering data on your customers, it will be hard to tell if your target demographic might be using Pinterest.

Pin Engaging & Shareable Content

One of the best ways to use Pinterest in your trades business is to pin engaging and shareable content. Engaging content is more likely to be re-pinned and shared by others, which can help to increase your reach.

Shareable content includes photos that are inspirational, instructional, or helpful – like ‘before and after’ photos for renovations. Infographics and interesting facts are also popular on Pinterest.

When creating pins, be sure to make them attractive and easy to read. You want people to be drawn in and desire to learn more about what you’re sharing. Try to pin images and posts that are interesting and relevant to your target audience.

If you can, add a call to action that encourages viewers to do something such as visit your website or learn more about your services.

Use Common & Trending Hashtags & Keywords

Hashtags and keywords can be a great way to help people find your pins. When using hashtags, use ones that are popular and relevant to your pins. This will help your pins reach a larger audience and not just your Pinterest followers.

You can also use keywords in your pin descriptions to help people find them more easily. Pinterest allows you to use up to 500 characters in your pin descriptions, so be sure to use them to your advantage.

When using keywords, try to include a mix of long-tail and short-tail keywords. This will help you reach a wider audience, whether they’re searching for something specific (eg. ‘best marble bathroom countertops’) or broad (eg. ‘bathroom renovations’)

Interact & Cross-Promote With Other Pinterest Accounts

Another great way to use Pinterest for your business is to interact and cross-promote with other Pinterest accounts. This will help you build relationships with other users and can further increase your reach. Interactions don’t ensure someone else will re-pin or like your image, but they create more opportunities for it to happen.

When looking for accounts to interact with, try to find ones relevant to your business or industry, especially in your local area. This will help to increase the chances of your pins being noticed. You can also use a tool like PinGroupie to find relevant groups to join.

When cross-promoting, be sure to include a link to the other person’s account or board in your pin description. This will help them find your pins and vice versa. By using these tips, you can maximise the impact of your pins on Pinterest.

Link & Direct Traffic to Your Website

As with any social media platform, one of the primary goals of Pinterest is to drive traffic to your website. By using the right tactics, you can significantly increase the number of visitors to your site.

One of the best ways to drive traffic from Pinterest to your website is by using pins that link to a specific and relevant page on your site. When creating pins, be sure to use a link that directs people to your website. You can also use a tool like Bitly to create shortened links that are easy to share.

You can also link a pin directly to a helpful blog on your website. This gives people a quick and easy way to find information about your product or service.

Promote Products & Services You Sell On Pinterest

If you want to sell products or services on Pinterest, be sure to take advantage of the platform’s features to promote them! You can create pins that feature your products or services, and use relevant keywords to help people find them.

You can also create boards that are specifically devoted to your products or services. This can help people to find information about your products or find other customers who might be interested in buying them.

You can even promote sales and promotions your business is running on your Pinterest. Create an infographic or use images of your products to run an advertisement linking back to your website or to a landing page dedicated to this promotion.

Use Pinterest Ads

A big advantage of using Pinterest Ads is that you can place them on a wide variety of platforms. This means that you can target people who are already interested in your products or services.

Pinterest Ads also allow you to target people based on their interests, so you can be sure that your ads are reaching the right people. You can also target people based on their location, so you can ensure that your ads are being seen by people in your target market. Using targeted advertisements helps save money for businesses because they reach specific audiences quickly at low prices!

There are several tools that you can use to create Pinterest Ads. You can use the Ads Manager, or you can use one of Pinterest’s approved partners. Whichever route you choose, be sure to test different ads to see which one works best for your business.

Check (& Learn From) The Results of Your Pinterest Ads

Once you’ve created your ads, it’s important to check their results regularly. This helps you to determine whether your ads are working, and it also allows you to learn from your mistakes.

Pinterest Analytics & Measurements offer a wide variety of metrics that you can use to judge the success of your ads. This includes data such as the number of impressions your ad received, the number of clicks it got, and the amount of money you spent on it. Using this data will give you insights into how well-received it was by users in terms of engagement rate and conversion rate.

If these analytics show your Pinterest Ads having been not working to the scale you would like, pause the campaign and consider a new strategy, content or call to action. Take the time to understand your results and use them to improve your campaigns in the future. You’ll be glad you did!​

Promote Your Pinterest Business Account on Other Social Media Platforms

It’s important to promote your Pinterest Business account on other social media platforms. This will help you reach a wider audience and build a stronger connection with your customers. Allowing your customers to interact on multiple social media platforms helps build customer loyalty and customer retention.

There are several ways that you can promote your Pinterest Business account. You can use the same methods that you used to promote your other social media accounts, like directly asking your customers to follow. You can also add a Pinterest badge to your website or blog.

When you promote your Pinterest on your other accounts, you will be more likely to attract new followers and get more clicks on your pins. If your business Facebook page or Instagram has a lot of followers, direct them to check out your Pinterest, too. This will help you grow your Pinterest following and increase the visibility of your pins.

Dedicate Enough Time to Grow Your Pinterest Presence

It’s important to dedicate enough time to grow your Pinterest presence. You won’t see change and conversions overnight. However, by sticking with it and making small tweaks to your strategy, you’ll see a gradual increase in traffic and conversions over time.

Research has shown that people who visit Pinterest regularly are more likely to buy a product. This is because they are more engaged with the platform and have seen more of your pins. So don’t give up right away!

Dedicate a certain amount of hours a week to growing your Pinterest presence. Try different strategies and see what works best for you and your business. Keep track of your progress and make changes to your strategy as needed.

How Does a Business Pinterest Account Work?

Pinterest for Business account is different from a personal account in that it offers business-specific features. Businesses can create boards specifically for their products or services, and add pins that include a price, location, and more. 

Additionally, businesses can create “following” groups for customers and followers that share common interests.

When you create a business account, Pinterest will review your website and make sure that it meets its criteria for being a business-friendly website. If your website is approved, you will be able to access the following features:

  • Create Premium Content – A business account allows you to create video pins and rich pins.
  • Create A Shop – Enjoy the convenience of linking your Shopify account to your Pinterest. Also, add price tags to your images and create catalogues.
  • Advertise – Use Pinterest ads to advertise your products and services and even set up audience targeting. You can create campaign objectives and format ads in a variety of ways.
  • Track Results – Track the conversion of your ads and add event codes. You can even add third-party tracking and track offline conversions when you talk to customers on the phone.
  • Access Reports – Review the stats of your pins, your analytics and audience insights. You can also access and create custom reports, helping you collect and use customer data.

These features make a business account on Pinterest extremely effective and useful for small businesses. And better yet, a business account on Pinterest is free! So, there is no reason not to upgrade to a free Pinterest business account and enjoy these added features.

Related Questions

Is Pinterest Better for Trade Businesses Than Instagram?

Although both platforms are great for sharing images about individual brands’ offerings, Pinterest has more dedicated boards geared specifically for businesses. However, Instagram does have a broader user base, so there are pros and cons to each platform. 

On Instagram, users might follow a business for its lifestyle images and not necessarily because they are interested in the products/services offered by one specific line (like what exists on other social media networks).

While Instagram has a larger user base, Pinterest might be better for trade businesses that want to drive traffic directly to product pages on their website, as users are more likely to be engaged with pins that have been labelled as “rich.”

How Many People Use Pinterest?

According to Pinterest, 431 million people use Pinterest every month, so it’s a great platform to reach a large audience. In Australia alone, there are 4.63 million Pinterest users according to Statista.

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