Pinterest Content That Connects With B2B Audiences

Pinterest is an easy platform to master if you’re selling visual items – jewellery, artwork, design services. But what about B2B brands? Can they use it to grow and evolve their brands?

Considering that Pinterest gets over 250 million unique monthly visitors, you bet they can. Pew Research found that Pinterest use is growing steadily each year. Right now, its audience is up 7% from last year and nearly double from two years ago. SmartInsights confirms these numbers, finding that Pinterest has been the fastest growing social network over the past year.

There are four main benefits for B2B brands using Pinterest: web traffic, links, leads, and social sharing. Many brands are seeing increases in referral traffic from Pinterest, more than any other network, including Facebook and LinkedIn. Users that pin your B2B content are creating new backlinks to your website, giving you more traffic avenues and bringing your content to a wider audience.

In fact, many B2B brands find that Pinterest drives a good portion of their website traffic. Ashley Mooney, Digital Content Manager for Organic Salon Systems, a B2B distributor of hair care products, notes that Pinterest drives more than 41% of their ecommerce traffic.

Let’s take a look at ways you can create Pinterest content that captures your B2B audience’s attention and drive more web site traffic.

Create descriptive visuals

Pinterest is a visual network, so creating imaginative visuals with a clear message will grab your audience’s attention.

“You really have to be very creative,” Erica Ayotte, social media marketing manager at Constant Contact said recently.

You’ve already created great white papers and eBooks for your B2B brand, so share them on Pinterest too. Add an attractive cover image and post that to Pinterest. Link it to the landing page to capture information and generate leads.

Helpful and valuable information is always popular on Pinterest, so users will pin it and share it with their followers. Get creative with your images, add some text, and include a compelling call-to-action (CTA). The combination of image, text, and links works well to get B2B users to visit your website. Create images that your B2B audience can interpret and respond to in a way that makes sense for them.

HubSpot does this very well with all of their educational content: eBooks, guides, and whitepapers. They create excellent images for their resources, pair them with great CTAs, and link them to landing pages.

Offer “snackable” data with infographics and charts

Just created an infographic featuring some industry data for your latest webinar? Why not reuse it on Pinterest and link it to a landing page? Mine your internal data to create some meaningful charts your audience will be interested in.

Create “how to” lists for complex products

Some B2B brands have complex products and services that take a long time to explain. Use a board on Pinterest to explain how those complex products and services work.

“Keep things simple,” says Ashley Mooney, Digital Content Manager for Organic Salon Systems, a B2B distributor of hair care products.

On Dell’s Tech Tips for Consumers page, you’ll see exactly how they do it for their customers. You’ll see links to videos explaining how to install software, or a cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts, or how a product can benefit a particular audience segment.

Selectively curate Pinterest content

As with all social media networks, Pinterest just isn’t about the content your B2B brand creates. Use it to build an account that serves your audience, offering valuable content. That means curating content from other Pinterest users that your audience finds useful.

Not only is that just good social media etiquette, but it’ll also take the pressure off you to create all of your Pinterest content.

“Part of the reason that Pinterest has grown so much for us is because we share generously and are a great curator,” also said Ayotte.

Choose content that reflects well on your B2B brand, business, and industry. It should always align with your vision and voice, while still being valuable to your audience.

Check out Constant Contact pins content from SproutSocial, SocialMediaToday, MarketingProfs, and more. All of it is valuable to their audience, yet they didn’t create it themselves.

Show the people who make your B2B brand

One of the challenges of B2B marketing is the fact that your customers are companies, as opposed to individual consumers. Yet it’s still individual B2B employees that notice your marketing and put you on a vendor short list, so ignoring them can be dangerous.

Likewise, your target audience can forget that it is individuals who make your B2B brand run. Showing off visuals of your employees serves as a great reminder. Show off life at your offices, or your employees at trade shows and conventions, or as they prepare for other events. Your audience will appreciate it.

Send traffic with each pin

It’s not enough to use Pinterest to build B2B brand awareness. Leads and customers are your bottom line, so you should be driving quality traffic back to your website to convert the newly aware. Increase the likelihood of that traffic by including a link back to a relevant page on your B2B website, whether it’s a landing page, a blog post, or something else. As long as it’s relevant to the pin and your B2B business, it’ll do well. Monitor your growth and update your strategy over time to create the content that really resonates with your audience and you’ll see it become a big source of traffic and leads for your B2B brand.

Image courtesy of Constant Contact via Pinterest