If you went to your CMO and said, “I want to allocate time to a website that is primarily used by furniture restoration geeks and women designing their dream wedding,” what kind of response would you expect?
Now, if you went to that same CMO and said, “I want to investigate a new social platform that’s driving more referrals than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined,” how do you think that would go over?
The problem is B2B marketers seldom think about Pinterest in the form of the latter. But that holds B2B marketers back from exploring the most exciting platforms in their early days.
For the uninitiated, Pinterest is the still “invitation-only” social bookmarking site where people can display their interests in a highly visual way. Users “pin” various pages from the Web to their “boards,” which are self-organized by category.
Today, Pinterest is most heavily used for topics such as fashion, furniture, and food. But here are the facts that make Pinterest compelling for B2B marketing:
Pinterest’s visitor traffic rose to 11 million visits in December, 40 times what it was six months before. It accounted for 3.6% of referral traffic in January, on par with Twitter. It’s sticky, with users spending an average of 88.3 minutes on the site, ranking behind only Facebook and Tumblr among the top social networks.You’d think that with trends like that… Pinterest should be making marketers of all stripes drool. But many aren’t.
Here are three excuses you might hear from B2B marketers for avoiding Pinterest—and why they’re wrong.
This is perhaps the most common excuse B2B marketers give for skipping out on just about any social platform. It’s the same argument you likely heard about Facebook, or even Twitter, in their early days.
At this point, Pinterest is dominated by links to mid-century lamps and Etsy projects (it skews towards women and the 25-44 age group). But as awareness grows at a rapid clip, people with business interests are going to jump in. (In fact, it’s already happening.) Saying it’s just for knitters is like saying Tumblr is just for hipsters. (Check out the MarketingProfs Pinterest account here.)
2. ‘Pinterest is purely visual’B2B marketing is prone to spreadsheets and verbose product spec sheets. So where does our text heavy marketing fit on Pinterest?
It doesn’t. But a picture’s worth a thousand slogans. Our content is becoming more aesthetically driven as the competition for attention heats up.
Pinterest is a great way to attract people to your words by highlighting your images. (For a prime example of this in action, check out Joe Chernov’s “Infographics” board.)
3. ‘Pinterest doesn’t have brand pages’No. It doesn’t. And this may be the best reason to join.
If history is any indicator, social networks don’t hook a rabid fan base by offering brand pages. As Pinterest grows organically, the time to build your personal brand is now.
Remember: Pinterest is novel, but it isn’t new. It works much like the bookmarking services we know (think StumbleUpon or Reddit)—only more visually enticing. You can pin charts, infographics, slideshows, ebooks and more. (As an example, I started a board for “Good Content Marketing” and for Eloqua’s “Chart of the Week” series.)
By getting involved with the Pinterest community now, you’ll be more likely to become a power user when opportunities like brand pages and ads open up.
So get pinning!
(Photo courtesy of Bigstock: Frightened Funny Young Man)
For the complete story, visit: MarketingProfs All In One
