One of the social media sites often overlooked by business is Pinterest. Pinterest is a popular site where people are able to “pin” things to their account from all over the Internet to save for later. It is extremely valuable to businesses because one pin from a customer ends up showing up on all their friends boards automatically. And with over 175 million monthly active users, there’s a lot of customers to reach out to on the platform. Not only is this a great resource for creating backlinks to your business, it also is a great way to spread the word about your great products or services other people may want to take advantage of.

Here are 8 tips to follow for effective marketing on Pinterest.

Using Ads

Another way to easily market on Pinterest is to simply pay for ads. When users are scrolling through the social media site, the ads are technically marked, but it is hard to see unless you are looking for it. They will assume pretty much everything in their feed is just repins from friends and will look at it if they are interested regardless of whether or not it is a paid for ad.

Focus on being inspiration

Some people use Pinterest as a way of finding things they really want or need in their lives. Most, however, use it as a point of inspiration. How-to guides and inspirational places or clothes are some of the most popular posts on the site. While most people recognize there is no perfect lifestyle, the goal of their Pinterest boards is to find inspiration in the lifestyles of others to hopefully start heading in that direction.

Recipes are golden

If there’s one thing customers identify with super well it is recipes. Everyone needs to eat, and people are constantly on the search for recipes that look and taste good. On Pinterest, there is even a feature where customers can share their experiences with that recipe to help other users know if it is worth their time, so make sure it really delicious. While it may not work for every business, posting recipes and how-to food prep guides will definitely get you some pins and bring people to your site.

Machine learning and automation

One of the best ways to market on Pinterest, and really any type of social media platform for that matter, is through the use of machine learning and automation. With the help of a machine learning startup, you can get set up to have a computer analyze all the data from your Pinterest pins and give recommendations on better pins to post and how to post them. Machine learning takes all the information about what pins have been viewed and how many people have posted those pins in order to determine how effective every post on Pinterest is for your business. It will analyze conversion rates per pin to tell you which pins are working and which ones aren’t. In fact, you can even have automation setup, so you don’t have to do hardly anything on your site. Marketing automation is the next big thing in marketing and is going to become the new normal in 2020.

Video Ad Content

A somewhat new feature on Pinterest is the ability to do video ad roll-outs. People like it because Pinterest auto plays video content, so customers will definitely see it. People latch on to video content like crazy right now, but they will only ever stick around if you catch their attention in the first few seconds. Jump right into the point of the video instead of having long introductions because people want to quickly see what you are advertising to them. It is a creative way to reach customers and a way in which they want to be reached.

Affordable and Easy Activites

Another thing people use Pinterest for is getting ideas for things to do, whether they are doing it with their kids or planning a family activity. Posting activities and how-to guides for doing those activities will get the attention of customers and help them develop interest in the products you have to offer to help with those activities.

Using Pinterest to advertise, while often overlooked as a marketing method, can be extremely effective if done right. Just be sure to check the data to see what is and is not working, so you can create better pins that your audience will love.