If you are thinking of using Pinterest to market your business you need to focus on it as a source for "top of the funnel" leads rather than banking on sales or conversions out of the gate!
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Why I Wrote This Post
I have been talking to a lot of people lately about Pinterest and have found that most of them are trying to use it as a marketing channel the same way as they used to use Google.
Pick a keyword to target that people are searching for, write a post, make some pins and Bob's your uncle!
That worked great on Google, but with Pinterest you have to get more finesse-y to make any traction.
Today we are going to be talking about how to use Pinterest to get people into your marketing funnel!
What Is The Top of the Funnel?
The top of your marketing funnel is the snazzy stuff you use to get attention from people who do not already know you!
So your "top of the funnel" could be a freebie, a blog post with a list of top things, a video, a master class giveaway or anything else of value that people would want!
What Kinds of Things Does Pinterest Like?
Pinterest likes female things... you can try to sell man stuff or B2B on there, but you are going to struggle! The 5 top Pinterest things that are popular are Recipes, Fashion, Beauty, Crafts and Decor.
So if you are trying to really use Pinterest to drive a lot of traffic (like tens of thousands of views a month) you need to focus on making your product or service something that pinners would like!
I KNOW, that is going to take creativity in some cases, but we are creative people so we can make it work!
What Are Some Top of Funnel Examples?
Here are some examples of "funnel steps" for different industries...
So for my friend Barb who writes cozy mysteries, she should think about the funnel for people to buy her books… Sees a pin for the "25 Best Cozy Mysteries For Summer", visits her blog post, signs up for her mailing list, email drives them to buy her book.
For a new friend Tomiko who is in travel it could be "the best places to travel with kids", pins her pin, visits her blog, finds a great post about visiting Seattle with kids. Tomiko is a blogger so the more pages she can get someone to visit the more money she makes!
Or for a Realtor who is doing affiliate marketing… Sees a pin for the "5 Design Trends That Are Helping Sell Houses Right Now", goes to blog posts, clicks on an Amazon link and buys.
How Can You Find Your Top of the Funnel (free)
So you can find your top of funnel a number of ways in Pinterest itself...
Pinterest Search Dropdown
When you do a search in Pinterest there will be a dropdown box that will give you ideas of what Pinterest thinks are relevant to that search:
Find the nearest relevant search to your industry and start there!
Interests In Pinterest Analytics
If you have a Pinterest business account you can also go to Analytics Overview > Audience Insights and see what your account's Pinterest peeps like.
This is highly specific to the people who are already viewing YOUR pins and should be weighted heavily in the direction of the pins you are going to make!
How Can Find Your Top of the Funnel (Paid)
I like to use a tool called Pinclicks to find the interests that I should target! It is a paid service, but it is excellent for really figuring out what you should be doing!
Got to Pinclicks > Interest Explorer and type the top of the funnel keyword that you are thinking about targeting:
Not only can you use this to see what the relevant interests are, but it also boosts your creativity in figuring out how a major interest on Pinterest can overlap with your own business.
For example, I see that "gardening journal ideas" is a keyword in Pinterest. I could make covers or a whole gardening journal for my freebie giveaway at the top of the funnel.
Pinterest Is Top of the Funnel Marketing Wrapup
I hope that helped to show you what the top of the Pinterest Marketing funnel looks like and how you can find some commonalities between your business and what Pinterest users want!
Additional Resources:
- PinClicks Pinterest Research Tool
- Awesome Pinterest For Ecommerce Marketing Course
- 17 Crafting Niches That Do Really Well on Etsy and Pinterest
