Retargeter

The Power of Pinterest for B2B Lead Generation

Having emerged as the social media darling of 2012, it’s time to invest some of your 2013 marketing resources into Pinterest. In addition to boasting the largest increase in unique visitors and time spent on-site over any other social network in 2012, Pinterest sent more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined, making it the fourth largest traffic driver worldwide. Often considered a marketing tool for fashion and B2C companies, Pinterest’s rapid growth and popularity can also serve as a resource for your B2B company.

Leverage the popularity of Pinterest to generate leads for your business with these tips:

Visual Content Builds Brand Awareness

Pinterest allows you to dedicate a page solely to visual content. A unified visual presence can boost brand awareness, and Pinterest serves as another outlet to achieve a strong visual message. According to Hubspot, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and the brain processes visuals 60,000x faster than text. Pinterest allows you to place branded, visual content in front of a captive audience, capitalizing on how our brains most effectively capture information.

In the same way you achieve brand awareness via your website and other marketing collateral, businesses can utilize Pinterest to solidify brand visibility within the social sphere. You selected a logo and a color scheme for a reason. Take advantage of the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and let your company’s look be the hero when telling the story of your brand.

Infographics

Infographics are the perfect format to share your text content in a visual way. Did you know that infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than text? Additionally, publishers who feature infographics grow traffic 12% faster than those who don’t. The formula here is simple: people like infographics. Your infographics can have your branding built in. Infographics contain content people care about and are interested in. Pinterest is an ideal network to share infographics.

An infographic requires a large amount of research and design and can be a strain on resources, especially for a small company. If you don’t have the manpower or budget to pump out your own infographics, you can still use Pinterest to share those infographics you find useful or interesting. The platform can help you establish yourself as a regarded visual content curator. In the same way individual users on Pinterest attract followers because they find and categorize great visuals on the web, your business can also find the best industry-related visual content and share it on your Pinterest page. When you’re pinning the latest and greatest in infographics or other visuals related to your industry, you’re attracting the right followers and solidifying your brand as a knowledgeable contributor to the space.

Turn Text into Pins

While visuals serve as the primary focus of Pinterest, you can also turn text into pins! This is optimal when you have a new white paper, ebook, or blog post. The titles of your content can easily become visual content in the form of a pin. If you’re running low on original content (content marketers can’t be responsible for creating original content ALL of the time) brands can use Pinterest to share inspiring quotes, taglines, and other text. Fun tools like Quozio, shareasimage (formerly Pin-a-Quote), and url to Pin allow you to turn text and website screen captures into pin-worthy images.

Link Back

Creating a Pinterest page with well-organized and branded visual content is just one part of the lead generating equation. Once you have built an engaged following, you can bring them back to your site by linking each of your pins to suitably matched landing pages. For example, did you pin a photo of your latest product? Make sure you link back to that product page. Is there a pinned infographic? Link back to the blog post where you feature that content. With Pinterest driving big spenders to ecommerce sites, there’s good reason to make sure your pins are taking your followers to where they can buy your product or service.

Many think of Pinterest as a social network that is optimal for retailers. When used properly, however, Pinterest can serve as a great lead generating source for your B2B business. As a site that allows users to organize their interests and likes, there’s no reason your brand can’t have a strong visual presence on the platform. In addition attaching a visual story to your brand and boosting brand awareness, Pinterest can help you emerge as a thought leader, content curator, and help drive traffic to your site.