As we wind down the year, we are smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, so I wanted to talk about holiday pinning in this week’s episode. Here are a couple of caveats… This video tip should really should have come earlier in the season. To fully maximize the benefits of the holidays for Pinterest, start early. To begin your Christmas Pinterest strategy, think about launching in September or October. Start your holiday pinning earlier rather than later.
To get the best advice possible on Holiday Pinterest Tips, I turned to Kelly Liberman’s excellent Pinchat group. Kelly hosts a weekly tweet chat called #Pinchat. You can find out more about Kelly’s group by visiting this site.
Here are three tips that will jumpstart your pinning for the holidays.
1. Use Rich Pins
Kelly mentioned that if a business, blogger, or brand doesn’t have Rich Pins, they need to get them. Rich Pins are easy to implement and can add many benefits to your pinning. So what exactly are rich pins? Rich Pins are Pins that include extra information right on the Pin itself. Here’s a quick break down on the five types of rich pins straight from Pinterest’s blog.
• Place Pins include a map, address, and phone number.
• Article Pins include headline, author and story description, helping Pinners find and save stories that matter to them.
• Product Pins include real time pricing, availability and where to buy. Pinners also get notifications when product Pins they’ve added drop in price.
• Recipe Pins include ingredients, cooking times and serving info. Recipe search filters help Pinners narrow in on vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, paleo and indulgent meal ideas.
• Movie Pins include ratings, cast members and reviews to help Pinners learn about new flicks.
The great thing about Rich Pins is that they instantly give your Pin’s credibility. Pinterest has also said that they will appear higher in the search results. So Rich Pins are a must for your holiday pinning strategy. To find out more about Rich Pins, here’s a link to get started.
2. Set Specific Goals
Zoe Waldron from Hello Society wrote a great blog post on holiday pinning. Her suggestion is for businesses to ask themselves, What do they really want out of their efforts? Awareness? Sales? Followers? Engagement? She says to pick one or two and plan your campaign around your goals.
For awareness she suggests integrating Pinterest links in posts on your other social profiles and also via your email lists. Even having a sign in your brick and mortar store can help your awareness on Pinterest.
For sales she suggested highlighting an upcoming deal. Black Friday deals are a great holiday example. A pre-release of an upcoming product or product line can also help boost your sales from Pinterest. Giving your Pinterest audience “exclusiveness” can be a great way to drive traffic to your products from Pinterest.
For followers Zoe recommends running a Pinterest contest asking for a simple follow and one repin from your brand boards to enter (this also helps engagement).
For her final tip she recommends optimizing your account, boards, and pins for Pinterest SEO and upping your pinning frequency to increase the chances of repins, likes, and comments.
The key here is to stay focused on your goals for your holiday pinning and stick with it.
3. Using Email Promote Yourself On Pinterest
Maarten Bierman gives a great resource using the chrome plugin Wisestamp for your email campaigns for the holidays. You can have links to all your social media profiles in your email signature including Pinterest. You can even edit the Pinterest link to go straight to your holiday board or a specific product pin. The license for Wisestamp is only $48 dollars a year for the professional version. I’ve been using the professional version for quite some time and love the ease of use and the ability to have multiple signatures that I can select.
If you are wanting a free option for setting up an email signature, my friend Mike Allton has written a great article on creating a rich email signature. It’s a great way to give your email readers a chance to follow you.
One last note about using Pinterest in emails. Kelly mentioned that emails that integrate Pinterest elements have a higher-click through rate. This is something to also consider when planning your holiday strategy.
I hope these three tips have helped create some new ideas for you on how you can use Pinterest for your holiday marketing. Start early, set goals, and use email to promote your Pinterest account for maximum exposure for the holidays.