How to Use Pinterest For Non-Visual Businesses

I’m sure by now you’ve been sucked into Pinterest, drooling over images of fabulous food, admiring far out fashion or planning your next craft project.  What if you have a non-visual business, can you still use Pinterest?

The answer of course, is YES!

How to use Pinterest for non-visual businesses

Pinterest isn’t reserved for the crafters, fashionistas and foodies.  A less than visual business can also take advantage of the power of Pinterest to start driving traffic to your website, increase your reach and online visibility.  From accountants to coaches, health care providers to insurance brokers to marketers to solicitors and beyond, this post is for you.

The first thing to remember about Pinterest – it isn’t all about you and blasting your message to the masses!

While it has been reported that Pinterest drives more conversions to sales online than any of the other social sites, it is not a “selling” platform.  Yes, you can pin your products, point people back to your services or opt-in forms and even to your front door using Pinterest maps – but that isn’t why people actually use Pinterest!

Pinterest is about discovery

From the Pinterest blog, users generally follow these 4 stages

1. Aspiration: the moment you get inspired to pursue a specific interest (say, taking up golf)

2. Anticipation: the phase where people look into the interest and start prepping to actually do it (like, researching golf clubs).

3. Participation: (this is the fun part!) when people actually participate in the interest they’ve decided to pursue (like, playing nine holes at a local course)

4. Reflection: where people reflect on the activity, maybe by taking a photo and framing it or sharing it on a social network

 How can you tap into stages 1-3 as a non-visual business?

1. Aspirations and goals

Think about your target audience, what are their goals and aspirations?  It can be aspirations related to your business but also think about their interests and hobbies too.

The publisher, Random House have Pinterest boards for almost anything related to books, including this board for Literary Tattoos

Propose PR, a PR Agency for the wedding industry, curate vintage wedding inspiration photos on their Pinterest board A Vintage Affair

Inspirational quotes and sayings always do well.  Even large brands like RedBull use them often – they tend to get re-pinned!

This quote is part of a set of 50 available to purchase from PLR Productions

Inspirational quotes and sayings related to your industry are very easy to create.

Since it is estimated that 80% of pins are repins, it’s good to get some fresh images up there. All you need is an image you created or a suitably licenced royalty free/public domain image and an image editor.

If, like me, you don’t have a creative bone in your body you can always get others to create quotes for pinning.  The very pretty quote above is one of a set of 50 quotes (and the backgrounds to add your own quotes), which is available from PLR Productions.

2. Anticipation: the phase where people look into the interest and start prepping to actually do it

This is where you can go crazy on Pinterest and show off your knowledge and experience, even as a non-visual business!

• videos explaining your products/services
• customer testimonials and successes
• behind the scenes boards
• before and after shots
• mission and values board
• resources related to your industry
• facts and stats about your industry
• how to’s
• tips

There’s an absolutely brilliant Hangout on Air between Denise Wakeman and Joan Stewart.  It is just over 40 minutes long, I would suggest grabbing a beverage of your choice, notebook and pen and watching all the way through.

Joan explains how her tips Pinterest board ranks at number 1 for the term “free publicity tips” and how she utilises that success.  Her tip pins are nothing fancy – in fact she creates them with Powerpoint!

Bonnie Gean has a great tutorial for making images of sticky notes (Post-it notes) using Gimp, a free graphics software.  Sticky notes would make a great background for your tips.

3. Participation – when people actually participate in the interest they’ve decided to pursue

Like any other social media platform, Pinterest is a two-way street.   It’s fab for getting your target market involved with what you do and encouraging the use of your products or services.

Mr Rooter is a plumbing company in North America ask for submissions to their Pinterest board “Where in the world is Mr Rooter?”  This would be a good Pinterest map board now too! 

Even Greater Manchester Police are pinning away – the MyGMP board shows how they are listening to their community with community reporters.

Pinterest sweepstakes and contests are an excellent way to encourage participation.

UK loan company, Pounds to Pocket ran this Pin it to win it Pinterest contest earlier in the year.

A contest can be cross-promoted to expand your audience and are a good way to encourage people to sign up for your email list.  Want more Pinterest contest ideas?  Cheryl Stinchcomb gives you 6 Pinterest contest ideas from “pin it to win it” to giveaways over on her blog.

Here’s a reminder…

Over to you…

Are you a “non-visual” business that uses Pinterest?  I’d love you to add to these ideas in the comments below.  Don’t forget to “pin” this post if it has inspired you to get pinning!