⚡ Get All Content for 20% Off ⚡

5 Tips for Boosting Sales on Pinterest The photo-focused social-media site has eye-popping statistics no online marketer can afford to ignore.

By Ann Smarty

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Bloomua / Shutterstock.com

If you are selling anything online while not leveraging Pinterest, you are losing out. Pinterest converts very well. According to Venture Beat, Pinterest generates four times more revenue (per click) than Twitter and 27 percent more per click than Facebook. Moreover, users coming from Pinterest tend to buy more. According to Shopify, Pinterest referrals have the highest average order.

Pinterest is one of the ecommerce-friendliest social media networks out there. Its active userbase is 80 percent women and everyone knows women are the best buyers.

That being said, if you are into ecommerce, you must think of Pinterest as one of your revenue sources. Here are five actionable tips for you.

Related: The 10 Commandments of Using Pinterest for Business (Infographic)

1. Switch to a business account for better analytics

Pinterest offers the most useful analytics I've seen in social media. You can track your boards, popular and trending pins, follower acquisition, etc.

My favorite part, though, is domain stats. If you have a business account and your domain is verified, you'll see all pins from any Pinterest user as well as how many impressions, clicks, repins and likes each pin received. That's one of the best ways to monitor your business activity, catch the trend and support (by likes and repins) any pin that is able to drive sales to your site.

2. Go for product Schema.org

Rich markup allows Pinterest to find the most essential information on your page and show it on the pin page. Rich pins are effective for better conversions. If I see a price underneath the pinned image, I'll know it's for sale. If I click, I am considering buying the item.

Rich pins work well for better traffic, too. According to published data, Target saw a 70 percent increase in visits to its site from Pinterest after creating rich pins for its products.

If you are not using Schema.org for Google rich snippets yet, you may want to start now: It will work for both Google and Pinterest. Here's an easy product Schema.org generator for you to better understand how to implement rich markup on your product pages.

Home Depot is a great example of Schema.org product schema well-executed. Each pin from the domain contains item name and price information.

Related: 11 Advanced Pinterest Tips and Tricks

3. Make sure the image alternative text is descriptive

In most cases, no matter how one pins your product images (a bookmark or an on-page button), by default image alt text is what is going to be used as the pin description.

By controlling what that Pin description contains, you can in some way control what message (and thus intent) is accompanying your product image throughout Pinterest (in all pins and re-pins). Deal Pursue is one of the best examples of how to handle a Pinterest description properly: Each pin contains the product details, detailed deal description and why it's an excellent offer.

Think about all of those people who use Pinterest to bookmark products and deals to create a holiday shopping list: Having a descriptive alt text like that may dramatically increase your referrals and especially conversions.

4. Embrace a more creative visual marketing strategy

Images are not just for fun, any more. Unless you get creative and flexible with your visual strategy, you are losing out in social media big times:

5. Try image hover-over "Pin it" button

Product image hover-over "Pin it" button is the most subtle social media call-to-action you'll see on an ecommerce product page: It's not distracting and will only be visible to those who are interested in your image. That's a very good way to encourage active pinners to bookmark your product to a public Pinterest stream.

The easiest way to to do that is to use "Shareable images" feature by Shareaholic. It's very easy to implement and it's cross-platform-friendly.

Related: Pinterest 101: Marketing Tips From Whole Foods

Ann Smarty

Founder of MyBlogU, Brand Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas

Ann Smarty is the brand and community manager at InternetMarketingNinjas.com as well as the founder of MyBlogU.com. Smarty has been into internet marketing for seven years, she is the former editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs including Small Biz Trends and Mashable. Smarty is also a frequent speaker at Pubcon and the host of regular Twitter chats #vcbuzz and #myblogu.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Side Hustle

The Remote Side Hustle a 43-Year-Old Musician Works on for 1 Hour a Day Earns Nearly $3,000 a Month: 'All From the Comfort of Home'

Sam Ziegler wanted to supplement his income as a professional drummer — then his tech skills and desire to help people came together.

Marketing

Ever Wonder Why Certain Websites Rank Higher Than Yours? This SEO Expert Reveals The Secret to Dominating Search Results

It's often the smart use of SEO, now supercharged with AI, particularly in keyword optimization.

Franchise

The Top Franchise Brands Growing Globally

While our main Fastest-Growing Franchises list focuses on North American growth, more and more brands are looking to grow worldwide. These are the 25 that had the greatest franchise growth outside the U.S. and Canada from July 2022 to July 2023.

Business News

Dollar Tree Is Closing 1,000 Family Dollar Stores

Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar in 2015 for an estimated $8.5 billion.