English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Recent Studies Suggest Pinterest is More Successful at Click Through Sales Then You Might Think. In view of this, a discussion on strategy and potential opportunities. Is it time to rethink Pinterest? This post is based on the information found in the May 31st E-Marketer Article:
Is Pinterest Really Leading to Product Purchases?
When I saw the results of the studies below, I have to admit I was pretty shocked. I found it hard to believe that the data was available to justify the high numbers being sited by the study below. In particular, with Pinterest only having been in the market for about a year, to make such progress in achieving this rate of success in click through sales seemed astronomical.
We all know when we look at studies, you have to look at who the respondents were, what the sample was. For example if the sample was from a group in the “online buying club” then these numbers wouldn’t surprise me as much, but at 32% of the online buying community now making purchases – potentially- through sites like Pinterest, it’s still a pretty awesome thing to think about.
I gave it some thought, and came to this conclusion, unlike Facebook, Instagram and other social sharing sites where we may see images, Pinterest seems to be one of the more popular sites where people collect all kinds of things – and these things don’t have to be related to them specifically, they just have to be appealing images. Unlike Facebook, where people are not likely looking for images of things, but rather looking at the things the people they care about post, in Pinterest you can have a very directed experience.
People Like Pretty Things
Thinking about Hockey, look up Hockey – thinking about a wedding dress, look that up… Thinking about vacations, serenity, home decoration, basically any visual ideal – you can find it on Pinterest. So it makes sense to me, that if the search engines are indexing Pinterest right, and a person is looking for visual appeal, there is no better place to browse, unbiased “products” based on recommendations or admiration by friends. In a way, it kind of seems better than a store, it’s like a curated mall.
Like A Museum With Art You Can Purchase
On the onset, the numbers below seemed unrealistic to me, but as I thought about it, and what Pinterest has really worked out to be, it makes perfect sense.
Take Away: If You’re The Artist, Sign Your Work
Based on this information, the key to success is :
- Make Sure to link your photos back to a place items can be purchased from
- Make sure to Curate Your Pins where you think the people who would be interested will find them
- On your own website, if you post an image, test what happens when someone sends it over to Pinterest, make sure you are giving yourself the best possible advantage in naming your images and your web pages where they come from. Don’t let your Pin get lost into the oblivion of re-pinned boards with no hope of finding it’s way back to you. (You’ll see in the study and E-Marketer article , this is an issue)
- Consider watermaking in a discrete and classic way if you’re really posting photos specifically to sell something, or better yet mark your facebook site, or an EASY link for people to track back to you on. You need to make it easy for these enthusiastic purchasers to grab those things they love.
Why do that? Because the data seems to show that the shoppers have found a new playground, a new “mall” online, and it just may be Pinterest.
E-Marketer’s article cited “According to a March survey by Bizrate Insights, 32% of online buyers in North America have made a purchase as a result of seeing an image on a social image-sharing site, such as Pinterest. That includes 26% who were able to click through to the retailer from the image to make the purchase.”
Image from E-Marketer.com
Image From E-Marketer.com
“According to February data from BlogHer, 81% of active female Pinterest users trusted the site for information and advice—even more so than Twitter and Facebook….The same BlogHer study indicated that 47% of female social network users in the US said a recommendation on Pinterest had influenced a purchase decision”
Is This the New Playground for The Shopping Community?
I think it just might be.. Its pretty, its shiny, its fun, it mixes business and pleasure and if done right it puts the pretty things you see within your reach at the click of a mouse and a log into Paypal. Couldn’t be easier than that right… What do you think?
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