How to Master Pinterest for B2B Marketing

Posted: March 07, 2012

Let's face it. Pinterest is a slam dunk for companies who sell jewelry, fabrics, bags, and other cool "visual" items -- but it's pretty tricky for B2B. However, with the rapid growth of the Pinterest user base, many companies are seeing that referral traffic from Pinterest is lapping the traffic they're generating from Google+ and YouTube.

Let's face it. Pinterest is a slam dunk for companies who sell jewelry, fabrics, bags, and other cool "visual" items -- but it's pretty tricky for B2B. However, with the rapid growth of the Pinterest user base, many companies are seeing that referral traffic from Pinterest is lapping the traffic they're generating from Google+ and YouTube.

It may be time for B2B to step into the game, take advantage of Pinterest's popularity, and use it as a new traffic and lead generator. But how can you come up with a Pinterest strategy that fits B2B? Let's take a look ...

Identify Your Most Visual Content

The biggest challenge for many B2B companies that want to use Pinterest as a marketing channel is a lack of visual content. By nature, many B2B companies are selling a product or service in an industry that most likely isn't visual. The first step is to think outside the box to find images that align with your company's image, fit nicely on Pinterest, and are fun to share.

Here are some ideas of content you can post:

1. Visual Content You Already Have: For example, someone at your last company mixer must have grabbed a few photos, right? If so, create a board to showcase your company's culture, and pin those photos. Only have executive headshots? Create an "executive management" board, and include a bio for each person.

2. Strong Visuals From Your Blog Articles: Pin visuals that best highlight your written content. Don't have any yet? Start using clear, beautiful images in your blog articles with the point of pinning them to your pinboards moving forward. You should be using images in your blog articles anyway!

3. Infographics: Infographics are all the rage right now, and they are doing very well on Pinterest. Have any company or industry data that you can visualize? It'd be a hit!

4. Data Charts. Similar to the above suggestion, you can also pin simple yet compelling data charts that you can build in Excel. Whether you're highlighting industry data in a visual way or own original research, just make sure you have a clear headline in the image so people know what they're looking at!