So here’s the question: is Pinterest a potential tool in a marketer’s social media strategy toolbox? Or is it just another giant time suck courtesy of the Internet? Is it a social media strategy goldmine or swirling vortex of mind-numbing eye-candy that allows us to “pin” away our weekends in lieu of signing up for that Pilates class?
Well, since Pinterest skyrocketed to popularity in 2011, a lot of social media agency types have begun tossing around the words like pinfluencer and p-commerce. Can Pinterest become an effective means of merchandising products and making online sales? We think, yes.
Here are the facts:
- • 15 percent of social media users are already on Pinterest (Source: Pew Research Center December 2012)
- • 80 percent of Pinterest users are female (Source: Huffington Post 2012)
- • Pinterest is most popular with women 18-49 who live in urban or suburban areas, with younger women being more engaged
- • 50 percent of Pinterest users have children
- • 28 percent of users are affluent (household income of $100,000+)
Put that all together and the idea of p-commerce begins to get some traction. Granted, Pinterest has not enabled selling on its site, but retailers are conducting tests to see if they can leverage the network’s 48+ million users. Wayfair, the second largest home goods retailer by revenue, has demonstrated that Pinterest referrals are more likely to make a purchase and spend more on average than visitors from other social channels.
Niraj Shah, Wayfair CEO, says that shoppers referred by Pinterest are 10 percent more likely to make a purchase than visitors who arrive from Facebook and Twitter. They’ll also spend 10 percent more money on average.
That’s not all. On average, Pinterest referrals spend 70 percent more than visitors referred from non-social channels, including Google search.
Of course, this didn’t happen in a vacuum. Wayfair stores sponsored a Pinterest Challenge promotion back in February. The contest invited Pinterest users to create pinboards with 15 to 20 Wayfair products. The prizes were one of five $50 gift cards. But the results were powerful enough to verify that Pinterest is a great way to reach upper-middle-class women and moms.
If your brand has young women as a primary targets, you should definitely consider ways to leverage p-commerce as part of a robust social media strategy. It could prove very pinfluential.
We are a Dallas Advertising Agency specializing in Social Media Strategy.
