Follow Up Marketing Experts Blog: October 2012

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Pinterest is one of the largest and fastest-growing social networks in the history of the Web, and also a major source of organic web traffic. Techcrunch recently declared Pinterest the 4^th largest driver of Web traffic worldwide – even beating out Yahoo and Twitter. The potential is obvious, but the business value a little more opaque. Pinterest harnesses mainly consumer content, which makes it tricky for B2B organizations to effectively market through it.

We believe it can be done, however. Pinterest can act as a valuable – and free – SEO resource, and can help leads that are unfamiliar with your brand discover it on their own terms. Follow these tips to generate quality leads through Pinterest.

Post All Images Related to Your Content
Start with the images from your blog posts, and pin them directly to your Pinterest board. Make sure to include links to your blog posts so you can drive traffic back to your website. You may also want to Pin cover photos from eBooks and whitepapers. Again, make sure all the links point to the right landing pages.

Show Off Infographics
Web users love infographics. An infographic is a great way to position your company as a thought leader in your industry. Infographics make it easy for people to understand complex information and find a lot of relevant details in an easily digestible format. Post an infographic to your pinboard with a link to the original infographic landing page on your site.

Use Hashtags
Hashtags are the lifeblood of social media-based search. Pinterest fully supports hashtag usage throughout the site. For the uninitiated, hashtags are keywords preceded by a pound sign (#) that make your content more visible to a site’s users. Using hashtags on Pinterest will make your content discoverable on other social sites, such as Twitter.

Post a Video Gallery
On the site’s homepage there is a separate tab for video pins. Post any and all videos that relate to your business. Pin all the videos from your YouTube channel, and also add videos that are relevant to your customers. Don’t forget to throw in some useful links and hashtags to make yourself more visible.

Revisit Your Efforts With Analytics
Finally, after you’ve tried some lead generation methods, return to the drawing board. Use your preferred analytics tool to measure the results of your efforts. Find out which images collect new prospects, and which images fall flat. This way you can re-tool the types of things you pin to the site to ensure high-quality prospects.

About the author

Lisa Fugere is the content marketing strategist and writer at InsideView, the leader in Sales Intelligence. She's responsible for creating all InsideView branded content, and specializes in SaaS sales and marketing expertise. She has a background in creative writing, and is a key contributor to InsideView's marketing team. @lisafromiv