How To Grow Your Mailing List with Pinterest in 3 Simple Steps

If you’ve been in eCommerce any length of time you’re probably already aware that Pinterest far outperforms Facebook as a sales-driven social media channel.

But what does that mean in reality?

Simply put, it means that traffic coming to your website via Pinterest is far more likely to convert to a sale than traffic from other social media marketing channels.

Pinterest is a platform that eCommerce merchants ignore to their own detriment.

Pinterest’s popularity among 30+ year old consumers with median incomes of $50k per year or more make it the perfect platform for merchants to focus on organically growing their mailing list. Digital product sellers have been using Pinterest to grow their mailing lists since the platform launched — and it coverts like gangbusters.

Yet despite the reams of data, list building strategies are all too often overlooked by physical product sellers, and surprisingly few independent eCommerce merchants utilize the full capabilities of the platform. The tips I’m about to share will help you change that.

In this article I’m going to show you step-by-step how you can grow your email list with Pinterest, and I’ll give you some suggestions for tools you can use to make this process even easier for you.

Step 1

Create an eye-catching visual that highlights a special offer you’re promoting in your online store. This will be your opt-in, and it could be a discount, a how-to video that helps your customers get more value from your product, a checklist, or a free guide.

You don’t need to have a copy of Photoshop or be a graphic design whizz either, free tools like Canva and Pic Monkey make creating visuals quick and easy.

Clients often ask me what type of free opt-in offer they can create for a physical product? And the truth is the options are limitless – just as they are with digital products. Here are a few opt-in headlines some of them have created.

1. How to clean your e-cigarette (so it lasts longer an continues to product good vapour ) (ecig company)
2. 10 step guide to choosing the right bikini for your body (bikini and beach apparel brand)
3. 8 ways to wear your scarf  (scarf brand)
4. Ten healing crystals every Yogi should own (yoga jewellery brand)

 

When you upload your pin make sure you select which board you want to upload it to. 

 

 Step 2:

Next, you’re going to create an email capture landing page that people will be sent to when they see your opt-in graphic and click the link within your pin. My tip would be to include the image used on the original pin within the landing page, so there is some clear visual continuity for your Pinterest follower once they leave the Pinterest platform.

One of my favourite tools for creating quick and easy landing pages for these types of offers is LeadPages. This landing page software is super easy to use even if you’re not a techy type person, but it’s not the only option by a long shot, other alternatives are Unbounce, ClickFunnels and Lander, to name a few.

Step 3:

Now you have your eye grabbing graphic and a landing page to send your visitors that is integrated with your email marketing software. But there’s one final thing that needs to be done, otherwise all your efforts will be in vain.

After you upload your pin you must remember to go back and edit it to include the landing page URL  – otherwise it won’t link anywhere.

 

To do this, just head back to the main board where you will see your latest pin, hover over the pin and you will see a pen graphic come up to the top left of the image – simply click that graphic to edit the pin and add your link.

And that’s it, you’re done!

Now you have a pin that will help you build your mailing list while also driving traffic back to your website.

And don’t forget, this is not a one time thing. You can create new pins every time you run a sale or promotion, which will encourage people to join your list and be kept up to date with future promotions.

There are many list building strategies that are extremely commonplace within the digital and information product niches that can be easily and effectively applied to physical products. I’m a firm believer than every independent retailer needs to be focused on growing their list with highly targeted prospects if they want to compete in the crowded and competitive eCommerce marketplace.

Have you identified any other successful list building strategies on Pinterest? I’d love it if you shared them with us in the comments.