How to drive more traffic to your website with Pinterest

This little blog post is all about how you can drive more traffic to your website and make Pinterest work for your business.
Pinterest is an amazing platform for any business selling virtually any product. The only problem with Pinterest is that it is so awesome you can find yourself taken away into another world of beauty and discovery and before you know it a couple of hours have whizzed by . It’s particularly enjoyable in the evening with a glass of wine and a few snacks or chocolate. Oops I mean green juice and carrot sticks :)
Ok let’s get started.
1. Detailed Descriptions
With Pinterest the more detail you offer the better. Let me expand on this point. Even though your main goal is to get them to your website you need to make them confident that when they get there they are going to find what they are looking for.
Your About you description Firstly make sure you use detail in your about you section. I find I can be a bit confused when I get to a profile as to what the profile owner is actually selling especially when there are lots of boards. I am absolutely not saying this is a bad thing. I am just saying that your about description can clear that little problem up right away. Make sure you are absolutely clear about what you offer and how you can help your followers here and include the most important keywords.
Your Pins Generally people on Pinterest use Pinterest to plan their lives. These people want to have as much information about your product as possible and as much help as possible before they go to find out even more. They want to know that if they click on ‘Visit Site’ it is going to take them to exactly what they are looking for. You need to add as much information to your explain your pin as possible and make it completely obvious what you are offering and how it is going to help them. Also if you have a detailed description filled with keywords the more likely you will get found in search for the people who’re actually looking for war you have to offer. Search is BIG on Pinterest.
Add Text overlay to your images A text headline over your image can be really effective to help make it obvious what your pin is about. It just gives that little biut if extra info that lets the Pinner know exactly what you are offering. Pictures can mean lots of things so it’s best to make it obvious what your image means.
Call to action A call to action is important but according to Pinterest themselves an aggressive one can go against you. So avoid 'Buy Now'or 'Click Here' types. Pinterest is all about experience and discovery and most people will be turned off by that type of call to action. Try and emphasise the value they will get by clicking your website in your call to action.
2.) Be very helpful and creative
Most Pinterest users are using Pinterest to discover so the more helpful you can be the better. Try and make it your goal to create the most helpful pins. To do this you need to jump into your ideal customers shoes for a moment and imagine what they would find the most helpful and appreciate the most. For example if you are a gift shop, you may well be selling flower vases and you may find the best way to do that is by teaching people how to create beautiful arrangements in thise vaes. They may then buy that vase and see all the other beautiful things you have to offer. Quite an obvious example I know but this is how you need to think about Pinterest. You need to be as helpful and creative as possible. This morning I saw a beautiful image of a small vase with a candle inside surrounded on the outside with lavendar. I just had to visit the site to find out how it was done and yes I wanted that vase!
3. The right images
Tall Aspect Ratio Try and use a tall aspect ratio on your images. This is because Pinterest is a vertically orinetated site and people see the pins in columns so pins have to shrunk down to fit their feed which. Having a tall aspect ration will give your images the best exposure.
Multi Product image. These are helpful because they let people know there is more behind your image. You can do this by doing and aerial shot of all your products or product styles. This with a good description is going to help encourage Pinners to visit your site.
4. Branding
Branding is really important on Pinterest but also does not need to be over the top. A small logo one of the corners of the image is a great idea to get your brand over tastefully. You can also add Rich Pins. Rich Pins are Pins that include extra information right on the Pin itself. There are 6 types of Rich Pins: app, movie, recipe, article, product and place. To get started, you'll need to prep your website with meta tags, test out your Rich Pins and apply to get them on Pinterest. For more information on how to do this you need to visit the developers site here.
I hope you have found this post useful. Do you have any tips you would like to add. If so please feel free to add them in the comments below. Also please feel free to leave your Pinterest URL in the comments below I for one would love to follow you.