by 
Want to connect with local customers on Pinterest?
Wondering how to drive foot traffic with Pinterest?
Pinterest offers local businesses a way to cultivate relationships with prospects and customers who are primed to walk through your door.
In this article you'll discover how to use Pinterest to market a local business.
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#1: Find Out What Likely Customers Are Interested In
Before you do anything on Pinterest, spend some time on the platform studying the people you want to reach. You likely have an idea of who your target audience is. Are they the same people you're hoping to reach on Pinterest?
Find out what your target audience is doing on Pinterest, who they follow, and what kinds of things they're pinning. Start by browsing the categories on Pinterest. Click to the right of the search box to open the drop-down category list.
Click through the categories that are most relevant to your business and check out related topics. From here, you can start to see where your content and business might fit in on Pinterest.
Try searching for related words in the Pinterest search bar. Pinterest's Guided Search will show you the most commonly searched words and phrases with your search term.
You can also click through to the most popular pinners and pins and boards from that search term. This is a great place to find your target customers, and learn what kind of content your target customers value and how they share it.
#2: Create Keyword-Friendly Boards and Profiles
Now that you've identified popular topics and keywords for your target audience, you can begin building your profile.
You've likely discovered some popular topics that are related to your industry. Use the interest topics you've identified for your boards. For example, if you're a hair salon, “Hair styles DIY,” “Curly hair tips,” and “Prom styles” might be good boards for your business.
Your Pinterest profile is a perfect place to embed your keywords. This will help you get discovered on Pinterest and also on Google. Add keywords to your profile name, profile description, board titles, and board descriptions.
#3: Fill Your Boards With Informative Content
People come to Pinterest looking for things to learn and to buy. Now that you know what your audience finds interesting, consider what informative content you can share on your boards. This is the type of content that will get more repins and help you reach more people.
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Create some boards that are related to your local community. For example, if you're a restaurant, create a board to share events that are taking place in your area.
If you're a vet, you could share educational content related to health and care for animals, popular pet products, and favorite places to take pets in the surrounding area.
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Informative content will help you extend your reach. In addition to curating that content from others, you should also create your own content. Think about what customers need to know in order to value the service you provide. What kind of customer education is needed in your industry?
Create simple graphics to explain a point or a new regulation. Even for non-designers, it's easy to create informative and engaging infographics with online tools. You might also write an explainer article or create a video to show how something gets done.
Share your content on Pinterest as a vertical pin. Pins perform best at 600 x 1200 (or more) pixels. Remember to write an information-rich caption to get more engagement.
#4: Drive Foot Traffic and Click-throughs With Rich Pins
Pinterest rich pins allow you to embed information from your website that is updated dynamically to encourage customer conversions. Here are some rich pins that might be helpful for your local business:
Use article pins if you have a blog or create blog content. When you create article pins, the headline, author, and story description will automatically be pulled into the pin. This helps encourage pinners to click and save your pins.
Use product rich pins if you sell something on your website. The product's name and pricing information will be pulled into Pinterest automatically. This will help encourage direct buying connected to your site.
You can create a place pin that includes a map, an address, and a phone number. This is perfect for sharing the location of your service business or perhaps the location of other businesses you're mentioning. Try making a board about your town or a specific street. You could share place pins for several of the stops you want to mark.
Rich pins require your tech team to add some code to your website. You can find out how to set up rich pins here.
#5: Be Ready to Engage
If you're sharing information, you'll likely find your audience asking questions. Perhaps you can find people sharing related information on their own boards through search.
Answer their questions and add your own thoughts in comments. This is a great way to make a personal connection with customers and prospects.
Conclusion
Creating a Pinterest profile and filling it with informative and engaging content is the first step to acquiring new customers for your local business. But to gain the real benefits of the platform, you need to build a following. You can achieve this with consistency. Set up a posting schedule and plan your content in advance, and use a scheduling tool to make sure it goes out at the ideal time.
You'll also want to check your Pinterest analytics to see how your content is performing. One of the most telling insights will be in Your Audiences. Find out if you're reaching the people you intended to and if your content is in line with their interests. Use these insights to adjust your strategy going forward.
What do you think? Have you used some of these tactics to connect with your target audience on Pinterest? What techniques have worked well for your local business? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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