During February 2015 Pinterest removed all tracking and affiliate links from their “boards” preventing affiliates to take advantage of their enormous traffic. But less than one month ago Pinterest reversed their policy and joined other social networks allowing affiliates to promote sites.
The good news is, that there are over 100 million monthly active users on the 5 year old platform- So there’s plenty of opportunity to drive traffic and get conversions.
Additionally, more than 80% of brands use affiliate marketing and Pinterest is a place where brands can show their products freely. The photo based platform lets affiliates drive traffic simpler than many think.
To get to the point, restoration of affiliate links means this: that it’s another source that you can leverage to increase revenues.
But how do you get ahead of the game if there are over 50 billion pins on the platform you say?
Here are 6 powerful tips to maximize traffic from Pinterest for your campaigns.
1) Create original high quality images
Users are bombarded with images on the platform everyday. If you decide to put a photo straight from Amazon it’s less likely to get clicked on.
However, creating an original photo with the product you have a campaign with gets more attention. It’s especially important since 80% of images are repins giving the opportunity for your photos to become “viral”.
There is equal importance to be wise of what is on the photo other than the product which you’re promoting. Whether it’s a selfie or a model in the photo, has proven to lift conversions up to 102.5%.
2) Use images from list posts
People love lists because they are concise and less time consuming than reading a full article. Pinning images from a “list style” post will increase clicks to posts that have affiliate links on. In addition, list posts are usually made up with photos and little text. This gives the visitor the expectation that they will continue to see them just as it did on Pinterest.
3) Don’t be a spammer
It’s easy to put all of the products that you’re doing campaigns with but can dramatically decrease your followers. If you’re doing nothing but selling, then you’re providing no value to the user.
Creating memes, quotes, photos from list posts, and infographics are all great ways to keep your followers engaged. Followers will be more likely to click through your link to get to the product page.
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4) Repin your followers’ content
Getting previous customers to buy again can be hard. However, communicating with them by sharing their content is extremely valuable to get them to repeat.
Sharing their pictures or liking photos can be effective, but getting them to post while promoting a product that you’re selling is golden. You can give them an incentive like a discount to pin pictures of them using the product they just bought. A real life customer using the product provides social proof and gives other followers an example of how the product is being used.
5) Create Pinterest Urgency
Urgency is always a great way to get visitors to convert without thinking twice. Using words that convert such as now, before, or end create a psychological reaction to get them to click. Original Pinterest photos with this copy will give them something to have a desire to buy more than before.
Many affiliate marketers also forget that they can create urgency with offers such as contests, giveaways, and discounts. The mix with an incentive of a contest and a time limit gives the follower the idea of having something for free while having the urge to do it now.
6) Use a responsive tracking link
Getting followers engaged and clicking on the links to your page is only half the battle since the most important thing for marketers is to increase conversions.
Before even clicking the link from the Pinterest photos, affiliate marketers can track and adapt to how users respond to their content. With a tracking link from TrackingDesk, marketers can geo target, rotate landing pages, and track other parameters.
Conclusion
While it’s nothing new that Pinterest affiliate traffic has been contemplated, there is still a huge untapped potential. There’s loads of competition on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But Pinterest gives the opportunity for many to market andconvert in a place that isn’t so saturated.
Next week, a top affiliate in the sport betting world will talk to us about how he used GEO and Language targeting to maximize conversions during the European Football Cup 2016. Until then, start to optimize your Pinterest boards and track them!
As always, don’t hesitate to comment and send your feedback!