5 Ways Businesses Are Using Pinterest Boards to Promote Their Products

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Businesses are increasingly taking advantage of Pinterest’s ability to drive traffic to their website and new sales. Pinterest users have been shown to spend more per purchase than users from other social networks – and the popularity of Pinterest only continues to grow.

But how do you use Pinterest to promote your products in a way that drives new traffic and sales?

In this article I’ve complied a list of 5 businesses that are using Pinterest boards to creatively showcase their products. Let’s see how they’re doing it:
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1. Urban Barn 


Urban Barn is a home decor retailer. Their business profile lists their location as ‘Vancouver, BC’ and is verified with links to Twitter and the company website in their bio.

Urban Barn’s Pinterest Stats

25 Boards 659 Pins 9 Likes 2,127 Followers 53 Following

How Does Urban Barn Use Pinterest Boards to Creatively Promote their Products?

Urban Barn boards are organized in a manner that makes it easy for their user to find their products. Taking a cue from Pinterest popular pins, they based their pinning strategy on pins organized by colour (‘Dijon’, ‘Wasabi’) in addition to those labelled by use (‘Living’, ‘Sleeping’).

Urban Barn Makes It Easy for Customers to Shop Their Boards

Keeping each board focused on a single theme directs traffic towards the board that best targets each follower’s needs. This makes it easy for customers to search for and find their products. It adds ease to the buying process for customers who have a clear idea of what they are looking for. It is also an opportunity to create more boards, more often.

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The ‘Dijon’ board, organized by all the company’s products available in that particular shade of yellow, is quite active with 45 Pins and 1,673 Followers. Pins include images of bedding in dijon, photos of chairs in dijon and even a statue of a Buddha (in dijon!) available at Urban Barn.

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Urban Barn Uses Repins to Enhance Their Pinterest Boards

The ‘Dijon’ Board actively repins items relevant to the board’s theme. This is a great way of enhancing their product’s appeal, keeping their boards active and creating relationships within the Pinterest community that can lead to increased followers, repins and likes.

One of their repins is a tuscan-inspired ‘dijon’ wall sourced from Tumblr that received 7 repins and a like. Another is a repin of focal wall design that could be executed using Urban Barn products. This repin is sourced from the NY Times and received 6 repins and a like. These repins carefully reinforce the overall theme of the board and Urban Barn’s own product offering.

Urban Barn Keeps Their Boards Fresh

Showing social media savvy, they also use Pinterest to promote their ‘New Arrivals’.  This board is an integral part of their Pinterest strategy as it ensures content will be updated consistently, keeping the brand’s products on followers’ timelines and at top-of-mind.

Updating Pinterest consistently is key in captivating existing followers and generating new ones. It keeps your products and brand name at the top of your follower’s minds, which makes it more likely that when they are ready to complete a purchase, they will think of you first.

This is a great strategy for driving traffic into stores, by showing customers there is something new to see. Especially as seen with their latest pin which advertises a Summer Sale. Their ‘New Arrivals’ board keeps its 1,711 followers attention with a solid 232 pins to date.

 

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Urban Barn Make It Easy For Their Customers to Find Their Products

Urban Barn occasionally hashtags product images with descriptors alongside their brand tag #urbanbarn, which will help new customers find their products when they perform a search for items that Urban Barn sells.

For instance, a recent pin to their ‘Dining’ Board of a 5-piece patio set featured the hashtags #urbanbarn, #outdoordining #outdoorliving and #patio. This is why the location tag in their bio is so important- together with the hashtags used on the pins, Urban Barn is making its company more easily found through searches specific to its target market.

2. Home Depot


Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in Canada and the U.S. Their Pinterest bio includes a link back to the company’s US homepage. Their business account is verified, with a link to their Twitter account included.

Home Depot’s Pinterest Stats

39 Boards 2,610 Pins 110 Likes 58,151 Followers 570 Following

How Does Home Depot Use Pinterest Boards to Creatively Promote their Products?

Home Depot stays on trend with relevant promotional opportunities like holidays- they have a ‘Gift Ideas’ board which was most recently active in pinning away Father’s Day themed pins.

The ‘Gift Ideas’ board runs a fantastic creative promotion by adding employee endorsements to each product pin. The employee is featured on the pin: with a photo, their name, job title and years of service at Home Depot. The employee endorsement and product image is supported by an informative caption, rich product pin information detailing the product’s price and a link straight to the product’s page on the company website.

The personal touch is an effective one with the Pinterest Community, evident in the board’s nearly 25,000 Followers.

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What’s a Rich Product Pin?

Rich product pins are a relatively new development from Pinterest. These pins allow retailers to show real-time pricing and availability information of their products on each individual pin. Each pin also links back to the product’s page on the company website, which makes it very easy for customers to find all the information they need to complete a purchase.

This is especially important on Pinterest, which has been shown to be used as a shopping tool for its users- they actively seek out the products they intend to buy.

Home Depot Uses Content Marketing to Creatively Promote Their Products

Home Depot has mastered the art of Pinterest content marketing for their niche. One instance is seen again on the ‘Gift Ideas’ board, in a humourous info graphic detailing how-to ‘Build the Ultimate Man Cave’. Naturally, the ultimate man-cave is built with Home Depot products.

This pin is a crowd-pleaser with 439 repins, 138 likes and 2 comments to date. And these comments are quite enthusiastic-  with Pinterest user ‘Danielle Shepherd exclaiming“Love it!! Great idea!” and pinner ‘Riverra Krilling’ stating “Dear Home Depot, I just wanted to say that me and my dad LOVE shopping at Home Depot!…”

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With 80 Pins total, the 24,669 followers of this board have many gifts to choose from for any occasion.

Another way Home Depot uses content marketing on Pinterest to creatively promote their products is seen in the ‘Home Improvement 101’ board, featuring the tagline “Follow for daily definitions of everyday goods sold at The Home Depot. Become an expert in the aisles by learning useful vocabulary and handy info for your next DIY project or home renovation.”

This is a terrific strategy promoting the use of Home Depot products by inspiring customers to tackle these home improvement jobs. Concurrently, this is an excellent means of drawing customers to their Pinterest account to check back for more tips and a brilliant strategy for getting repins. Their daily ‘Home Improvement 101’ pin on Wainscoting received 97 repins, 24 likes and a comment. A pin describing the Trome L’Oeil Pin painting technique was even more popular, with 111 repins and 28 likes.   

Some of the pins are sourced from blogs, from which Home Depot gives credit, building relationships within the Pinterest community. Each product pin includes an informative and interesting caption and the product’s availability, with a link back to the product’s page at [www.homedepot.com](https://www.homedepot.com).

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Their ‘Storage and Organization’ board promotes the Home Depot products that help pinners organize their lives. They pin their assorted storage products with captions detailing product usage and other details. One such pin captioned “Keep losing food stuffs in the back of your pantry cabinets? A pull-out cabinet organizer is the perfect solution! #storage #organization” shows organizers in use on pantry shelves, and received 128 repins and 20 likes.

 

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Home Depot Uses User-Generated Content to Creatively Promote Their Products 

On the ‘Storage and Organization’ board, Home Depot often repins pictures captured by customers using their various storage products, usually in a new and creative manner than the intended use. One repin details how a customer used a Home Depot Workbench to organize his collection of bike tools.

3. South Granville Shopping District


South Granville is a shopping district in Vancouver, British Columbia.  It is a collection of roughly 200 stores, which vary greatly- from Fashion, Health and Home Decor to Food, Art and Antiques.  Their bio includes their location, which is vital for targeting customers in their local area. Their account is verified, with links to the company website and Twitter account included.

South Granville’s Pinterest Stats

43 Boards 1,552 Pins 55 Likes 530 Followers 1,018 Following

How Does South Granville Use Pinterest Boards to Creatively Promote Their Products?

South Granville uses Pinterest boards to promote the products of their assorted stores and also to promote events for the district as a whole.

One of their boards is called ‘What’s Happening?’ and features promotional imagery pinned from www.southgranville.org, advertising upcoming events and activities. This board has 113 pins with 450 followers. It was most recently used to promote a new exhibition at the Kurbatoff Gallery taking place June 6th to the 20th.

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The South Granville Pinterest account consistently and constantly adds new content to its boards. This keeps South Granville’s pins- therefore their products and promotions, on their follower’s timelines on a regular basis.

South Granville Creates Boards with Popular Content

One of their most active boards is ‘Women’s Style’, with 149 Pins to date. This board amalgamates products from across the assorted women’s fashion retailer brands in the South Granville shopping district. In keeping with the season, South Granville recently pinned a blue lace dress from www.Plum.ca, exclaiming “Love the lace!”

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Another pin to the ‘Women’s Style’ board demonstrates how a blazer can be accessorized with to create varied looks, sourced from a Vancouver style blog featuring clothing purchased from South Granville retailers. This is a good way to promote South Granville products and grow relationships within the Pinterest community.This will encourage other bloggers to use South Granville products in the hopes of receiving a repin on their board.

Their ‘South Granville Gourmet’ board features a blend of food photos and recipes with products pinned from www.cookworks.ca, inspiring followers to head down to South Granville to eat- or to shop for the products they need to make it themselves! This is an example of how South Granville uses content marketing to creatively promote their products using Pinterest boards.

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South Granville Mixes Media

Some of these pins link to videos on the South Granville YouTube channel, showcasing the products and individual stores in greater detail. The Cookworks YouTube channel recently posted a video showing fans how to flavour their food and drink with a mist of citrus, which South Granville quickly pinned so its followers wouldn’t miss the tip.

Multimedia is a great way to connect with a different segment of pinner as some people prefer video to photos and vice versa. Though Pinterest is largely image-based, adding a few video links can drive viewers to your YouTube channel, increasing views and subscribers and attracting new followers to your board.

4. Aldo Shoes


Aldo Shoes is part of the Aldo Group, founded in Montreal, Quebec. They are a shoe and accessories retailer and have stores world-wide. Their business account is verified, with links to the main company site and Twitter account in their bio.

Aldo Shoes’ Pinterest Stats

21 Boards 1,402 Pins 731 Likes 8,883 Followers 125 Following

How Does Aldo Shoes Use Pinterest Boards to Creatively Promote Their Products?

Aldo showcases its latest promotional campaigns with dedicated boards for each one. Every board maintains a consistent theme and is used as a ‘lookbook’.

A spring campaign depicted on their ‘Floral Femme’ board introduced ”The Floral Femme. She’s no wallflower – she likes to cause a stir and push boundaries, yet in a subtle way… just like the exotic botanical prints & rich textures blooming on these stilettos & platforms.” Each caption is written to captivate followers along the line of an advertisement tagline.

Promoting their spring high heels, a pin to this board is captioned “FOOTWEAR FRIDAY Meet “The Floral Femme” – the woman who loves opulent floral motifs & rich jewel tones. Is your party look more wildly floral or subtly exotic?” and received 14 repins and 4 likes.

Aldo Shoes Uses Repins to Enhance Their Pinterest Boards

Aldo uses repins to enhance this board by repinning shots of floral nail design, glamour pictures of flowers and photos of models wearing floral-themed outfits, sourced from various Tumblrs.

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Aldo Shoes Intrigues Its Followers

Promotional images not seen on the product’s page of the company site are used to captivate followers.

Pinterest users appreciate retailers who go out of their way to cater to the Pinterest community with not-seen-before exclusive images or rare photos. It’s also an added incentive for repinning, as the image is not available on a variety of mediums already. This is an opportunity to showcase the product in a new way and increase it’s appeal.

Aldo Shoes Keeps Their Boards Fresh

Aldo reinforces its cutting-edge image by staying very active in pinning their latest products on Pinterest. Their ‘Aldo by Aldo’ board recently informed its followers that “It’s almost sandal season” with an image of espadrille wedges receiving 101 repins and 25 likes.

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Aldo Shoes Uses User-Generated Content to Creatively Promote Their Products 

User-generated content is a big part of their overall social media strategy. Aldo regularly runs promotions for photos of customers wearing their products and keep their boards updated with repins of these photos, often submitted by users via Twitter and Instagram.

Aldo Shoes Runs Exciting Promotions Across Its Social Media Platforms

One of their weekly promotions is called ‘Manic Monday’ and uses the hashtag #manicmonday for customers to submit their pictures which are then posted to their various boards with a shout-out given to the submitter.  This is a superb way to engage their customers in conversation and create a buzz around their products.

Aldo does a great job of coordinating its promotions across its social media platforms by incorporating the use of a consistent hashtag for Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.  This maintains cohesiveness and ensures that none of Aldo’s followers are left out of the conversation.

With the recent introduction of hashtagging on Facebook, Aldo now has the opportunity to get its Facebook fans in on the action, too.

Aldo Shoes Focuses On Their Customers

Another way that Aldo uses USG on its Pinterest boards to creatively promote their products is the ‘ALDO BY YOU’ board, a fantastic promotional tool for Aldo as it shows a mix of celebrities, bloggers and the board’s over 7,000 followers wearing Aldo product.

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5. Nordstrom


Nordstrom is a fashion retailer based in the United States. Their verified Pinterest account lists their location as ‘Seattle, WA’ and has a link back to the company homepage. They also list their customer service phone number and their ‘social team’s’ names.

Nordstrom’s Pinterest Stats

61 Boards 4,889 Pins 1,808 Likes 4,478,204 Followers 2,184 Following

How Does Nordstrom Use Pinterest Boards to Creatively Promote their Products?

Nordstrom is using Pinterest boards to creatively promote their products by capitalizing on the content that dominates the Pinterest popular page. It is well-known that Pinterest is often used by brides planning their weddings and that wedding-related pins attract much attention.

Nordstrom Creates Boards with Popular Content

Nordstrom’s ‘Garden Wedding Ideas’ board has a staggering 4,353,320 followers. Nordstrom uses this board to display their product skilfully, seizing the opportunity to creatively promote a mix of product from across their varied segments.

This board cleverly features home decor pieces as ideas for centrepieces, cookbooks sold at Nordstrom for reception and bridal shower menu inspiration, gift ideas such as jewellery and perfume and of course, dresses , shoes and accessories (even make-up!) for the soon-to-be-bride and wedding attendees.

Nordstrom’s ‘Cute blue pastel fit & flare dress (under 100 dollars)’ pin received 1,647 pins, 408 likes and 2 comments. Another popular pin on the ‘Garden Wedding Ideas’ board, advertised the ‘Giorgio Armani Spring 2013 Sheer’ Lipstick and was repinned 938 times, received 620 likes and 5 comments.

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Repins are used sparingly, enhancing their boards without taking the focus away from Nordstrom product. For example, Nordstrom repinned a photo of a Martha Stewart wedding cake to this board, which received 1,230 repins, 912 likes and 13 comments.

Nordstrom Actively Engages Their Customers

As Nordstrom has the capability at their disposal, each customer comment and enquiry is promptly replied to by a Nordstrom staff member. They use their Pinterest account to engage their customer base actively, adding editorial comments to captions and replies. After Pinterest user Prasantti Roy commented “Love this!!” on a pin of a ‘Garden party ready: Lilly Pulitzer fit & flare dress”, Nordstrom replied “We do too, Prasantti! It’s garden party perfection. -Colleen”.

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They drive home the personal touch with the description of their ‘Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale’ board- “Our favorite end of the season sale, curated just for you.”

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Nordstrom Continues the Discussion on Pinterest Post-Purchase

Judging by the customer comments alone, this strategy is successful- multiple commenters added they had just completed a purchase of an item on-line or in-store- returning to Pinterest after the fact. Nordstrom staff are employing Pinterest as a means of avoiding post-purchase cognitive dissonance by continuing the discussion after-the-fact with positive reinforcement.

A great way to boost sales is to engage past customers in a discussion on product pins. You can always add for example, “Have this dress? Tell us why you love it” or “Have you used this crockpot? Tell us your favourite recipe so far!” Would-be buyers will be encouraged to make a purchase with the credibility added by past-buyers rave reviews. It also will demonstrate uses for your product that you might not have even known about!

Conclusion


As you have seen, a variety of retailers are using Pinterest to promote their products. While there are a number of best practices when doing so, each company has tailored its strategy based on its specific product offering, target market, needs and capabilities.

Retailers can take note of what these 5 are doing to help interpret their own Pinterest board strategy.  

Have you used Pinterest boards to promote your products? What best practices have you found worked for you? Tell us your thoughts on using Pinterest for product promotion in the comments!

Written by Shaylee Perez @ Wishpond

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