Creating a Product Catalog on Pinterest Visit www.MyPinterestMarketing.com for more information Etsy and a number of others have truly created an effective brand extension with their Pinterest pages. In addition to creating a good brand experience that can be shared, they have also created an effective showcase for their products. Essentially, this product catalog is an image-rich shopping experience for the millions of women who are the Etsy target demographic. In fact, given that a large part of the Pinterest value proposition is an online shopping experience, they deliver a content-rich experience that is driving a large number of sales. So, how do you learn from their best practices? More importantly, how do you move past their example to create an even more effective product showcase on Pinterest? To begin, realize that just like the old Sears catalog that came in the mail years ago, and just like the countless Pottery Barn and Front Gate catalogs that litter my mail every week, properly structured pinboards can be a content-rich catalog featuring products that every person wants. Similar to a catalog, structure your products by categories that fit the natural search inclinations of the viewer. Instead of a hodgepodge of different product shots, add order by creating multiple boards, each with an appropriate category, to help the viewers understand what type of products are offered and for whom they are most appropriate. If you have products for men, women and children, structure your boards accordingly. If your products are seasonal, do the same. If you offer a service, bundle your boards according to the various types of services that you provide. The idea is simply to create order to your catalog on Pinterest so that shoppers can find the product that meets their needs as efficiently as possible. Now that you have created your boards, it is time to add content to your catalog. For each product or product classification add images that showcase the product in a natural background. Keep in mind that dry product shots don’t typically get shared, but lifestyle images get pinned around the world. Once again think of the Pottery Barn catalog. If you are selling a service instead of physical products, include images that personify the type of experience you want your target client to have. For these images avoid stock photography and instead go for the unique and emotive. Pinterest allows 500 characters in their product description which is similar to what you would actually find in a print catalog. Take advantage of this space and fill it up using every available character to describe your product. Include the price using the “$” symbol before the price as well as the two decimal places after the dollar value so that the website will realize that you are selling a product and feature it accordingly on it’s gift pages. Use descriptive text and include terms that people will naturally search for. Remember, Pinterest has a search algorithm and all of your boards will also be indexed by the major
search engines. By having a board described appropriately, you increase your chances of showing up under search. Back to the Etsy example, if you search Etsy Rings on Google, their Pinterest page is the fourth item returned in search. The point is to be descriptive and remember that people will find your catalog through the search engines if you use the right terms. Finally, depending on your products, consider adding text to the images themselves. If there is something unique about the product or the image would benefit from commentary, then consider adding it. Keep in mind that you don’t want to be too commercial and that the sales-like the image, the less it will be shared. However, some text may be appropriate to increase interest, get more attention, or to differentiate the image from the multitude of other images on the page. For many brands, using Pinterest as a sales vehicle has proven immensely useful to drive sales. Just by creating an organized structure to the pages and adding appropriate pinboards and text to the site, some companies have been able to significantly boost their revenue. Creating a good catalog is not hard and the payoff can be immense. It is time to get to work.