There are millions of apps competing for visibility and downloads. Many channels have been discussed, barring one: Pinterest marketing.
The sales potential of Pinterest is the key reason why 60% of top brands already have a Pinterest account. 69% of online consumers who visit Pinterest have found an item they have purchased or wanted to purchase (this compares to only 40% on Facebook).
Pinterest gets more than 75% of traffic from mobile devices. Apping Pins allow you to install a button so Pinners can download an app without even leaving Pinterest.
We discuss 6 apps that are leveraging Pinterest marketing effectively to generate traction. Take inspiration or replicate their strategies – either way, tap into this largely untapped ecosystem for discoverability of your mobile app.
#1 Leverage image-based in-app content as a viral loop Pinterest marketing
Poshmark, a mobile fashion marketplace for people to buy and sell used stuff, realized Pinterest could help them grow after they noticed users on Poshmark were using Pinterest to promote apparel they discovered.
Poshmark then integrated Pinterest’s mobile SDK, making it easy for customers to add Pins of their items directly from the Poshmark app. The app utilized Pinterest’s boards as Poshmark wishlists where its users collect their favourite Poshmark finds to share with friends around a particular holiday or event, or even as a styling tool to group different listings around certain looks.
Poshmark’s Pins and Pinterest impressions tripled. They were able to increase referral traffic via Pinterest by 2.5x. Today, the brand has around 12K followers on Pinterest with 54 different boards.
If your app is producing image-based content – whether it is user-generated or admin, build a viral loop to allow your users to share those images through Pinterest.
#2 Study user behavior and improvise on the Pinterest marketing and product strategy
The merchants at Etsy marketplace used Pinterest as a Look-book for their products. Based on the market response or feedback, they would make changes to their products. For instance, Rachel, a jewellery seller on Etsy used Pinterest analytics for product planning. She pinned her new products to her boards as soon as they were listed for sale and paid close attention to user engagement through metrics such as user pins, repins, and likes of her products.
By using these insights, her average views per week increased by 22% and sales per week increased by 20%.
Etsy also launched a Guest Pinner program to bring in different points of view and engage the community in content sharing on Pinterest. All the guest pinners have large followings of their own, so this becomes a great way to get traffic for your mobile app.
#3 Create sub-profiles to further engage a niche community
Popsugar Fitness, a sub-category of the parent website Popsugar, has three times as many followers (over 298,000) than the Popsugar Pinterest marketing board.
This board is about being fit. It gives away healthy recipes, workouts and weight loss tips. This type of engagement proves that sometimes sub-profiles can help make parent profiles more successful – a very successful Pinterest marketing strategy.
Many media websites follow the same practice creating specific niche-based profiles for each country or a category.
You could even consider creating the sub-profile as the main one, keeping your app’s profile as the sub – users would rather identify and engage with the benefit or category than the brand in the early days.
#4 Present bite-sized content graphics for audiences on the go
Wall Street Journal has a board titled Wall Street Journal Graphics. WSJ created a resource to explain news in a simpler and bite-sized manner for those that want to catch up on what’s happening on the go.
They leveraged Pinterest marketing in a different manner through the power of Infographics, which are a visually compelling medium to present facts and information.
#5 Run a contest
Contests are a great way to increase engagement as a factor of effective Pinterest marketing strategy. JetSetter, an app for hotel deals and vacation homes used Pinterest to run a contest which boosted Jetsetter’s traffic by 150%.
Since its launch in 2009, JetSetter got many inquiries about becoming a JetSetter curator. So, Jetsetter started a Curator Pinterest contest where it asked pinners to create the ultimate destination pinboard within 15 days. To be eligible, boards needed to have ‘JetSetter Curator’ in the name, and each pin required the hashtag #JetSetterCurator.
More than 1,100 pinners participated with an average of 40 images per board, totalling nearly 50,000 pins. Throughout the contest, referral traffic from Pinterest to JetSetter’s website increased 100% and the bounce rate decreased by 10 to 15% during the promotion.
The promotion helped JetSetter jump from 2,000 to 5,300 followers. Today it has over 4 million followers making it one hell of a successful Pinterest marketing case study.
#6 Don’t take the beaten path – instead, be creative with messaging
MyFitnessPal, a fitness and health application, has taken Pinterest marketing to another level. It has created 42 unconventional boards on its Pinterest account and has over 75k followers and growing.
‘Fitness’ is among the most popular category on Pinterest. Taking leverage of its content, MyFitnessPal created boards which are all an inspiration for being healthy. The app took a broader route by not limiting boards and messaging to fitness. Some of the interesting boards are 5 ingredients or less recipes, Grab and Go recipes, Healthy Slow Cooker recipe, Family Friendly recipes, and Holiday recipes.