Advantages and Disadvantages of Pinterest: Is Pinterest a Good Fit For Your Business?

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In this post, we will dig into the advantages & disadvantages of Pinterest marketing and whether it might be a good fit for your business or not.

You’ve probably heard about Pinterest before, everyone is saying how amazing it is and how they’re doing great. But you just can’t figure out exactly what it is about the platform that is worth adding one more task to the endless social media demands.

So, why Pinterest? Let’s take a look at some of the biggest advantages and disadvantages of Pinterest marketing.

Advantages of Pinterest

Longer lifespan of Content: Better value for your money

If you are consistently posting on social media platforms like Instagram or Tiktok, is likely that you are already creating content suitable for Pinterest. But unlike other platforms where the users only consume content that pops up on their feed or stories that only last 24hrs, Pinterest content is permanent.

This is because Pinterest is a visual search engine where content does not expire or get buried under newer posts. Sometimes, one piece of content on Pinterest can yield results for 3-6 months because the post is non-chronological. It’s personal. Your content shows up the moment that Pinners are looking for something to try, buy or do.

Since the content doesn’t go out of date, you end up getting get more value out of one post, making it a great way to repurpose your content. You can use one piece of content over and over as long as you are bringing a new angle to it.

The User mindset: Pinners are ready to take action and buy 💸

Pinterest users are known as Pinners, and unlike Instagram or Tiktok users, Pinners are not on the platform hunting for likes or seeing what everyone else is doing. Instead, they are searching for their next project.

Pinners are open-minded

Pinners want to be inspired and go to Pinterest for ideas of places to go and things to buy, but they don’t know what they want until they have it in front of them. In a recent publication, “How Inspiration Drives Decisions,” Pinterest reported driving 10x higher branded searches off-platform than others. That means people come without a brand in mind, but they leave with a decision. There’s a trigger moment that happens on Pinterest.

“The pinterest platform adds the value of fun and discovery to the shopping process.”

It’s all about the Pinner

Pinners are there to plan their own future & dreams. So, ensure all your content and messaging is geared toward helping turn their inspirations into realities. They’re looking for new ideas. They’re looking for inspiration to live their best life.

Pinners are ready to take action.

According to Pinterest findings, “when people feel inspired, they’re also more likely to act. So when your brand shows up in an inspiring environment, you’re more likely to see positive results.”

Good vibes only! ✌

According to a Pinterest report, 8 in 10 people say Pinterest is a place where they feel positive. So keep the tune and put your brand in front of the Pinterest audience with an inspiring idea.

“Pinterest ranks number one in inspiration—and not just on the internet.1 We rank ahead of magazines, TV shows, and all other online media giants.”

Pinterest is Top of Funnel & Search based: Get discovered by your ideal customer.

You might be surprised to hear this, but Pinterest and Google and are tied to the hip!

With over 430 million monthly users looking for inspiration and fresh ideas, Pinterest is the perfect platform to get discovered by customers at the beginning of their buyer’s journey.

Furthermore, according to a Pinterest report, 97% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded because people come to plan and do, but they haven’t yet made up their minds about what to buy—the perfect opportunity for a small business to compete.

Diversify The Traffic to Your Store: Gain a competitive advantage. 

One significant advantage of having a Pinterest marketing strategy is the capacity to drive targeted traffic to a website or online shop.

Compared to other social media sites, Pinterest is more likely to send you relevant traffic when you use it right. If you can create high-quality visual content on Pinterest, you will have more users share your content and follow your links. Which will turn into a source of sustainable long-term traffic.

Stay on top of emerging trends and get content ideas: Share content your customers love

If you are struggling to come up with content ideas or figuring out what kind of content to create (like many people do), Pinterest has great resources to help you come up with content that connects you with your dream client.

Here are a few:

• Pinterest trends: The tool allows you to see what’s trending and when throughout the year. For example, if you are
• Pinterest predicts: Important days that are happening and search terms people are using
• Pinterest Audience Insights: Pinterest wants to make it easy for businesses to market on the platform, and for that reason, they constantly produce research and produce reports on their latest findings. For example, last they published an article on Men shopping more in 2022.

Disadvantages of Pinterest

No benefit from instant gratification

Pinterest is a long-term game. Unlike other social media where you get immediate gratification, Pinterest takes longer to start generating results. A typical buying habit on Pinterest is about 3 months before someone makes a purchase, they will do a lot of searching, so as a business owner, you want to be able to hit your target audience well in advance. Which can feel frustrating because we are used to the instant gratification of vanity metrics such as likes and reactions.

Pinterest Marketing is Not for most local business

If your business depends exclusively on local traffic & sales– think like a bakery or hairdresser. Pinterest won’t be the best place without paying for ads.

Pinterest Native Scheduler Limitations

As a business owner, you have plenty of things on your plate, so of course, scheduling months’ worth of content in advance is a big time saver. Unfortunately, at the moment, the Pinterest native scheduler only allows you to schedule 2 weeks in advance, which means you will need to keep a reminder to schedule more content once it runs out, which is not ideal for a busy business owner.

Keeping up with constant algorithm changes

Although not unique to Pinterest, keeping up with algorithm changes is a must to ensure that your content remains relevant and reaches the right audience, but this task can become can soon become pretty overwhelming for a busy entrepreneur.

Pros and cons of using Pinterest Summary

Pros	Cons
✅ Your content lives forever, which means better value for your money	❌ No instant gratification. Pinterest is a long-term game that can become a sustainable source of traffic
✅ Stay on top of emerging trends and get content ideas. Share content your customers love	❌ Pinterest Marketing is not for local businesses that depend on local traffic and sales
✅ Increase sales & diversify the traffic to your store, giving you a competitive advantage	❌ Pinterest native scheduler limitations to schedule content in advance
✅ Pinterest is top of the funnel & search based. You can get in front of your ideal client when they are searching for your product or service	❌ You have to keep up with constant algorithm changes
✅ The User mindset, pinners are ready to take action and buy

Is Pinterest Marketing a good fit for my business?

If you’re sitting there thinking about how to incorporate Pinterest to your digital marketing strategy, the bar of getting into Pinterest might actually be lower than you think.

You could probably go to your last blog post, podcast episode, youtube video, or even Instagram story and ask yourself, would any of these be valuable as a Pin in the context of discovery and using trends? If the answer is yes

What do you need to have success on Pinterest as an E-commerce brand?

1. The most important thing is to share valuable & inspirational content

With your ideal customer using the words and phrases (A.K.A keywords) they search for. You post content that your target audience wants to save and use later.

You have to give the audience a reason to consume your content visit your site, and tell them why your brand is special.

For example: If you sell art supplies, you give them demo pictures & videos of the products in action, you showcase final projects and provide the list of materials required, ideas for seasonality & trends. Basically, think about educating content like how-to’s, guides, tutorials, FAQ,s etc.

So, if you think about it, this is the type of content you are already creating for platforms like Instagram or Tiktok sometimes on a daily basis.

2. Install the Pinterest tag (pixel) and connect your shop to your Pinterest account.

Pinterest now has integrations with major e-commerce platforms like Woo-commerce and Shopify, making it super easy to upload your catalog to your profile

3. Have clear and easy-to-find shipping & return policy in your shop

Once you have installed the tag and connected your store to your Pinterest, becoming part of their verified merchant program (which you definitely want to join) becomes much easier. However, it’s critical to have well-written shipping & return policy that it’s easy for your customers to find otherwise, your application will be rejected, and 9 times out of 10, it will be because they couldn’t find your return policy.

What are some best practices for using Pinterest for e-commerce?

• Have valuable content to share with your audience
• Set up a business account
• Install the Pinterest pixel
• Connect your shop to your Pinterest business account
• Become a verified merchant
• Pin consistently and stay within the Pinterest community guidelines
• Do keyword research to build your boards
• Be patient

Final thoughts

We hope we have helped you remove some of the mysteries that exist around Pinterest. Especially if you are not a current user. But now you know that the platform can offer the opportunity for businesses to appear and help guide buying decisions with meaningful & visually striking content at every stage of the customer journey.

And as we mentioned before, there is research to show that Pinterest users spend more, shop more often, and are bigger brand advocates.

Need help?

We focus on helping you create a sustainable content strategy to maximize your results by leveraging the power of Pinterest marketing. Pinterest is a great channel to breathe new life into your old content and a great way to generate and diversify your website’s traffic with little to no effort.