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What was once the distant cousin to top social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, Pinterest has continued to make a name for itself as a leading search engine for brands everywhere. Pinterest has been the go-to visual search engine for every woman who wants to know what outfits are in style this season, home décor inspiration, or outfit ideas for her next family photoshoot. While it’s a great hub for inspiration, DIY tips, and a dose of beauty, it’s also a great way to grow your stationery business.
Today, we’re diving into Pinterest marketing for stationery designers…but first, let’s talk about why it matters.
Why Pinterest Matters
Let’s face it, people come to Pinterest every month to be inspired. Let your stationery designs be the thing they get inspired by. Whether it’s Christmas cards, wedding suite ideas, or a beautiful new planner, Pinterest is the best place for people to find your designs. In fact, in Q2 of this year, Pinterest touted 640 million active monthly users.1
And the best part? They’re coming to search Pinterest as a visual search engine instead of Google. And their search terms are unbranded. That means your small business has the opportunity to be found in their search for “nostalgic Christmas gift tags.”
96% of Pinterest’s top searches are unbranded, showing that people are open to new ideas, new companies, and new brands.2 They care more about the item than the brand that made it. That’s good news for you and your growing business!
Pinterest vs. Instagram
If you’re wondering if you should utilize Pinterest vs. Instagram for your stationery brand, the answer is (drumroll please…) both. It may be hard to hear that you need to juggle yet another social media platform, but hear us out.
Instagram is a great place to build a platform, introduce future customers to your brand, build momentum for launches, give sneak peeks behind the scenes of your products, and connect with your customers. Sure, the ever-changing algorithm can make you want to pull your hair out, but there’s no denying that Instagram has its rightful place in your marketing efforts.
But then there’s Pinterest. If you think about Instagram being the place that connects people to your business, Pinterest is the place that connects people to your products.
Instagram shows most of your posts, reels, and stories to the people who are already following you, while Pinterest allows your products to show up in people’s searches for specific stationery items.
Let’s say Stacie is newly engaged and wants to know what the top trends are for winter-themed wedding invitations. Your pin may pop up in her feed because you just so happen to be a wedding stationery designer who specializes in winter weddings. Stacie may have never heard of your brand or seen your stationery before. But because of your beautiful product photography and links to your website, she’s now planning to work with you to create her invites. That’s a win for Stacie–and a win for your business.
The Perks of Using Pinterest for Your Stationery Business:
As we said earlier, you may be groaning audibly about the thought of handling one more social media platform. But the beauty of Pinterest is that your efforts aren’t just one and done. Your content has a longer shelf life on Pinterest than it does on any single platform. Instagram and Facebook were built for the scroll.
People visit their feeds to be entertained constantly. But Pinterest, since it’s seen as a visual search conductor, is more about matching the Pinner’s search with the right content. That means that those beautiful pictures of your greeting cards from years ago could find their way into someone’s search, leading them straight to your stationery shop.
Here are some of the top perks of utilizing a Pinterest business account:
- Pinterest helps you capitalize on your marketing efforts.
- Pinterest makes it easy for pinners to find your business.
- Use data to help you analyze customer searches and trends.
Chelsea Tobin of Forbes.com writes, “One of the great benefits of Pinterest for businesses is that a pin can continue to generate traffic long after you first posted it. Also known as evergreen content, pins that aren’t tied to seasonality or trends have the potential to keep working for you all year round.”3
The beauty of utilizing Pinterest to grow your stationery business is that it’s not something that you have to keep track of every single day. Instead of worrying about posting in a consistent rhythm and making sure you’re responding to every comment within a certain time, Pinterest allows you more freedom. You can post multiple pins with different pictures about the same stationery. You can also save a ton of time and effort by constantly repurposing the content in your arsenal.
One of the greatest things about Pinterest is that they serve up pins to the Pinner based on the search intent... not based on the brand. In fact, 96% of Pinterest searches are unbranded.4 That means that there’s a level playing field for larger companies and smaller businesses (just like yours) to be found in the same search. Pinners aren’t coming to Pinterest for brand inspiration; they’re coming for the creativity, and they don’t care what brand it comes from. This is where your stationery business has an opportunity to shine.
Using Pinterest Business helps you create searchable pin titles and descriptions. This works the same as any other type of SEO play since Pinterest works as a search engine. The more detailed and descriptive your titles and descriptions are, the higher the chance that they’ll be matched with the best searches.
Marketing is a necessary part of every business’s growth plan, big or small. It’s the way to introduce your products to new customers and to keep your loyal customers loyal. One of the best ways to know how to market your stationery to others is analytics. It’s studying what your customers are looking at, what they’re searching for, and finding the patterns that can help you serve them well.
Pinterest Business allows you to access this kind of helpful data. By seeing what your customers are searching for, you can build specific boards of your stationery that serve their search intent. Not only that, but you can also link your pins strategically to specific products on your website, which helps get them closer to making a purchase. Using their data tools, you can find out what content is driving traffic and where you should continue in your efforts. (No more feeling like you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall.)
Wow Your Customers with Quality Design and Printing
Pinterest marketing is a great way to help you grow your stationery business. But the beautiful photos of your stationery will only go so far. When that package arrives at your customer’s door, the quality you’ve built up in their mind has to match or exceed it.
PrintsWell can help you serve your customers with exceptional print quality every single time. By partnering with us, you’ll wow your customers, increase your quality and consistency, and save time. We have been partnering with stationers nationwide for over 30 years, bringing beautiful designs to life. We’d love to partner with you too. Fill out an application and let’s get started.
And if you love this article, check out PrintsWell University. You’ll find more great content on how to become a stationery expert just like this.