You love Pinterest: funny pictures and comics, beautiful images of white sandy beaches, the funkiest home decor, and the sexiest little heels you’ve always wanted. But as far as using it for business goes? You’re a little lost. Are you struggling with Pinterest, wondering how big brands are having so much success? In this article you’ll learn how the top businesses use Pinterest Boards in ways you may not have even thought of. I’ll break down their strategies for success and give you 10 concrete examples of how you can do the same.

1. 10 Pinterest Board
Critiques and Best
Practice Examples
to Help your
Business Succeed

3. Top 10 Pinterest Board Strategies
Sephora Stays Current with 'Trending Now' Boards
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Etsy Stays Fresh with Guest Pinners
ELLE Creates Boards During Live Events
ArchDaily Uses Boards to Mine Customer Insights
Whole Foods uses How-to Boards to Become a Trusted Brand
Groupon Uses Boards to Inspire their Followers
Jetsetter Uses Competitions Boards to Engage their Fans
Lush Promotes their Persona with Theme Boards
London Drugs Uses Great Images to Focus on Families
Home Depot Makes it Easy to Navigate
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4. ELLE Creates Boards
During Live Events
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5. ELLE Creates Boards During Live Events
ELLE’s strategy, of posting pictures live at their events, saw a fantastic increase on their Pinterest
pages, but, perhaps more importantly, cross-platform referral traffic to their website.
How to make it work for you:
Take live shots of a new product being delivered and revealed, a 5-course dinner as it comes out of your
restaurant’s kitchen, or how about live pictures of your office softball game?
What I like:
• Boosting referral traffic: ELLE’s
live pinning approach created a
significant boost in number of pins as
well as traffic to and from their
website.
• Keeping Followers in their seats:
Using Pinterest as, essentially, a
video, kept Followers engaged as
they waited to see what would come
out next.

6. ArchDaily Uses Boards
to Mine Customer
Insights
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7. ArchDaily Uses Boards to Mine Customer Insights
Boards can be used for so much more than pretty pictures. AchDaily used them to get an insight
into their customer base: what they liked, why they liked it, and how they thought about
architecture.
How to make it work for you:
Take a selection of your most active Pinterest followers and spend some time following them. See what
else they like or care about to give you development, product, and campaign ideas.
What I like:
• Following their Followers:
ArchDaily followed many of their
readers on Pinterest and began to
understand what was most important
to them.
• Following themselves: ArchDaily
pays close attention to the pins and
shares of their your own boards and
changes their profile based on
what's popular.

8. Sephora Stays Current
with 'Trending Now'
Boards
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9. Sephora Stays Current with 'Trending Now' Boards
Sephora uses ‘Trending Now’ and ‘Most Popular Pins’ boards to keep their customers informed
about their most recent, exciting, and successful products. This helps Fans know where to go for
what’s hot coming out of Sephora.
How to Make it Work for You:
Find those products you sell that are your hottest buys and update weekly. A ‘New-Arrivals’ board is as
straightforward as they come. For non-retailers, do you have a new item on your menu, a new campaign,
or a newly designed home? Include it in your ‘New Arrivals’ board.
What I like:
• Keeping Consistent: Sephora
updates their boards consistently, as
updating often keeps their content
read, and updating in one chunk
keeps it buried.
• Keeping Current: Given that 67% of
Pinterest users are there to keep up
with the latest trends, keeping
boards current is vital on Pinterest

10. Top Tip #1
Pinterest’s rich product pins are a new development great for retailers. They
allow you to show real-time pricing and availability information on each pin.
You can also attach a link back to your company’s website - basically all the
information a customer needs before they buy.
Also remember, Pinterest pins with prices get 36% more likes than those
without!
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11. Etsy Stays Fresh
with Guest Pinners
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12. Etsy Stays Fresh with Guest Pinners
Etsy uses guest pinners to bring fresh perspective to their boards. This is a great way to avoid a
boring Pinterest account. Bringing in guest pinners also makes the Etsy brand appear more
approachable and focused on its customers.
How to make it work for you:
Ask your followers to take inspired or creative pictures of your products (based on a theme, perhaps): a
sexy high-heel against a grungy downtown club, a romantic dinner for two on your restaurant’s
terrace. Reward your favorites with a coupon and use the runners-up as great content.
What I like:
• Switching it up: Etsy’s Guest
Pinner program brings in different
points of view and engages their
community in content-sharing.
• Keeping it Updated: Guest Pinners
also bring fresh perspectives to
Etsy’s boards and keep them
updated consistently, taking the load
off their social media executives.

13. Whole Foods uses How-
to Boards to Become a
Trusted Brand
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14. Whole Foods uses How-to Boards to Become a Trusted
Brand
Whole Foods has done a great job of becoming one of the go-to companies on Pinterest for Food
Tips and Tricks. This strategy not only provides great content on Pinterest, it also creates all-
important brand trust.
How to make it work for you:
Whether it’s fashion tips, healthy recipes or weekly coupons, your business has something to offer.
Establish yourself through Pinterest as a go-to source for advice and something beneficial and see your
sales go up as well.
What I like:
• The Stats: Whole Foods' 'Food Tips
and Tricks’ board has almost 4000
pins and 13,600 followers, making it
their most successful.
• Ensuring their Reputation:
WholeFoods knows that the next
time Pinterest users think of making
dinner for friends or how to keep
apples from going brown in the
fridge, they’ll think WholeFoods by
association.

15. Groupon Uses
Boards to Inspire
their Followers
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16. Groupon Uses Boards to Inspire their Followers
It’s tempting on Pinterest to post only your own products on your business’ boards. Groupon’s
found success another way: posting photos of things that inspire people to buy their products.
How to make it work for you:
Remember your Pinterest pictures don’t have to necessarily be your own products. Inspire them with the
coolest 10 million dollar hot tub in the world, and they’ll be more likely to buy a 2000 dollar hot tub
from you.
What I like:
• Knowing the Stats: Groupon has
read the statistic that 70% of people
use Pinterest to get inspiration for
what to buy.
• Great pictures: Instead of their
actual products, you’ll find beautiful
pictures of exotic beaches and a
woman in a spacesuit in downtown
LA. Not because Groupon sells
these deals, but because they
inspire their customers to engage in
those deals Groupon does sell.

17. Jetsetter Uses
Competitions Boards to
Engage their Fans
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18. Jetsetter Uses Competitions Boards to Engage their
Fans
Pinterest is a great place to run a photo contest or competition - it’s built for it! Jetsetter asked
their Fans to submit theme-based photos, brought in a celebrity judge, and watched the
engagement roll in.
How to make it work for you:
Perhaps I’m a little biased here, but Wishpond’s Pinterest Contest App is a great way to up your
company’s engagement: beautiful and customizable layouts, mobile-compatibility and a great analytic
system to make sure you’re getting the most out of your contest.
What I like:
• Engaging with their Followers:
Jetsetter created their ‘Jetsetter
Curator’ promotion in order to
engage with their online community.
• Going Big: They invited over a
million of their members to create
and submit boards reflecting travel
destinations based on four
categories: escape, adventure,
style and cosmopolitan

19. Top Tip #2
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Updating Pinterest consistently and often 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 and feeds. This makes it more
likely that when they are ready to complete a purchase, they will think of
you first.

20. Lush Promotes their
Persona with Theme
Boards
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21. Lush Promotes their Persona with Theme Boards
Lush's CSR work is well known, and they haven’t neglected that facet of their business on
Pinterest. In fact, they’ve used it to set their company apart from other cosmetic companies. Find
something in your own organization that makes you a little different, and pin it!
How to make it work for you:
Pick your pinterest boards and photos with your brand persona in mind. Offering a gluten-free option at
your restaurant or cafe? Be sure to hype it with a recipe and a picture. Sponsoring a t-ball team this
season? Why not include some photos of the sponsored uniforms or a team photo?
What I like:
• Promoting their corporate social
responsibility campaigns: Sharing
images of charity work they’re doing
can only increase their reputation as
an ethical and responsible
corporation.
• Promoting their brand persona:
Boards like ‘Vegan Recipes’ engage
with their followers on an individual
basis, which social media users love.

22. London Drugs Uses Great
Images to Focus on
Families
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23. London Drugs Uses Great Images to Focus on Families
London Drugs uses Pinterest to emphasize their family-friendly brand. (And goodness knows
pictures of adorable kids never hurt in marketing).
How to make it work for you:
The board pictures you choose say a lot about your business. Use them toaccentuate the most appealing
characteristics of your business. Organize your boards based on the season and your most exciting new
products or by different departments, projects and campaigns.
What I like:
• Pictures of Food and Kids:
Pictures of food and pictures of kids
are the most shared images on
social media sites.
• Knowing the Stats: London Drugs
knows that 80% of Pinterest
followers are women, and more
than 50% have children. They’ll
cater to this demographic more on
Pinterest than they would on, say,
LinkedIn, which has a 70% male
demographic.

24. Top Tip #3
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Make sure all your Pinterest business profiles are optimized for search
engines. Having a great set of boards and content doesn’t mean a
whole lot if no one can ever find them. Go to your Pinterest account
settings. In the ‘Search Privacy’ tab you will notice that you can hide your
business profile from search engines like Google. If this is on, you’re
going to need to turn it off.

25. Home Depot Makes it Easy
to Navigate
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26. Home Depot Makes it Easy to Navigate
Home Depot organizes their Pinterest profile like they do their stores. Their board titles are
straight-forward and Fans know exactly where to find the product, or idea, they’re interested
in.
How to make it work for you:
7 Top Board Theme Ideas: Holidays, Back-to-school, About Us/The Team, Corporate Social
Responsibility, Picnics, Extra-curricular activities, For the kids
What I like:
• Making it Easy: Home Depot
keeps each of their boards focused
on a single theme.
• Directing Traffic: Keeping their
boards simple and to the point
directs traffic towards the board that
best targets Follower’s needs.
• More Boards: Theme-based
boards are great as they allow you
to create a new board whenever
you come up with a new theme.

27. I hope you found this article useful, and you have a little more
confidence using Pinterest for business. Remember to pay close
attention to which of your pins (and also which pins like yours) are liked
and which are re-pinned to inform your content strategy. If it’s hot on
Pinterest it will probably resonate with your business community.

28. Thank you for viewing!
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marketing campaigns.
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