Pinterest Tips to Promote Fashion Brands

Pinterest, the virtual scrapbooking site, has become one of the fastest growing media platforms around, especially among women. Its visually driven content has led to millions of fashion brands and retailers to use Pinterest to promote their goods as it can prove to be a valuable way to build brand awareness for a fashion label.

I like it because it's also one of the easiest platforms to set up and maintain!

Below are my 5 tips to help you get the most from Pinterest:-

1. Plan a range of boards
First research what your target customer is pinning and other pins, boards and brands that are getting results. Then decide on the themes for your range of pin boards.

Create pin-worthy content. Pinterest is a highly effective tool to share your personality and unique view of the world, all while building a relationship with your existing and potential customers.

Choose great images and videos from your blog - you may - want to consider adding a watermark with your website URL to each of your own images, so that pinners know where it originally came from. Fashion favourites, travel destinations, exhibitions and things that inspire you work well on Pinterest. If you're selling a product then add the price to the pin description. If you want to pin an image from other sources, be sure to ask permission, or make sure the image is royalty free.

It’s good to mix personal content while marketing your business, so try to incorporate your Pinterest content into your blog or website. For example, if you sell jewellery, make your product images as attractive as possible so people will want to buy (and re-pin) them. What you want is for people to find something on your board they emotionally resonate with and repin to their board. This will increase exposure to your board, and ultimately your brand.

Fashion Angel Pinterest Board

2. Start pinning.
In addition to giving your website visitors something pretty to pin, visit other sites and pin, comment and repin their images as you browse online. You don’t want to limit yourself to just pinning your own images, as it will seem too self-promotional and could turn off other users. Plus, the more you can show your audience what a great authority you are in your field, the more you’ll establish yourself in your niche. Tag other pinners by name and say thank you for repins.

Another example: if you’re a footwear designer, you could create boards devoted to historical shoe designs you love, photos of your designs worn by celebrities, images of outfits you think work well with particular shoes, your inspiration behind a forthcoming collection etc.

Being creative and genuine will help build your Pinterest following, which ultimately boosts your business’s potential reach.

Fashion Angel Pinterest Board

3. Get your pins found. 
Consider what content will bring users to your pins and what you want them to take away (repines). Add categories, keywords, hashtags and urls to make your profile and pins SEO-friendly.

Optimize your website for pinning by encouraging your website visitors to pin your content by adding a “pin it” icon to every page of your website. This will let anyone on your site repin any image on your site they might like. Before you do this, you will want to put your website on Pinterest and make sure that the images on your site are “pinnable”. If you’re not sure about this, ask your web designer.

Once you’re up and running, you can then post a “follow on Pinterest” button (available on the Pinterest goodies page) on your blog, email signature, and integrate Pinterest share buttons on your other social media platforms.

4  Host a competition on Pinterest.
Several businesses large and small have hosted “pin-to-win” contests on Pinterest, which can create a tremendous amount of viral excitement around your Pinterest presence. When you get comfortable with Pinterest, you might want to give this strategy a go. Everyone loves free stuff, so the cooler the prizes you offer, the more excited people will be to share with their followers.
I’ll be covering tips on running a successful contest in a future blog.

Fashion Angel Pinterest Board

5: Keep at it. 
As with all social media sites , it require maintenance. If you decide to start a Pinterest board, it’s important that you stay in the game, rather than starting and forgetting your Pinterest account. Dormant Pinterest boards won’t attract new followers. If you download the Pinterest App for mobile/tablet and add the Pin It button to your browser it makes it easy for you to create and add boards wherever you are. You can use the dead time in between meetings or sitting on a train
to browse and add new pins .

If you want to learn more about Pinterest and how social media and blogs in general can help promote your fashion brand, you’ll find our forthcoming Social Media for Fashion Brands talk on 30th January very useful. We’ll be joined by fashion blogger Lois Waller from Bunni Punch and Fashion Communications lecturer Jayne Sheridan.

Tickets are FREE for Fashion Angel Business Club members or £18 for non members. You can book online on the Fashion Angel Events page.

Have you joined Pinterest yet? How do you use it to promote your business?
Please share your tips and experiences with us.

By Alison Lewy