Amazon US Tops the Traffic Chart on Pinterest for Winter 2013

When it comes to social media success stories, Pinterest tops the list with its rapid growth. Nearly four years old, Pinterest grew from having 50,000 to nearly 17 million users in 9 months and is currently hosting over 70 million users. With the success of the network expanding, retailers have been seeking many ways to leverage Pinterest marketing to increase their visibility, brand reach and sales. In a recent study conducted by Searchmetrics, it has been revealed that the Amazon Pinterest Page tops the list with the highest traffic since the beginning of this holiday season.

Searchmetrics’ statistics show that Amazon ranks top on the list of highest pins/shares a week followed by Walmart and Apple. Amazon is currently averaging at 16,360 pins/shares a week while Walmart and Apple are far behind in the race with 5,778 and 3,871 pins/shares a week respectively.

A majority of retailers have tried to exploit the potential of Pinterest for digital marketing with measurable results. In a recent case study by eConsultancy, the success of many top brands and their Pinterest traffic has been listed to show the efforts made by retailers across various industries to popularize themselves on Pinterest.

With little effort and less number of followers compared to Walmart, Apple is observed to be the second best to Amazon in the top ten list. Based on their strategies, popularity, online presence, and performance, the various retailers have different results in the Pinterest campaigns for Christmas 2013.

 A Little about Pinterest

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board that allows users to collect and share pictures, videos, articles or any visual information with their social circle on their ‘Pinboard.’ Retailers use this platform for marketing by displaying their products on their pinboards essentially using them as a shop window. Users often ‘Pin’/share images of products that they like with their friends and family eventually leading to a buying process in the long run. The chief advantage of Pinterest is that it allows retailers to introduce their ‘followers’ to new products. When the content is shared by a user it acts as a sign of recommendation persuading others to view the image or even website through backlinks.

What did Amazon do differently?

Amazon US has its own official Pinterest page (www.pinterest.com/amazon/) that is highly active since Thanksgiving 2013. The profile has 17 themed pinboards with a total of 520 pins. The various themes include Holiday Toy List, Holiday Entertaining, Delicious, Your Office Space, Ideas for Dad, and more. The pins are images of products sold on Amazon that are categorized by themes to help users find them easily for gifting purposes this holiday season. The reason for Amazon’s success lies in three simple yet major aspects:

• The Pin Button: The Amazon website has integrated Pinterest very well into its ecommerce site very much like Walmart encouraging users to share the products they like on Pinterest.
• Creation of festive themed pinboards: As a general marketing strategy, by categorizing pins on different boards, Amazon aims at targeting various user niches and generating their interest in a wide variety of festive themed products.
• Linking all thought leadership activities: The Amazon website has a section on recipes as a thought-leadership strategy. In the festive themed Amazon pinboard are delicious looking images of dishes that are linked back to the recipes so users can try them out at home during the festive season. Although this does not help in selling any product, it does increase traffic, followers, and popularity of the Amazon Pinterest page.

 How can you leverage Pinterest for your brand?

Pinterest is a social network that is tailor-made to browse on-the-go. Considering that a majority of the customer population has access to smartphones and browses products and product information on the phone, you can leverage Pinterest to share any interesting content to draw user attention towards your brand. Also remember that Pinterest is a network with a majority of female users from across the world, and customize your content accordingly.

According to Pinterest statistics, over 80% of total pins on Pinterest are repins. Considering how the Amazon pinboard has only 520 pins but a total of 1,740,314 pins, you can be assured that if you pin something, your content will be repinned.

The very lucrative Pin This button is the key to directing traffic to your pinboard or website as it allows users to share your products freely with their circle. While Pinterest marketing may not directly lead to a sale, it does indeed have a higher reach and a greater power of recommendation through visual and viral content that can increase brand advocacy and promotion.

Themed boards draw attention towards the brand and products through keywords and hashtags. Themes often increase the excitement and enthusiasm during the holiday seasons encouraging users to share content at a greater rate.

Pinterest contests like Pin it to Win It are often useful in directing your traffic into ROIs. Many brands have used Pin It contests to increase the number of followers and brand reach during product launches, promotions, and festive seasons to see measurable traffic through Pinterest marketing.

While pushing a brand’s content is quite important, the secret to succeed on Pinterest lies in sharing content from other boards too. Different social networks have different forms of displaying thought leadership. On Pinterest, you can be successful by sharing content that can intrigue your fans while it may not be of any marketable value to you. Any interesting content that you share can go viral and thus bring traffic towards your Pinboard.

The true potential of Pinterest is unveiled only during holiday seasons as more women turn to the website for ideas. So use the website as your tool for marketing and leverage it to drive traffic towards your website and increase sales.