Pinterest is a visual social media platform used to “pin” or collect images from the web. With 335 million monthly users reported at the end of 2019, Pinterest can be an effective social platform to promote your Teespring merch and build your brand’s presence online.
This platform is probably best known as an inspiration destination, but there’s a huge consumer audience to tap into—83% of weekly Pinners make purchases based on content they see on Pinterest. In this guide we’ll look at the ways you can maximize the features on this platform to promote your merch to followers, as well as increase the discoverability of your products.
Set up a business profile
To make the most of Pinterest as a creator you should set up a business Pinterest account. You’ll be able to access features specific to this type of account, such as analytics, advertising, and custom profiles. With analytics you are able to keep track of your pins’ engagement rates and discover which ones are performing the best.
Create brand consistency
As with all social platforms, it’s important to create brand consistency across platforms. Pinterest business profiles give you the option to personalize your profile icon and banner, which can help your audience quickly recognize you.
Pinterest banners are unique, you can either upload a custom image or choose one of your Pinterest boards to display as a collage. As you can see on the Teespring profile we have selected the featured products board, which showcases our favorite designs and updates automatically as we add more pins. Your banner is one of the first things people see on your profile, so be sure to utilize this space to promote your merch.
Pin your products
Compelling images and colorful graphics are the types of content that drive the most engagement on this platform—and there are many ways you can create this engaging Pinterest content using your Teespring products.
How to create a pin:
- Click + at the top right corner of Pinterest and select ‘Create pin’
- Upload desired image
- Paste your Teespring listing URL into ‘Add destination link’
- Add a title and description
- Pick the board you want to save to
What to include in pins:
- Always include a link to the corresponding listing as the destination link.
- You should always include visual content in your posts—whether it be a photo wearing your product, a mockup or gif.
- If you’re running a sale it’s also a good idea to call out the promo code and the sale end date. You could include this in the pin’s description or as a part of the image itself.
By creating pins using your listing URL, people who click on the pin can access the products quickly and easily. Consider using UTM parameters on your links using bitly, which will track the number of clicks your pins are generating. If you want further analytics insight like the number of visitors and purchases your pins are driving, you can take advantage of Teespring’s Google Analytics Integration too.
Use real photos
Don’t forget wearing your merch in promotional content can increase your sales by 50%. In the example below blogger @megmatable [659 followers] wears one of her merch samples and links the listing URL in the pin so Pinners can easily shop her look.
@johniejaysworld [836 followers] has utilized the ‘Shop the look’ feature by including all the products featured in the main pin. As long as you create a pin for each specific product that you want to feature, this is easy to achieve by following the steps here.
Offer a discount
Offering a discount can increase your purchases by 60%. Also, during key shopping dates like Black Friday listings that offer a discount can literally 2x their purchases compared to listings with no discount offered. Here you can see that @allisonbickerstaff [5.6K followers] has incorporated text into her image to promote a sale. She then includes the code and information in the description of the pin.
If you don’t have any images or graphics to use yet, consider creating product mockups using your designs. Mockups are a great way of representing your product on a person if you are yet to order samples and take your own photos. As shown below, we often use mockups in our pins—they are easily created on platforms such as PlaceIt which has over 7,000 templates to choose from. Remember, we have a partnership with Placeit that gives Teespring users unlimited features for less than $12 a month. Click here to learn more.
Utilize Pinterest boards
Creating Pinterest boards is the perfect way to organize and categorize your pins. How you decide to organize your boards is up to you—whether you create a dedicated merch board to showcase your designs together or mix your merch into other boards to increase discoverability.
When you create pins featuring your merch, consider mixing them into different boards too. This increases the chances of your merch pins getting seen by Pinners on the lookout for inspiration.
@allisonbickerstaff [5.6K followers] has created a board dedicated to her personal brand ‘magic dwells here.’ where she uses a mixture of pins featuring her merch and her own lifestyle photography.
@megmatable [659 followers] has created a fashion inspiration board that she has populated with both pins from other sources and pins featuring her merch. By doing this she introduces her followers to her merch whilst they are scoping for fashion inspiration.
Share social proof
Use Pinterest to showcase user generated content and social proof. Happy buyers sharing photos of themselves wearing your merch can generate excitement and interest, as well as affirm the value and quality of the products you’re selling. You can ask customers to share selfies wearing your products on a variety of social platforms and display them on a dedicated Pinterest board.
In this example @johniejaysworld [836 followers] has grouped the photos of buyers wearing his different t-shirt designs together to create a board devoted to his merch.
