10 Ways to Use Pinterest to Reach Prospects

Given that 83% of human learning occurs visually, Pinterest has great potential for ad agency new business. 

Pinterest, a pinboard-style social photo sharing website, continues to create a lot of buzz as one of the hottest social media platforms since Twitter. This unique social media service attracts more than 1.5 million visitors a day and already provides more referral traffic to other sites than Google +, LinkedIn and Youtube combined. Subscribers spend, on average, 16 minutes on the site per visit.

Internally, Pinterest has great potential for agencies to create storyboards, branding strategies, concept ideas, campaign ideas, design ideas and even helping to organize agency pitches. Building a presence with Pinterest may be worth even more to help market your agency and drive new business traffic to your website.

Here are 10 ideas for using Pinterest to create visuals for new business:

1. Storytelling vs Agency Speak

Create your agency’s story through pictures.  Pinterest provides a very unique way to build your story by doing it visually.  Switching from the verbal to the visual is also a great way to rethink how to build your agency’s story helping you to lose the old clichés and agency-speak that are commonly used.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Be sure to craft your story to a particular audience. The more focused on a specific audience, the better.
• Your story should demonstrate how your agency alleviates a potential clients’ problems.
• Create an emotional connection through your agency’s biggest asset, your people.
• Create a visual history of your agency, highlighting its struggles and successes.
• Highlight your agency’s philanthropic efforts and special events.
• Visualize your agency’s mission statement.

2. Highlight Client Testimonials

Pinterest gives you the opportunity to collect visually charged testimonials from clients. Instead of just typical quotes, provide a photos of them. Think more creatively than to include just head shots. You can publish photos from more casual or fun settings such as photos of the client’s engaged with your staff, or  highlighting their products or services. It could simply be a photo of a client with a huge smile along with a brief description of how your agency has helped.

3. Feature Agency Awards

This shouldn’t be a laundry list of every award your agency has ever won. Pick out just a few of the special awards to visualize and briefly tell the story behind them. Also remember to create this type of pin-board from the clients perspective. Don’t be overtly self promotional. Include an element on how a great client helped your agency to produce great work.

4. Create a Virtual Agency Tour

A lot of agencies think strategically about the agency tour. In the past, I’ve developed a written script to help train others in conducting the tour. It highlighted such things as the agency’s timeline, and showcased great work, the contributions of its staff. The physical tour provided a good overview of the agency. Pinterest gives you the opportunity to do the same through an online storyboard that visitors can walk through, just as they would do if they were visiting your agency.

5. Highlight Agency Staff

Pinterest can be used to emphasize your agency’s culture plus an opportunity to give some kudos to the people who make great work happen.

A few ideas for inspiration:

• Create a collection of photos from trade-shows, events, presentations, meetings, casual and fun settings.
• You can create boards that show your agency’s staff working in the community, at the agency picnic or holiday parties.
• A behind the scene look of staff at work on photo shoots, editing film or conducting a focus group.

6. A Source of Information for Your Niche

Every agency needs a niche for new business. A Pinterest board built around your niche will create interest and appeal. You can include the latest news, information and updates specific to their interest. For example, if you niche was Aviation Marketing, you would include anything newsworthy about this niche such as new government regulations, technology, events, industry leaders, etc.

Your audience will view your pinboards as a trusted source for the information they need and help position you as an authority for your particular niche.

7. Showcase Your Case Studies

A lot of agencies struggle to add their newest creative work to their website. Pinterest allows you to showcase your latest and greatest work with ease. It is also an easy way to create visual case studies that will gain much more attention and will be better optimized for search engines.

8. Create Inexpensive Focus Groups

Pinterest can be an effective online focus group to learn more about a target audience.You can test reactions to creative concepts and messaging or gauge reactions to the look and feel of a new product or design.

9. Highlight Your Clients

This would be an opportunity to herald your clients by using your agency’s resources to visually create their stories. These pin-boards can build a bond with your current clients.

10. Collateral materials

You can turn existing, printed collateral material into pinboards that are searchable and easily revised. Pinterest allows you to create collateral materials at a moments notice and for a specific new business opportunity, trade show or other event.

These are just a few ideas to help jumpstart using Pinterest to reach prospects for new business. Please feel free to share additional ideas in the comment section below.

A unique of how to use Pinterest is Cyclonix, Bay Area, CA. They’ve moved their entire website to Pinterest.

Cyclonix – Melting pot of visual strategists, industrial designers, brand advocates and big thinkers uniting boutique service with world-class design solutions.

Click on the following link to view their new Pinterest site.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

• Why ad agencies should learn about Springpad
• It is time for ad agencies to pay attention to Pinterest