Pinterest marketing for tours and activities

Guide • Online Marketing • April 14, 2014 • Shubham Satyarth

In our last post, we talked about the importance of Pinterest marketing for tour & activity operators. We discussed how Pinterest can help you boost your website traffic, improve your SEO and gain invaluable consumer insights.

And now that you are convinced about Pinterest, a lot of “what next” questions must be springing up in your head – How do I start? How do I build an audience? What are the best practices?

Well, don’t worry! This article will address all your questions and maybe more.

So here we go – 5 simple ways to harness the “Pinterest” potential:

1. Set it up right

Before you start scrambling for some ultra-innovative Pinterest strategies, make sure that your account has been set up properly. Things to keep in mind:

• Your Pinterest profile is complete – an interesting and relevant business description, a good quality photo of your business, your physical location and so on. For a detailed step-by-step guide for setting up your profile, refer our previous article.
• Your website is verified. Just like Twitter, Pinterest allows you to verify your brand through your website. For a verified account, Pinterest places a grey checkmark on the header along with your URL. Not only will this lend credibility to your account, it will also ensure that your website is properly highlighted.
• Search privacy setting is switched off. See the image below – you have to select “No”. This will make sure that your account is indexed and shows up in search results.

2. …. and cover your basics

In order to increase the discoverability of your Pinterest boards and your website, make sure you have these basics covered:

• People use Pinterest search to locate relevant content. Further, Pinterest boards also show up in Google searches. So it’s very important to use relevant keywords in the name and description of your boards. Use Google’s keyword tool to get ideas for popular and relevant keywords.
• Pinterest has its own set of Broad Categories that allow users to browse through the content. Your boards should match the most relevant category.
• Hashtags are another great way to make your pins searchable on Pinterest. You should always include some specific hashtags with your posts.
• And finally, always include a backlink to your website when you create a pin. This will ensure that users are directed to your website when they click on your pin. The best way to do this is to create pins using “Add from a website” option.

3. Use Pinterest marketing tools

We talked about Pinterest widgets in our previous article. Widgets are great for marketing your brand, encouraging engagement and building awareness.

There are number of widgets that you can use. The most common ones are the “Pin it” button and the “Follow” button. “Pin it” button allows your visitors to pin your website content on their personal boards (think “Share” in Facebook) and “Follow” allows users to follow your Pinterest account (think “Like” in Facebook). You should place “Pin it” buttons with all relevant content on your website.

A special category of pins called “Place pins” should be of particular interest to tour operators. Designed specifically for travel, “Place pins” allow you to create maps with your boards. A common way to use “Place pins” is to create destination tour guides. Using “Place pins” is also a great way to beautifully showcase your itinerary.

Here is an example of how Wanderlust uses “Place pins” to showcase travel destinations across Europe.

Another example where REI Adventures has innovatively used “Place pins” to highlight memorable points in their 13-day Mont Blanc trek.

4. Build your audience on Pinterest

An important objective of social media marketing is to increase the size of your audience. Pinterest is no different. You should strive to increase your followers on Pinterest and here are some tips for doing the same:

• Pinterest can be a great way to build your brand authority. Suppose you operate an adventure travel business and you want to build a following of adventure enthusiasts. You can start by posting relevant content that adventure enthusiasts would find valuable and informative. Focus on properly organizing (cataloging) your content through boards. Since a Pinterest users can also follow a board (unlike Facebook), proper cataloging is a must. Make sure that you create different boards for different interest groups.
• Market your tours through Pinterest boards. A good way to do this is to create a separate board for each tour. Here is an example of how TourIreland.com is innovatively marketing its tours through Pinterest boards.
• Participate and be active. This is true for any social media platform. You will have to keep your Pinterest account active. Post relevant content, engage with your audience and collaborate with other pinners through Group Boards.

5. Use Pinterest analytics to frame your content strategy

Track and learn! Use Pinterest analytics to find out how many people are Pinning from your website, seeing your pins, and clicking on your content. Get an insight into what people like, which pins get shared the most, who interacts with them and so on. Tailor your own boards and website accordingly.

For information on how to promote your tours directly, call out travel experts today!