Marketing your small business on Pinterest is a great traffic driver to your website, but did you know that Pinterest can be a powerful way to generate leads and increase the power of your sales funnel? In this blog post, I share how to use Pinterest in your sales funnel strategy!

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How to Use Pinterest in Your Sales Funnel

Two years ago, if you had asked me what a sales funnel was, I would have responded with a blank stare. So, if you are like I was (and we’ve all started somewhere), let’s start from the basics. Visualize a funnel for a moment. It’s open and wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. You can throw lots of stuff in the top, and, as it falls, you can direct it to a specific place.

How does this apply to sales? Here’s a scenario you’ve likely been in:

Your friend encourages you to check out Anthropologie.com to find a new look. Excited, you visit the site and see a pop-up for 10% off in exchange for your email. That’s the beginning of a sales funnel. Later on, you visit your inbox, and lo and behold, an email from Anthropologie appears. You click on the email and browse the site and leave. Months later, during a semi-annual sale, you get another email from Anthropologie and make a purchase. Looking fabulous in your new flouncy sleeved dress, your friend notices your dress at an event and you forward the url, along with a referral link from Anthropologie for telling your friend. She hops on the website, signs up with her email, you get a bonus, and the funnel starts again!

How did you find yourself in the sales funnel? Content (in this case, a dress). As a service provider, your content might be information via a blog post, Instagram caption, or a podcast interview (pssst….learn more here how to use Pinterest as a service-based business). Creating valuable content engages your new audience, introduces them to your opt-in, and nurtures them through a series of emails full of that content, and, later, the funnel helps you make the sale in a natural, authentic way. No icky sales pitches for cold visitors to your site!

Now that we’ve covered a super simple funnel model, how do you use Pinterest in your sales funnel? Through traffic! Pinterest has the exponential potential to drive targeted, niched traffic to your site. Pinterest users are often in discovery mode and learning about you or your brand for the first time. Unless they know exactly what they want, they might need some time to get to know you, your products, and services. Your funnel can help with that!

Ways Pinterest can lead users to your funnel:

• Retargeting pinners with a Facebook and Instagram ad for a later conversion (eerily convinced Facebook is stalking you? Nope, your visit from Pinterest implanted a FB code on your IP address)
• Email nurturing by providing more content to the pinner
• Pinners can be led to your other social platforms, like Instagram or your podcast for more engagement and visibility
• The smart feed on Pinterest will often show MORE of your content to that pinner when they engage

Pinterest is just one part of your overall strategy. Don’t ignore SEO, referrals, email marketing, and other social platforms!

Looking for more tips and ideas on creating a sales funnel?

• Get more email subscribers using Pinterest (with video)
• Content and sales funnel strategies with your content empire
• Create an beautiful opt-in with Vanessa Ryan

Are you new to Pinterest and want more tips to get started? See my introductory post Getting Started on Pinterest and don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter below. You’ll receive my FREE Pinterest Start-up Guide for your creative small business where I give easy actionable steps to getting started on Pinterest! Ready to automate your Pinterest marketing strategy? Learn from my How to Use Tailwind course!

If you enjoyed that, I’d love for you to follow me on Pinterest and don’t forget to pin it!