If you are just getting to know Pinterest you should get on board with this social phenomenon before it catches on. For your real estate business, it is a key marketing tool that is underused (until now) by realtors. Using Pinterest for real estate doesn’t mean sharing boring lists with homes you have for sale but attract your potential customers with useful boards.
In the following article, I will go through the benefits of using Pinterest for your business and show you the best ways to activate on this social platform to get leads.
First of all, what is Pinterest?
Pinterest is more than just a social platform but an image-driven website that is growing fast and is used as a search engine. Early adopters were crafts, cooking and fashion bloggers, and that is the reason for the bias regarding Pinterest. Used with a clear strategy in mind and a creative eye, Pinterest is a traffic goldmine for any business, especially for real estate.
Working with Pinterest is easy, but you still have to learn a few specific terms to make a successful start.
What is a Pin
This term means an image that Pinterest users share with their followers. Someone willing to buy a country house will save pins with images of cute country barns, rustic furniture, gardens, etc. to compare and help make a decision.
How does Pinning work
On Pinterest you can add pins by getting the specific extension to your web browser to save a pin on any website you visit. Additionally, you can upload images from your computer as your pins.
What are Boards
Boards are folders or categories for similar pins. A Pinterest user will organize the saved pins in several boards that can be private or for public view. To continue our example, a country loving Pinterest user will create several boards for country homes, furniture, rural landscapes, etc.
What is your feed
Pinterest users can follow other users or just single boards and will benefit from feed notification. Every time a user posts a new pin to board this will show to user’s followers once they log into Pinterest.
What is repinning
Repinning means saving another Pinterest user’s pin to your board.
What are the uses of Pinterest for real estate business?
It drives traffic, like a lot! Since it is a search engine (with better images than Google), Pinterest has its form of SEO, and once you learn how to optimize your pins, Pinterest will be the top source of website traffic. Pins on Pinterest have a large lifespan so that also means a steady flow of traffic. And you can easily redirect traffic to your optimized landing pages.
Good for branding: Pinterest is a great brand awareness tool, because of its visual content. You can showcase images that sell your brand: teammates, happy customers, informal events that will help humanize your business and build trust.
Helps you get leads and make sales: a good Pinterest strategy will make you stand out as a local expert. Reach potential buyers with carefully build boards and show them the community lifestyle. As 90% of buyers start looking online for a new home, Pinterest serves as a digital catalog that will help them make a decision.
Pinterest is a great market research tool for your business. If you type the name of the City you activate it, a plethora of blog post ideas will come up. With the Pinterest suggestions in your feed, you will not run out of ideas for blog posts.
How to create a Pinterest account
If you are now convinced of the benefits, Pinterest brings to your real estate business let’s see how to work with it to your advantage.
Create a real estate Pinterest account or if you already have one, convert it to a business profile. This way you will have access to traffic analytics, clicks, charts, essential data to get to know your clients and their wishes.
Optimize your profile by adding keywords to your name, such as location, niche categories to ensure your profile shows in Pinterest searches.
Write a bio that will encourage your followers to engage with you. This means your description should focus on what you have to offer to your Pinterest followers and should include a click-to-call button.
Attach to your profile a smiling photo of you to create a personal connection. Recent studies show that someone smiling in the headshot is viewed as likable, competent and influential.
How to optimize your Pinterest account
Create Pinterest boards about your real estate business in the same way you would write your blog. Find relevant, exciting items to pin on a regular basis that connect to your business and your clients.
Your boards should be about something your prospective client is interested in and is actively searching. Don’t forget to optimize boards titles by adding keywords. If you activate in upstate New York name your boards: “Things to do in Lake Placid” or “Lake Placid beach” instead of a simple location name.
Pinterest‘s primary goal is to generate leads so you should focus on the types of clients you are targeting. Create boards to attract home sellers, home buyers and boards to highlight your brand.
To attract buyers your boards could include home buying guides, house renovation ideas, best restaurants in your area, historic places in your rural town, etc. To target home sellers add Pinterest boards about home marketing ideas, hiring a realtor guide, house renovations or moving tips.
And, to enhance brand identity, build several boards about your featured listings, happy customers, case studies and real estate videos. The content should include various types of pins from pictures, videos, blog posts with images, to infographics.
Pinterest can be a lot of fun, but its ultimate goal for a business owner is to generate leads.
In the following article, I will guide you through the steps of an effective marketing strategy for a real estate Pinterest profile.
