Why Pinterest Works for B2B Marketing Too
I think it is important to remember behind every business is a person or people. A key factor to B2B inbound marketing is to use social media to humanize your brand. Pinterest is a great tool for that.
On Sunday mornings my favorite thing to do is to sit around in my PJs with my coffee and my magazines, preferably in a sunny spot, looking at the glossy photos of the beautiful vignettes set up by the photographers. Meanwhile ignoring the unmade bed and piles of laundry that exist in my reality, I can transport myself to this organized, fashionable world for the moment. Sometimes I rip out pages of articles full of wisdom or inspiration to set aside for the future to-do list (see also “honey-do list”) because right now I am enjoying a little “me” time. Or perhaps I am at my desk at work researching the latest best practice in social media marketing but thinking about dinner, enter Pinterest I can research said social media practices as well as figure out what to cook for dinner tonight.
As you start to build your “home feed” by following other pinners boards that share your interests and simultaneously build your community on Pinterest you realize, this is great, there are people out there that are interested in learning about the same things I am. And they are doing half the research for me. You can begin to see trends of research happening. You start to see multiple pins from “Mary” about different ceramic tiles and bathroom fixtures AND using Pinterest for marketing. I can then assume that “Mary” must be thinking and/or dreaming about remodeling her bathroom in the near or far future and like me is interested in starting a Pinterest marketing strategy at her company. I can also see we have the same taste in shoes. I think I like “Mary”, I might even begin to trust her opinion. I can then repin her a pin of a B2B marketing article that I find to be helpful. Thank you, “Mary”.
As most cleverly portrayed in the Discover Card commercial where the woman calls and is surprised that a real person answers instead of the “land of machines”, people want to do business with people. Businesses are built by people and people are the ones making the decisions for businesses. People will be loyal to people they connect to. Remember B2B is still P2P.
Rebecca Corliss at HubSpot recently wrote a blog with some helpful tips especially for B2B agencies if you are ready to get started with your B2B Pinterest marketing strategy.
