How to Convert a Pinterest Account to a Business Account

If you didn’t know it yet, Pinterest is more than just a personal place to pin your favorite boards. The platform has grown beyond beautiful photos of fashion, graphic design, and remarkable quotes. Those who are running a business may now take advantage of having a more professional presence through the Pinterest Business account. In fact, you can advertise business on Pinterest, enjoy better social media presence, drive more traffic and improve your conversion rates if you follow the straightforward guide on how to convert Pinterest to a business account.

Pinterest Business Account vs Personal

If you already have a personal Pinterest account, you might wonder, what’s the need for business Pinterest? Well, when it comes to Pinterest business account vs personal, you must think of each one in terms of function and benefits.

For instance, you can regard a personal Pinterest as you would a personal Facebook profile. You pin the things you like and love. It’s like a scrapbook that reflects your personality. The appearance of both personal and business Pinterest may be the same, but business Pinterest has richer features that you can use and take advantage of so you can better advertise your business on Pinterest, such as:

•  Having your own business name – business Pinterest carries your brand name, which helps immensely helps in your online branding efforts.
•  Business education – business Pinterest have rolled out a couple of tutorials so you can market effectively on the platform. Some of the educational materials you’ll find in business Pinterest include telling your brand’s story, how to drive traffic, how to build a community, and how to make your brand more discoverable.
•  Access to business-specific features – as a business Pinterest account holder, you’ll have access to upcoming features that allow you to maximize the site for your business further.

Who’s on Pinterest?

More and more people are coming to realize that apart from the giant social media platforms, Pinterest is another powerful one that offers massive marketing potential for businesses. Pinterest goes beyond the idea of social bookmarking and creative scrapbooking because it can now be fully leveraged to benefit your business.

According to Hootsuite, Pinterest has 250 million monthly users, 77.4 of them are Americans. The site has also added more American users in 2017 and 2018 than Facebook and Twitter users combined. That’s a sign telling us that Pinterest is exploding in epic proportions and is positioning itself to become one of the big leagues (if it hasn’t yet already).

Also, Pinterest is the platform of choice for most women entrepreneurs and customers, reaching 83% of American women between the ages of 25 to 54. And to give things more balance, half of the new users in 2018 are men. It’s reported that 38% of users are mostly dads who have a penchant for going through boards about home décor, DIY projects, and more.

Finally, the Pew Research Center reports that people who are more educated and earning higher income are more likely to use Pinterest. According to data, 39% of families who are making north of $75,000 annually are more likely to use Pinterest.

Benefits of Using Pinterest for Business

Pinterest has great potential to bring your business to the next level. It’s a powerful leverage for online marketing, branding, and overall web presence. In particular, the benefits of using Pinterest for business include:

Driving more traffic to your website

Pinterest has over 250 million monthly active users. It’s a massive number that can attract more visits to your site, hence increasing organic traffic and improving your likelihood for conversion. Using Pinterest for business allows you to draw more than just a massive quantity of traffic, but also the right crowd.

Appeals to Female Users

It can’t be denied that the majority of Pinterest users are females. According to girlpowermarketing, women account for 85% of all consumer purchases in the U.S.  Being able to get the attention of women via Pinterest gives you the unique opportunity to reach out to a segment of the crowd who is most likely willing to spend. Whether you’re running a food business, home décor, furniture, or any other type of business, being on Pinterest is a sound way to get more paying customers. But don’t think that only women are on Pinterest. A growing number of the male population has taken a liking to use the platform over the last few years as well.

Easier conversion

According to HubSpot, using Pinterest for business significantly reduces the steps from browsing to conversion. Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest makes it so much easier to get a person who is simply perusing to get him to buy your products or services. Pinterest can convert browsers to direct purchasers. Since it’s a highly visual platform, the more you can inspire people, the more chances that they’ll do business with you.

Get more valuable inbound links

Every marketer knows that links are essential to digital marketing, especially inbound links. What’s so unique about Pinterest is that each image you pin on the boards automatically creates a link that leads to its source. Just imagine if your images are pinned and re-pinned several times. You’d have built an empire of valuable inbound links that significantly boost your business online presence. While such links are no-follow, it pays to remember that any link that directs back to your website is just as significant.

Connects with your other social media accounts

Finally, you can now cross-promote your content from Pinterest with other social media accounts. This is a highly useful feature that allows you to easily direct more traffic from several social media channels, such as your Facebook profile page and Twitter account. You just need to get the link of the Pinterest image, post it on your Facebook and Twitter feed, and you’d have other people from other social media circles clicking, pinning and repinning it. Plus, the Pin It button which you can use on your blog or website allows for increased interaction across channels.

Converting to Business Pinterest

Now that Pinterest has released business-specific features, it’s about time that your business gets in the game too. We have to stop thinking of Pinterest as merely a place to find some visual inspiration for a home interior design or a recipe; it can very well take your business off to new heights!

Now, what you have to do is convert your personal Pinterest account into a business account. What’s great about converting instead than signing up as a business is that you get to keep everything, from pins to followers. You don’t have to start building from scratch (which can take a long time, by the way), and you can fully maximize your connection from your existing followers.

Here are the steps to converting your personal account to a business one. It’s simple and easy.

Steps to converting to a business account

1. Log in to your Pinterest account and visit https://business.pinterest.com/en.
Once there, you’ll see a red button prompting you to convert.

2. Select your business type
After clicking the convert button, the site takes asks you to modify your account details. First, you need to select what type of business you’re in. Pinterest has a lot of useful suggestions, so it should be easy to identify the correct category.

3. Enter your business details
Once you’ve successfully identified the appropriate business category, you’ll have to supplement more information, including your business name username, about info and link to your business website.

4. Agree with the terms of service
Finally, you have to agree with business Pinterest’s terms of service. Simply tick the agree button, and you should be good to go!

Verifying your website

The last important thing that you need to do before you use your Pinterest business account is to confirm that you own the website. This portion may sound a little intimidating to you, but it’s very simple to follow.

First, you need to log in to your business account and go to “settings.” You have to download the verification file by clicking on the Download HTML verification file. Next, click on “Go to Pinterest” and you’ll land on a screen that prompts you to upload the verification file.
At this point, you can use Filezilla to complete the process. Make sure to upload it on the “root” rather than on a subfolder so that Pinterest finds the file. Push the “Click here” button, and Pinterest will try to verify the file. You’ll get a success message once you’ve accomplished this step and your Pinterest business account should be ready to sport the Business Page Header that links to your website.

Final thoughts

If your business isn’t on Pinterest yet, then you’re losing a lot of opportunities for conversion and traffic big time. But it’s not too late yet! You can convert Pinterest to a business account today and in just a few minutes, you should be ready to advertise on Pinterest and leverage this platform and further maximize your business’ digital marketing potential.