Pinterest can be described as a flourishing coral reef of content, and in today’s marketing climate ‘P’ really does mark the spot for where the treasure’s buried! 📌
Travel agents, hotels and leisure businesses are beginning to ride the wave of this forward-thinking, search-based marketing avenue, turning the tide on the dissatisfying whirlpool of social media. Because Pinterest is great at showcasing what the user really wants to see, when used right for your business it can be epic for visibility, driving organic website traffic and increasing awareness of your brand. This guide to Pinterest for travel businesses will be your skipper as you journey into this faff-free space and reap the rewards.
Why Pinterest for Travel Businesses?
I hear you - you’re already doing lots of marketing, utilising social media, your blog and maybe even LinkedIn. Why would you add another platform? Well, what if I told you that your long-form ‘evergreen’ content (like your blog) works in a harmonious ecosystem with Pinterest and can supercharge your website traffic in a way that social media could only ever dream of?
The world of Instagram feels saturated and it can be easy to get lost in a vast sea of travel content. You may be feeling like it’s difficult to stand out, and you’re not getting much back relative to the effort you put in. Pinterest for travel businesses is taking the industry by storm, providing a low-effort, high-reward way to swim with the marketing tide rather than against it.
As a search and SEO based platform, Pinterest is really good at working with its users to provide relevant, useful results for their queries. Millions of people turn to Pinterest for inspiration and to find their next purchase, and this is particularly relevant to travel, leisure and tourism businesses - showing up when your clients are searching for their next vacay, hotel or weekend trip helps you make a sales splash.
Shore Up Your Pinterest Strategy
Pinterest reaches a much wider audience than social media for travel businesses, and you can create beautiful scroll-stopping Pins that spark wanderlust and drive organic website traffic. This is brilliant for boosting your organic search and Google presence, but as with every marketing platform, there are a few things to remember.
Pins have the ability to perform very well (astronomically well, in some cases!) when you research trends and create content that resonates with their consumers. Video content is particularly popular at the moment, but it’s good to try out different types of content and mix it up to find what works for you.
You don’t need to be on Pinterest every waking moment - in fact, it’s better to post high quality content less often than to post every day just for the sake of it. Take time to create visually appealing pins, add keyword-rich titles and descriptions, and link them to relevant pages on your website. This simple strategy will work wonders with a little patience.
Fin-ishing off…
Pinterest for travel businesses doesn’t need to be complicated. Here are your key highlights:
Pinterest helps drive traffic with link-able content, in a much more accessible and user friendly way than social media
Searching, exploring and capitalising on trends in your industry or niche enables you to provide helpful and inspiring content
If you want to deep-dive on this platform but don’t have the time, outsourcing your Pinterest marketing to a travel expert like me could be a great way to capitalise on this affordable marketing tool
It's also good to keep in mind that when you begin 'pinning' for the first time or in a while, it'll take up to three months to start seeing your Pinterest strategy come to fruition. It sounds like a long time, but don't forget, Pinterest is doing 50% of the work while you do the other 50%. And, when you start seeing the waves you're making on Pinterest, it'll be so worth it!