Pinterest is a visual discovery engine that helps people find ideas and inspiration for future projects. It offers a wide range of content, including recipes, home decor, makeup tutorials, DIY projects, and more. That is why with the help of Render Perfect Productions, your video marketing experts in Baltimore and beyond, we wanted to take a closer look at the growing trend of video marketing and Pinterest.
Originally, Pinterest was completely picture-based, with no video content. It wasn’t until November 2016 that Pinterest created a new video feature that permitted users to watch native videos on the explore page.
This feature was wildly successful, which led Pinterest to introduce promoted video pins in August 2017, allowing businesses to promote their brands for an advertising fee.
Today, Pinterest is a gold mine for video marketers, largely because it’s not over-saturated with video content. It’s one of the few social media platforms where your videos can easily stand out from the crowd! Check out a few stats that prove Pinterest’s value below.
Types of Pinterest Video Posts
Paid Video Posts
Many businesses use Pinterest’s paid video posts to showcase their brands. Typically, these video ads highlight what your business is selling excitedly. They display your brand name and logo to increase brand awareness.
The primary purpose of these ads is to drive more clicks to your site and increase sales. When used correctly, Pinterest video ads can give you almost immediate results. However, if your video doesn’t resonate with your viewers, your efforts might be wasted. Aligning with your audience is key!
Organic Video Posts
Organic video posts are when you pin video content in the “old-fashioned way.” You’ll create a video pin, allocate it to one of your themed boards, then add an eye-catching title and descriptive keywords to attract an audience.
Unlike a video ad, organic videos are creative and fun instead of “market-y.” While they may still showcase your business’s products, they are less direct than a video ad.
Organic posts are beneficial because they help you develop a loyal following of Pinterest users who genuinely enjoy watching your content. It shows your followers that your company does more than just post a bunch of ads!
One potential downside associated with organic posts is that there is no set engagement window to become popular. Therefore, it can take days, weeks, or even months for you to see any significant results. So, patience is key!
Benefits of Using Video to Promote your Business
Prime Placement
In the past, Pinterest’s framework wasn’t video-friendly since it was initially created as a picture-only platform. However, that all changed in 2019 when Pinterest re-designed its framework to increase the video distribution rate. Today, Pinterest’s algorithm prioritizes video content over all other forms of media.
Because of this, videos rank higher on internal searches. Videos have better placement on Pinterest’s explore page, allowing them to reach a wider audience of interested viewers. So, just by using videos to market your business, you’ll have a leg up on other content creators on Pinterest’s platform!
Video Content is More Popular
Another reason you should use Pinterest videos to promote your business is that the users themselves prefer them. In 2019, Pinterest reported it saw 6x as many video views as it did in 2018, showing the increased popularity of video content.
However, Pinterest users don’t just enjoy watching videos. They are also inspired to take action from them! Pinterest found its users are 2.6x more likely to make a purchase after viewing brand video content on its platform.
So, Pinterest users like watching videos AND they are more likely to take action after watching them. By making videos, you’ll get more followers while also increasing your sales. That sounds like a win-win to us!
Creating Engaging Pinterest Videos
Start with a Bang
From the second your viewers watch your video; you want them to be interested enough to watch the entire thing instead of just scrolling past. Therefore, from the second your video begins, it needs to be interesting, inspiring, and bold.
Have a clear hook in the first few seconds of the video, and avoid using a blank screen, boring text, and uninspiring pictures. The opening scene of the clip should leave viewers wanting more!
Keep it Short
Pinterest recommends keeping organic posts between 15 seconds to 1 minute long and video ads between 6 to 15 seconds long. This means that you won’t have very long to make a lasting impression. So, you need to make every second count!
To achieve this, try to focus on one key message or narrative for each video. Don’t pack too much content into one clip. Instead, if you have a lot of content to cover, make multiple videos and distribute them as individual pins or ads.
Don’t rely on audio
Many users scroll through Pinterest with their volume off. Therefore, your video content shouldn’t rely on sound to tell a story. While you can definitely still have audio or dialogue for those who choose to enable audio, make sure you can still completely understand the content without sound.
This often involves adding closed captioning, which is also incredibly important for deaf or hard-of-hearing viewers. Even if your video doesn’t have audio, use text overlays and bold graphics to get your point across.
Include Relevant Descriptions, Hashtags and Titles
Always include titles and descriptions in your videos, since these will help your video get discovered during searches. Make sure they are clear and descriptive—this will make it easier for the algorithm to find your content. You should also make them interesting to entice your viewers.
Don’t forget to include relevant hashtags! These help to categorize your video, making it more likely for interested viewers to find your content. If you’re not sure which hashtags to include, you can always check out other content in your industry to see which hashtags are common.
Create On Trend Content
Lastly, do some research to determine the top topics and search terms currently trending on Pinterest. Then, use this information to create an on-trend video that will resonate with your viewers. Another way to stay relevant is by creating seasonal content. Try to structure your videos around major seasonal holidays and events, such as Halloween, Christmas, graduation, or back-to-school!
Just make sure to act quickly; trends are constantly evolving, and you don’t want to realize the trend has passed right when your video is ready to share. When in doubt, if your content is related to a trend, focus on getting it ready quickly rather than getting the video 100% perfect.
About Render Perfect Productions:
Render Perfect has been built from the ground up to service growing businesses and help them realize their full visual storytelling and digital marketing potential. We’ve created a service offering and skill-set that spans video production, post-production, motion graphic design, 3D animation, web development, and video marketing strategy. Our insight and experience allow us to help clients make better planning decisions and get more out of their video production effort.