10 Tips for Marketing to Men on Pinterest
The biggest misconception with Pinterest is it’s just for women planning weddings and decorating their homes. However like the classic book, “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus” you will appreciate that men and women use Pinterest for vastly different reasons, and in starkly divergent ways. That’s not to say Men are not on Pinterest but let’s see how they are using Pinterest.
So why should you pay attention to grabbing men’s attention? Well according to the Social Habit the comprehensive study of American social media users from Edison Research, “Women Use Pinterest as a Wish List…..Men Use Pinterest as a Shopping Cart.” So here are some tips to make sure you are targeting men on Pinterest too.
1. Use Pinterest Guided Search
The Pinterest guided search is a fantastic feature to help you find what you are looking for by giving you alternative additional keywords. Furthermore, the results are based on the gender of the user. You should use this in the development of your own keywords when pinning a new product and image. For instance with the keyword shoes – a result of millions of female shoes are in my results in my account whereas if a male friend entered the same keyword his newsfeed would be tailored for him (if he had marked his gender in the settings). As a Pinterest user, use the guided search additional keywords to help include in your descriptions to make sure the right pins appear in the right results. So if its Men’s shoes you are pinning – make sure you include Men in those descriptions.
2. Use Pinterest Data For Content Creation
Another tip shared by Vincent Ng was taking the Guided Search just one step further. Pinterest gives you a lot of free data. By searching for your keywords and taking note of the popular guided search terms you can then create a new blog article on the same topic. Once that blog article has been published with a Pinterest optimised pin, post it on Pinterest. It will be win-win as it will be an article relevant to the Pinterest audience. Apply this also to create content to attract men’s product interests as well.
3. Pin images that appeal to men
Pin images that appeal to men. By actively and consistently pinning images depending on your industry and profile will help you grow a following across both genders.
4. Create Men Interests Themed Boards
A follow on from pinning images that appear to men is to consider planning specific boards that are of categories that men are following and make sure all the pins are consistent with the theme.
5. Follow boards targeting male interests
To better target your customer or audience, spend some time following other boards targeting male interests so you can see what type of content they like to pin. Also follow boards that are related to your own products but curated by men. According to Pinterest, Men’s apparel, technology, travel and gardening are top interested while cars and motorcycles are fast growing categories. Check out these Michael’s boards in Medieval and History as an example.
6. Target men specifically using Pinterest promoted pins
If you are lucky to be eligible for promoted pins (they are still by application only) one great feature like Facebook ads is to select men, women or both in targeting. Promoted pins are a great way to quickly build a following and generate traffic to your brand.
7. Grow a male audience outside of Pinterest
Pinterest should be just one of your social media strategies. By leveraging audiences in Twitter and Facebook and publishing via content marketing to grow your website traffic, you should also invite those audiences to follow you on Pinterest. Most of these channels via analytics will disclose the demographics, age and gender so you can further gauge how your marketing is going.
8. Apply consistent Pinterest marketing strategies
Pinning regularly and consistently is still the most well-known strategy to grow your account and keep up engagement. Make sure each description capture the right keywords and are within the categories men are most interested in. For our information Pinterest listed 10 of the top content categories among men as:
- Men’s apparel
- Technology
- Travel
- Gardening
- Recipes
- Gadgets
- Design
- Luxury Cars
- Tattoos
- Camping
9. Types of Images
So what kind of images should you create for men? How about these types of pins:
- Step-by-step instructions: Show how things can be easy and simple with instructions or before and after DIY comparison.
- Comedy: Can you create a funny pin with caption and cartoons? A funny ads has an easier chance to going viral and appealing a male market.
- Clever: Do you have a clever way to get things done. Be inventive with your products.
- Girl… Nothing wrong with having a pretty girl showcasing your product although keep in mind to keep it tasteful and don’t go overboard with sexiness as you don’t want to confuse your brand.
10. Follow some great Male Pinterest Experts
My favorites to follow is bloggers and podcasters Jeff Sieh from Manly Business Tips and Vincent Ng over at MCNG Marketing. Follow both these guys where they brings together social media’s best “Pinsters” to explore strategies for becoming a better personal and professional Pinterest user
Do you have any tips for Marketing to Men on Pinterest? Comment below with your Pinterest boards.
