Using Instagram and Pinterest to drive sales

When it comes to social media, a really common question we get asked is, ‘Is Pinterest better than Instagram for driving sales?’ The answer isn’t so straightforward. It depends on quite a few factors and creative businesses use both platforms very successfully for driving sales. In this blog post, Anne-Marie Shepherd, our social media manager, explores the differences between Pinterest and Instagram and shares ideas and tips on how to use each to boost your online presence.

The Differences Between Instagram and Pinterest

The Purpose of the Platforms and How They are Used

Instagram is about sharing, engaging, building relationships, entertaining and inspiring. You can have conversations on Instagram. Ask questions. Really engage with your followers and enhance the know, like and trust of your business. You can share content around your business, your why, your hobbies, your passions. It’s personal. It is sociable and it isn’t all about you!

Pinterest is more about discovering learning, and inspiring people to find out more and eventually shop. Pinterest is a visual discovery channel (I call it Google with images). Users enter keywords to find content around their needs and wants – just like Google. They use it to curate and save content uploaded by other users (you!). Your Pins are about your business. Images of the products you create, how people use your products, videos of your products in action, and images with graphics to draw people in. Pinterest is all about you. It’s another platform to showcase what you offer.

Gorgeous images are vital on both, but on Pinterest users also need to see some sense of value. What can they do with the product or what is your service offering them? Is there further instruction or more to learn? The titles and descriptions of your content should reflect this.

The Audience

It’s really important to look at typical audiences for social media platforms to make sure that your content matches the audiences using those platforms. Here’s is a super quick breakdown of Instagram and Pinterest audiences to help you.

Instagram

• 2 billion active monthly users (35 million users in the UK)
• An equal split between male and female users.
• 85% of Instagram’s audience are under 45 users
• Instagram is the preferred platform of social media users aged 16-34
• People over 65 years old are least likely to be Instagram users.
• 70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their next purchase

Pinterest

• 498 million monthly active users
• Over 1.5 Billion Pins saved every week
• 85% of weekly users have made a purchase from Pinterest pins
• Pinterest’s biggest audience segment is women aged 25-34. 76.2 % of Pinterest users are females.
• Pinterest will have around 25.1 million Gen Z users in 2024, accounting for around 5% of its entire user base. This is up from 23 million in 2023, showing that Gen Z consumers are continuing to join the platform.
• 1 in 3 Pinterest shoppers have an income of over $100k. Most people who use Pinterest have disposable income.

In a nutshell more women use Pinterest and it has a slightly older-on-average audience than Instagram. Pinterest users also have a high disposable income. They are on the platform looking for ways to spend!

Link Sharing

Pinterest totally prioritises link sharing and saving. It wants users to see something they like, click on the image and be taken to where that image is AND they want people to re-pin. Pinners are three times more likely to click through to learn more about a product or service than they are on any other social media platform.

The only clickable link feature that Instagram has is via someone’s bio. It is currently the only platform that doesn’t allow you to share links in posts.

When you are looking to distribute content making it easy for people to get to your website, Etsy shop, YouTube channel etc, Pinterest is definitely the best choice.

Images

Instagram and Pinterest stand out as the two most visual-centric social media platforms that we have. It makes sense as visual businesses to use them. If you want to get any attention at all, you need to have gorgeous, high-quality images on both. We cannot stress the importance of this.

Have you seen how quickly people scroll on Instagram? Your images have to make them STOP!

Similarly on Pinterest, you want your image to engage people to the point where they re-pin your content and even better click through to your website to find out more.

But there are differences between powerful image types on the platforms too.

Photos without faces usually do better on Pinterest. Less than 20% of images on Pinterest include faces and brand images without faces get 23% more re-pins than those with faces. It’s why you’ll often see full body images to show outfits cut off at the woman’s chin or a pair of earrings totally zoomed on to the ear.

Instagram is exactly the opposite. Photos with faces get 38% more likes. It’s why we always encourage you to show your face on Instagram. Your face is one of the key factors in building know, like and trust!

Longevity

The images you post on Pinterest is evergreen content. Pins have a really long lifespan. Really effective pins posted years ago can still bring in a lot of traffic. A hero image accompanied by the right keywords and a direct link can work in your favour for a very long time.

Instagram’s algorithm looks at how long ago your photo was posted. It cares about when you posted, because it always wants to serve its audience the latest, most interesting posts. Instagram posts can disappear quickly so make sure you post when your audience is most likely online.

Follower Numbers

Pinterest follower numbers are not as important as Instagram follower numbers, because as we saw at the top of this blog post the purpose and use of the platforms is very different.

On Pinterest your home feed shows Pins from people and boards that you follow, as well as Pins inspired by your own boards and by your recent activity. And the feed is largely shown in chronological order.

On Instagram, your posts will be shown to your followers, so there is immediately a purpose to trying to grow your followers – with your ideal clients.

Ecommerce Platforms FOR Pinterest AND INSTAGRAM

Pinterest offer seamless shopping integrations with Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify and Woo.  

In essence, Pinterest picks up the data and description from your e commerce platform listing and uses that for the Pin making it even easier for Pinners to shop!

If you host your products on a partner platform that has an integration with Meta, you can import them to your catalogue in Commerce Manager. All your updates will then sync automatically to Commerce Manager on a regular basis and you can use it to start selling from a Facebook or Instagram shop. This is having a massive impact on making it easy for people to shop direct from Instagram simply by tapping on a linked product image.

Tips for Getting Found and Driving Sales on Pinterest

• Make sure you have a Business Account and claim your website. Create 8 – 10 boards – these are your categories – label them well and place your Pins into the relevant boards. Archive all your personal boards and Pins, this is strictly business Pinterest only!
• Post fresh and original content. As with all social media, it is the quality of your pins that will bring you followers and traffic. Pinterest likes originality. It prioritises FRESH Pins – that is content that you create (post) on the platform. Pinners use the site to look for new ideas, inspiration, and products, so make sure your own Pins are super fresh. Use quality images. The best performing Pins have 3 things in common: they’re beautiful, interesting, and actionable. In that order.
• Be consistent. This is a simple rule for all social media, but especially for Pinterest. Post little and often. Start with 2 – 5 FRESH Pins per day.
• Use relevant keywords. Use keywords in your Pin titles, Pin descriptions, Board titles, Board descriptions and in the graphics on your images. Yes, Pinterest can read image graphics! Make sure your descriptions are keyword-rich so that you appear in relevant searches. TOP TIP: Use Pinterest’s search for keyword research. Put a few keywords in Pinterest’s search bar, take note of the automatic suggestions and start using those in your titles and descriptions.
• Include detailed descriptions. To keep the attention that your Pin has attracted, you’ll need a stimulating caption. Provide enough interesting information to make users want to know more about what you do.
• Schedule Pins in advance. Since Pinterest is used for planning, it’s a good idea to stay ahead of events. Pinterest recommends that seasonal content is shared up to 45 days before a holiday or event! Pinners often plan 3-4 months in advance of events, especially weddings, Christmas and holidays so start your Christmas Pinning in September.
• Use the Pinterest icon on your website, in newsletter footers and in email signatures to encourage your audience to follow you there.
• Add the Pinterest Save button to your website and make your website visitors aware that you are on Pinterest. And the Pinterest button makes it super easy for your website visitors to share any image from your website to their Pinterest boards. Others sharing your content on Pinterest is a major plus in terms of reach.

Tips for Getting Found and Driving Sales on Instagram

• Optimise your business profile. Make sure your Instagram bio is working for you. Does your profile picture reflect you and your brand? Does your bio explain succinctly what you offer? Have you added a link (s) to your website, shop, Etsy etc. Instagram lets you have 5 different links in your bio, but if you need more think about about using Linktree or create your own link system.
• Make sure your images are strong. You have under 2 seconds on Instagram to pique someone’s interest so make your images stand out. Don’t post anything that you are not proud of. Use your images not to sell your product but to sell a feeling. Show your work in situ, art on a wall in a gorgeous room, jewellery being worn, a scarf tied beautifully – use these aspirational images to make people want what you are offering.
• Encourage engagement. Focus on being sociable and not on selling. People want inspiration, discovery and entertainment … and then maybe want to shop. Include a call to action in the majority of your posts. Ask a question, or say ‘click the link in my bio’, or ‘DM me for more information’, or ‘comment below’ etc. Start the conversation and keep it going. Use the 80/20 rule. Four general (engagement) posts to build relationships, to every one ‘selling’ post.
• Don’t assume anything. If your work is for sale, then tell people that it is for sale, and explain how or where they can buy it. Eg/ say ‘available in my online shop, via the link in my bio’.
• Set up Instagram Shopping. Tag your products in your posts and stories. After seeing a product or service on Instagram, 79% searched for more information, 37% visited the retail store and 46% made a purchase. Shopping on Instagram is the future.
• Encourage saving posts. Suggest to your followers that they save your posts for wish lists, or for present ideas, or for special events they may have coming up. Lots of people on Instagram save posts to go back to as reminders and for inspiration. Work on this!
• Offer Instagram only promotions. It’s the perfect place to promote a sale, new product launch, or discount code exclusively to your followers. You can either add your promo information in a caption or in Instagram Stories, encouraging users to click the link in your bio to take advantage of the offer.

As you can see, Pinterest is very different to Instagram. Once you start thinking about Pinterest as a discovery channel and not a social media platform, your strategy for how you use it will change.

The focus on Pinterest for driving traffic is much more on using the right key words to get found and to drive traffic to your website or Etsy shop. Instagram on the other hand is more about building and maintaining relationships, growing your following of ideal clients and then encouraging your followers to take the leap to purchase from you.

Both platforms are great for driving traffic, but Pinterest certainly makes it easier!

If you found this blog post of helpful, please let us know.

We’d love to hear in the comments below which platform works best for you for driving traffic, which platform is better for driving sales, and how do you use either to achieve sales?