How to Win When You Pin: 5 Content Marketing Principles Brands Should Apply to Pinterest

Pinterest ain’t just for posting cupcake recipes, you know. It’s a great platform for connecting with — and marketing to — your audience, but remember, as with any content marketing, certain rules apply.

Rule #1: Define your audience. That means creating “detailed, useful buyer persona profiles,” writes Beth Hayden in , in this post for Fast Company. “Your pins and boards will be much more appealing to your target audience if you focus on your ideal client while you’re pinning…[and] when customers know that you’ve taken the time to figure out precisely what they want, they’ll keep coming back for more.”

Hayden cites Chobani yogurt’s Pinterest boards as a good case in point, which she credits for focusing on the needs of its target audience — women on the lookout for delicious and simple recipes — rather than overtly pitching Chobani’s wares.

“People want to solve their problems, and that’s what they need or want your products and services for,” Hayden writes. “Pinterest gives you the incredible opportunity to become a valued source of information to the folks you’re trying to reach. And if you view yourself as a source of information and ideas, rather than someone hawking your wares, you will be far more successful on Pinterest than if you focus only on promoting and pinning your own products and services.”