Pinterest is one of the most powerful promotional tools for startups but it’s also one of the least used, too. Especially in South Korea, businesses don’t fully understand the immense potential of Pinterest to target global consumers. Pinterest has over 320 million monthly active users. However, the platform’s reputation does a bit of a disservice. When you think of Pinterest, what comes to your head? Halloween costumes? Nail art? Gluten-free cake recipes? But, if you’re a Korean startup, you need to change this perspective and add Pinterest to your marketing arsenal. This applies especially to Korean beauty startups, fashion startups, and even IoT startups.

Make sure your startup has an account on Pinterest. Pinterest is set up so that people can not only follow your page but also ONLY your boards. Therefore, as long as you have a variety of boards there is a high chance that at least one of your boards will get followed by potential consumers. This is a perfect example of a filtered following that consumers love. They will see only what they want to see.

Here are a few reasons why you should use Pinterest to promote your Korean startup.

Reasons for Korean Startups to Use Pinterest

Pinners Want to Buy

Interest in Pinterest has gone up ever since it went public. They are no longer just visual search engines. Many pinners are on Pinterest for inspiration! Pinterest has a wealth of innovative ideas for vacations, weddings, fashion, beauty, and even tech! Therefore, probably the prime reason to get on Pinterest is the captive audience, eagerly waiting with their wallets open. Most of these consumers are from the United States. Therefore startups in Korea looking to target the West should be using Pinterest to promote their products. Research shows that 87% of Pinterest users have made a purchase because of Pinterest. In addition to this, 93% of pinners state that they specifically use Pinterest to plan a future purchase. Over 80% of Pinterest consumers are on a mobile device because almost half of the millennials in the United States are on Pinterest.

Pinterest allows consumers to find answers to their personal questions in a much broader way than just using Google. Most products from startups in Korea can easily be found on Naver, but most outside of Korea have never even heard of Naver. If you are a startup selling a product, it is important to have some presence on Pinterest because it is highly likely other pinners will be pinning your content. In addition, Pinterest is a platform where marketers from around the world can become an active part of shaping future trends whether it be in fashion, beauty, or tech.

If you’re looking to make some sales, these are great eyes to have on your product!

Pinners make Big Purchases

For Korean startups selling high-ticket items, Pinterest is a great marketing platform. The average value of a Pinterest purchase is $58.59 according to research by Shopify, the highest of all social media platforms. This is because Pinterest has a large number of millennials on its platform. Millennials like to spend money and look for quality over affordability. They make up the largest group of luxury shoppers in the US. Therefore Pinterest is the ideal place for startups in Korea that are looking to sell high-end luxury items. These millennial consumers come to Pinterest to find the latest trends and get inspired. The most popular items saved on Pinterest are handbags, jewelry, furniture, and shoes. In addition, luxury homes and futuristic homes are also popular.

Reach a Global Audience

Just because you’re a Korean startup, doesn’t mean you only have to promote your product to people living in Korea. As I mentioned above, Pinterest is a global platform. Pinterest has over 320 million active monthly users living all around the world, giving your brand a competitive edge in the global market. Not many people know this but Pinterest is the 4th most popular social media platform in the U.S. For Korean startups looking to enter the US market, Pinterest is a must. It ranks ahead of LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Snapchat, and even Twitter! Their data shows that over 25% of US adults have a Pinterest account.

High Footfall

5 million Pinterest users use the platform to shop “rich shopping pins” every day- that’s 20 times the amount of people who shop at the Mall of America! Pinterest has basically become a visual mall. Pinterest is the only social media platform to offer a visual search thanks to Pinterest Lens. Pinterest Lens is a feature on Pinterest that can identify more than 2.5 billion fashion items and home objects. More and more millennials prefer searching by image. In addition, women love using the platform when it comes to buying household items and services.

Pinners have Pennies to Spend

Pinners have higher purchasing power for a reason. 50% of users on the platform are making over $100k per year, and 10% are making over $250k. It is estimated that 55% of Pinners are looking for a certain product they are interested in buying.

Pinners want to Connect with Brands

What’s the main reason why pinners use Pinterest? They want to create a collage of the lifestyle they aspire to have. To do this, they try to find brands that echo the lifestyle they desire. By putting your brand in front of their eyes, you could find yourself a loyal customer of your Korean startup. Most pinners are looking to discover new products. The latest K-beauty trends and Korean fashion trends have a strong potential to take off on Pinterest. Over 75% of weekly Pinners discover new brands and products on Pinterest. Therefore, Korean brands need to make sure their brand is a source of inspiration and can play a meaningful role in their customers’ daily lives.

How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Korean Startup

Create Boards that Reflect your Brand

The first step to using Pinterest to promote your Korean startup is creating boards that reflect your brand.

To do this, you should consider, what is it that you and your audience love. Are you a health and wellness company? Maybe, you could create a board with the best green juice recipes, an at-home yoga routine board, and a board for workout clothes.

But, how many boards should you create? I’d say at least 12, but the sky’s the limit! Best of all it works great with your blog as you will be able to promote your article through your Pinterest boards. Just make sure that every blog post has at least one image that includes the title. This way, if readers want to pin your blog post, they will also have an attractive image that also shows in the title.

The trick is to make your Pinterest account a one-stop source for everything your potential customers need to create the lifestyle they aspire to.

Pin from Other Brands

Your Pinterest board isn’t just a place to promote your Korean startup: it’s also a place to curate the things you love, too. By pinning from other brands that are bigger than you- and pinning their well-performing content, you’ll get more followers for your own boards. And, more followers means one thing:  more eyes on your products when you start promoting them.

Get a Pinterest Business Account

If you have a website, setting up a business account is simple. When you do this, you’ll be able to create something called a “rich pin.” A rich pin contains more contextual information about your pin. For products, this would include real-time pricing and a direct link to where to buy your product.

Create Gorgeous Pins for Your Products/Services

Pinterest is a highly visual platform so, it should go without saying that your pins should be nothing less than gorgeous. The style of pin you create depends on the type of product you’re trying to push. For some categories, such as travel, long images with a clear text overlay work best. However, for shopping pins, square images can look more natural, depending on the shape of your product.

We’d also recommend using images that put your product into context, rather than just pinning direct shots of it. For example, if your product is a pair of city shorts, why not use a full-length image of them styled beautifully on a model with New York City in the background?

It’s also said that warm colors such as red, brown, and orange work best on Pinterest. But, does that mean you should try to incorporate these images into all of your pins?

Not exactly.

Instead, stick to the branding colors you’ve already chosen for your company. You should be trying to tell a story about your brand through Pinterest so make sure that everything is always cohesive and instantly recognizable. This is the best way to promote your Korean startup.

Pay Attention to Pinterest SEO

Pinterest, at its heart, is just another search engine- but its highly visual looks make that easy to forget. It’s not a platform like Instagram where you can get by on looks and hashtags alone. Instead, you need to know what you want to rank on Google and pay attention to SEO.

At present, Pinterest doesn’t have dedicated keyword research tools, but it’s possible to do your own using the autocomplete in the search bar. Searchers on Pinterest use different terms than searchers on Google so be sure to use Pinterest-specific keywords in your Pin descriptions to help them reach more eyes.

Are You Going to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Korean Startup?

It’s clear that Pinterest is an amazing tool to use to promote your Korean startup and one that you definitely shouldn’t be ignoring. We hope that our tips will help you make the most of the platform and demystify some of the myths surrounding it.