Using Pinterest to Increase Book Sales

Today I'd like to welcome a new guest blogger to Australasian Christian Writers, Pip Reid. Pip and I actually attended high school together, but didn't know each other back then (although we have lots of mutual friends and memories). Pip now lives in Wellington, but visits her family in Tauranga ... which is where we remet, thanks to mutual friend Catherine Hudson.

Last time we met, Pip was giving me the low-down on Bible Pathway Adventures, which she runs with her husband, Curtis. They've taken a unique approach to writing, publishing and marketing their children's books. Instead of writing then publishing then marketing, they've spent the last few years developing an online ministry platform, and will start turning their content into real books later this year.

What intrigued me was the way Bible Pathway Adventures have leveraged Pinterest to build traffic to their website. Pinterest is the major social network I'm least comfortable with, so I wanted to find out more about how they've done it. So I asked Pip to share in a series of posts here on Australasian Christian Writers, and I was thrilled when she agreed. 

Welcome, Pip!

By Pip Reid, Bible Pathway Adventures.

When thousands of books are released on Amazon each week, how do you stand out? Have you considered using Pinterest as part of your social media marketing outreach? There’s world of opportunity out there for authors on Pinterest if you know how to use it. Most authors I know have limited or no marketing budget - which is why it’s a great time to learn how Pinterest can increase exposure and sales of your books. Best of all, every author can use Pinterest for free.

So, let’s dive under the hood and take a closer look at how Pinterest can help your author business.

Pinterest is a social network that allows people to visually share and discover new interests for posting (known as ‘pinning’) images or videos to their own or other’s boards. I use Pinterest for three reasons;

1. To research and collect images that inspire my stories.
2. To drive online traffic to our Bible story ministry website www.biblepathwayadventures.com
3. To improve SEO (search engine optimization) so more people can find our stories and free resources. 

While most people know Pinterest is a fantastic visual platform, many authors don’t realize that Pinterest is now one of the main social media platforms driving internet search traffic to websites. This is especially true for online businesses.

Take a look at this screenshot from our Google Analytics page. Pinterest drives roughly 90% of all social media traffic to bibleathwayadventures.com, with the other 10% coming from Facebook, Google Plus, and Instagram. If you have an author website and aren’t using Pinterest to drive traffic to your website, it’s worth another look!

Why create a Pinterest page? 

For a start, 87% of users have purchased a product because of Pinterest. Your images (pins) get greater reach compared with Facebook and Google Plus, and have a longer shelf life. While Facebook, Google Plus, and Instagram posts generally disappear from your news feed after a few hours, images posted years ago on Pinterest still get shared by Pinterest users.

For example, images I posted over a year ago, such as Planning Bible Time, Ten Plagues of Egypt coloring page, and Bible Coloring Pages (see below) have been shared thousands of times, and are still being shared. These images are linked directly to the Stories and Activities sections on our website, which means a constant stream of new visitors to these pages. If you have a website with products to sell, this can mean sales.

Before you decide whether Pinterest is the right social media platform for you, consider whether your potential audience is on Pinterest. Here are some statistics to think about:

• Total number of monthly active users: 150 million
• Number of Pinterest users from the USA: 70 million
• Number of Pinterest users outside the USA: 80 million
• 81% of Pinterest users are female
• Men account for only 7% of total pins on Pinterest

And that’s not all…. The median age of a Pinterest user is 40, however the majority of active users are below 40. Half of Pinterest users earn USD$50K or more per year, with 10% earning more than USD$125K. 30% of all US social media users are Pinterest users, and 60% of Pinterest users are from the US. Pinterest is booming!

Here’s a snapshot of Bible Pathway Adventures’ Pinterest followers. 

Approximately 87% are from the US, 86% are female, and the majority are English speakers, followed by Spanish and Portuguese.

Do you have:

• A largely female readership? 
• With disposable income?
• Based in English-speaking countries? 

If so, it might be time to consider using Pinterest to reach new readers. If you already have a Pinterest account, consider increasing the number of boards and posts you create.

The next two blog posts go into Pinterest in more detail, including how to set up a Pinterest account, and what type of boards and pins to create to help boost website traffic.

Thanks, Pip! You've given us a lot of food for thought, and I'm looking forward to reading the next post.

About Pip Reid

Pip Reid is the co-founder and author of Bible Pathway Adventures, a free Bible storyapp created to help parents around the world teach children more about the Bible. To help with this mission, Bible Pathway Adventures offers Bible stories and educational resources stories in many languages including Chinese, Hindi, Swahili, Tagalog, Spanish, Russian, Indonesian and Portuguese. All available for free download at www.biblepathwayadventures.com.

Outside of writing, Pip loves spending time in the outdoors, traveling, reading, and hiking with MJ, the world’s most lovable Staffy X.

Stay up to date with Bible Pathway Adventures on social media:
Pinterest: https://nz.pinterest.com/biblestory4kids/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biblepathwayadventures
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biblepathwayadventures/