Pinterest was created with the intention of presenting visually engaging material to people. So while this may be easy for “pretty” and visually interesting industries like interior designers and artists, an insurance agency may have a harder time with it.

Fortunately we’ve cleared up how virtually any business can take advantage of Pinterest in our past blog entries, but we’ve noticed that there are still some common errors that people are making out there that are undoubtedly hurting their bottom line.

Whether you’ve bought into it or not, Pinterest has elbowed its way into the social media marketing industry, and while you may be taking advantage of it, you could be blowing your opportunity for real success.

7 Ways to Fail at Pinterest Marketing

1. Lack of Business Page Description

An astounding amount of businesses out there are posting great content, but they don’t mention their business in their Pinterest profile. How are people supposed to know where to go or who produced this great content if you don’t include the name of your company? When you open up that Pinterest account, you make sure you fully fill out that profile and tell people that yes, you are a business and yes, you’re selling something.

2. No Link to Your Website

The whole point of being on Pinterest is to use it as a reference site, meaning you want to snag the attention of potential leads from that site and then direct them back to your website where you can get them to fill out a form, sign up for a newsletter, or something else that will give you lead nurturing potential.

3. No Mention of Other Social Media Sites

If someone’s following you on Pinterest, there’s a good chance that they’d then look you up on other social media channels too, like Facebook and Twitter. Make sure that you mention what your Twitter handle is, and provide a link to your Facebook business page on your profile. Add either one on the bottom of your visual content. It only takes two seconds, and it can mean a whole lot more business for you.

4. Unclear Pictures

You’re a business, right? So why is your Pinterest profile picture of your cat? Like we discuss in our eBook “Take Your Social Media To The Next Level”, when creating your profile, you need to use a picture that is a picture of you. A good, professional-style headshot without anyone else in the background is all you need to add credibility and help increase trust with others online. Try to avoid using any logos unless yours is about as recognizable as McDonalds or Apple.

5. Unorganized Boards

If you want people to look through your content on Pinterest, then you’ve got to have some sort of order happening with your boards. All too many businesses have hundreds of pins on one single board, all cluttered and in a disarray. Do you really think anyone’s going to take the time to filter through those? Highly unlikely. Take the time to create separate boards for content so that your visuals can be organized in a logical way, and in a way that will hold your audience’s interest.

6. Irrelevant Pins

Apart from being poorly organized, another question that we often have when we come across another business’s Pinterest page is, “Why’d they pin that?” Whenever you pin something, make sure that you add a description – it should be brief – that provides the audience with more information as to why you’re sharing that content, and where it came from.

7. No Pin Backs to Your Content

We can only assume that one often overlooked step in the pinning of items on business boards is the process of pinning things back to your business blog or website. You’ve got to give your business a bit of a shout out from time to time and pin material back to you.

At the same time, everything shouldn’t be about you. Your profile and the content you pin shouldn’t be all about your business. Try to strike a balance between promoting your biz and showing your other interests. Maybe try helping out a colleague or another business in the area and pin their stuff too. You’ll be sure to have the favor returned to you.