Marketing used to be simple.

You placed an advertisement in a magazine, the yellow pages or the local newspaper and people picked up the phone and called you or dropped into your place of business.

Now you have dozens of marketing channels you can use and the media is not just print, television and telemarketing.

The age of multimedia and multiple social networks is providing many choices and options.

Now, having freedom of choice is good but sifting through the options today for the average business owner is a marketing minefield.

Should it be email marketing, a Facebook campaign or a paid online campaign using Google Adwords.

Is investing in optimizing my website for search engines the right thing to do?

The digital economy is a challenge for all business owners who want to be noticed and remembered by their prospects and customers.

It’s a Crowded Web

The web is a very crowded place and with 550 million plus websites on the planet today you need to be innovative and do things a little differently to obtain that valuable attention.

Pinterest is a fast emerging visually oriented social network that provides a platform that can bring out the creative marketer.

Online stores are discovering that it is even driving more sales than Facebook, which I covered in a recent blog article about Boticca a boutique eCommerce company.

Retail, Fashion and other B2C (Business to Consumer) business are often touted as the environments for creative marketing spirits to soar.

Creativity though is not limited to the fashionistas, designers and B2C marketers .

So how does a B2B business get creative on Pinterest?

Here are some ideas that almost any business, including B2B and B2C can apply.

10 Creative Ideas to Market on Pinterest

Here are some simple but easily applied ideas to get your creative neurons pumping .

1. Pin your Videos

You’re maybe a company that has machinery or products that uses online videos to market your products and services. It could even be a “How To” educational video.

Typically companies are now starting to upload all their videos to YouTube as a matter of course as well as having them on their website.

These videos in the past could only be pinned directly from YouTube to Pinterest.

Pinterest has just announced that it  now provides the facility to pin a Vimeo video.

2. Create a “Behind the Scenes” Board

Hubspot personalize their company by revealing behind the scenes activities at Hubspot.

Employees can and will generally share on their boards, photos of themselves and friends (most people like getting noticed in this attention economy).

This tactic further spreads the sharing of the Hubspot brand online.

Nothing like a bit of employee sourced marketing leverage!

3. Implement an “Events” Pinboard

If you run an event for your business whether it is annual, regular or a “one off” then create a board to highlight attendees and speakers and so therefore crowd source your marketing.

The attendees I guarantee you will will repin and share their photos (as long as you let them know with a follow up email after the event or a “Tweet” linking to the site)

This in turn promotes your events and adds to the virality of your content and brand.

4. Highlight Other Businesses on Pinterest

Behance is a network that promotes its members creative talents. It uses Pinterest to showcase their work.

This approach assists Behance and it also markets it members.

5. Create a Book Cover Pinterest Board

Many savvy marketers have discovered the power of an ebook whether you are selling to the B2C or B2B market categories.

Don’t forget to upload images of the front page of your eBook (or book) to Pinterest.

Pins could also be linked to the Amazon store by pinning from the Amazon Kindle page.

If you are promoting and allowing downloads to your eBook from your website or blog you could pin the image from that web page.

Here is an example of marketing eBooks on Pinterest from “Writing with Style”

6. Share Visuals from your Blog Posts

The images you use in your blog articles should be pinned to Pinterest. Compelling and engaging images will make people curious about the post content on Pinterest and makes it easy to click through to your article.

It is all about spreading the links.

7. Tap into the Visual Viral Power of Infographics

Infographics are “hot” and almost any industry or business segment has infographics that have been created.

In certain industries, especially technical and data rich categories of business Infographics are very popular.

Its about taking images that are relevant and using them to your advantage. I currently have 97 Infographics pinned on Pinterest, which I have found to drive significant traffic and on some days it has nearly matched Facebook.

8. Create a Staff Board

Take photos of staff members and share their bio’s. Firstly it will highlight the skills and expertise of your team and also further humanize the business.

9. Highlight your Products and Services with Pinterest Boards

Any businesses or organisations that have products and services have images that they use to represent them. It could even include charts, graphs or icons.

Think about images that represent those products and publish them to Pinterest. A printing company could provide examples of each of its categories it provides as services and use images to link to landing pages for placing orders, inquiries or calls to action.

A web design company could put up its portfolio of web designs and logos.

10. Create Slideshare Presentations Boards

Many B2B and professional services companies in the information industries have Powerpoint presentations that should be:

1. Uploaded to Slideshare
2. Included in a Blog article and embedded
3. Promoted on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
4. Pinned to Pinterest

I do this as a a matter of habit and it places my content and links onto social networks where millions of people are searching daily using keywords.

To give you an idea of how powerful this is, my Slideshare presentations have been viewed nearly 120,000 times by making it easy for people to discover and share on the networks they use.

Give your business the best chance of being “discovered” on the web.

How About You?

How are you using Pinterest? Is it working for you?

Are you a B2C company or a B2B company.

Do you think Pinterest is a waste of time for a business that markets to other businesses

I look forward to hearing your stories.

More Reading

• 5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest in Driving Sales – Infographic
• 64 Pinterest Marketing Tips and Tactics – Infographic
• 30 Resources, Tips and Tricks for Marketing Your Business on Pinterest
• Why Business Should take an Interest in Pinterest
• Pinterest Drives more Traffic than LinkedIn and Google Plus
• 7 Ways to Use Pinterest to Promote your Business – Plus Infographic
• What is Pinterest and How Can You Use it for Marketing your Business?
• 6 Social Media Networks to Watch in 2012 – Plus Infographics
• Social Media Sharing Trends in 2011- Infographic
• 7 Top Trends in Social Media