Is Pinterest In Your Back-To-School Marketing Kit?

Why You Should Utilize Pinterest For The Back-to-School Season

Pinterest drives results

What’s interesting about Pinterest is that it’s really the only social media platform used for planning and creating. Most platforms, like Instagram, feature what people are doing right now. Pinterest is used to plan ahead, find inspiration and then act on it. That’s the whole point of Pinterest, right? To find inspiration and then recreate it.

According to Sprout Social, users are 3x more likely to click over to a brand’s website on Pinterest than any other social media platform. And, Pinterest Business tells us that 58 percent of users say the platform informs their shopping decisions and 78 percent share that the content on Pinterest inspires them to create. I don’t know about you, but that seems to be a pretty compelling argument to make sure your brand is present on Pinterest.

People are searching for this content

When I think about the “back-to-school” season, my mind immediately goes to grade-school students getting dropped off by their parents with a princess or superhero lunch box in hand. While that age range certainly applies, don’t forget that this season also applies to high school and college-aged students whose tastes and lunch boxes will look quite different from kindergarteners. According to Pinterest, searches for healthy dorm-room meals are up 38% as students look to eat healthy with limited kitchen space. Work to be inclusive of all applicable age ranges when you’re planning content to reach a more diverse and broad audience.

The back-to-school season isn’t only busy because students are returning to the classroom, they’re also returning to football practice, dance class, piano lessons, etc. Parents are not only in need of lunch-box ideas, they’re in need of quick and healthy dinners they can whip up for dinner. Products like Ocean Mist Farms’ Season & Steam bags come to mind. While you can’t necessarily pack a whole, fresh artichoke in a kid’s lunch box, by elevating your products and brand you’re still able to provide value to families during a busy season.

Pinterest is visual

Unlike platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn, Pinterest is all things visual! This is where we have the opportunity to showcase the beautiful colors, textures and shapes of produce within our industry. For school lunches, consider creating food art content or bento box creations. These are great ideas to inspire busy parents who are tired of making the same PB&J for lunch each day.

When you’re looking to create healthy dinner recipes for the busy parent, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead of creating an entirely new recipe (although that’s always a fun idea and something we love to help with), consider reframing the recipes you already have to be “quick & easy” or “quick & healthy” to trigger families who are scrambling to put dinner on the table in between the extracurricular activities.

By utilizing this under-rated platform for your back-to-school marketing efforts, you place your brand in front of millions of users, drive traffic to your website and ultimately increase the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. If you’re new to social media and want to brainstorm ideas with our team, give us a call. We’d love to help!