PBC Spotlight: Idea Chic
IdeaChic, Small Business, Merchant
Location: Glendale, CO 🏔
Business: Idea Chíc makes greeting cards, gifts and social stationery in Colorado.
📌: Pinterest profile and @ideachicretail on the PBC
*Disclaimer: We recently announced an update to our content creation tooling on Pinterest that combines and simplifies our organic Pin formats. Due to these recent product updates, some articles posted prior to May 2023 may be out of date.
Hi David and Julie! Tell us a little bit about yourselves, Idea Chíc and how you started using Pinterest!
Before Idea Chíc, Julie owned her own custom wedding invitation business — in 2009, Julie realized her creativity and passion for hand-making quality products was blooming beyond invitations. Idea Chíc was born!
Happily married since September 22, 2001, we have many experiences and adventures. I helped fill orders at night and weekends until joining full-time. It has been a dream come true for us to work together in a creative business where we get to design and make everything in-house.
Like many, Pinterest is a source of ideas. For us, that’s a healthy lifestyle. We source many great recipes from Pinterest. We have used Pinterest for business pretty much from the beginning. First for ideas of our workspace and retail, then to be part of others' ideas.
What aspects of your business have you been focusing on recently? How are you leveraging Pinterest to meet your business goals?
We are currently focused on training new designers at Idea Chíc. We have been building a product assembly and development team and with expansion of a design team we can work on replacing Julie who has been the only designer. In parallel, we are expanding our brick and mortar retail and wholesale business and I am personally working on building an employee ownership model.
Pinterest has been instrumental in the predictability of our sales, allowing us to grow with confidence.
Why did you join the PBC? What have you found that’s been valuable about being a member?
I have always looked for community in places where I am invested. The Pinterest Business Community is particularly useful today as I try to get a handle on recent changes with Idea Pins. I also like to help and look for questions where I can contribute. My goal, with a few hires in place, should allow me more time in this community.
Talk to us about your experience using Pinterest ads, what have you learned? Do you have a top performing ad, campaign or Pin that you can share with the community?
I have played with advertising in many channels, Pinterest is unique because I can tap into intent vs spending on brand building. It is a strategy that looks very different. Believing in SEO as I do, Pinterest can help place a product in a place where a decision is being made. As a result, I promote Pins directly, allowing Pinterest to do the rest. I can tell when it is working because Pins are saved to relevant boards converting to sales perhaps in the future vs. impulse. The cycle continues.
I respond to this question in the early fall where our Mulling Spice favors get a lot of love on fall and/or winter wedding boards to Thanksgiving table. This trend starts every year for us during the summer months, when the newly engaged are planning their fall or winter wedding. Meanwhile our spring and summer invitations, favors and gifts start to cycle back as well into relevant boards.
The product converts everyday right now from multiple Pins, all originally posted in past years. I know which ones to promote based on likelihood of saving to boards, even more important than clicks to our site because of how it scales. Next is our Christmas postcards and tags, then spring items. We are very seasonal and Pinterest literally starts the corner turning. It's fascinating.
Why did you decide to become a Verified Merchant? What are some of the benefits you’ve seen of the program?
When becoming a Verified Merchant became available I predicted that, coupled with the review stars and numbers on our catalog would result in converting more sales on our site. This is exactly what is happening. Trust.
What’s been your favorite Pinterest product or tool?
Catalog feed by far. The product listings, copy and images on ideachic.net have been created to help organic search. We are working on more and better images to create more content for Pinterest. We also leverage our review software for the SEO qualities. We are fortunate to have many positive reviews and our customers' words make them our best copywriters. Small business owners should make the most of these tools to benefit from well earned content change on product listings, like reviews, for fresh daily feeds.
How has linking your catalog to Pinterest helped your business?
Our organic views increased and sustained with the catalog. When we launch new products I can see what resonates organically which helps determine advertising. We will be launching a completely updated ready-made invitations line and introducing candles too. In weeks, I will know where I want to spend for the best results.
What tips would you share with other small businesses looking to use Pinterest?
Learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or hire someone. Understanding what brings organic traffic to your site will benefit your efforts on Pinterest.
If you could request ANY feature for Pinterest, what would be the #1 on your wishlist?
Changes to the analytics tools. It's technical, but a summary of top Pins saved is accessed on the dashboard to see board themes quickly. Also, more options for partner/employee access to accounts and tools.
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Thanks for sharing your Pinterest journey with us, David and Julie!!
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