If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, here’s a basic primer. Think of Pinterest as a wall of unlimited bulletin boards. On one board, you can pin articles that you find interesting. On another, you can put your latest products. On a third, you can pin pictures of cute, fuzzy animals. And then there’s that forth board for all your favorite pictures of Ryan Gosling. People can like and “re-pin” your pins.

If you’re thinking about jumping on board, here are some things to consider:

• The good, and not so good: There is absolutely no denying that some websites are seeing jumps in traffic directly from Pinterest. On the other hand, there are horror stories of Pinterest spammers taking images and repurposing them for nefarious purposes. The good potential for good far outweighs the potential for bad, but it is something to be aware of.
• Demographics matter: Does your business cater primarily to men? If so, Pinterest may not be the site for you right now. It’s user base is 80% female (and mostly between the ages of 25-44). If you’re marketing to the ladies, it may be worth a shot.
• Make time: Pinterest is probably one of the easiest social media tools to “get”, but success takes a lot more than just pinning your products. The people that find success on the site share the things they love and have a genuine passion for. But showing that passion generally involves an investment of time, particularly if you want to connect with other users by liking and commenting on their pins. It’s worth considering if you can make the investment.

At the end of the day, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Personally, I think Pinterest has a ton of potential for people who want to put the effort in. When it doubt, try it out. Take the time to explore it and see what users respond to. Be creative with your posts. Engage with users and build relationships. Above all, watch the data. If you start seeing spikes in traffic to your site, the opinions of all the pundits on the web don’t matter. The data will be your answer.

If you’re just getting started with email marketing, here are some quick tips to make sure you’re starting on the right foot.

Send Externally

To really do email marketing right, you have to send externally, rather than off your own server. This makes sure that your emails will actually hit inboxes, and get as many eyes on them as possible. Nowadays, there’s really no reason not to because so many providers offer great service, great templates, free plans for smaller mailing lists and very low cost plans for larger ones.

My personal favorite is Mailchimp. MailChimp offers a “Forever Free” plan, which means that you get up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month for free, no questions asked. They just ask that you include a small badge in the bottom of your email template. They offer great templates, great customer service and (dare I say!) are really fun to use. If the Forever Free plan doesn’t work for you, they offer extremely low cost monthly and pay-per-message plans.

Now, if you’re a non-profit, you might prefer VerticalResponse. Why? Because as long as you can show that your organization has 501(c)(3) status, you will get 10,000 free email credits each month to use any way you like. If 10,000 per month isn’t enough, they give you an additional 15% discount on email credits. I’ve personally signed a few non-profits up for this service, and it is a quick and painless process.

Don’t Default to Newsletters

The first thing that tends to pop into people’s minds when getting started with email is “We should do an email newsletter!”

When you have a dedicated mailing list of customers who have signed up for your email newsletter, then great. They can work. But newsletters are really for keeping in touch with an audience that is already pretty excited about what you offer, and tend to be less successful at converting sales.

Instead of focusing on newsletters, think about doing messaging that focuses on one or two key points and has a prominent call to action. For example, here’s one from my own inbox from Piperlime:

There is absolutely no doubt what they want you to do here – buy sandals! The message is clear, overt, concise, and the user isn’t being distracted by any other type of messaging. Which leads me to my next point…

Know Your Goals

One of the reasons that so many default to newsletters is that they’re skipping over a step when thinking about their email marketing plan – they don’t know what they’re trying to achieve.

Goal setting should be the first step in planning out any marketing strategy. What are you trying to accomplish? That will dictate the form your tactics take. For example:

• If your goal is to get people to make a purchase off of your website, then you’re going to want to use a format that is really clean and simple and has an overt call to action.
• If your goal is to keep in touch with loyal customers, and make sure they’re informed about your news and events (without necessarily making a purchase), then a newsletter might be more appropriate.

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Use The PS

When our brain receives information, we process two things with the most dominance – the beginning of the message and the end of the message. All the stuff in between is just being scanned for anything that may jump out as important. That’s why you have to frame your messages – have a strong beginning, and a strong closing. This is where the “P.S.” comes in. Here’s an example:

In this email supporting the Obama presidential campaign, arguably the strongest line is at the end – “Let’s beat these guys” with a link off to a fundraising website. They are utilizing the P.S. to make that last impression because they know it’s the last thing that you’re going to see, and it’s also the thing that you’re going to be the most conscious of. I’d bet all the money in my pockets that it was that link that got the most clicks in that email.

(As a complete aside, it truly doesn’t matter to me who you vote for, but it’s worth signing up for emails from all of the major political campaigns, particularly if you’re a non-profit. These guys raise millions of dollars over email and have it finely tuned – there’s a lot you can learn about messaging.)

Create Value for your Subscribers

The last piece of advice is the most important. No matter what you send out, you should always be thinking about what is going to create the most value for your subscribers because every time you hit that send button, you are showing your subscribers how much you value them and their time. Make sure your messaging is something that they are going to view as worth their time to open, instead of a piece of spam email that is just clogging up their inbox. If you do this consistently, your subscribers will recognize it and will be more likely to open what you send them because they know that they are getting something valuable from it.

So, small businesses, it’s time to step it up. Here are some tips and tricks to get you started:

1. Claim your name: Even if you don’t have a plan to use social media right this second, make sure you claim the usernames for your business on all the major social sites. You can register without actually doing anything with them. Better safe than sorry – get those usernames before someone else does!
2. Have a plan, and make it achievable: Social media may sound like fun and games, but it is a serious set of marketing tools. You’ve got to have a plan of attack. SMART goals are a great place to start. That is, set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. For example, don’t say “I want 1,000,000 Likes on Facebook.” Say “I want to get 1,000 more Likes on Facebook in the next 2 months.” At the end of the two months, look at what you did, what worked and what didn’t, re-evaluate and set your next goal.
3. Make the investment: When you value something, you invest in it. While it’s true that a lot of social media tools are free, making minimal investments in premium tools and paid social promotion can help you build a critical mass much faster than you can organically. The faster you build that audience, the sooner you will see the rewards.
4. Use the negative instead of censoring it: When you engage with real people in an open, authentic way, not everyone is going to give you warm, fuzzy feedback. In fact, many people take advantage of the social aspect to try to strong arm companies into giving them better customer service then they would get by calling the 1-800 number. Don’t delete or ignore negative comments. Use them as an opportunity to communicate honestly with your customers. Sometimes people just want to be heard. They are quick to forgive as long as they know that you’re listening and that you’re working to fix things that are legitimately wrong.
5. Don’t promote. Listen and engage: This is going to go against every fiber of your being, but don’t think of your social media properties as your personal marketing playground. They are a way to listen to, and engage with, your audience! Connect with them on a human level, push out materials that aren’t a sales pitch, and create value for them. If you create value for your audience, they will keep coming back again and again. And since you’re always top of mind, they will be much more likely to spend their money with you when the chance arises.

But the best piece of advice I can give is to get out there and just do it. Start creating content and talking to your audience. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect. And you’ll get better at it. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll start seeing the rewards.