1. Pinterest hits the customer early in the customer journey

The customer journey is a big concept, and the entire customer journey can be quite a round. We won't go into that in depth here, but it is still worth mentioning Pinterest's slightly unique presence in the customer journey, as it often occurs quite a bit before other social media. 

Pinterest is the place for ideas, and you can take advantage of that as an advertiser if you want to be top of mind when interest in a purchase is finally brought to the fore.

Let's take a wedding as an example - an event that people often look to Pinterest for inspiration. So let's try searching for 'wedding inspiration'

Then we get the above search result, and as you can see in the picture I have marked, one of these results is an advertisement from Verksted , which sells articles for home decoration, the party and life's big celebrations - including signs for the wedding party .

The image from Verksted looks similar to the other images on the page and blends in nicely with the rest of the search results. The only difference is that it is marked with "promoted by", so you can see that it is an advertisement, and when you click on the image, you will go directly to the website and see their selection of different signs for the wedding party .

Verksted hereby draws attention to itself already in the early phase of the customer journey, when the customer is simply looking for inspiration, which can make Verksted top of mind with the customer when the decision about wedding decorations finally has to be made.

Psst.. want to know more about the customer journey? 

2. High contextuality

As mentioned, Pinterest is a medium where users search around and get ideas for how, for example, the kitchen or the bathroom might look. The most important thing to take away here is that the user actively searches for information. This means that the context in which your advertising enters is likely to have a high degree of relevance for the user. 

Are we looking for e.g. on "bathroom tiles", we get the search result below. As we can see, it is a good mix of organic and paid ads, all of which are part of the same context. This means that it is relevant to the user, whether they are searching to buy or to be inspired.

 

3. You get a lot for your money

Pinterest is – like TikTok – a medium that historically offers a low CPM price (cost per 1000 impressions). That is that you get 1000 impressions cheaper than on media such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This therefore makes Pinterest particularly relevant for companies that are trying to reach a wide audience with a limited amount of money. 

According to Pinterest, it gives both physical and online retailers 2 times higher return on advertising (i.e. ROAS) than advertising on other social media.

And unlike many of the other social media, where video has become a vital element, it is still still images that dominate on Pinterest. You can easily use video in your ads, but you can get started quickly and cheaply with just images - you can't do that on media like Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok. This is where video content is vital.

Remember the green angle when selling to Swedes

The Swedish friends I have are very concerned about eating organic and sorting waste. They make quite high demands that the companies they deal with have a focus on green transition and green energy. 

Many of them say no to Danish pork, eggs and chicken because "there's so much medicine in Danish food" and "we've heard that they don't treat the animal that well".  

And what should you do to meet that objection?

In any case, what you should not do is greenwashing – i.e. pretending that you are doing better than you actually are.

But if what you make or produce can stand up to critical scrutiny, highlight it in your marketing: "Made in Denmark, not in China" or "We only use ecological cotton till våra kläder".

Social responsibility is important to Swedish consumers

As with the green angle, Swedes are generally more concerned with treating people properly and without prejudice. So if you actively support Pride, the rights of minorities in the labor market, send money to a project in Africa or something else entirely that can speak to this feeling of "we take responsibility also for dom som kanske inte har det so lägt", you are welcome show it.

They are simply so dry, those Swedes!

Nope. Not if you ask me. I experience more irony, more new, strange words (like "mellis" for "mellanmål" = mid-meal) and actually funnier TV commercials in Swedish than on Danish TV. Maybe not pure humor, but several good understatements and ambiguity.

If the Danish campaign is called "Collect your loans with us - save a lot of money", the Swedish one could be called "Många bäckar små kan bli till dyra lån - samla dina lån hos oss". In the Swedish version, you play on the idiom "många bäckar små", which usually means something positive - but not here!

Use specifically Swedish expressions and references to Swedish things, cities, cultural figures or events. Think of the Swedish holidays such as Midsommar, Walborg and Kräftskivan in August.

An example: There was a very popular TV program on tv4, called "Arga snickaren", where a carpenter greets people who have come to a standstill with their hopeless building project, or where the worst kind of woodworking has been done. The carpenter scolds people and fixes things.

I saw an advertisement for a service where you get quotes from craftsmen. It read as follows: "Our carpenters are not angry, but duktiga och förstående". This means that even if you are faced with a crappy project where there is chaos all over, they will help without lifting a finger. This advertisement is based on some Swedish cultural and contemporary understanding, and it is a very successful way of communicating to Swedes.

It is good that you are Danish when you have to sell to Swedes

In general, Swedes' image of Denmark is something like this:

Lovely and relaxed people, beautiful country with fine beaches, Tivoli, Nyhavn and the Glyptoteket are world-class experiences - and you can drink beer anywhere. You understand quite a bit of what they say. They are good for business and sharp negotiators. Strict immigration policy - and some think it's good, while others frown.

But Danish design - it's just the best. The Danes can build houses, design furniture and make clothes. So if parts of your offer can include the fact that what you do is Danish - then include it.

Swedes are by no means as nationalistic as Danes. An offer newspaper or campaign in Denmark is often plastered with lots of Danish flags. It would look completely wrong in a similar Swedish campaign.

Instead, work with images that "feel" Swedish - but without necessarily being with Pippi, Emil or a small red house with white half-timbering. Images depicting modern, digital people in modern, bright surroundings. And it is in no way forbidden to have people with you who do not have light hair and blue eyes. Sweden is now quite multicultural.

Get a Swedish phone number

A Swedish phone number that doesn't look like a mobile number is a really good idea. If you can choose yourself, you must take a number that looks like something you know - e.g. 08 for Stockholm, 031 for Gothenburg or 040 for Malmö. These numbers are called an area code in Swedish and are an area code that tells which city the number is from.

Do you have to know Swedish to be able to sell to Swedes?
If you have the opportunity to answer in Swedish, that's great. Otherwise, just do your best in "Scandinavian" and speak slowly. You will find that many Swedes want to switch to English. The same applies when you write to your Swedish customers. If you can, write "Scandinavian" but be aware of the many pitfalls and difficult words such as "rolig/lugn", "skuffe/göra besviken", "tastatur/ketantbord" etc. You will find that writing intelligible Swedish is quite difficult!

How will Swedes pay online?
Swedes prefer to pay by card. This is shown by a study from Statista in 2021 , where 60% of participants preferred card payment in connection with online shopping. Next comes payment with Swish, which is Sweden's answer to MobilePay, and which 50% of the participants preferred to pay with. These are therefore two payment solutions that are important to have with you when you have to sell to Swedes.

In addition, I would recommend that you offer payment with Klarna, since it is used by many Swedish e-commerce companies. It takes a little time to get in place, but it will have a big effect on your final conversion rate, as it creates recognition for many Swedes.

If it makes sense to you, see if you can join relevant organizations or groups. In the travel industry, we have learned many times in our Scandinavian projects (the hard way) that we could not sell the idea to Swedes that the Danish Travel Guarantee was enough as security. No, they were asked quite often "have you well ställt garanti till Kammarkollegiet?", and when the consultant explains that "you will be covered by our Danish guarantee", this often resulted in uncertainty on the other side. So guarantees and memberships in Swedish organizations are just good.