Brandpoint helps clients market website content | Your Daily Update ...

If you hear from Scott Severson about your company?s website, the good news is that he found it. The bad news is that search engines and prospective customers might not.

Seeking out static, bare-bones websites that aren?t likely to earn top search rankings or attract shoppers, is a regular pursuit of Severson and others at Brandpoint, a digital marketing company in Hopkins.

?We look at sites that aren?t being updated, that don?t have a lot of content,? Severson said. ?It?s a quantifiable thing that we can show a business owner: When people are doing these searches, your competitors are showing up but you?re not. It?s a really easy conversation for us to have with those businesses.?

That conversation increasingly centers on content marketing as a way to counter the risk that a stagnant site will effectively disappear from view. Content marketing involves using articles, blogs, videos and other digital elements, ideally all relevant, frequently updated and ?unique and compelling,? in Google?s words, to boost visibility and draw consumers to your site.

Visibility is critical, Severson said, with the vast majority of Internet users searching online before making even local purchases, according to research cited by Brandpoint. Besides getting the attention of search engines, content can engage consumers, build brand authority and, ultimately, help drive sales.

The buzz around content marketing has grown as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms present new ways to share brand content and point consumers to your website to explore that content further.

?One thing we tell our clients is that when people are searching online, they?re typically not searching for company names,? Severson said. ?They?re searching for solutions to the problems they have. We want to help our clients show up when people are asking the questions that are relevant to their business.?

As Brandpoint seeks to help clients grow through content marketing, Severson also sees online marketing as key to Brandpoint?s growth.

Brandpoint?s parent company, founded in 1996, has 47 employees and had revenue last year or more than $15 million. Clients include hundreds of leading national brands such as Western Union and the American Diabetes Association, public relations agencies and search engine optimization firms.

In recent months, Brandpoint has rolled out a new full-service content marketing package for small to medium-sized companies. The package includes content creation, search-engine optimization, public relations, social media services and tracking and analysis tools. Brandpoint expects to hire half a dozen salespeople and a few writers this year as the new offering gains traction.

The new offering reflects a transition to what Severson calls inbound marketing, or a ?pull? model and ?site-based content marketing.?

That?s a change from the ?push? marketing approach ? creating client brand messages primarily in the form of feature stories and articles for public relations agencies and newspapers and other print outlets ? that has been Brandpoint?s mainstay.

?When I look at the opportunity for content marketing for us, the universe of businesses that our service is relevant for has expanded exponentially,? Severson said.

New Brandpoint client Studio U, a private health and fitness studio in Minneapolis that offers Minneapolis physical therapy, Pilates and personal training, saw rapid results its recent content marketing campaign, Studio U owner Kristin Procopio said.

In just 90 days, visits to Studio U?s website increased 72 percent while page views more than doubled and time spent on the site nearly doubled. The results exceeded Procopio?s expectations and helped bring more prospective clients into Studio U to see its newly expanded space and learn about new services.

Wagner SprayTech Corp. in Plymouth, which makes sprayers and other painting products, has been a Brandpoint client for at least six years, using both its traditional print and new content marketing services, said Steve Machacek, e-marketing and PR manager.

?They?ve provided a lot of exposure to our products both in print and with digital,? Machacek said. ?As the world becomes more digital, it?s allowed us to position our products in a variety of locations, and that?s been good for us.?

The expert says: Scott Rader, adjunct marketing professor at the University of St. Thomas? Opus School of Business, said Brandpoint?s transition to content marketing makes sense.

?Most of your world-class, Fortune 100 companies have seen the writing on the wall,? said Rader. ?There is no market for ads, but there?s plenty of market for thought leadership and good content that serves that purpose and solves problems in consumers? ives.?

Creating content for companies as a long-term proposition, however, may be a challenge, Rader said. Companies may find that telling their story and maintaining that narrative over time may be difficult to outsource, because it can involve inner workings of the organization and intimate engagement with customers that company insiders may be in the best position to articulate.

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