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Generating Timely New Content for SEO Marketing in Minnesota’s Twin Cities

One of the most effective search engine optimization (SEO) practices for encouraging improved website rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) is the publication of fresh content on a regular basis. Whether it’s in the form of a blog or other source on your site allocated to the release of informational text content, search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo all favor websites that can provide users with current, relevant, and original information. The most popular tool for regular content additions is a blog utility. These can be integrated into new or existing websites with the help of a marketing and content development agency. At MLT Group LLC, we provide SEO, digital marketing, social media marketing, graphic design, web design, and video production services for a broad range of clients. Our SEO marketing services in Minnesota’s Twin Cities and throughout the region offer a comprehensive range of support for small businesses, nonprofits, local brands, and customers. Our team of marketing experts, writers, graphic designers, project managers, and videographers work with customers to meet their exact needs while following the technical and design trends that improve website quality and SERP rankings to expand audiences and improve conversions.

Content Creation

One aspect of content creation that we work into blogs and informational articles we write for our customers is the idea of newsworthy or timely content. Search engine algorithms approve of websites that stay up to date on their data and user trends. Publishing timely content that will also be attractive and helpful to users will make your website more likely to get a higher ranking from a search query. For example, if a user searches for “best rated toasters,” Google and other search engines will favor sites with blogs that rank the newest toasters. Blogs or articles that are titled “Best Toasters of 2022” or “Top Rated Toasters of 2022, Tested by Chefs,” for instance, will likely improve your ranking for that query.

Headlines

Headlines and title cards are important parts of SEO marketing when it comes to publishing new content, but the use of keywords and having information that is actually helpful to users is important too. The information in your content, the relevance of the data to your brand and audience, and the interest or “humanization” of that data are all important parts of publishing newsworthy, timely stories.

Internal and External Information

When choosing a topic for a timely blog or news article, there can be multiple sources for your information. Having accurate data that can be backed by internal studies, reports, or analytics or by reputable external sources is important because it improves your brand’s credibility, establishes trust with your users, and improves your professional image. However, most of the companies and brands that host websites and publish content to grow their audiences don’t have access to reporters and newsrooms. Many scholarly articles, scientific studies, or other rich, data driven sources of information are housed behind pay walls.

Data

To get the right data for timely stories, you’ll have to tap into the resources you do have at hand. This can include your company’s own operations and expertise, staff knowledge, internal data, public information, surveys and other customer feedback, social media, and many other sources of knowledge, advice, facts, and other statistics that could be useful to your audience. Your internal data resources can provide analytics and statistics that you can use to build relevant information for the contemporary user. In fact, most companies have a rich source of information about their day-to-day operations that many customers might be interested to know.

Transparency

Think about the companies that you purchase goods and services from or the brands that you support. Would it be of interest to you to learn how those goods are made, what training staff is given, how things are cleaned, what equipment is used, or how facilities are maintained? What about the information that guides brands to develop a certain product or build their site tools in a specific way? You can lend some transparency to your company’s operations, expertise, and analytics to give important information to users that will make your brand more likeable to the customer and better ranked on SERPs.

Public Data

Another important resource for data you can use as a foundation for timely content is public data from the municipal, state, or federal governments, data published in open studies, ranking systems, articles, peer reviewed papers, books, journals, and more. Wikipedia is not considered a credible database because it is built with crowd sourced information, but you can often use the Wikipedia resources section of a page to backtrack to references listed that are accredited or legitimized data citations.

Customer Feedback

You can also gather information from users and your own customers by conducting surveys, asking for reviews and feedback, and analyzing user interaction with your brand. By gathering your own data this way, you can prove to readers the reliability of your information by disclosing the numbers and way you learned about the topic for a certain blog or article. There are many ways to gather survey information available to companies today, such as SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Google Survey.

Having information to create timely content is key but, you still need to be able to determine its relevancy to users. If your blogs or articles are not relevant to the users that interact with your website, you can lose their attention and your site may seem less relevant to search engines.

Relevance

To determine the relevance of your data, you need to decide if it is serviceable to the reader, contextualized, and localized. In order for your content to be serviceable, it needs to help users in some way. Most companies perform analytics to gather data about their audience demographic. This often includes age, cultural background, location, economic status, and community. If you have a dataset you can use to write content, you need to write around that information to make it helpful to your user demographic. For example, if an appliance company has a group of statistics showing that 80% of homeowners store their toasters off of the counter when not in use, they can use that information to recommend the best toasters in their collection for efficient storage or toasters that cool down the fastest or are the easiest to clean. The company could also gather further information about where their customers most frequently store toasters in the kitchen and relay that in a timely blog post.

Relay News

To generate content that is contextualized, you need to stay in the loop for trends significant to your brand. The purpose of digital marketing with SEO content is not necessarily to break the news to the public, but you can relay news about your brand in the form of industry trends. Think about what’s happening in the world to your business format, your audience, your products, and more. If your brand falls into a niche or industry category, publishing data with regard to the current events and trends of those areas will give that information a strong relevancy because of the way SEO and search engine algorithms work. Continuing with the toaster example, an appliance company could publish content overviewing their most popular toaster models and parallel that with trends in kitchen aesthetics and varying degrees of gadgetry consumers currently desire.

Localization

You can also use localization to make global data or large-scale conclusions gathered from reputable studies accessible to your audience. Localizing data brings it to a community level. For example, if there was the release of a brand-new toaster like a smart phone-controlled, portable, and rechargeable toaster with a USB port (we don’t know if this exists) it could spark conversation among your audience if you write a blog discussing pros, cons, and whether such a device is necessary. Localized content gives users the chance to interact more personally with information and allows you to speak more directly with your audience.

Humanizing the Story

Finally, you need to humanize your story to make it relatable to your living, breathing users. While a search engine will process your data and content based only on merits written into a software algorithm, users will go one step beyond this and process information on an emotional level that can manifest in many ways, including surprise, care, joy, fear, anger, and much more. As humans, we process things in emotional ways naturally even if we are also considering the numbers and logic of informational content. Unlike journalistic news providers who have to report objectively, marketers and brands can instill a humanized aspect to their content with the subjection of emotion in positive, constructive ways.

Pairing data relevant to your brand and your users with a humanized delivery will help you create more successful timely content. To learn more about using these tools for SEO marketing in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as surrounding areas, contact MLT Group at (507) 281-3490 or sales@mltgroup.com today.

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Understanding the Important Role of Explainer Video Production in Minneapolis, MN

There are many aspects of videography and film production that can go into a marketing campaign, from product descriptions to full company commercials. Graphics, scripts, lighting, makeup, audio, and other components all go into making video production so complex that it can be a difficult venture for small companies and brands with less access to expensive equipment, software, and training. Because of that, many companies outsource videography to marketing agencies with a dedicated film department. Not only does this make the entire process less stressful and more efficient without compromising control over the creative process, it’s also often a less expensive way to get a quality product. The return on your investment (ROI) for videos is typically one of the highest when compared to other marketing systems, such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and even other visual media. Modern video content has proven time and again to be one of the most engaging formats of marketing media. MLT Group Creative Solutions provides comprehensive video production in Minneapolis, MN, Rochester, and the surrounding area. Our expertise extends to corporate, social media, industrial, training, education, and commercial videos, animation, video duplication, surveillance video enhancement, and even aerial video with our 4K drone technology.

Other Services

In addition to complete videography services, MLT Group also offers digital marketing strategies, graphic design, social media and SEO services, web design, and more. With MLT Group, high quality video production is within reach because we know how to provide scalable video production to meet most budgets. Throughout any project we work on, we operate as your partner. Our customers maintain creative control from start to finish while our videography experts provide continued communication, state-of-the-art equipment, and talent.

Marketing Videos

Because there are so many different kinds of marketing videos, videos that can be used to boost your audience and website traffic, and videos that can improve communication with your users, it can be hard to know where to start. The video format that will benefit your company most will depend greatly on your goals and current standing as a brand. However, for many companies and digital brands, the format of “explainer videos” can be highly beneficial and even change the way your website is ranked on search engine results pages (SERPs).

What are explainer videos?

Explainer videos are short, often animated videos that walk users through a clear explanation of a company’s services, products, or goals. Quality explainer videos have proven to have extremely high conversion rates, some even as high as over 100%. Conversion rates, the measurement of how many users take the next step on your site to click a product, read a new page, sign up for an email list, etc are important key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you determine your ROI, user engagement, and other factors. Explainer videos are usually placed prominently on a home page or landing page so they are your site’s first line of significant user interaction.

There are many types of explainers videos, though animated graphics are the most popular format of explanation today. Some basic types of explainer videos include:

Live-action:

If you have a staff that’s camera ready or if you are able to hire commercial actors, you can make a highly effective live-action explainer video. Live-action explainers are most effective for companies with goods or services targeted for physical use. For example, a live-action video might be more effective for a company selling a special type of toothbrush rather than for a company offering more abstract services like customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Having a cast of real people using physical products or services can also help create an emotional connection with viewers.

Animated:

This format of explainer video is one of the more prevalent styles used today, often used for companies offering digital services, software, and other internet tools. Animated explainer videos can be very useful for walking the viewer through complex subject matter with interesting or fun graphics. Many people learn better with visual aids, so an animated explainer video can capture the viewer’s attention throughout a full breakdown of a more abstract concept or process. Additionally, animated explainer videos often have a better retention rate of technical or intangible information when compared to live-action explainer videos of the same material. Animations give companies a chance to instill creativity and their brand’s aesthetic into information-rich video content.

Live stream:

Social media live streams can be made into casual live-action videos that reach a high level of user engagement. Live streams don’t give you the ability to edit the information given in real time or the ability to erase stumbles in the script, but they are highly effective in reaching your viewers on a very human level. They also show that your company feels comfortable showing raw footage, meaning you have nothing to hide. Live streams can increase the trustworthiness and friendliness of your brand.

How are they made?

The way explainer videos are made will vary slightly from format to format, but every process will follow the same general guidelines. Most effective explainer videos will have a well-defined topic, a script or at least key talking points, style/aesthetics, sound design, an introduction, and a conclusion. Depending on what format of explainer video you’re making, your production process could also include a storyboard, voiceover, animation, transitions, and other aspects of videography. Some of the most important parts of any good explainer video include:

Script:

The finished video design quality can make an explainer video more effective, but nothing communicates the information more quickly and precisely than a well-written script. When writing a script, consider what key information you need to relay to the viewer. Try to answer the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” (樂威壯
ould-be-asked-of-every-project”>five Ws and an H) of your video topic. The script should always include a brief introduction to the topic, a clear explanation that answers the five Ws and H of the video, and a conclusion that increases conversion rates. A good script will convert users to click to learn more, view a product or service page, sign up for a newsletter, or even make a purchase. If you aren’t using a full script, for example, if you are filming a live stream on social media, make sure the people featured in the video have in front of them key talking points to cover.

Style:

From a fully edited animation to a casual live stream explainer video, you should always produce the video in your company’s style. Using the design aesthetics and stylization of your brand will help incorporate your video into the map of your website and boost your marketing image. It will also help make your marketing campaign and overall online presence into a cohesive unit. Your company has its own unique style and using those aesthetics in your explainer videos will solidify their inclusion into your website design.

Sound design:

For both the technical and aesthetic aspects of your explainer videos, sound design is critical. When it comes down to it, your viewers need to be able to clearly hear the explanation given of a product, service, or company goal. Clear sound capturing with mid to high quality equipment and a crisp production of the script will both help you improve the value of any explainer video. Additionally, when used effectively, music, sound effects, and other components of creative sound design increase the viewer’s retention of the information relayed and improve conversion rates.

There are many other steps that go into the making of an explainer video in addition to these basic requirements. Explainer videos range from as simple as an informal, spontaneous live stream to as complex as a full animation taking many hours to produce.

If you are ready to incorporate an animation or live-action explainer video or other audiovisual content into your website, contact MLT Group at (507) 281-3490  or at sales@mltgroup.com for more information about our video production in Minneapolis, MN and across Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.