MICROSITE MARKETING - WHAT IT IS AND WHEN TO USE IT
A microsite is a branded content site, made up of usually no more than three or so pages. They tend to be either campaign based or publish regular, ongoing content, and generally include the following:
- An independent URL
- Visually creative and clean design
- A focus on one product or service within a larger offering
- SEO optimization for a few keywords
- A specific target market or demographic
So how and why should you create a microsite?
- Campaign promotion: If you’re looking to promote a specific campaign, a microsite can use different forms of branding to reach new target audiences. It can generate new leads for your business, engage user interaction and create interest in your brand and website. Get it up quickly and take it down with no risk to your main site.
- SEO and page ranking: A unique, memorable and keyword-rich URL, along with navigation and content that uses a small selection of highly relevant keywords, is good for search engines. And given that it’s a different URL to your main site, you now have another website that your audience can land on to learn more.
Microsites create a distraction-free route to your product or service
- B2B lead generation: Marketers know that prime prospects can get lost on sprawling websites and leads can be lost. Studies have shown that optimized landing pages improve conversion rates by as much as 200%.
- Leverage social media marketing: Extend your reach and build awareness organically – by targeting niche audiences you can build a more loyal following, and increase conversions rates from social channels
- Focus: Where your main website may have to cover a lot of offerings and information, a microsite can focus on just one or a few, giving users a distraction-free route to purchasing and potentially increasing your conversion rate hugely. Similarly, they can deliver messages tailored for different issues or buying stages – from early to late stage prospects.
A targeted focus sells a product or service far more effectively
- Sub Branding: If you are launching into a new target market, or launching new products or services, it helps to distinguish it from the main brand. A microsite that is designed and written to suit a new launch can have far more impact than a sub-page within a larger site.
- Efficient Email Campaign: A microsite can maximise the impact of an email campaign by driving online users and potential customers to look for your featured product or service.
- Speed: Temporary promotions are well served by quick and inexpensive campaigns. Microsites can load quickly, are SEO friendly, and can be built fast and cheap. Use a reusable template to leverage one design across numerous campaigns.
Microsites are great ways to test the response of your customers
- Testing the market: Try out numerous campaign messages to test the market, and then choose and hone the one that works best. Since microsites stand alone, this strategy will not confuse your existing audience of your intention.
- Keeping homepages uncluttered: As campaign tools and repositories of valuable information microsites keep your homepage from being overcrowded. Too much clutter, i.e. choice, on one website is a sure way to turn off many users.
Xerox generated $1.3 billion in pipeline revenue from its microsite
Are Microsites Worth the Effort & Expense?
Building and maintaining microsites is relatively cheap given the limited number of pages and reduced content compared to a full website. They are a fantastic way to promote a specific venture, while not distracting customers from your main range. If you’re putting on an event or competition, they are a great way to channel visitors to targeted content without distractions.
Will you get a decent ROI? Those who do it right most definitely will. One example of a very successful microsite is the Xerox microsite which offered business tips to entrepreneurs. The result? Around 20,000 new contacts were made through targeted call-to-actions, resulting in 1000 appointments, which generated more than $1.3 billion in pipeline revenue.
On the converse side, if you create a microsite in the wrong way, particularly by using duplicate content, you could lose existing search engine ranking so it is important to do it right. If you are a small service business, microsites should probably be avoided – google has banned businesses for using different urls to target different search terms.
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