First of all: What is a microsite?
For those of us who don’t talk in Geek Speak, we need it explained simply. Basically, a microsite is a website (often single-page) built for the sole purpose of supporting a campaign, an event, or any other promotion. They’re straightforward, small sites, and they will often have a specific URL separate from your main site.
Okay, we hear your questions. “Why would I want a separate site? My site looks phenomenal. Won’t that just be confusing?”
We understand you’re proud of your site, and here at Kearley we believe in building sites you’re proud of. However, one of the benefits of a microsite is that it allows you to maintain the focus of your main website while ensuring quick and easy access to the promotional microsite from a single URL. Also, both sites have similar branding and logo so there is no confusion as to the company behind both sites. Instead of confusion, microsites streamline access to your campaign as well as the rest of your site. Try to imagine your microsite as being another similarly branded doorway or funnel to your main website.
Another positive of microsites is that they can be built rather quickly and inexpensively. It won’t cost as much as creating a completely new site, and this is absolutely a benefit, especially considering it may be a seasonal microsite.
Now that we’ve talked about the benefits, let’s talk about three of the most common types of microsites:
Campaign Specific:
For example, say you own XYZ Corporation and your company’s website is XYZ.com. But you want to run a campaign for the summer and you need your fans to find it easily. If you build a microsite at ABCCampaign.com (hypothetical URL or example), it can still maintain your branding and promote your company, but the URL is far easier to find and maintain.
Event Specific:
These microsites are very similar to campaign sites. Except instead of a promotional marketing campaign, they are focused on securing attendees to a company event. You need people to sign up, you need them to find the website, and you need the URL to be event-centric. With an event specific microsite, you can even tailor the design and the coloring to the branding and category of event.
Evergreen Content Specific:
This is a slightly different style of microsite. These sites are “evergreen” which means they don’t disappear at the end of a campaign or event but rather continue indefinitely and are built for the sole purpose of promoting and publishing different pieces of content. It could be a newsletter microsite for your company or perhaps a microsite that highlights videos your company produces.
The beauty of all of these options is that they maintain your brand integrity and can link to your main site as well so that any content you have on your microsite can consistently direct people to your main focal point. Also, microsites have the capacity to engage your audience in a pointed manner that your full website may not be able to.
In addition, microsites diversify your content and allow you to put out fresh ideas without finding the perfect spot on your primary website, they also allow you to heavily promote seasonal campaigns or events without having to build and then delete pages on your main site.
Above all, microsites are far easier to find than a long URL linking to a page on your primary site. At the end of the day, that’s the goal of any website you make – to get your name out there and help people find YOU.
If you think a microsite is something your company needs, please reach out at BigIdeas@kearleya21.sg-host.com or follow us on Twitter or Facebook @KearleyAndCo and we can give you tips on how to get started today.
