I’m sure we all know what a website is. Did you know that you can go further than that for your digital marketing needs? A microsite can provide an additional boost to your content marketing strategy. Let’s have a look into a microsite and everything about how it can transform your business…

What is a microsite?

The purpose of a microsite is to be separate from the main website and encourage the customer to take action. If your website has a lot of different pages, then a microsite will be one to look into because it’s a place where you can keep concise information so that the customer can focus on that. 

How is it different from a website?

If you have a main website, you might be wondering why you might want to consider a microsite as well as your primary site and how they deviate? The main differences between the two is that they’re not forever, they have a different domain name, a different strategy, alternative content, and they’re smaller in size. So, actually quite different. 

A lot of the time, microsites are there for a campaign or to advertise a new product. That’s why (usually) they are temporary; they fulfil their purpose and then are no longer needed, so companies revert solely to their main site. 

Microsites have an alternative URL to your main website, as it stands completely independently. It isn’t classed as a subdomain because that would exist somewhere on the original site. It’s important to remember that they will be a completely different entity because it lives outside the main website. 

Because you’re promoting one thing, microsites are much smaller, and the content is to the point. By having concise information, the reader will learn a lot with a small amount of text. 

What makes a good microsite?

If you create a microsite for your business, you want to ensure that you have an optimised URL. You’re more likely to be found if you do this; try to include keywords, slogans, or the campaign name. 

Due to the fact that a microsite is separate from a website, you need to make sure that the customer is getting some different content to what is on your main site. Think about why it would be beneficial to come to the microsite in addition to your website and focus on the content strategy. 

As we’ve discussed, a microsite has a purpose of making the customer take action. Due to a microsite being for the promotion of products and campaigns, have a look at your CTA. A creative CTA leads to more audience engagement, which is particularly important for a microsite.

With a microsite being smaller than a website, it should be extra easy to navigate because you want the customer to browse with ease. A microsite is a smaller version than your actual website, so think about what will make them come there; they don’t want any extra hassle. Make it extra easy to navigate. 

One of the most important factors of a microsite is that it should be interactive. As it’s a marketing tool, the more interactive the site, the more the audience will stay and remember about you and your product, which fulfils its purpose. 

Why should I use a microsite?

When it comes to marketing strategy, there is an abundance of different reasons why your business should consider a microsite. You can branch out and use alternative content strategies, which leads to so many other possibilities. Let’s break it down into points to make it easier to understand; it allows you to:

• Have another platform for services that differ from the main process of your business
• Use different media formats like using video, audio, blogs, and experiment with them to see which works for you.
• Become really creative with your online platforms
• Aim for different target audiences that are more specific, differing from the standard on your website
• Change your tone of voice so that it is different from your website in order to serve another purpose and therefore show another side to your company
• Gather more online visibility through another platform
• Get more attention to new products or services
• Have another way to build social media followers

What are the benefits?

The reasons that you would want to have a microsite are varied, but the main one is that it gives you brand visibility. Having an extra site dedicated to one specific thing means you have a good chance of ranking higher and therefore do better than your competitors. 

With SEO, the more you’re focused on a keyword, the higher it will rank. This is why a microsite can improve SEO because you have a specific site about a particular thing. And, as well, you can link back to your website as well as getting backlinks to the microsite and your main website. 

You get out what you put in. If you make an effort to create a space where customers can interact with you, then that will pay off for you in shares and comments that will consequently grow your brand. As a result, that’s why microsites boost customer engagement, a space dedicated to customers that are interested in specifically one thing. With brand awareness being a big reason for a microsite, putting effort into interaction will pay off for customer engagement. 

We’ve already spoken about the fact that a microsite is directed at one purpose, which is straight to the point for promoting a product. Therefore, a significant benefit is that it’s very easy to analyse your success. If you think about the goals that you’ve set, they’re easier to track on a site of a smaller scale. 

And, finally, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s affordable. If you’re a smaller business wanting to grow, a microsite will allow you to compete with other companies in your sector. You can be as creative as you want and still do it within your expenditure means. 

So, to conclude…

Microsites, a lot of the time, are temporary; it’s a web page or a cluster of web pages that exist to raise brand awareness and promote a new product or service. You’d need to consider everything that it does to see how it could benefit you as to if it is worthwhile. With our agile pods, we can measure which approach would be best for you and your business to lead to success. Are you ready for digital transformation?

We can help you look into options to begin your digital transformation journey. Contact us today to find out more about microsites and our services. We can discuss how digital marketing could transform your business.