In a hectic digital landscape, brands and businesses have their websites covering a lot of content at once. This is why the simplicity and focus of microsites are refreshing for many.
Microsites are effectively small websites with 1 or more pages or can be a single webpage that usually uses a different URL from a brand’s main website. Microsites typically focus on a specific part of a business like a particular product, service, or campaign, so the messaging on promotional microsites typically differs from a brand’s primary, day-to-day website.
As mentioned before, microsites are more of a sub-website for specific parts of the brand and business, this allows these promotional microsites to focus on one thing rather than the entire company and all of its offerings at once; logistically and purposefully separating them from the main website. They’re specifically tailored to reach more specific and targeted segments of the customer base.
A website would instead, be a hub for all a brand’s information, including multiple pages showcasing products, offerings, and blogs. Whereas, a landing page improves conversions by minimising distractions through being a singular webpage and depending on the goals and aims of the business, can target a broad or specific customer base.
Having a microsite provides brands with a channel to zone in and focus on one thing, and with this focus, comes many additional benefits.
It covers a fairly niche section of a brand’s larger product or service offering, which makes those interested in that niche section more engaged and targeted since the subject matter is so focused. It creates a sub-brand that helps the microsite stand out and differentiate from the primary brand website.
One of the more obvious benefits is helping brands bolster the visibility of key products, services, and campaigns. We often see brand promotions like prize draws, instant wins, and try-me-free opportunities using promotional microsites as a digital destination for shoppers in stores to join and engage with a brand beyond the shelf activations.
Meeting a promotional live date is crucial, moreover, it’s a regulatory requirement in many cases, for example, if the brand promotion is displayed on-pack. Your digital partners need to understand these live dates are immovable and cannot be delayed. Contracting with a specialist promotional digital vendor to produce a microsite takes away the risks of using in-house digital teams who may be under-resourced, lack an understanding of the nuances of promotional technology, or are just simply unreliable.
Focusing on one thing in great detail may be difficult to do so on a brand’s primary website which already has a lot of content that leans on the more ‘general’ and ‘broad’ side. It’s a way to gain brand awareness and improve conversions without having to worry about the main website’s consistency, previous content, or cluttering pages.
Since microsites contain highly focused and specific content, it’s a lot more engaging and shareable; easy and quick to read through or scan. Enabling the opportunity to create some very engaging and targeted campaigns through the implementation of promotional microsites. This is why they’re used for gathering high-intent leads for upcoming events.
The benefit of such specific keywords also boasts an opportunity to improve search engine ranking and SEO. Highlighting targeted keywords will bring in organic visitors and having dedicated and targeted content for your audience will bring in more organic visits which becomes an opportunity to increase brand engagement. Backlink opportunities may increase, further bolstering your brand’s ranking. However, the SEO and ranking ability of microsites is often debated, which is something we will delve into soon.
There are many scenarios where having a microsite may prove beneficial to a brand. Some common uses are as follows:
A recent example is seen in the Flight to Final promotion, held by Turkish Airlines who have leveraged and targeted football fans by offering the opportunity to see the UEFA Champions League Finals live, creating a microsite for this prize draw instead of hosting it on their main website.
This allows the promotional microsite to provide an enhanced experience versus their usual website, thus avoiding any potential confusion.
Isolating and creating a distinction between the main website and a microsite protects the core functionalities of the main site, in this case, booking and buying flight tickets. Moreover, having a microsite is a reliable way to integrate engaging web app functionalities without worrying about potential vulnerabilities or interferences with the main website’s day-to-day activities and functions.
The Turkish Airlines' “Flight To Final” promotion was also accompanied by a personable touch, sending participants a promo boarding pass, available for download once they had entered the promotion.
For reference, below is what Turkish Airlines’ usual website looks like:
And here’s what the microsite looks like:
Microsites are also not limited to for-profit uses, whilst popularly used in the promotional space, many non-profit causes and campaigns use microsites as a means of education and activism.
A popular example of this is, clothing company, Patagonia's microsite Blue Heart of Europe which advocates for “the fight for Europe’s last wild rivers” i.e. fighting against the destruction of the Balkan rivers from destructive hydropower development.
Using clear and simple calls-to-action and funnelling visitors through the process by educating, appealing to emotion and logic, and prompting action, the microsite is a well-rounded example of how powerful microsites can be, just by the nature of being straightforward.
Microsites have the potential to be highly effective in several scenarios and brand activations. Promotional microsites in supplement to a competition, promotion, or campaign are a great way to attract high-engagement targeted leads and entry participations. The ‘always on’ promotional microsite platform is a powerful tool to support ongoing campaigns and events. As long as the vision and direction of a microsite are focused, clear, and consistent, brands will usually benefit from having a microsite.
Perhaps you’re still unsure whether your brand will benefit from a microsite. Or maybe you’re curious about how to get started and still have more questions, fill in and enquire in the form below.
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