What is a microsite? It is exactly what it claims to be: a site that is smaller than a regular, full-size site, usually comprised of less than 10 pages. It’s a mini website which serves as an extension to your full website.  Microsites can be a great addition to your full website and prove to be a profitable asset in your marketing efforts.

Let’s say you are running a special campaign. You may want to consider directing people to a special page on your site set up specifically for a particular issue or appeal.  You can talk to your customers in a  very direct way about a specific product or service offering, and you don’t have to worry about them getting lost or distracted in your full website. Microsites are just like Landing Pages; set up to drive your customers to from an email or a direct mail campaign. They are also a great way to gather more information about your potential customer.

What are some of the advantages of using a microsite?

• It provides an offer or call-to-action on a specific issue through a concise and focused presentation.

• It places fewer obstacles in the way of someone’s decision making.

• You can be a little more adventurous in you marketing efforts. Microsites are a great place to try out a different marketing approach.

• They are quicker to set-up than a brand new full website.

• You can give your customers the sense of a specific page, created just for them.  Their experience with your microsite will translate and carry over to your brand.

• You can be more specific in your SEO efforts.

Some good examples of microsites are mini websites for car models, where the user can explore a certain vehicle, hear the engine, look at the interior and exterior, etc… Since each car model is projected to a very different target audience (Sport Car vs. Minivan..), the car company can engage the user with a different theme and engage the soccer mom versus the young College graduate in a very unique way.

While these Microsite make a lot of use of Adobe Flash for higher interactivity, integration of video, etc, the main corporate site is usually a more straight forward static Html site.

Here is an example of a Microsite we created for CB Richard Ellis’ AxisValue:

CBRE_AxisValue_Microsite

And the main, corporate CB Richard Ellis site:

CB Richard Ellis