Microsites 101: Why They Are a Big Deal for Your Next Campaign

Experienced financial services marketing pros are quick to respond to trends and can pull together a snazzy e-campaign at the drop of a hat.

But what if your campaign doesn’t fit the constraints of your own website? Large corporate sites can be, by necessity, tightly controlled and costly to update.

The solution lies in the nifty microsite.

Microsites 101

A microsite:

(Says Wikipedia) is an individual web page or group of pages built to function as an independent subset of a larger website

Landing page or main page may have its own address or domain and can be linked to a main site (or not)

Can be removed from the server completely once it has fulfilled its function

Has its own unique navigation and content

Can have a completely different design than the main site with which it is affiliated (this is the fun part)

Why microsites are a good tool

Microsites are useful for financial services marketers who want to emphasize a new product or launch a campaign, as well as for promoting special events or contests.

What’s great about a microsite is that you can create just a few web pages that mimic the exact look and feel of the campaign you are promoting, which is something marketing teams don’t always have the freedom to do on established corporate websites.

You can create just a few web pages that mimic the exact look and feel of the campaign you are promoting, which is something marketing teams don’t always have the freedom to do on established corporate websites.

Also, real estate on a corporate home page is hard to come by – your campaign might not get the space it deserves. But you can tailor your microsite to point visitors exactly where you want them to go.

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Remember to think about …

Consider factoring a microsite construction project into your next campaign budget. Some things you will need to take into consideration include:

How long will your microsite will be live for?

How will visitors get to it?

How it will hook up with your main site?

Think carefully about navigation to avoid visitor confusion, and make sure you give people an easy exit back to the main page.

A strong microsite will give your next campaign added reach, depth and interest, with the additional benefit of measuring the success of your campaign through analytics.