Getting Micro Can Yield Mega Results

Segmentation is everywhere. It's why we have 300 TV channels (and nothing on) and the reason for hundreds of magazines on the shelves.

As qualified marketing professionals, I don't need to sell you on the benefits of segmentation in maximizing your marketing budget ... but what about segmenting your web efforts?

Microsites can be incredibly useful tools. These mini, highly-focused sites can target a specific product, solution or customer segment and deliver a niche message or promotion.

Why Create a Microsite?

• To better promote specific pages of your main site
• To target a specific call to action
• To deliver a narrow value message to a focused target
• To enhance a particular promotion with a more memorable URL and value message

Some critics contend that a microsite can compete with your main website for search engine attention, and if not thought through, it can. To maximize SEO with your microsite, use key words in your microsite URL. You can also use your microsite to link to targeted pages within your main site.

Is a Microsite Right For Your Strategy?

• What is the goal? If a microsite offers a better opportunity for your communication to be more memorable, targeted and/or easier to access, it's worth consideration.
• Will the content be unique and interesting to the target?
• Do you have the resources? Can you maintain and effectively promote the site? These sites are great for short-term efforts. If your intention is to use the site long term, consider how you will drive consistent traffic and keep people coming back.
• Will it compete with your existing site or enhance it?

At MarketMatch, we have had great success with client microsites.

Want some examples?

Each of these microsites focuses on value-added content. One in the form of local resource links that are specific to the target and the other with valuable articles.

• www.AreU1.com (a stand alone microsite designed for life stages)
• www.MidCountryBank.com/HomeLoan (A microsite embedded in the client's main site)

Take Care.

Eric

Microsites

It's not secret ... if you want to reach the "Google Generation" you'd better be a few steps ahead on technology. Text alerts and mobile banking are as expected as ATMs and online banking.

You'd also better spend more time analyzing and improving your website than you do writing newspaper ads!

Lately, we've had a lot of clients interested in microsites. And they can be VERY useful in the right situations.

What is a microsite? (or minisite, or weblet)

It's a page or cluster of pages that supplement your main website. They are usually used to highlight a particular product or aspect of your organization.

Let me give you 2 examples.

We are in the process of completing a Mortgage-specific microsite for a client. While in this supplemental portion of their website, a user can find only information important to someone who's interested in buying or refinancing a home.

We also completed a microsite for another institution who wanted to focus on their new lifestage-based sales process. Here the user is drawn into information important to their specific lifestage. They then have the option of clicking on relevant financial products that will take them back to the bank's main site.

In short, it's a way to get a reader interested and to draw them to you. A microsite can differentiate in a very targeted way and generate qualified leads. It's also a much better marketing message:

"Come to our site with information important to you."

vs

"Come to our site all about our products."

What Makes a Microsite Successful?

Content.

The number one objective of your site should be to add value - not, necessarily to sell your products.

Where your main website is traditionally an electronic brochure of your "stuff," a microsite is successful because it draws a user to it for value - entertainment, knowledge, etc.

Many retail microsites use games to bring people in. We prefer to position or clients as experts and use value-added content.

Our mortgage site includes more than a dozen articles that are important to first time home buyers, experienced home buyers, folks wanting to refinance and moving and packing information. It also includes dozens of helpful links to anyone moving or remodeling. The entire site is designed to be a one-stop resource for everything important to you before and after you complete a mortgage app.

Our Lifestage site provides links and information for anyone experiencing specific life events, like childbirth, retirement, etc.

Of course, there are countless ways to link from the informative microsite to the "salsey" main site.

In short, a microsite should be a resource that a customer or prospect will want to bookmark and come back to over and over again.

Merry Christmas,

Eric