How a micro site can help your business

Micro sites and landing pages are primarily concerned with niche marketing, market testing, list-building, opt-in and sales. Micro Sites, traditionally the realm of internet marketers are now finding their way into the mainstream online marketing mix.

The most effective way to use a micro site is to generate an audience that is alternative to your regular website readership.

You might want to do this for a number of reasons, with a number of different goals:

You are trying to attract a different demographic but don’t want to alienate your existing customers
You are launching a new product or service and want to build up interest and traffic
A special world event, industry development or external force comes along and deserves special attention and focus
You are responding to demand from your existing customers to branch in a new direction and you wish to test it

Don’t run foul of search engines with your micro site

The aim of search engines is to keep the internet as competitive and democratic a space as possible. This is the main reason that they do not like to list one business multiple times on the same SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

This is why it is a good idea to optimise all of your web pages around different keywords and themes.

And it is also the reason why you need to be wary when setting up micro sites.

It is not a good idea to set up micro sites in a bid to monopolise certain keywords. Even if you keep your sites very separate, chances are they will link to each other at some point. If search engines discover this (and they work very hard at keeping one step ahead of what they see as inappropriate internet practise) they will act swiftly to punish you. Not only will your micro site disappear from SERPs, but your main site may be jeopardised as well.

A micro site works brilliantly as a way to step outside of your own box!

Setting up a new branch of your business, or a new shopfront is a costly way to test a new idea.

This is where a micro site can really work for you. It is a low cost, manageable way to test an idea, get a message out and open new doors for your business. The following are good motivations for setting up a micro site (and ones that search engines will not take issue with!):

To create social media interest. Many users of social media sites are not interested in visiting or linking to a large scale or overtly commercial site. They want to gather and share information, free from sales speak or heavy marketing. A micro site set up purely to engage with and attract interest from social media users will have different content, keywords and motivation than your main site.
To provide specialised information. If your business deals in new technology or likes to stay at the forefront of developments, a micro site can be a great way to engage both existing and prospective customers. Good examples are:
- building or produce companies that are ‘going green’ (and want to provide reliable information about new initiatives) businesses that are linked to major events (such as a sporting goods store that sets up a micro site about the Olympic Games or World Cup)
- responding to major crises or world events (such as setting up a donation site during disasters such as 2009 Victorian Bushfires or the Global Financial Crisis)
To open up a new market opportunity. Many established businesses do not want to muddy their core activities with new or radical marketing campaigns. A micro site is a good option here because your content and keywords will be different from those on your main site so search engines will not see a conflict of interest.

If these ideas are sparking connections with your own business or website development, please get in touch with us at ASENZ.

Alternatively, you may want to create very specific campaigns that require dedicated landing pages to get a single and specific message out to your online market!