As our attention spans are shrinking more and more, people start to look for more concise and to-the-point content. The rise of TikTok is one example of this: the social network has to credit its short video format for its unprecedented success, among other factors. The rise of microsites is another example.
If you’ve been to Instagram or any other social media platform recently, chances are, you’ve seen a link to a microsite. This boost in popularity is not surprising: microsites are compact, easy to navigate, and quickly drive the point home. But notwithstanding this minimalistic approach, they are interactive and can make the visitor poke around for a while.
But what exactly are microsites? To help you answer this question, in this article, we are taking a look at what microsites are, and how your business can benefit from them, as well as bring examples and share templates that you can use. Ready? Let’s dive right in.
What Are Microsites?
To understand what microsites are, let’s first understand what they are not. Microsites are not:
- Landing pages — Visitors are landing there, sure. The main difference is the purpose. In the case of traditional landing pages, the aim of driving traffic is almost always to generate leads. This is not true for microsites.
- Subdomains — While microsites can, and usually do have their subdomains, they are not subdomains themselves.
- Small websites — The word “micro” in microsites can create associations with the word small. And although they are usually small in size, microsites are not small websites, and small websites are not microsites.
Now, let’s take a look at what microsites are. They are:
- Temporary — Microsites are usually temporary, and are built around one specific campaign or business goal.
- Content-rich — Microsites are content-rich, and are usually filled with keyword-optimized information on a specific topic.
Basically, microsites are small separate websites created to promote a service or a product. Also known as taplinks, they can often contain links to the main domain of the business, but microsites usually act as a separate entity and are not part of the main website of the brand. You can use them to promote specific campaigns or target specific personas with your offer. They are useful and effective tools that, although won’t become the center of your digital marketing campaign, can enhance your marketing efforts and help you grow your business.
Benefits of Microsites for Your Business
If leveraged correctly, microsites can become a great tool for businesses to accomplish many of their goals. The main aim of the microsites is to serve your business needs, and you can customize them and adjust them to your needs as much as you need, and then reap the benefits of your efforts. Here are a few main benefits of microsites for businesses.
Allows to Create More Focused Content
Having highly-focused and targeted content is the aim of every marketer and for a good reason. When you focus on one thing in your message, you eliminate the distractions, leaving what’s important, which makes it easier to guide users towards your desired action.
The aim of the microsites is to concentrate all copy and design efforts on one targeted topic. A clear presentation of a product or a service is something customers look for, and microsites allow them to have just that, catering to their interests without any irrelevant information.
Helps to Generate Targeted Leads
The result of more targeted content is usually more targeted leads. With having a website with content dedicated to a specific goal, it’s easier to attract an audience who is already interested in that offering. This, in its turn, makes converting them easier than it would be for an uninterested audience.
Results in a Cleaner Homepage
If you have many different products and campaigns, covering them all on your homepage or landing page can make it too crowded. This can confuse and overwhelm the visitors, who won’t know where to look for what, and how offers differ from each other. To avoid making your main website congested and to save space, use microsites with targeted content to address specific issues and goals.
Improves Cost Efficiency
Microsites are also great when your business is on a tight budget. Because they are smaller than regular websites, they require fewer resources to be created and maintained. Think of them as additional storage: building small standalone storage in your garden would be cheaper than attaching storage to your house. Microsites are similar: they serve the same purpose but save you time and resources.
5 Examples of Effective Microsites
Now, microsites can come in many shapes and forms, and you can use them for a variety of purposes. How your microsite will end up looking depends on your goal, your content, and your creativity. Many companies took to it, and there are many amazing microsites in existence today. So, if you are looking for inspiration, there won’t be a shortage of ideas you can use. Here are a few of our favorites.
The Bright Future of Car Sharing, Collaborative Fund
With a fun and exciting side-scrolling design, the entertaining and educational project by Collaborative Fund titled “The bright future of car sharing” is what we call an effective example of microsites. The website shows the development and growth of car sharing, and how that affects the environment. The information is given through vibrant texts and eye-catching animations, directing the attention of the viewer to the cause, and keeping them glued to the screen.
Source: Collaborative Fund
My Creative Type, Adobe
When it comes to being creative, Adobe knows a thing or two. The company has created more than one visual tool that’s an industry standard now. But the company isn’t limited only to software. What Adobe was great at was aligning itself with the needs of its customers through its unique and powerful marketing strategies. The microsite “My creative type” is a prime example of one such strategy.
The microsite is sort of a quiz, the aim of which is to determine your “creative type.” Users answer 15 questions about their behavior, preferences, and actions. Each question is followed by a small video illustration related to the answer. After answering all the questions, the participants learn what is their creative type, and how they can best use it.
Source: Adobe
Listening Together, Spotify
Spotify is another company that knows how to make great microsites. The Spotify Wrapped, their hugely popular feature that millions of users wait for every year has actually started as a microsite!
“Listen together” is a microsite created to support the campaign of the same name. On the microsite, a 3D map of the earth is spinning, showing locations where two people start to play the same song, at the same time (hence the name.) While this microsite doesn’t seem to have many practical purposes for brand growth, it’s a gentle reminder for all of us that music brings people together. And it’s also just incredibly cool.
Source: Spotify
Walking New York, The New York Times
The New York Times magazine graced the users with a truly unique microsite named “Walking New York”. On the microsite, you can get an immersive tour of the sightseeings of the legendary city, learning about the history of the most famous sites of New York.
Source: The New York Times
Xbox Museum, Microsoft
To celebrate 20 years of Xbox, Microsoft launched a microsite dedicated to the history of the legendary consoles. Built around the significant events of Xbox history, the microsite is some type of virtual museum, where visitors can take a trip down memory lane and revisit the key dates of Xbox history.
Source: Microsoft
The microsite is a side-scrolling timeline, where each special date leads to a full-immersion experience into the story. You navigate each story as a hero, similar to a video game, and revisit articles covering key events. A mystical and catchy soundtrack makes the experience even more thrilling.
Source: Microsoft
This is a powerful and incredibly creative use of microsites Microsoft came up with. It’s a great way to celebrate the anniversary of the consoles while engaging long-time fans and attracting the attention of new, potential customers.
Editable Microsite Templates for Businesses
Already considering making a microsite for your next campaign? Luckily, there are many tools available that simplify the creation of microsites, and let you have your very own effective and neat microsite ready in no time. To help you with this, we’ve assembled a few editable microsite templates for different industries that you can customize and adjust to your brand style and needs.
Creative Design Studio Microsite
No matter the type of visual design your studio specializes in, a neat microsite containing key information about you, your portfolio, and contact details can work wonders for your brand. By simply adding the link to your microsite on your Instagram profile, you’ll give your followers and potential clients access to all the information they may need about your work, without them even leaving the app.
Blogging Microsite
Are you a blogger looking to promote your services? Or maybe a marketing agency working with individual clients. If so, microsites can be handy for you as well! Edit this template to make a minimalistic, yet on-point microsite containing all the essential information in one place, and adjust it as you go, based on your ongoing pursuits and goals.
Microsites for Digital Creators
As in the case of design agencies, in the case of independent creators too, microsites can come in handy. Assemble key information, contacts, portfolio, and social links in one place, giving everyone interested the essential information about you and your services.
Microsites for Professionals
Microsites are not limited to creative professions and can be used by all other professionals as well. Microsites allow, once again, to keep all the important information accessible in one place. You can also use them for bookings, visit management, scheduling, and many more.
Wrapping Up
If, as a business or even a solo entrepreneur, you have a specific campaign in mind, or want to boost sales, microsites can definitely be a useful and valuable tool in your promotional arsenal. Because they don’t aim to replace your main website and landing pages, look at microsites as semi-independent platforms you can utilize to boost your business. They are a chance to experiment, try new things, and play around with new ideas you may have to see what will and won’t work. You can then use this knowledge in the future to create value for your clients and grow your product.
