ChaosScenario

Building Successful Microsites

Microsites are mini-websites are meant to supplement a company's primary website. They have their uses, but many times they are meant as a way to "introduce" a product to the general public.

Who they're for
A microsite shouldn't be built until this is clearly defined. For until you define the audience, you don't know if a microsite will appeal to them, or what sort of functionality to put on them.

Don't assume the first person you ask (even if it's the CEO) knows the audience as well as he thinks he does. Often the online audience doesn't perfectly reflect the audience the company reaches through other means.

Why they're used
Agencies like them because they are not as shackled by the design constraints and architecture of the primary website. Companies like them because they are relatively quick and inexpensive to set up (especially when put together hastily), and it gives them some ammunition to take to prove to their bosses that they're doing something "cutting-edge."

When they work
Microsites work when they're either especially well-thought out and fun, or when they actually provide a useful tool to the audience that they can't get somewhere else.

When they fail
All websites fail when they don't add sufficient value to their audience. Significantly -- and this is something typical agencies tend to forget as they're distracted by the Bright and Shiny Objects they're creating -- websites also fail if they do not deliver tangible results to the  client.

Therefore, defining your success metrics beforehand is critical, and it should never, ever be skipped.

How to do it right
Designers, cover your ears: Proper planning is the most important aspect of building a successful microsite. A big part of that planning is ensuring the right resources (including the design resources) are identified and secured.

Websites aren't like television commercials. People must actively choose to visit one, which means  to attract them, the site must provide something the audience wants or needs, and then it must provide that in a way that doesn't frustrate the users.

Even the most nifty design is useless if no one comes to it, so the planner must take into account how people would get to the site and what would motivate them to return (if that is, in fact, part of the plan). 

What it means to your brand
With the right strategy and execution, this method can build a strong affinity for your brand, which isn't exactly useless. However, that affinity doesn't always translate to an easily calculable ROI.

Because the microsite is a supplement and not the main course, poor execution here is most often low-risk, but poor planning can be, in certain situations, a public relations nightmare. Make sure you consider your contingencies and have the right stakeholders in the loop throughout the way.

One Important Caveat
Building microsites should normally take a back-seat to improving the performance of your main site. For creating a perfect microsite that is made popular by a clever promotional execution, can actually cause harm when the main site is useless and unusable.

- Cam Beck

 

Fashionable Offensitivity

Alan Wolk (AKA "The Tangerine Toad") wrote a very insightful article over at Marketing Profs: Daily Fix yesterday about the flap over Dunkin' Donuts adorning Rachel Ray with a relic that resembled attire worn in the Middle East. Apparently conservative blogger Michelle Malkin expressed some bewilderment over it, and it sparked a controversy that led to Dunkin' Donuts' pulling the ad.

The Toad said Dunkin' Donuts was right to pull the ad to head off any growing ridicule, and I agreed. One person exclaimed that Dunkin' Donuts may suffer the consequences from people who think they are petty, but I don't think that's the case.

It's simply a matter of commitment.

People who are offended by the attire (and contrary to some of the left-wing pundits, I'm not sure Malkin's amusement even rose to the level of "offense") feel their patriotism is being assaulted. People who are not offended by the attire don't have any particular affinity for it. It's just another meaningless accoutrement to them.

Since patriotism has a deeper meaning to those who have it than a scarf does to those who don't, Dunkin' Donuts did the only reasonable thing. They weren't about to -- and they had no reason to -- place their stake in the ground to defend keffiyeh hill.

As such, in two months time those who believe Dunkin' Donuts is succumbing to unreasonable pressure won't even remember that they were ever upset. They probably get their coffee from Starbucks anyway. Plus, they'll find something else that offends them soon enough. It is, after all, election season. - Cam Beck

Don't Visit Our Website

Awhile back I had to give a presentation on experience planning to a bunch of traditional advertisers. In preparation for this, I asked the audience to email me examples of bad websites so that we could discuss what it was about them that made them bad. One of them was so bad that I was sure it was a mistake -- that it was a relic of a company long gone out of business. However, as it turns out, not only is the company still in business, but they actually promote their website on the product, or at least, they promote the fact that they have the website, and then trust that people wouldn't bother to check it out.

The product, Toast 'Ems, is almost identical to Pop Tarts. I'm sure someone with a more distinguished palate can tell the difference, but I'm at a loss.

At any rate, I chanced across them as I was walking by the dollar aisle at Albertson's, a grocery chain here in the deep south. I looked at the package, and on the back noticed the invitation, "Visit our website at www.toastem.com." (Please note: You MUST put in the "www.")

Go ahead. I'll wait.

It's fairly generic. Besides the gaudy animated gifs on the home page, the main sections are:

• At a Glance
• Milestones
• Vision
• Products
• Employment Opportunities
• Questions and Comments

Now, I don't have any idea what their marketing plan is or how they're doing financially. It would be a colossal mistake to assume that, just because their website is "horrible," they are in a poor position. We have thousands of years of history to prove that the Internet isn't the only way to make money.

I bring this up only to point out why they can get away with building a bad website. The reason is this:

Their audience doesn't care.

Granted, the website doesn't give them any reason to care, but even if they did, what is the likelihood that, while eating toaster pastries for breakfast before school, kids are going to see the website, decide they just have to visit at that moment to see what the company has to offer?

It is so statistically small that it really isn't worth considering. The world doesn't operate that way. People don't operate that way, because they don't care nearly as much about your brand as you do.

I have no doubt that the Internet could be used in this company's marketing mix effectively. For not a whole lot of money, they could hire a student to redesign the site they have to make it more aesthetically pleasing, if nothing else.

However, this company has decided not to jump into a space to invest in something that, even if they did everything right, may not produce a return that couldn't be beat by investing in other things.

If nothing else, I have to admire them for not thinking so much of themselves that they have to overwrite, overproduce, and overspend -- just because everyone else seems to be doing it. They have a Web address. And (in the name of made-up statistics) for 99.9999% of the people who are exposed to the address, that will be enough, because only .0001% are going to bother to visit, and they won't care that it sucks. - Cam Beck