The pros and cons of building a microsite for your campaign

The difference between a microsite and a website is simple. A microsite is a stand alone web page (or pages) that is usually created for a specific purpose, such as an event, campaign, department or product. 

Depending on its purpose, microsites are often temporary sites, and are unpublished once they’ve run their course, the event is over or the product is launched. But they can also be used as permanent sites for different departments, clubs or recurring events.

Microsites: The pros 

Content is focused 

The microsite focus on one event or group, so all of the content on the page will be around one thing. 

Ready-made audience 

Because the content is created specifically for an event or group or product, it stands to reason that there is a ready-made audience for the page. This audience will have the event, group or product in common so it will be easy to target. 

Not only that, but having such a niche base gives the microsite managers a unique opportunity to build a real audience for their content. 

Campaigns 

Microsites are great for specific campaigns. They give their audiences a space to “gather” for a specific idea or event or product and get news and updates specifically for this event. It's quite easy to track engagement and traffic too. 

Customised domain 

A microsite will have its own URL, such as www.stpatricksday.ie, rather than being a slash add-on to the main website, such as www.annertech.com/st-patricks-day. This is important because having a shorter, more relevant domain name will help users navigate to the page, increase user interest and help drive web traffic 

Additional content managers 

If people who don't currently have access to the main website need access to the site where the new content will be hosted then you’ll need to set this up. Within a microsite setup, these users can be given access to the back end of the microsite, without having to add them to your main website’s admin list. 

Brand consistency 

It can be challenging to ensure brand consistency and regulatory compliance across various websites and microsites. On the flip side, microsites are flexible in terms of their look and feel so this can be customised without deviating from the main brand identity if needs be. 

Co-branding 

In the same vein, if you’re running a campaign or an event with another organisation or brand then a microsite will allow you to co-brand without affecting the branding on your current website.

Microsites: The cons 

They may be temporary 

If the content is for a once-off event it feels like a lot of work for something that has no permanence. On the other hand, if it is a recurring event then the microsite can be utilised and merely updated. 

Website traffic may be affected 

Because you’re driving visitors to a microsite instead of your website, your website might lose out on that traffic. However, because you’re creating a niche audience, the traffic you do get may be better quality - in the sense that users to the microsite are coming to it for a specific reason (the reason that the site exists). 

Initial costs 

Microsites cost money to set up, host and maintain. You need to weigh up whether the return on investment will be worth it. Although it’s worth bearing in mind that you'll pay for a website anyway, and if you're using a Microsites Platform you'll end up saving money in the long run if you add more microsites to your portfolio.

It’s challenging to manage multiple websites 

Managing multiple websites can be tricky, especially if they’re published across various platforms, with different logins and content management systems. Logging into different platforms to maintain various sites can be challenging. However, if you use a service such as the LocalGov Drupal Microsites Platform, this will no longer be a challenge.

Conclusion 

The decision whether or not to set up a microsite or to run the content on a page of the main website is actually quite an easy one to make once you’ve run through the pros and cons of creating a microsite. 

There are numerous advantages to choosing a microsite over a page on an existing website, but it depends on the situation and the reason for the page.