In the past few weeks we’ve been discussing all about why and how we should use a microsite strategy for marketing purposes, and everything that comes along with it. We’ve gone over benefits and drawbacks of microsite marketing, and we’ve dove into examples of different microsite strategies, and which one would be a better fit for your business. So today, we are upping the game a little, and debating on a very specific type of microsite strategy: One for companies with multiple business units. 

In general, nowadays’ big companies tend to have an organizational structure divided in business units, meaning they have different teams for their different business units (either different products, different competences, different markets, pretty much any difference they consider worth of splitting into, literally, separate businesses), and each unit works independently and specializes in their each specific business. If this is your type of company, then you definitely will want to stick around and find out whether or not you’ll want to get started on a microsite strategy for your different units. So let’s dive into some of the aspects to consider when making this decision, shall we? 

It is good for your SEO 

Just as any other microsite strategy, business units’ microsites can be great to create SEO gold. Being a whole bunch of empty websites ready to be filled up with keywords, content, ads, URLs, and have all of that linked to your site, it’s an incredible opportunity to take advantage of everything you know about SEO and SEM. Basically, it’s a white linen to be painted with your top-notch SEO strategies, and this is definitely not an opportunity that you’ll want to pass on. So, if you are looking for ways to have Google’s search tool to like you better, then you will want to consider creating microsites for your different business units. 

It will help your human resources strategy

Companies are always trying to look like they are the best place to work in the whole world, and that’s great because that’s the way to get possible candidates excited. So, if your company has a couple of specific business units that people can work at, then why not have them separated in microsites? That way, whenever a potential employee wants to browse through your opportunities, they have the chance to learn about the different areas that your company has, and how’s the working life in each of them in order to figure out which are the most suitable for them. 

How classy does it look? 

Perhaps you have an awesome company, cool and modern that’s always trying to improve and create a better experience for their clients, but your website is a plain site, with no sophistication, that doesn’t capture your brand’s essence at all. So, whenever users look for you online, and have interest in browsing through your website, they probably won’t feel too attracted to your brand, regardless of how great you actually are. However, imagine your users entering a website that has a super modern, tech-looking, sophisticated microsite strategy for the separate business units. Not only this will make it easier for them to find what they are looking for, but also it will make your brand like a really cool and classy one, that cares about having a well-built and essence-capturing website. 

They can help you target audiences 

What happens with microsites within your big main site is really simple: No one that is not at least a little bit interested in your product will actually click and browse through them. So they are actually an awesome remarketing filter to figure out which portion of the audience is more likely to click on your ads and, of course, convert on your website. So, as we’ve said in some other past articles, microsites can always be a great tool to retarget your ads, and even more if you can do this basing your strategy in the specific business unit that the user has decided to browse through. 

Time & budget 

Of course, just as any other marketing (microsite or not) strategy, it is time and money consuming. So, another aspect to consider is whether you have the money and time to invest in this project or not, and if you are actually interested in doing it. Maybe you want to spend it on something else, and that’s valid as well. So basically, the final aspect to figure out is the most practical one, and it’s a budget and planning thing that you’ll probably want to discuss with your team. If you have the time and money, microsites can be an awesome strategy to implement. But, if you don’t, it’s not like your brand will drown for the lack of them. 

So the bottom line here is quite simple: microsites for business units can be an awesome strategy that will make your website look sophisticated and well organized, and that will definitely be great help for your marketing game. However, you definitely need to take the time to consider what it takes to implement it, and if you are willing to make that investment in order to get on board. If you are, then that’s great, and microsite marketing is waiting for you to start upping your marketing right now! But if you don’t, don’t sweat it, every strategy has its time and place, and maybe yours is still waiting for it’s right moment to show up.