So we’ve already started discussing whether is it a good idea for your business to create a Microsite for Marketing purposes or not, and we’ve already developed some of the utilities a Microsite could have, such as using it to talk about your competitors, so today we are bringing up another great advantage when it comes to this subject. If your company sells a product or service that has many variations, or many plans, or many options, why not create a specific microsite for your users to find out which is the best option for them?
If I had a dollar for every hour I lost staring at my phone, doing random Buzzfeed quizzes, I’d probably be rich right now, but hey, at least I know which would be my perfect rom-com boyfriend match, right? So now imagine if your own users had the possibility to browse through your products and even fill out a form that could tell them which one is their perfect fit. I know I’d appreciate it a lot, and so would your confused and overwhelmed users.
Obviously, this strategy has many details to consider, and it’s not always worth it, so today we’ll review some of the main aspects to go through before building a Microsite to find your customers their perfect fit, shall we?
Do you have a wide variety of products to offer?
If your company sells just 2 or 3 products, then maybe creating a separate website offering to help them find the best one for them won’t be the smartest choice to make. Probably they can figure it out by themselves and, worst-case scenario, you can help them through a 3 sentences long email. If this is your case, then just having a good description of the product will be good enough.
However, if your variety of products is much larger, then this is a great opportunity to help your users save time in browsing through the many pages of options. This way, you can have your microsite attached to your main site and, just by clicking on it, your users will find a very easy way to find out what they should get.
Adapt it to your budget
Your first thought about creating a Microsite for this purpose, and even for creating a Microsite at all, will probably be “why would I spend on this?”, but really it’s not necessarily such an expensive thing to face. For starters, one of Microsites’ biggest pros is the fact that they are much cheaper and quicker to create than a regular website, so it won’t be anything like creating a whole new website.
As for the purpose, the idea of personalizing your users’ experience it’s not necessarily a really expensive thing either. If you have a large budget and you want to spend it creating many quizzes, according to many different criteria, and automating them with an algorithm that will just know the best answer, then that’s awesome and you should totally go for it. However, more often than not, this will not be the case, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a part of the fun. For example, you can just have your users fill out a contact form with the data they’d complete in a quiz, and then have someone (or yourself) answer manually to them letting them know about their best options.
Using it to promote some products
Since the person running the website, and the personalized answers, is you, then you can definitely take some advantage out of it. A great example of this is prioritizing the products you want to promote when doing the recommendations to users. Let’s say, for example, that a user has a 99% match with a product and a 95% with another, but for some reason you rather have them buying the second one, then you can totally use this as a strategy to promote it and recommend the product that works best for you.
Although, you should definitely be careful with this technique: If they have a 99% match with one and a 30% match with what you want to promote, then this rule doesn’t apply because of, you know, morality and stuff like that. So as long as it’s done mostly ethically, then you should totally see this as an opportunity to get the products you want to sell out there.
How fun is it?
As I’ve already said, I’m the type of person who will completely ditch responsibilities when given the chance to find out what type of fruit I am, so imagine if this happened with things that actually are useful. Creating a Microsite that’s meant to personalize your users’ experience it’s a really original idea that will get your website a lot of traffic (because people will spread the word on how cool your company is), and a lot more sales. Basically, this move will definitely set you apart from your competitors by offering a shopping experience much more complete and much more fun.
It’s all about the personalized experience
If I went to a store, and the salesperson there literally did a full analysis of my needs, desires, and personal characteristics in order to find the best product for me, I know there would be a huge increase in the probability of purchasing it there. It’s always great to feel that the people you are buying from actually care about your satisfaction, and having a whole Microsite dedicated to personalizing the shopping experience for them is probably as close as we can get to actually measuring them in a physical store. So why not see this strategy as an opportunity to add more value to your client’s experience on your website?
To conclude, I believe the bottom line here is quite simple: If you have a wide variety of products, then a Microsite to find your users’ their best fits will definitely be a fantastic strategy to choose. Your clients will appreciate it, you’ll have a broad idea of what they need, and you’ll definitely make a great advantage out of it. So please, go ahead, give it a try, and let me know when those quizzes are live!
Mora is a PPC Analyst at Hellbent Digital at work, and a theater nerd when not at work. And it turns out understanding theater—that is, how to put on compelling live shows that engage the audience—is a very useful skill for understanding digital marketing.