Stuffing all your marketing campaigns, company info, products, and more (even the company's kitchen sink) onto a single primary website can create a confusing mess.

Tucked away in a remote corner of your website, a new product line, event, or individual campaign goes unnoticed. Worse, you risk presenting the same generic website to all your potential customers – zero personalisation.

Microsites help trim the fat and remove the noise, marketing a specific aspect of your business to a subset of your audience.

Plus, with the latest platforms, some microsites even act as a digital sales room – a one-stop shop for all your customers' needs.

In this guide:

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• ‍What is a Microsite?

• Microsite vs. Website vs. Landing Page: What's the Difference?

• Why Create a Microsite?

• Microsite Examples

• How to Build a Microsite

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What is a Microsite?

A microsite is a slimmed-down, no-nonsense website that gets straight to the point. Consisting of a single page or a small cluster of pages, it's focused on a particular product, event, promotion, or even a single customer.

Microsites exist outside your company's main website – often having their own domain or subdomain (allowing you to track visitors separately). They're designed for a specific audience and tailor their content and message to this demographic.

Usually, they're a temporary creation, lasting the course of the campaign. For example, a stately home might create a microsite dedicated to their Christmas celebrations.

Meanwhile, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company may use a microsite to host a specific product or service – especially if the service isn't directly related to their main product.

Some microsite builders like trumpet let sellers even a single consumer or a group of buyers directly.

Known as a digital sales room (DSR), these sites are hyper-personalised to a consumer's specific wants and needs, integrating tools like Mutual Action Plans (MAPs) or eSignatures to funnel customers from first contact through to deal signed and beyond.

Microsite vs. Website vs. Landing Page: What's the Difference?

Microsites. Websites. Landing pages. You'll hear these terms tossed around by digital marketers. But what's the difference? Let's define our terms:

Websites are your modern storefront, business card, and company brochure rolled into one. It's the main location clients go to learn about your business. Often, people will find:

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• eCommerce store featuring all your products

• Service pages listing what you do

• Company history and background

• Blog articles, eBooks, videos, and other resources

• Customer testimonials and social proof

• Pricing information

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Customers can learn about your business and its products and services through your website – even placing an order.

Landing pages, on the other hand, are single web pages created with a specific focus or objective – aka a call-to-action (CTA).

Containing minimal content, landing pages drive visitors toward the desired action, e.g., signing up for a newsletter, downloading an eBook, or booking a consultation.

Microsites lie somewhere in the middle. They could have the same goal as a landing page and even be single-paged.

However, you can expect more content and information related to a brand or campaign. Often, these additional pages are a mix of blogs, galleries, interactive features, and product/service information.

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Why Create a Microsite?

In a nutshell: you'll want to create a microsite to differentiate a product, service, or campaign from your main site.

Doing so helps boost your brand awareness and customer engagement by creating clarity of purpose.

Consider these benefits of creating a microsite:

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• Build Brand Recognition. Reach your audience with a clear message. Due to their immersive nature, they are perfect for concentrated storytelling about a single brand, product, or service.

• Craft Specialised Content. Forget the generic or broad-based content you'd market on your main site. You don't have to worry about cluttered home pages – you can create bespoke, tailored content that drives customers toward your desired goal.

• Skyrocket User Engagement. Users don't want to waste time digging through a dense, main company website. Giving customers what they want in a neat, easy-to-navigate package keeps them engaged – and encourages them to share the page.

• Strengthen Lead Acquisition. Stacked with targeted messaging, there's no confusion among your visitors about what you want them to do. Encourage them to sign up to gather their details or use a retargeting campaign to tempt them back.

• Optimise for Search Engines. Creating highly targeted content (using the right keywords) makes it easier to increase your ranking on Google. That means more organic visitors for your microsite. Plus, these visitors will already be interested in this specific aspect of your business, as they’ll be searching for similar terms.

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Microsite Examples

Website Grader

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HubSpot's main site is a warren of resources, services, and much more. That's why their Website Grader – a free tool to improve your website – is kept separate.

This small yet mighty tool grades your website using four key factors: performance, SEO, mobile, and security.

Once you've got your assessment, the microsite then funnels you towards a course as part of the HubSpot Academy.

Genius, right?

trumpet's Pods

You won't find a more personalised microsite on the internet. Trumpet's auto-personalised, trackable 'pods' function as a digital sales room, targeting a single prospect and delivering all the information they need to learn about your brand.

As a 100% trackable space, you can monitor your prospect's actions within the pod. As they progress through the sales funnel, the pod allows you to create mutual action plans, transitioning from initial customer education to conversion. There's no greater sales tool!

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Spotify Wrapped

At the end of every year, Spotify Wrapped mines its customer data to offer listeners a recap of their most played songs, top artists, and listening statistics.

Released annually since 2016, it's become a major viral marketing campaign for the brand, generating a lot of buzz on social media.

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'My Creative Type' by Adobe

Adobe is best known for its remarkable suite of creative software products, from Photoshop to Illustrator. In the 'My Creative Type' microsite, customers answer questions to find out what type of creative they are.

How accurate the results are doesn't matter. Through fun graphics and simple questions, they spark engagement with the brand. Plus, the info you get at the end is an insightful description about your creative approach – and, of course, you can share your results on social media.

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How to Build a Microsite

Building a microsite isn't as labour-intensive as a full-blown website. In fact, with the right skills (or Trumpet's drag-and-drop editor), you can create a bitesize website in just a few moments.

Here's some simple steps to follow:

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1. Set Clear Objectives and Know Your Target Demographic

Always answer marketing's big two questions first: what and who. What do you want to achieve? And who do you want to target?

Unless you have some clear (and measurable) objectives, e.g., more sales, educating customers, promoting a new product and a definite demographic, you'll likely stumble before you've even begun.

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2. Select a Microsite Domain

Is your new site part of your wider company website (i.e., a subdomain), or will it stand on its own two feet (i.e., a separate domain)? You'll need to choose a domain – preferably something catchy and easy to remember – and purchase it before getting started.

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3. Conjure Up Your Marketing Plan

Marketing plans don't appear by magic. Think about how you'll funnel visitors toward your final objective. Ask yourself what information they need to know, what keywords you should target, and how you'll get the word out.

Common methods to promote a new website include SEO, paid advertising, and social media. Just be aware that these differ significantly on time, results, and cost.

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4. Create Your Microsite

Your website design should be laser-focused on your goals. Include clear calls to action, as many pages as you need, and content that keeps visitors informed.

Remember, however, that your microsite is still an extension of the bigger brand. Don't deviate too much if your company writes in a particular tone of voice or uses a specific brand style. Stick closely to the core brand to create a sense of continuity.

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5. Publish and Refine

Click publish, and you're up and running! Now, it's time to push your marketing campaign. Keep an eye on your Google Analytics to see how your microsite performs. You can also tweak the site (using A/B testing) to help maximise its performance.

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Boost Your Brand with trumpet's Microsites

What is a microsite? It's a small website with a clear objective that can transform a marketing campaign, leaving no room for other distractions.

However, to build your microsite, you'll need help. Designing and creating a hyper-personalised microsite with Trumpet is simple – using our drag-and-drop editor, add content like competitor analysis or Mutual Action Plans to achieve your objectives. And you can even build pages around specific objectives in the buyer's journey.

Get started today and bring your next email campaign to life.