Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Your organization's Web site has a big job to do.

It can be a difficult proposition - and cost you a lot of consultant time - to build yourself a Web site that accurately and succinctly captures your goals, your big idea, the thing that makes you different, the things your visitors need to know about you.

Once you've sunk time and energy into your Web site, it's natural to want to preserve it's focus. Maybe you've concluded that the best way to do that is by locking in a strict approval process for new content, and to instinctively say, "no" when inevitably, everybody in your organization thinks his or her department or pet project deserves some screen-space on Home. Or maybe you have the opposite problem: your communication strategy needs to be more agile and flexible. You have different messages for different segments of your audience, but your Web site seems to have too much inertia for sharp turns.

Online marketers have known for a long time now that microsites, small Web sites with a narrow subject focus, make great landing spots for keyword-driven pay-per-click marketing and viral promotional campaigns. But you can also think of microsites as a possible solution to the inevitable challenges that result from diverging mandates in your management, communications and IT teams.

Here are some reasons to include microsites into discussions about your online communications:

Strike a new tone

Any good interactive agency will tell you that your Web site should have a consistent "voice" throughout. An adjunct microsite can create an opportunity to speak with a different voice: to be lighter, less formal, more personal - or perhaps to be more serious. A microsite may create an opportunity to focus in on a segment of your audience that's more savvy about your subject matter, which means you can go into more detail (and sound smarter) than you can with your main site's general audience.

Be more creative

Just as your main site has it's own voice, it also has it's own look and feel - it's a homogenous interpretation of your brand. A microsite can be a great way to stretch, bend and pull your brand, keeping it limber so as to prevent it from becoming too stiff and stationary.

Explore new technologies

A half dozen crucial things happened in the Web development universe just in the six months it took you to get your main Web site built, never mind what's happened since then. A microsite can be a great way to apply some of the latest thinking in online communications and technology without having to scare the heck out of your IT folks.

End-run your IT Dept.

Speaking of, it's not uncommon for organizations' online communications to be held hostage by a defense-minded internal IT team. From hard experience, the IT tribe down the hall has grown super-sensitive to mistakes and miscommunication. They're slow, deliberate, cautious and methodical — they're not eager to try new things. They'll probably thank you for taking your crazy microsite somewhere else.

Metrics, metrics, metrics

A focused message can mean a focused audience. Are they responding to your message? How'd they get here? Are they finding what they're looking for? Will they come back? It's a whole lot easier to tell how you're doing when your message isn't out in the far-flung branches of your site map.

Allow User-Generated Content

You're right to be a little suspicious of the whole mob-rule trend when it comes to your main Web site. User-generated content can be a powerful tool, but it needs the right context to work. A community-style microsite can be a forum for experimentation, and a great way to spark two-way communication.

Agility

Most importantly, microsites are agile. What did we learn from all those nice, focused metrics? What came from allowing our audience to talk to us and to each other? Which of our brilliant ideas didn't work? Our microsite is lighter, faster, and more agile: let's react to what we're learning now. With the right strategy and the right tactics, it's possible to go from idea to realization in the form of a microsite in a fraction of the time it would take to make a change request for your main site.