5 steps to a digital microsite that converts

Microsites can be a powerful lead generation machine any time you have a unique call to action especially when 50% of purchases start online these days.  To be effective, a digital campaign must drive a relevant conversation. David Meerman Scott nailed it when he said,  “Instead of one-way interruption, web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment that a buyer needs it.” Finding the right conversation and capturing that interest in a digital microsite is the holy grail of digital demand generation.

Here are my top 5 quick tips on how to drive a successful lead generating microsite that will support a successful digital campaign.

1. Start with the market conversation. Let’s say you are building a site for marketers, your first step would be to start with research on organic momentum for marketing topics. Take the time to think about what marketers care about now — Social Media Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Behavioral Marketing, etc.

2. Build a microsite that is experiential.  Your microsite should be an immersive experience.  Its goal is to provide the visitor with lots of rich information in a very interactive, compelling manner, with a rich use of multi-media assets.

3. Consider serving dynamic content. You may want to consider a different experience based on the prospect’s interest and buying stage. If a user downloads a white paper on an overview on ad retargeting, you can assume they’re in an exploratory stage; your website can be configured to serve up more content aligned with that stage.

4. Include relevant tie-ins to social media. Do you have a Twitter following, Facebook fan page or LinkedIn community? Make sure to add the appropriate share icons to show viral growth.  Pen blogs & consider media placements to drive relevant audiences to your site.

5. Use analytics.  The use of social media analytics, web analytics and behavioral analytics will help you get to know your prospects & push relevant information. For example, find out what audience your microsite is targeting through web analytics that let you do SEO and inbound traffic analysis to show how many people clicked from non-email links. Media analytics can also show how many ads were clicked that then led to conversion.

Here is an example of a microsite we just launched in the U.S. projected to drive 15,000 registrations  for our organization.  What do you think?

http://www.ibmconnectedcustomer.com/us