Your website is the public face of your company. Marketers understand better than anyone that, while the main website serves as the organisation’s gateway similar to its digital hub—it does not always need to present every piece of information, from campaigns to events to new products. 

This is where microsites come in. These branded content sites can be excellent one-time, limited-time platforms for keeping your launch or campaign clean, concise, tight, and targeted. 

Are Microsites and Landing Pages The Same?

Microsites and landing pages are both utilised in marketing for service campaigns and particular product promotions. You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrases “microsite” and “landing page” a lot, specifically if you’ve thought about expanding your web presence. The true problem emerges when individuals begin to mix the two. 

Despite certain similarities, microsites and landing pages serve various purposes. We’ve decided to explore the differences between microsites and landing pages to assist you in determining which is more suitable for your company.

Your website plays a major part in branding your company. Marketers understand better than anybody that while the main website serves as the organisation’s digital hub’s gateway, it can showcase only some information, from campaigns to events to new goods. 

This is why microsites come in. These sites can work as an excellent platform where you can maintain your launch or campaign composed and straightforward.

Microsite vs Landing page:

What exactly is a microsite?

A microsite is a brand marketing site, sometimes known as a “content hub,” that exists independently of your company’s website and brand URL. Microsites do not need their URLs; they can also be subdomains of your main website.

Microsites are tools marketers may use to introduce a new product or campaign, reach a new audience, or increase awareness in a specific, focused approach that exhibits some tools that allow users across your main website. 

In the context of content marketing, microsites have always been included so marketers understand their significance. 

What is a website?

A website is a company’s main webpage. It comprises everything about the company’s services, products, and solutions, often including various landing pages within the website with various information the user may be looking for and is intended to function as a consistent portal across all channels.

Web design and web development are two of the most important aspects of any business. A web design company like GoFuturistic can help you create a website that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional. We will work with you to ensure that your website is optimised for the best user experience possible. 

What distinguishes a landing page from a website or microsite?

In a nutshell, no. Individual web pages that link to a website’s or a microsite’s main content are referred to as landing pages. They are intended to give more details on the goods or options for that specific digital experience to internet visitors. Sometimes they offer a call to action so that the firm can discover more about the site visitor, or they include links that take the visitor deeper into the particular experience, allowing them to explore and discover more.

A microsite remains a website, but there are major differences in when and how you would utilise one. The site’s content may also differ from the parent organisation’s brand guidelines, messaging, voice, and tone.

When should you use a microsite instead of a website? Here are four things to consider while planning a microsite marketing or web development project.

1. Microsite Design is More Eye-Catching

A microscope’s objective is to generate a large amount of exposure to a new product, spin-off, or future event. As a result, they are frequently more interactive and graphically sophisticated than a company’s brochure website.

A website should start with a values-driven statement or a picture, similar to the cover of a brochure. Content marketing strategies do play a role where this is concerned. 

2. Microsites Are Time-Conscious

One of the reasons why calls to action are so vital on microsites is that they are time-sensitive. The microsite can remain for as long as required, and there is no one best practice.

On the other hand, a website is a permanent aspect of a brand’s authority. Though the website’s style, content, and structure may change over time, the website stays. Indeed, the disappearance of a company’s main website may raise the alarm among consumers or affiliates, not to mention personnel.

3. Microsites Have Their Domains

If you incorporate information about this product onto your main website and subsequently delete it, it may convey the impression of failure or weakness. On the other hand, a microsite can be removed without any effects on the main page. 

4. Microsites Aren’t Always Easier

There may be an expectation that a microsite will be easier to construct or manage since it comprises fewer pages and is more concentrated in scope than a website. However, the time required to finish each is determined by the functionality. 

Because the content of a brochure website has traditionally been more static, it may be easier to implement. A microsite with extensive functionality and animation may be more time-consuming to design, especially when load time efficiency and speed are factors to consider.

A landing page is, by definition, a single entity page, but a website or microsite may include many or more landing pages (along with additional content types like articles, galleries, or topic areas). However, a microsite might consist of a single landing page if that is all required to communicate acceptable messaging; a website is unlikely to feature a single landing page.

What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a standalone web page linked to the main website’s domain, for example, website.com/landing page). They are sites meant to entice users to take a certain action, such as joining an email list, buying a product, or expressing their desire. 

Because the purpose of a landing page is to transition a website visitor into a lead, they frequently need navigation menus. This can 

A landing page is excellent when you want your visitors to experience a particular product or service as soon as they reach your website. These pages are often straightforward in appearance and function, with a clear CTA that describes the advantages of the product or service. They are intended to persuade consumers to take action rather than simply browse your website. 

The Pros and Cons of Microsites:

Microsites are useful when promoting a brand-new service or product that should appeal to a different audience than the main homepage.

Certainly, their brief form contributes to their attraction. They’re also informative enough to entice viewers to engage and educate themselves with the goods on any extra pages. Furthermore, microsites will assist you in driving more organic visitors to your website.

Microsites have certain drawbacks compared to landing pages, including the fact that they can be highly costly to maintain. This is because you must purchase additional domain names to create one. Furthermore, they need more time and effort to set up in general.

Pros: 

• It’s a great strategy to increase organic traffic to your sites.
• They are excellent brand awareness and loyalty instruments, especially for content marketing strategies.
• A unique microsite URL can be utilised more successfully in offline advertisements such as television, print, or radio.
• A URL specific to a campaign is usually easier to remember and attracts more attention.
• They are educational, entertaining, and entertaining.

Cons: 

• In general, they are highly expensive to set up.
• A microsite takes more time to design and distribute than a landing page.
• They require extra time and effort to keep up.
• Calls to action are more challenging to create for microsites.
• The ROI of microsites is difficult to calculate.
• There is a danger that a campaign-specific URL would confuse customers of the parent brand/loyal website.

The Pros and Cons of Landing Pages

Because they are embedded in your website’s domain, landing pages are easy to set up and administer. Landing pages should only concentrate on one service and one CTA; thus, your material must be appealing from the start, or you will lose conversions.

Landing pages assist you in directing the user’s attention to the product or service you’re attempting to offer, and they engage better than a homepage. Because you only have one page to persuade your clients to act, they “typically” do not have all of the information about your product or brand, which means they cannot convey your entire brand’s narrative as a comprehensive website would.

Conclusion

Consider the goals you wish to achieve before creating a microsite. Then, offer engaging material to get people to interact. Create eye-catching microsites that provide seamless experiences to engage users further. You, too, can create a microsite which will help your content marketing that your target audience will like if you follow the proper procedures.

In other words, a larger microsite with numerous pages is a good idea if you want to engage your audience and teach them about your organisation, product, or service. On the other hand, a landing page is your best choice if you want to close as many sales as possible as rapidly as possible. 

If you are a business owner looking to launch and alter your company objectives with digital marketing, don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation! We are delighted to provide you with high-quality content marketing in Malaysia that will ensure effective results. Contact us now and let us help you.