Microsites: saving the bees and driving your business

So there’s a TV commercial that mentions “save the bees,” which led me to googling “save the bees,” which relatively quickly led me to “colony collapse disorder,” which eventually led me to something really interesting….a Haagen-Dazs microsite called http://helpthehoneybees.com/.  (All of which leads me to writing this blog…well, that and Emi reminding me that it’s been two months since I’ve posted something!  Sheesh!  Also, please never give me a three day weekend again - I end up searching things like “save the bees”….)  Anyway, I’d like to applaud the ice cream company 1, for their awesome treats and 2, for this great little site.  Microsite-ism at its best – highly interactive, highly informative, and an all-around great example for you to see just how a microsite can be a powerful marketing tool.  Microsites are designed to add depth to a visitor’s experience – submerge them in a world that’s all about that one piece of editorial – really connecting with them and keeping the communication focused.  (And isn’t that exactly what great marketing’s all about?!)  Here’s how you could think about using a microsite for your products – often companies need to educate their target about a particular issue that they’re solving with their product or service (think: counterfeiting threats for a company whose product authenticates and protects brands) and a microsite can be just the way to powerfully communicate the depth of the issue and help people realize what they need to do to solve it (using your products of course!)  Or, a microsite can be the foundation of your search engine marketing or other lead gen programs – keeping the visitor entirely focused on their search topic (and not distracting them with other information that’s only loosely related to their search because it’s a part of your larger product offering).  Microsites can be a great way to tailor information for specific target audiences too – if you have different targets and your message needs to be different to each of them, this can be a great way to connect in a highly individualized way.   

So check out http://helpthehoneybees.com/ if you want a fun mini-vacation during your already short week - play in the bee fields, pollinate some flowers, learn what these little guys are up to and then create your own bee and send a “bee mail” to a friend.  Then think about how you might incorporate this kind of marketing tool into your efforts.   

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