The basic Law of Reciprocity states: To give and take mutually.

I have thought about this a lot over the last few months. We use this concept very effectively in conversion optimization by giving white papers, special offers etc. on landing pages. The idea is if the person gives something, you then give something of value in exchange. But think about it… you asked for the value FIRST. The visitor had to give you their name in order to get your value.

Isn’t that backward? Shouldn’t you give the value first then ask for the mutual value back?

Amazingly enough, this backward give and take works well; but recent events have made me start to wonder HOW WELL?

Earlier this year we launched ShowroomMagnet, our incentive based behavioral targeting engine for websites. We knew it would work well for conversion because these kind of popovers have always had a positive impact on conversion.  In addition, we’re making and offer and a single clear call to action (something too many websites lack).Not to mention we tested it, as we do EVERYTHING.

BUT there was a surprising side effect.  A few of our dealers started using this in a way we didn’t expect.

It started with Andy Wright at Lehigh Valley Honda, who by far was selling more cars from the program than most of the dealers.  I asked Andy, “What are you doing?” and the answer was so simple it was a little bit scary.

As customers came to the showroom with their gift card validation in hand (or smart phone as the case may be) Lehigh Valley Honda sales people would take them right to the desk and validate their gift card INSTANTLY. They would put it right on the customer’s  smart phone before they even took a test drive!

LeHigh “kept the promise” the website made. And they made it instant – as soon as the customer walked in the door.

There was no hook. There was no caveat.  They had promised a gift for visiting, the customer visited…so the dealership handed over the gift card. 

Here is the surprising part…

I thought when we started this we would see closing rates in the 30% to 40% range and that would be great!

Lehigh Valley Honda’s closing rate…. 68% over the last six months!

Bottom Line – WHEN YOU MAKE A PROMISE… KEEP IT! You’ll be amazed at the number of customers that will reciprocate… it goes back to The Law of Reciprocity.

Too often in our business we think we have to trick people… hook them into doing what we want them to do when really all they want us to do is keep the promise that we made.

Simple right?

So simple it’s a little bit scary!

The basic Law of Reciprocity states: To give and take mutually.

I have thought about this a lot over the last few months. We use this concept very effectively in conversion optimization by giving white papers, special offers etc. on landing pages. The idea is if the person gives something, you then give something of value in exchange. But think about it… you asked for the value FIRST. The visitor had to give you their name in order to get your value.

Isn’t that backward? Shouldn’t you give the value first then ask for the mutual value back?

Amazingly enough, this backward give and take works well; but recent events have made me start to wonder HOW WELL?

Earlier this year we launched ShowroomMagnet, our incentive based behavioral targeting engine for websites. We knew it would work well for conversion because these kind of popovers have always had a positive impact on conversion.  In addition, we’re making and offer and a single clear call to action (something too many websites lack).Not to mention we tested it, as we do EVERYTHING.

BUT there was a surprising side effect.  A few of our dealers started using this in a way we didn’t expect.

It started with Andy Wright at Lehigh Valley Honda, who by far was selling more cars from the program than most of the dealers.  I asked Andy, “What are you doing?” and the answer was so simple it was a little bit scary.

As customers came to the showroom with their gift card validation in hand (or smart phone as the case may be) Lehigh Valley Honda sales people would take them right to the desk and validate their gift card INSTANTLY. They would put it right on the customer’s  smart phone before they even took a test drive!

LeHigh “kept the promise” the website made. And they made it instant – as soon as the customer walked in the door.

There was no hook. There was no caveat.  They had promised a gift for visiting, the customer visited…so the dealership handed over the gift card. 

Here is the surprising part…

I thought when we started this we would see closing rates in the 30% to 40% range and that would be great!

Lehigh Valley Honda’s closing rate…. 68% over the last six months!

Bottom Line – WHEN YOU MAKE A PROMISE… KEEP IT! You’ll be amazed at the number of customers that will reciprocate… it goes back to The Law of Reciprocity.

Too often in our business we think we have to trick people… hook them into doing what we want them to do when really all they want us to do is keep the promise that we made.

Simple right?

So simple it’s a little bit scary!

_^"Why"?

This is the single most difficult concept for most marketers in automotive to understand.  “Why” is the reason AutoTrader and Cars.com run millions of dollars in ads on TV, then put only a fraction of that budget into real content that consumers go online to find “the expensive kind of marketing” as noted by Seth Godin in his book "All Marketers Are Liars" renamed "All Markerters Are Storytellers.”

“Why” is also the reason GM is failing at Facebook. They’re not asking “why” people even want to come to their social sites. They’re posting from within a bubble. “Why” is the reason people debate on Twitter whether they should use Adwords PPC or Facebook.  I absolutely love debates like these because they force people to think about "WHY” they believe what they believe... and “Why” is a much more important question than "WHAT". Ask the Merovingian, he knows.

Facebook or Adwords is not a choice; it's a question of message and intent...the “WHY”of it all.

What Ford and Scott Monty knows, that GM doesn't, is that people don't go to Facebook to find Ford or to find out "What’s going on at Ford"? The truth is, they don’t care!

People go on Facebook to keep up with friends and family and to discover things that are important to them, in other words, the "WHY” of what makes them visit a page. Ford and Scott Monty's team do a terrific job of producing content with that intent, the “Why” of it all, in mind.

People go on Google and other search engines to find things, that is their intent, their "WHY" and smart marketers buy keywords and write ads with that intent in mind. It’s a "WHY" question NOT a "WHAT" question...

It shouldn’t be "WHAT" are your goals from the platform?

But...

WHY are they there?

And more importantly, how can your message fit the visitor’s “why”?

The Merovingian would be proud!

I hope this post has helped you think more about why than what. I will be discussing “WHY” and bringing a lot of data on this subject in my Digital Dealer Session on Oct. 24^th In Las Vegas hope to see you there. 

_^"Why"?

This is the single most difficult concept for most marketers in automotive to understand.  “Why” is the reason AutoTrader and Cars.com run millions of dollars in ads on TV, then put only a fraction of that budget into real content that consumers go online to find “the expensive kind of marketing” as noted by Seth Godin in his book "All Marketers Are Liars" renamed "All Markerters Are Storytellers.”

“Why” is also the reason GM is failing at Facebook. They’re not asking “why” people even want to come to their social sites. They’re posting from within a bubble. “Why” is the reason people debate on Twitter whether they should use Adwords PPC or Facebook.  I absolutely love debates like these because they force people to think about "WHY” they believe what they believe... and “Why” is a much more important question than "WHAT". Ask the Merovingian, he knows.

Facebook or Adwords is not a choice; it's a question of message and intent...the “WHY”of it all.

What Ford and Scott Monty knows, that GM doesn't, is that people don't go to Facebook to find Ford or to find out "What’s going on at Ford"? The truth is, they don’t care!

People go on Facebook to keep up with friends and family and to discover things that are important to them, in other words, the "WHY” of what makes them visit a page. Ford and Scott Monty's team do a terrific job of producing content with that intent, the “Why” of it all, in mind.

People go on Google and other search engines to find things, that is their intent, their "WHY" and smart marketers buy keywords and write ads with that intent in mind. It’s a "WHY" question NOT a "WHAT" question...

It shouldn’t be "WHAT" are your goals from the platform?

But...

WHY are they there?

And more importantly, how can your message fit the visitor’s “why”?

The Merovingian would be proud!

I hope this post has helped you think more about why than what. I will be discussing “WHY” and bringing a lot of data on this subject in my Digital Dealer Session on Oct. 24^th In Las Vegas hope to see you there. 

ZMOT its everywhere seems like these days. With Google as the general session at Digital Dealer this year I thought I would talk about how we see the execution of ZMOT for dealers. Below are the slides from my presentation. I think these numbers will add up to a pattern if you look at the slides closely.

• There is not ONE ZMOT in Automotive there are TWO
•  
• People spend as much time consuming online media as they do off
•  
• Targeting is getting better & faster online, you can now target display like you target adwords
•  
• Offline marketing is just pushing consumers online so you have to be in both and understand where you are pushing them
•  
• It doesn’t matter how good you are at adwords or display, if your ad sucks you won’t get the click no matter how relevant you think your message is to the keyword
•  
• It doesn’t matter how good you are with your adwords or display and even your ad if your landing doesn’t match what you promised you won’t get the conversion
•  
• Remarketing is valuable if you use it right, if you just send the consumer back to the same page they didn’t like before it’s NOT
•  
• IT TAKES A COORDINATED STRATEGY ONLINE AND OFF TO WIN, NOT JUST AN INTEGRATED OR BUNDELED ONE

At the end of the day, I still see a lot of “Marketing Partners” who have a product, widget or new shiny object to sell not a coordinated service offering to help the dealer sell & service more cars.

ZMOT its everywhere seems like these days. With Google as the general session at Digital Dealer this year I thought I would talk about how we see the execution of ZMOT for dealers. Below are the slides from my presentation. I think these numbers will add up to a pattern if you look at the slides closely.

• There is not ONE ZMOT in Automotive there are TWO
•  
• People spend as much time consuming online media as they do off
•  
• Targeting is getting better & faster online, you can now target display like you target adwords
•  
• Offline marketing is just pushing consumers online so you have to be in both and understand where you are pushing them
•  
• It doesn’t matter how good you are at adwords or display, if your ad sucks you won’t get the click no matter how relevant you think your message is to the keyword
•  
• It doesn’t matter how good you are with your adwords or display and even your ad if your landing doesn’t match what you promised you won’t get the conversion
•  
• Remarketing is valuable if you use it right, if you just send the consumer back to the same page they didn’t like before it’s NOT
•  
• IT TAKES A COORDINATED STRATEGY ONLINE AND OFF TO WIN, NOT JUST AN INTEGRATED OR BUNDELED ONE

At the end of the day, I still see a lot of “Marketing Partners” who have a product, widget or new shiny object to sell not a coordinated service offering to help the dealer sell & service more cars.

That kills a General Manager it’s what he doesn’t know!

Those words spoken to me by one of the smartest dealers I ever worked for, Jay Marks, have stayed with me since 1996. Same principal applies in every position of the dealership but particularly in marketing.

Let’s face it Marketing is quickly becoming a dealership position. It’s a complicated dance between traditional and digital, the dealership and its partners. What is most alarming to me is the lack of basic information dealerships and their marketing partners have about the dealerships market and customers behavior. It’s always amazing to me that so many dealerships can operate even profitably and know very little about their market or their customer behavior. Even more alarming is the “Marketing Partners” they are using know less than the dealership, “They are not at the store!”.

The data is all there, in my earlier post “The Secret Weapon” I discussed the massive amounts of data that are available to dealerships and how you can leverage some of this data. I also talked about “What a Relational Marketing Database should do.”

One of its first functions is a “Market Analysis” you historical data will tell you a ton about

• Where your customers are willing to come from
• What cars they are willing to spend the money for
• What cars they are getting rid of
• Where your customer are will to come from for service
• What cities you have the best penetration in
• What vehicles make you the most money
• How and who to increase customer pay service with

I could go on and on but the post would be overwhelming.

Bottom line – If you are interviewing a marketing partner… and that is what it is an interview, and they can’t show you where the marketing & conversion leaks are, they can’t tell you where they think they fit in your marketing plan and can help then you already have your decision, it’s the same one you would make in an employee interview.

"I dont have to tell you you know what the decision is"

Finally if you don't have a basic market analysis you’re throwing darts in the dark… STOP even if your current “Marketing Partner” cant supply you with one you can do this yourself in excel.

Here is a link to a sample marketing analysis you can download that will at least give you the basic data to make good marketing decisions on. GET A SAMPLE MARKETING ANALYSIS.

Before you go chasing “Spinner Bait” (the shiny object) get your foundation right. Start with the data, get your market analyzed and look at who you need to target and how those people find you. Get that right then you can start to tackle the more advanced and subtle areas of marketing like social media, advanced content marketing, mobile etc.

Hope this helps,

Attend my session at Digital Dealer 12 “Marketing By The Numbers, Executing ZMOT In Your Dealership”

That kills a General Manager it’s what he doesn’t know!

Those words spoken to me by one of the smartest dealers I ever worked for, Jay Marks, have stayed with me since 1996. Same principal applies in every position of the dealership but particularly in marketing.

Let’s face it Marketing is quickly becoming a dealership position. It’s a complicated dance between traditional and digital, the dealership and its partners. What is most alarming to me is the lack of basic information dealerships and their marketing partners have about the dealerships market and customers behavior. It’s always amazing to me that so many dealerships can operate even profitably and know very little about their market or their customer behavior. Even more alarming is the “Marketing Partners” they are using know less than the dealership, “They are not at the store!”.

The data is all there, in my earlier post “The Secret Weapon” I discussed the massive amounts of data that are available to dealerships and how you can leverage some of this data. I also talked about “What a Relational Marketing Database should do.”

One of its first functions is a “Market Analysis” you historical data will tell you a ton about

• Where your customers are willing to come from
• What cars they are willing to spend the money for
• What cars they are getting rid of
• Where your customer are will to come from for service
• What cities you have the best penetration in
• What vehicles make you the most money
• How and who to increase customer pay service with

I could go on and on but the post would be overwhelming.

Bottom line – If you are interviewing a marketing partner… and that is what it is an interview, and they can’t show you where the marketing & conversion leaks are, they can’t tell you where they think they fit in your marketing plan and can help then you already have your decision, it’s the same one you would make in an employee interview.

"I dont have to tell you you know what the decision is"

Finally if you don't have a basic market analysis you’re throwing darts in the dark… STOP even if your current “Marketing Partner” cant supply you with one you can do this yourself in excel.

Here is a link to a sample marketing analysis you can download that will at least give you the basic data to make good marketing decisions on. GET A SAMPLE MARKETING ANALYSIS.

Before you go chasing “Spinner Bait” (the shiny object) get your foundation right. Start with the data, get your market analyzed and look at who you need to target and how those people find you. Get that right then you can start to tackle the more advanced and subtle areas of marketing like social media, advanced content marketing, mobile etc.

Hope this helps,

Attend my session at Digital Dealer 12 “Marketing By The Numbers, Executing ZMOT In Your Dealership”

But you couldn’t be more wrong about microsites!

I have had a few dealers reach out to me lately on Microsites being a bad idea and even one of the largest industry providers asking me if dealers using them will be “Black Listed” by Google…REALLY?!  

In this video Matt Cutts from Google explains his OPINION on microsites and calls out a post by Vanessa Fox “Microsites A Bad Idea Most of the Time”.

Before I break down some of the miss-guiding in the video by Matt and the post by Vanessa let me say I have tremendous respect for them both as SEO Practitioners and Marketers in their own right and I can certainly see their points for poorly designed, built and executed microsites / landing page strategies.  

Therein lies the first point.

“A well designed, well executed microsite / landing page strategy will outperform your website with targeted channels & campaigns every time.” However as with most strategies if it is not well designed, thought out and executed properly it won’t work…duh!

You lose brand identity and audience engagement

Ok let’s get real here… Most businesses don't really have a “Brand Identity”, they do not define the brand they sell as Coke defines soft drinks and Google defines search, so brand identity isn’t our goal when we advertise on Google and it isn't the main reason or even a secondary reason we want to be found on Google or any other search engine.

Why we advertise…Why we want to be found… is to sell something!

To be quite honest with you most of the time the reason a visitor gets to us is because they want to buy something NOT because they want to “Engage with us as a BRAND” So sending a visitor back to your RANDOM ACCESS WEBSITE where they get entangled in the web of everything other than what I was searching for is well… in a word “SILLY”.

Where I am going to promote “audience engagement” and “brand identity” is in my blog first and foremost then use social media for support and conversation on my brand topics, NOT in my site.

Vanessa there is no doubt brand awareness and credibility go a long way toward getting the click and the visitors perceived value goes a long way to getting the conversion, but when they are in the mid and lower funnel to buy I want to provide them relevant information, easy, quick access to that information not drop them on the Encyclopedia Britannica the is my main website, especially if I am making a specific offer.

You lose the ability to leverage your audience

“Let’s say you launch an awesome site with a fantastic user experience, great products, and unrivaled customer support. For instance, let’s say you’re Zappos. Someone writes up a positive article about you in say, the NY Times. Readers start clicking over to your site. They see you sell running shoes. They just read about how great you are, so they feel confident about purchasing some products from your site. But maybe those same readers also need some clothes to go running in. If you had a separate runningclothes.com microsite, you’ve just missed a great opportunity to reach a targeted and motivated audience.”

The example above is absolutely what I mean by a poorly designed and executed microsite strategy. If they would have done it right the ad campaign would have targeted keywords “running shoes” and that would have dropped them on to a microsite that would have asked “What kind of running do you do” the choices would be under men or women and had links like “Sprinting, Long Distance, Cross Country etc.” that would have taken the visitor to a specific page for each shoe type and maybe even deeplink the visitor into the main website after the microsite has qualified them. In the end when the running shoe transaction is done the site should suggest running apparel and link them to another microsite or into the main site (depending on the situation) about running apparel.

The main point here… Don't confuse the visitor from what they were looking for in the first place with other offers or links for them to get lost, help them get what they came for quickly and easily then suggest others.  

I can’t begin to count the number of sales I have missed over the years not staying focused on what the customer wanted in the first place and muddying the water with other products.

The moral of your example… don't launch microsites for the sake of having a microsite, HAVE A THOUGHT OUT PLAN.

Let me add to this “NEVER BUILD MICROSITES AS A LARGER NET TO SOMEHOW GET MORE TRAFFIC” that is the biggest “BS” for the use of microsites propagated throughout our industry.

You confuse people and search engines

Here again Vanessa is confused by the poor microsite & landing page strategy. Mostly because I would not allow a microsite to ever be featured in the NY Times in the first place. If it was over your main website then you really need to take a look at your main site because you have bigger problems than microsites. Microsites are never used as a substitute for your main site and should never be what a media company like the NY Times wants to feature unless they are doing a story on the effective use of Microsites!

Let me add here Microsites are not built or meant to rank, they are meant to have a traffic driver like PPC or Email and convert. Therefore that “Loving Touch” as Matt puts in the video is done for the offer not the site, nor do you worry about search engine indexing because SEO is not your traffic driver here.

Bottom line this confusion has nothing to do with microsites and everything to do with poor microsite strategy or a poor main website design, in either case it’s bad.

You may have to spend substantial additional resources

“As you build out the content of both sites, you have to decide which content to put where. And decide how to spend marketing, PR, and advertising resources. When you issue a press release, which site do you talk up? All of them? What if you have 20? And you likely are doing social media. Do you now maintain 20 Facebook pages and 20 Twitter accounts? I’m tired just thinking about it.”

C’mon Vanessa really?

• How do you decide Marketing, PR and advertising resources? – Based on if your marketing or advertising is making a specific offer and how you want to track that channel.

PR well if your “Press Release” is about a specific product send it to the microsite for that product, even better send it to your blog with more content about the specific product and use links and banners in your blog for offers on the product that go to microsites that convert that traffic into sales or leads.

• Do you maintain 20 Facebook pages and twitter accounts? – Surely Vanessa you realize that Facebook and Twitter just support & distribute content, what would make you think you have to have a Facebook page and/or Twitter account for every microsite?

Again the above examples are functions or a poor microsite / landing page strategy not of microsites themselves.

“It’s a poor carpenter that blames his tools”

You cobble your search acquisition efforts

If you are trying to rank microsites then you are using them wrong. I think I have explained that enough in this post.

It can be difficult to match promotions to search visibility

“The trouble comes in when that promotion sparks search interest (which it undoubtedly will). I’ve observed this with the Super Bowl commercials in both 2009 and 2010. In 2009, several sites, including Hyundai and Sobe advertised taglines that had corresponding microsites, but those domains redirected to the main domain. Advertisers expected that viewers would type the URL into a browser address bar, but instead, many people typed the tagline or domain into a search box. Since the domain didn’t actually exist, the advertiser didn’t show up in search results. You can see this, for instance, with Hyundai’s Edit Your Own campaign.”

Here again a Poor Microsite Strategy having nothing to do with using microsites for what they are supposed to do. If the agency that did this promotion for Hyundai would have understood a good microsite strategy and knew what they were doing they would have done the following.

Built a true “Edit Your Own” Microsite with the goals of the visitor in mind who saw the ad, instead of a URL and splash page just to see how many people saw the ad and acted which is what I am sure was the agency’s and Hyundai’s goal there.

Their goal should have been to provide good information in the microsite aligned with the ad and the visitor intent then collect leads based on an offer of more information to come or special incentives or discounts, then distribute a content marketing campaign designed to follow up nurture those leads and distribute the high quality leads that bubble to the top to their dealer body.

Secondly it was a big mistake not to integrate a good Search Campaign with this ad. As Vanessa effectively points out in her post most of the off line advertising you’re doing is sparking more searches for the offer than the URL you put in the add if you don't have an integrated search strategy with that offline campaign you are missing business.   

Vanessa here again you have an example of a poor strategy and a misunderstanding that microsites need to rank, not a problem with microsites. Microsites don't rank, they’re highly relevant & they convert.  

You don’t get the search engine value you think you get

This is a really long explanation about how keword rich domains don't carry the search engine value you think and I agree with Vanessa 1000 percent. Google is on to the keyword domain thing and it carries very little weight now, no matter what anyone in the auto industry tells you… IT DOESN’T there is too much data to support that.

But I will reiterate I DON'T CARE about the search engine value! If you have the right microsite strategy the only search engine value you do care about pertains to quality score, that’s it. SEO is not the traffic driver for your microsite strategy if it is YOUR DOING IT WRONG…STOP!

So let me wrap this up…

1. Your microsite strategy is NOT based on SEO
2. Microsites focus your visitor on the offer and logical path to conversion
3. If you are going to support offline advertising with microsites make sure you integrate PPC with it

 “A good strategy including the above, well designed microsites will out convert your main website every time”

Finally - Good microsites are closely tied to your keyword, to your ads and to your visitor landing making them highly relevant…what Google is all about! Any knucklehead that tells you that you will be black listed for doing that is a provider you need to stay very far away from as they are clearly clueless.

I hope my opinions here clear up some of the misgivings on microsites and help you think about them and your entire web advertising more clearly.

For more information on where to use microsites and landing pages see these links

Where Do You Use Landing Pages

Microsites & Landing Pages For Auto Dealers

About OnlineDrive:   

OnlineDrive is a Search to Show web marketing agency, helping auto dealers:

• Be found more in the right places
• Engage and convert more leads
• Get more leads to show at your store

But you couldn’t be more wrong about microsites!

I have had a few dealers reach out to me lately on Microsites being a bad idea and even one of the largest industry providers asking me if dealers using them will be “Black Listed” by Google…REALLY?!  

In this video Matt Cutts from Google explains his OPINION on microsites and calls out a post by Vanessa Fox “Microsites A Bad Idea Most of the Time”.

Before I break down some of the miss-guiding in the video by Matt and the post by Vanessa let me say I have tremendous respect for them both as SEO Practitioners and Marketers in their own right and I can certainly see their points for poorly designed, built and executed microsites / landing page strategies.  

Therein lies the first point.

“A well designed, well executed microsite / landing page strategy will outperform your website with targeted channels & campaigns every time.” However as with most strategies if it is not well designed, thought out and executed properly it won’t work…duh!

You lose brand identity and audience engagement

Ok let’s get real here… Most businesses don't really have a “Brand Identity”, they do not define the brand they sell as Coke defines soft drinks and Google defines search, so brand identity isn’t our goal when we advertise on Google and it isn't the main reason or even a secondary reason we want to be found on Google or any other search engine.

Why we advertise…Why we want to be found… is to sell something!

To be quite honest with you most of the time the reason a visitor gets to us is because they want to buy something NOT because they want to “Engage with us as a BRAND” So sending a visitor back to your RANDOM ACCESS WEBSITE where they get entangled in the web of everything other than what I was searching for is well… in a word “SILLY”.

Where I am going to promote “audience engagement” and “brand identity” is in my blog first and foremost then use social media for support and conversation on my brand topics, NOT in my site.

Vanessa there is no doubt brand awareness and credibility go a long way toward getting the click and the visitors perceived value goes a long way to getting the conversion, but when they are in the mid and lower funnel to buy I want to provide them relevant information, easy, quick access to that information not drop them on the Encyclopedia Britannica the is my main website, especially if I am making a specific offer.

You lose the ability to leverage your audience

“Let’s say you launch an awesome site with a fantastic user experience, great products, and unrivaled customer support. For instance, let’s say you’re Zappos. Someone writes up a positive article about you in say, the NY Times. Readers start clicking over to your site. They see you sell running shoes. They just read about how great you are, so they feel confident about purchasing some products from your site. But maybe those same readers also need some clothes to go running in. If you had a separate runningclothes.com microsite, you’ve just missed a great opportunity to reach a targeted and motivated audience.”

The example above is absolutely what I mean by a poorly designed and executed microsite strategy. If they would have done it right the ad campaign would have targeted keywords “running shoes” and that would have dropped them on to a microsite that would have asked “What kind of running do you do” the choices would be under men or women and had links like “Sprinting, Long Distance, Cross Country etc.” that would have taken the visitor to a specific page for each shoe type and maybe even deeplink the visitor into the main website after the microsite has qualified them. In the end when the running shoe transaction is done the site should suggest running apparel and link them to another microsite or into the main site (depending on the situation) about running apparel.

The main point here… Don't confuse the visitor from what they were looking for in the first place with other offers or links for them to get lost, help them get what they came for quickly and easily then suggest others.  

I can’t begin to count the number of sales I have missed over the years not staying focused on what the customer wanted in the first place and muddying the water with other products.

The moral of your example… don't launch microsites for the sake of having a microsite, HAVE A THOUGHT OUT PLAN.

Let me add to this “NEVER BUILD MICROSITES AS A LARGER NET TO SOMEHOW GET MORE TRAFFIC” that is the biggest “BS” for the use of microsites propagated throughout our industry.

You confuse people and search engines

Here again Vanessa is confused by the poor microsite & landing page strategy. Mostly because I would not allow a microsite to ever be featured in the NY Times in the first place. If it was over your main website then you really need to take a look at your main site because you have bigger problems than microsites. Microsites are never used as a substitute for your main site and should never be what a media company like the NY Times wants to feature unless they are doing a story on the effective use of Microsites!

Let me add here Microsites are not built or meant to rank, they are meant to have a traffic driver like PPC or Email and convert. Therefore that “Loving Touch” as Matt puts in the video is done for the offer not the site, nor do you worry about search engine indexing because SEO is not your traffic driver here.

Bottom line this confusion has nothing to do with microsites and everything to do with poor microsite strategy or a poor main website design, in either case it’s bad.

You may have to spend substantial additional resources

“As you build out the content of both sites, you have to decide which content to put where. And decide how to spend marketing, PR, and advertising resources. When you issue a press release, which site do you talk up? All of them? What if you have 20? And you likely are doing social media. Do you now maintain 20 Facebook pages and 20 Twitter accounts? I’m tired just thinking about it.”

C’mon Vanessa really?

• How do you decide Marketing, PR and advertising resources? – Based on if your marketing or advertising is making a specific offer and how you want to track that channel.

PR well if your “Press Release” is about a specific product send it to the microsite for that product, even better send it to your blog with more content about the specific product and use links and banners in your blog for offers on the product that go to microsites that convert that traffic into sales or leads.

• Do you maintain 20 Facebook pages and twitter accounts? – Surely Vanessa you realize that Facebook and Twitter just support & distribute content, what would make you think you have to have a Facebook page and/or Twitter account for every microsite?

Again the above examples are functions or a poor microsite / landing page strategy not of microsites themselves.

“It’s a poor carpenter that blames his tools”

You cobble your search acquisition efforts

If you are trying to rank microsites then you are using them wrong. I think I have explained that enough in this post.

It can be difficult to match promotions to search visibility

“The trouble comes in when that promotion sparks search interest (which it undoubtedly will). I’ve observed this with the Super Bowl commercials in both 2009 and 2010. In 2009, several sites, including Hyundai and Sobe advertised taglines that had corresponding microsites, but those domains redirected to the main domain. Advertisers expected that viewers would type the URL into a browser address bar, but instead, many people typed the tagline or domain into a search box. Since the domain didn’t actually exist, the advertiser didn’t show up in search results. You can see this, for instance, with Hyundai’s Edit Your Own campaign.”

Here again a Poor Microsite Strategy having nothing to do with using microsites for what they are supposed to do. If the agency that did this promotion for Hyundai would have understood a good microsite strategy and knew what they were doing they would have done the following.

Built a true “Edit Your Own” Microsite with the goals of the visitor in mind who saw the ad, instead of a URL and splash page just to see how many people saw the ad and acted which is what I am sure was the agency’s and Hyundai’s goal there.

Their goal should have been to provide good information in the microsite aligned with the ad and the visitor intent then collect leads based on an offer of more information to come or special incentives or discounts, then distribute a content marketing campaign designed to follow up nurture those leads and distribute the high quality leads that bubble to the top to their dealer body.

Secondly it was a big mistake not to integrate a good Search Campaign with this ad. As Vanessa effectively points out in her post most of the off line advertising you’re doing is sparking more searches for the offer than the URL you put in the add if you don't have an integrated search strategy with that offline campaign you are missing business.   

Vanessa here again you have an example of a poor strategy and a misunderstanding that microsites need to rank, not a problem with microsites. Microsites don't rank, they’re highly relevant & they convert.  

You don’t get the search engine value you think you get

This is a really long explanation about how keword rich domains don't carry the search engine value you think and I agree with Vanessa 1000 percent. Google is on to the keyword domain thing and it carries very little weight now, no matter what anyone in the auto industry tells you… IT DOESN’T there is too much data to support that.

But I will reiterate I DON'T CARE about the search engine value! If you have the right microsite strategy the only search engine value you do care about pertains to quality score, that’s it. SEO is not the traffic driver for your microsite strategy if it is YOUR DOING IT WRONG…STOP!

So let me wrap this up…

1. Your microsite strategy is NOT based on SEO
2. Microsites focus your visitor on the offer and logical path to conversion
3. If you are going to support offline advertising with microsites make sure you integrate PPC with it

 “A good strategy including the above, well designed microsites will out convert your main website every time”

Finally - Good microsites are closely tied to your keyword, to your ads and to your visitor landing making them highly relevant…what Google is all about! Any knucklehead that tells you that you will be black listed for doing that is a provider you need to stay very far away from as they are clearly clueless.

I hope my opinions here clear up some of the misgivings on microsites and help you think about them and your entire web advertising more clearly.

For more information on where to use microsites and landing pages see these links

Where Do You Use Landing Pages

Microsites & Landing Pages For Auto Dealers

About OnlineDrive:   

OnlineDrive is a Search to Show web marketing agency, helping auto dealers:

• Be found more in the right places
• Engage and convert more leads
• Get more leads to show at your store