4 Ways to Promote Customer Engagement Through Contactless Microsites

Unfortunately, when customers face too many choices on a microsite, they go into shutdown mode. Case in point: One study suggested that giving customers too many options can lead to customer apathy and noncommitment. The study moderators set up a table and filled it with jars of jam, along with samples of the jams.

When the table contained 24 flavors of jam, 60% of passersby sampled the jams, but only 3% bought jars of jam. On the other hand, when the table offered just six jam choices, 40% explored the flavors and 30% made a purchase. So, although more people sampled the jams when there was a wider variety of choices, more people made it further into the customer journey when there were fewer choices. That’s significant.

Consequently, if you’re going to build a brand-boosting microsite, you need to keep a few key factors in mind to avoid overburdening customers and improve their contactless user experience. Let’s consider a few great ways to get started with your microsite.

1. Avoid creating a content snowball.

From the very beginning of your road to microsite excellence, make a pact with your team: Your microsite will not become a full-on Web site. It should be a standalone, online-branding experience—not a new primary offering. If you give in to scope creep, you’ll end up spending way too much money.

Sure, you’ll want to crowdsource concepts for your microsite to ratchet up engagement and get the most out of your investment. But you need to stick to your original plans and be willing to let go of some suggestions. Just because you dream up something, that doesn’t mean it belongs on your microsite. Nevertheless, you should maintain a document in which you store any of your microsite ideas that don’t end up in the final iteration. Even though you’re shelving them today, you might be able to use some of them later.

2. Construct a truly customer-centric microsite.

What does your customer want and need when considering a purchase from your company? Spend time answering this question—and don’t get sidetracked by thinking about what you want your customer to do. The more consumer-centric your planning, the greater the likelihood that users would want to share your microsite with somebody, look at it a second time, or learn more about your brand.

Let’s take another look at the ElfYourself example. Playing around with ElfYourself doesn’t have anything to do with home or business office equipment or furnishings. Nevertheless, the microsite continues to be a strong promotional platform for Office Depot. Why? It serves the public without being overtly self-serving. Yes, you should always design a customer journey with an endgame in mind. But you need to keep your target audience at the core of all your copy and creative decisions. When you do, you’ll see heightened customer engagement and greater click-through rates.

3. Keep everything on a single page.

You should simplify your microsite until it seems almost too easy to use. Other than perhaps allowing users to swipe side to side or up and down, don’t include any page jumps. A microsite isn’t the place for drilling down. Instead of a multistory home, it’s like a ranch house without a basement—everything is on one level. Sure, you can expect customers to scroll—but don’t ask them to click from one link to the next.

Want some inspiration for this type of streamlined focus? Consider Tinder. The dating app’s popularity comes from its ability to gamify matchmaking. Users swipe instead of reading through autobiographical tomes and surveys. They get to experience a little joy while potentially finding someone with whom to plan a date on Saturday night. Plus, users need not invest much effort in the process.

4. Avoid overloading your microsite with outbound links.

Your microsite can have just one outbound link, which goes to a specific landing page. Other than that link, you should remove all other links. Typically, Web sites feature outbound links to help improve their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and site authority. But the goal of a microsite is not to contribute to making your company a darling of Google or Bing.

So, should your company logo incorporate a link to your corporate site? Nope. How about links on keyword phrases? Another no. The only link that should take visitors off the page is that for your call-to-action button, image, or text. That’s it. While this advice might seem counterintuitive at first, it derives from the philosophy of giving customer just one or two choices and works like a charm.

Conclusion

In a pandemic world—where buyers are hesitant to make direct contact with brands or their associates—microsites can provide a bridge user experience. When you’re creating your next marketing campaign, add a microsite into the mix. It might get a significant boost from just one tiny, tidy URL.

In this article, I’ve offered four ways of promoting customer engagement through contactless microsites: avoiding scope creep, achieving customer centricity, limiting your microsite to just one page, and including only a single call-to-action link. Apply these tips, and you can create a highly engaging, contactless microsite that delivers business results.