About Microsites

A microsite is a separately promoted part of a larger Web site, which is designed to meet separate objectives and has a separate Web address (URL) as its home page. A microsite provides information about a topic or solution and can offer downloadable white papers, videos, news and trends related to the homepage. Microsites are often temporary Web sites, for example, for a product launch or event promotion, which can be available for only a short time and can be removed from Web servers when the promotion is finished or the information is no longer relevant. For example, a computer manufacturer has a microsite to inform customers and prospects about a new product. You can create multiple microsites to offer existing offers for download and require registration to continue to build your contact database or continue to maintain profiles of the existing contacts. You can promote your microsites and direct traffic to your microsites in outbound email campaigns. You can also send email announcements when new offers are available. Each microsite is accessed by its own Pretty URL.

Scenario for Using a Microsite

This topic gives one example of how a microsite might be used. You might use microsites differently, depending on your business model.

A museum's Web site has a link to a microsite, which contains information about a special exhibition. The microsite has multiples levels of content with specific topic pages and related subtopic pages. The museum Web site promotes and links to a microsite that promotes a Japanese art exhibition. The microsite provides information on the Japanese art exhibition and the Edo Period. It also links to the following topics:

Japanese textiles
Japanese woodblock prints
Japanese ceramics
Japanese sculpture and carvings

Each topic can contain subtopics. For example, under Japanese woodblock prints topic, subtopics describe artists or subject matter, such as the following:

Hiroshige
Hokusai
Landscapes
Geisha