It seems every time I’ve turned around the past couple of months I’m hearing the word “Microsite” from clients as though they are the answers to their prayers and a pathway to instant success.

Yet it usually isn’t a good Internet marketing strategy option. The reality is Microsites usually cause more problems than add value for the vast majority of businesses. There are exceptions to that statement of course, yet those exceptions are few and far in between and mostly reserved for companies with huge brand recognition and deep pockets.

Here’s why Microsites usually create more problems than value:

• Branding Confusion — most organizations have to work long and hard to create a recognizable, trustworthy brand that contributes to their success and imparts trust, which improves conversion. Yet overnight they can destroy or diffuse that brand value simply by creating one or more sites that create confusion and hesitancy.

Confusion = Friction. Friction = Lost Business.

• Increased Expense – did you find the expense and upkeep (including your staff’s time involvement) a pain when it comes to maintenance and updating of your main site? Try adding to that burden by adding a few Microsites into the mix. And, it’s not a linear equation where you simply multiple the time/expense by xx factor. You now have to keep track of what is happening on each site to make sure they are built with unique content.
• Link Cannibalization — incoming links are an important component in how Search Engines rank you. With multiple sites dealing with the same or similar topics, you are now effectively cannibalizing links that you could have had pointing in to your main site. The level of link value dilution that occurs  means you diminish all of your sites’ ranking potential. Your competition is yourself!
• Leverage Loss — Your visitors are exposed to any number of opportunities for further engagement and interaction on your main site simply because it’s usually far more robust — case studies, videos, articles, webinars, white papers, blogs, customer forums, etc. Guess what happens then? More business through online/offline sales, cross-selling and up-selling and customers telling others about the great information on your site. Microsites usually are nowhere near as robust which means visitors will be less likely to get engaged, return frequently or share information. If you send them to your main site so they can be exposed to your greater goodness, then you run the risk of confusing them.

• Search Engine Jeopardy — search engines are not fond of organizations setting up multiple sites if they interpret that as an effort to “game” their ranking algorithm, which in fact is why many Microsites are created in the first place. You run the very real risk of having your Microsites AND your main site penalized… no matter how pure your intentions. THAT is not a fun problem to have or to solve.

I could go on… there are actually several more reasons not to do this. So much additional work — just think how much further ahead you’d be if you applied that energy and power to your main site!

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I just came back from a trip where I had the pleasure of staying at The Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu. And the overwhelming feeling I had while at that hotel was one of luxury and being well tended – relaxation to the hilt with beautiful views of Diamond Head and the Waikiki beaches. I’m hard pressed to remember a better experience with a hotel.

I’m writing this blog because of two things that hit me as a result of this experience (and also part of my experience before arriving).

First – the lasting impression their branding left on me. It was straightforward, clean and simple – the name of the hotel and/or an orchid. The orchid was pervasive, yet tastefully done. I even noticed it on the hardware for the privacy lock on the hotel room door! While subtle, it was also ever-present and it frequently drew your attention to things they wanted you to notice – conveniences, security, luxury, etc. Their orchid was on the bottom of the swimming pool, it was even on the clear plastic sleeve that held the NY Times digest that you get at hotels.

Halekulani Hotel Swimming Pool

Second – in spite of this incredible attention to brand marketing detail, they missed the boat when it came to keeping their brand and presence intact online. Their home page was coded using Flash technology, which does not work on the iPad or particularly well with smart phones. So, when we were calling it up on my husband’s iPad to do some advance planning, we couldn’t see it. Now, you can argue that a hotel with the stature, reputation and recognition that the Halekulani has doesn’t need to worry about that – people will simply understand and go to a “normal” computer to see their site. Yet I also noticed that there is plenty of competition where they are on Waikiki Beach and many visitors from Japan and California – two places where residents skew toward the use of those types of devices. What’s more, Hawaii in general depends on tourist and business travel traffic for their economy which has some pronounced ups and downs.

Is it time for the hospitality industry, which seems to be heavily reliant on Flash programming, to do some fresh thinking about their online brand and presence? Flash is the darling of many website in the hospitality business, including restaurants. What good does a vibrant graphic website do you when you can’t be seen with newer devices? Besides, there are plenty of alternative designs and technologies that impact the pizzazz of Flash – and you can see those websites!

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Whatever goals you’ve set for your business website, there’s usually a constant need to gain greater online visibility to accomplish them.

You’ll want to make sure you have a workable plan to secure that growth. The first step you need to take in building that plan is to Identify your Online Competition.

This generally comes as quite a surprise to people we work with – who quite naturally believe they’ve got their competition pretty well scoped out. You may find some surprising — and aggravating — differences in how you need to think about competition online.

Any entity that stands between you and the top ranking positions online are now your competitors for visibility. And you will find that some of them aren’t competing with your products or services at all yet they own the high-visibility space you want.

More specifically, you need to take into consideration two distinct classes of competitors:

1. Businesses and organizations that compete against your products and services — your classic competitors.
2. Entitles that may not represent direct competition to you, yet they “hog” the top ranking positions in Search Engines.

Why does this matter? If a linchpin to your organization’s success is to drive higher volumes of relevant prospects to your website, you need to know which online channels represent the least degree of difficulty. This may mean thinking differently about Search Engines as a primary channel.

Some of these non-traditional competitors represent formidable obstacles that you might want to avoid — at least initially.

How do you know if the degree of difficulty is too high? Non-traditional competitors may be ceded great credibility and authority in the Search Engines, which is a factor in their ranking algorithms. They may have significant popularity, incoming links and media (again, ranking factors) that you will need to match or beat to get the visibility you want.

Examples of Non-traditional Online Competitors for Visibility:

• Government Entities, such as National Institute of Health (NIH)
• Professional Organizations, such as National Education Association (NEA)
• Educational Institutes, such as Stanford University
• Major media outlets, such as The New York Times or CNN
• Significant online portals, such as Wikipedia

Take a look at who owns the top positions for keyword phrases you want in Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Dissect their success. How many incoming links do they have? Do they have a lot of content that the Search Engines value, such as blogs, videos, and interactive elements? Is there evidence of thoughtful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) activity? You may want to read Smart Keyword Marketing for some fresh ideas.

Getting to the top of the Search Engines is a laudable goal. After all, you can attract many searchers who are quite possibly engaged in their buying consideration process — Nirvana! Yet competition and your situation may necessitate a different strategic approach.

Your Internet marketing strategy may need to factor in a more creative mix of online channels. With the phenomenal growth of Social Networks and the ease/low cost of creating new media, there has never been a better time to diversify your mix of Internet marketing channels.

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There’s a ton of information about Internet marketing strategy floating around online. Yet precious little of that presents the practical elements needed for a viable online strategy.

It’s a pet peeve of mine — and a couple of these elements just aren’t found in B-school textbooks. When these practical elements aren’t done right or included (often the case), everything else under-performs, requiring unplanned course-correcting measures to get back on track.

1. Balance

Balance in all things — a balanced mix of areas factored into your Internet marketing strategy and a pragmatic balance of the internal resources needed to build, launch and performance manage execution of the strategy.

2. Online Branding Presence

Organizations need to go way beyond Internet brand advertising and think about how the brand (and its representatives) participate and come across in key online marketing channels — most notably Social Networks.

Are you transparent? Are you perceived as authentic? Is this more than an internal slogan? Check our podcast with Linda Popky What’s the Value of Online Branding for more ideas.

3. Keyword Research

OK — this is really my pet peeve. If you talk to rock-star Internet marketers they will all tell you one thing — they really, really, truly really to the max obsess over their keyword list. And, their obsession is not a one-time event.

Keyword phrases are how people who don’t know about you find you… get very, very serious about this. Check out Internet Marketing Best Practices: Smart Keyword Marketing.

4. Conversion Functionality

The vast majority of businesses stop short of defining this in their online marketing strategy. An online strategy that only factors in driving traffic to the website is missing the point — what actions do you want them to take once they get there?

My experience? If you don’t spell out the conversion functionality expectations for your website in the strategy, don’t expect the planning and execution to deliver great results.

5. Online Competition

Ahem… I said AHEM! Hello? What’s your competition online doing? It is SO easy to reverse engineer your Internet competition and develop a strategy to eclipse them and build a competitive advantage.

While we’re at it, PLEASE understand this: competitors are any entity in a higher position than yours in the Search Engine results pages for your targeted keywords. When you consider that the #1 position on Google gets 42% of the clicks and the #2 position drops to 12% — you quickly start to think differently about what constitutes a “competitor.”

Some of these elements get overlooked because they’re “soft” items — looking at Balance elements such as: time constraints, internal skills vs. outsourcing, organizational temperament, etc. A solid Internet marketing strategy includes these items to drive attainable results they can count on for success.

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Recently I sat down with Linda Popky — The Marketing Master and President of L2M Associates — for a wide-ranging discussion about Online Branding and recorded that conversation for our OnCompeting podcast.

Linda’s take on Online Branding as a component of Internet marketing was thought-provoking and filled with great insight and tips.

In case you were wondering if online branding really matters — here’s an interesting factoid: recent research showed that 20% of Twitter communications have a brand mention.

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2009 brought a seemingly unending array of new and noteworthy Internet marketing advances. Noteworthy, for sure, are the tools that make Internet marketing affordable and accessible to anyone who cares to expend the effort to learn.

Yet I think the big 2009 marketing story is this: Consumer Control. Consumers, in growing legions, are finding a “voice” in Internet forums, review and ratings sites, social networks and the like — and they are using these channels to express their opinions and preferences.

Why Does This Matter to You?

People are listening. Research is now consistently showing that people increasingly turn to and rely on online opinions and ratings to inform their decisions for person AND business use.

Classic marketing approaches geared toward shaping awareness, interest and reputation are increasingly less effective.

Conversely, understanding how to go with the flow of Consumer Control can represent tremendous opportunity.

Moreover, this is no longer just about deciding which consumer electronic gadgets to buy. These “citizen journalists” are shaping the fate of healthcare providers, charitable donations, business and personal reputations, organizational vitality, elections, restaurants, telecommunication providers, high tech sales and much, much more.

Why has Consumer Control reached a Tipping Point in 2009? A confluence of several factors:

• Unprecedented Publishing Access
• Ease of Use
• Social Networking Growth
• Abundant Multi-media Opportunities
• Erosion of Trust (in traditional channels)

Depending on your perspective, this can be a good thing… or not. Certainly, it should NOT represent business-as-usual. Success now relies on embracing this major shift, developing a new marketing philosophy and adopting Internet marketing strategies, plans and tactics that enable you to succeed in this era of Consumer Control.

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