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7 Tactical Reasons To Use Mini Campaign Websites
By Jerry Bader (c) 2008

How many websites should your company have?

That's a question that comes up often in discussions with
clients, but perhaps the idea never crossed your mind. Why would
any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the
answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?

If you're a large corporation, it is fairly obvious that you
need a separate site for each brand you offer, and a separate
site for corporate background material and perhaps investor
information.

But what if you're a small or medium-sized company with a
limited number of products or services? Then the question
becomes, do your products relate to one another? Does one item
flow into the next? Is your audience for each product or service
the same? And what about totally different audiences for the
same product: audiences that need to be approached with totally
different tactics? And then there are special circumstances like
new product launches, time sensitive marketing campaigns, and
limited availability offers?

Mini Campaign Websites and Alternative Marketing Websites are an
effective method of enhancing your marketing efforts and
targeting optional audiences you would never have otherwise
reached using your traditional sales marketing approach.

7 Tactical Reasons To Use Campaign Websites

1. Focus Your Presentation: eliminate distraction and non
relevant clutter

It is human nature to want to get your money's worth, but when
it comes to website marketing this can be counter-productive.
Wanting to cram everything you offer into one website aimed, or
more to the point not aimed, at every interested audience only
creates clutter and confusion. Forcing visitors to sift through
reams of material only creates frustration and irritation, and
with a click of a mouse they're off to the next competitor
listed on their favorite search engine before they even get to
your relevant information.

A campaign or brand specific website allows you to get right to
the point. Greet your targeted audience with a signature video
Web-host supported by appropriate images and text. If a lot of
text material is required, then have it turned it into an audio
presentation so the material is made more accessible,
understandable, and easy to absorb.

A focused brand or campaign site shortens the sales cycle by
making what you offer clear and distinct; it provides visitors
with the sense that you are both competent and innovative in
what you do and how you do it.

2. Use Alternative Tactics: experiment with non traditional
campaign and sales' approaches

Most companies follow a consistent sales approach that they have
found successful. This is both a good thing and a bad thing:
following a plan that has worked in the past aimed at your
traditional customer base makes sense, except that it also
limits you in reaching new audiences for your products and
services.

There may be markets for what you offer that you have never
thought of, or that you are afraid to approach because they
conflict with your current methods, promotions, or initiatives.

Why give up on these potential customers when you can create an
audience specific Web-presentation on a separate campaign
website aimed specifically at that market. With a series of
highly targeted websites you speak to the needs of specific
audiences and at the same time insulate your regular clients
from the alternative approaches.

In a highly competitive marketplace, your competition will be
looking for every opportunity to take advantage of markets you
ignore. Don't let them. You can get to them first and establish
your company as the niche leader. All it takes is a little
imagination, effort, and a budget to implement. This way you can
have your cake and eat it too.

3. Create Urgency & Impact: campaign sites urge quick response,
while creating a memorable impression

Website visitors are always complaining how much time it takes
them to search for and find the products and services they need.
This often translates into complaints about download times, but
the fact is, with the extensive availability of broadband, it's
not download times that frustrate people, it's having to search
through multiple pages and levels, in a hide-and-seek game to
find what they want.

A campaign or brand-specific alternative marketing site gets
right to the point and delivers the information or the promotion
referenced in your email, banner, and print ads, or television
and radio commercials.

And if you use a signature video Web-host to deliver the
information, you are making sure the presentation has impact; so
even if a visitor doesn't view everything, they at least get
the core message in a way they won't forget.

Your targeted marketing sales pitch won't get watered-down by
extraneous information that just gets in the way. Depending on
how the site is constructed and what the marketing objectives
are, a campaign specific website can create a sense of urgency
by building in a time sensitive expiry date.

4. Target New & Alternative Audiences: create new markets for
old products and services

Not every audience for a product can be approached with the same
tactics. Specific brand or campaign sites allow you to customize
your approach for new or alternative audiences appealing to
their specific lifestyles or behavior patterns.

If you've had experience running a sales staff or rep network,
you know that salespeople who call on one specific market are
rarely successful when asked to simultaneously call on another.
Different markets require different approaches. Like a
one-size-fits-all hat, it rarely fits anybody. Customize and
isolate your approach to different markets, so you can speak
directly to that market's needs and attitudes.

The marketplace is often more innovative than the marketer in
finding new ways to use old products; ways the manufacturer
never realized existed. Ask your customers how they use your
products and then go after that market with a direct campaign
that takes advantage of that specific niche.

5. Isolate & Differentiate Brands: target specific audiences
with specific tactics

Companies that offer a large number of products or services
often confuse potential customers by presenting far too many
options and alternatives. The result is the Web-visitor doesn't
buy anything because they don't want to purchase the wrong
thing, or not get the best deal. Even if you get the sale, you
may lose the customer because they made the wrong decision.

You want to offer prospects a limited number of distinct
alternatives, just enough so they feel they have been given a
choice, and don't have to look elsewhere. But too much choice
within the same product category creates buyer indecision. If a
product or service is aimed at a particular market because it
has specific features, create a separate website to sell it.
Isolating a product line on a separate website allows you to
create a distinct image and brand story for that offering.

6. Accelerate Comprehension & Shorten Sales Cycle: be clear, be
understood, be direct, and sales will follow

Campaign websites get right to the point. They present the
marketing message quickly, and promptly direct people to take
action without making them wade through mission statements and
corporate histories that for campaign purposes just get in the
way.

The longer it takes for someone to understand what the campaign
is all about, the less likely they are to stick around long
enough to make sense out of it. This is why we strongly
recommend adding video and audio to the presentation. Video and
audio allows you to say what needs to be said in the most
understandable, persuasive, and memorable manner.

When it comes to website visitors you probably only have one
shot at making a lasting impression, so don't blow it by
delivering a boring or confusing presentation.

7. Support Other Advertising Efforts: supplement other marketing
material with engaging, viral presentations

Campaign websites can function as landing sites and contact
venues for print, television, radio, online video, banner, and
display ads, as well as for articles, newsletters, and news
releases.

By segregating your campaign site you can more easily track
responses better than if the campaign material was integrated
into your corporate site. Separating your campaign website from
your main site allows you to experiment with marketing tactics
aimed at new or alternative audiences, with approaches that may
not be suitable for your regular site visitors. You may not even
want your regular customers to know that it is your company
that's running the campaign, so people will regard it as
something completely new.

A Final Word or Two

You've heard about the "Long Tail" and 'niche markets' but
what have you done about it? So many companies sell the same
product, the same way, to the same audience, that people no
longer pay much attention. Look no further than the search
engine optimization market, when was the last time you actually
read something truly different, truly innovative about SEO? What
makes one company's promise of top ten ranking any different
from the next? And if everyone who paid for optimization was in
the top ten in their category, you'd have to redefine what the
number ten means.

Today companies, especially small and medium sized companies,
have to be different to be heard. They have to be bold and
innovative and constantly try new approaches to reach their
audiences.

By trying different tactics using different websites delivering
alternative presentations, to alternative audiences you expand
and build your business without the concern that these bold new
approaches will negatively affect your more conservative
existing clientele.
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and
http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com
or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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