Are microsites right for your school?

Are Microsites Right for Your School?
Slide 1
Are Microsites Right
for Your School?

Slide 2
1) Microsites
2) Do you really need a microsite?
3) Microsite Strategy #1: An inside look at student life
4) Microsite Strategy #2: Stimulate curiosity and interest
5) Microsite Strategy #3: Foreign language international
recruitment
6) Other microsites
7) Tips for Effective Microsites
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Are Microsites Right for Your School?

Slide 3
 A microsite is essentially a mini website, functioning as an
independent off-shoot of a parent site, customized for a
specific purpose or market.
 They are particularly useful for generating interest and
excitement around a student recruitment or fundraising
campaign, taking advantage of the directed focus to instantly
connect with visitors in a fresh and more emotionally
gratifying way.
 By functioning as a stand-alone website with a unique URL,
there is an opportunity for creative interaction with your
chosen audience using a different tone and look than the
traditional institution's.
1. Microsites

Slide 4
 Before committing the resources to developing and
maintaining a microsite, it is important to determine whether
it is right for your school at this time.
 Decentralizing an institution's official web presence with quirky
microsites can make it harder to keep a consistent branding strategy
and risks confusing users.
 A good microsite provides unique content that fulfills a set purpose,
with interactive components that accumulate leads, such as video,
social media, games, contests or virtual tours.
 Will it exist for a long or short time?
 Microsites are often used for brief promotional campaigns, so
searching for a specific microsite might now return you to a main
site.
2. Do you really need a microsite?

Slide 5
 One strategic decision to make when considering microsite
development is the extent that it will be connected to the
main page.
 Some believe that the relationship between the main site and
microsites should be intuitive, and there are many examples of
colleges that feature an inside look at student life with content
created by the students themselves.
 These "for students, by students" microsites may include a live
stream of student tweets and storytelling blogs, providing a platform
for student self-expression and a valuable alternative perspectives of
how campus life really is.
 Some sites include quizzes to playfully test how much they know
about the school or to help prospective students determine which
majors would be the best fit for them.
3. Microsite Strategy #1: An inside look at
student life

Slide 6
 A microsite doesn't necessarily need to directly reference
your brand to be effective.
 An engaging microsite may aspire to create a viral movement or
stimulate curiosity and ideas by asking a provocative question
related to a school's program offerings.
 The University of British Columbia's "rewrite the rules"
campaign (with the help of rewritetherules.ca microsite)
asked the community where the future of business was
headed, sparking active discussions on social media
channels with over 10,000 people from over 70 countries.
4. Microsite Strategy #2: Stimulate curiosity and
interest

Slide 7
 Some schools have launched microsites in the languages of
hot international recruitment markets like Arabic, Portuguese
and Chinese.
 Although not physically on the main university server, these
sites retain the look and feel of the school, with links directly
to the home site to reassure prospects they're getting
legitimate info.
 Translations are as much or more for the parents' benefit,
who often make the final decision for international student
enrollment.
5. Microsite Strategy #3: Foreign language
international recruitment

Slide 8
 Microsites are often used to highlight specific programs,
clubs or student services.
 Some are completely integrated into the website, such as
Dalhousie University's undergraduate program microsites,
which are in effect richer extensions of the main site.
 Concordia University has been developing an ambitious
research resource that will encourage exploration of
scholarly topics through a wealth of descriptive searching
tools and interactive links to faculty and course information.
6. Other Microsites

Slide 9
 There are many types of microsites but here are some
general guidelines:
 Have a distinctive strategy and purpose with a size and scope that
fits your budget and resources to develop and maintain
 Specific features should engage your audience in interactivity,
including user-generated content or personalized facts and data
 The site's name is a great way to generate awareness and recall
 Subject matter and call-to-action should be clear, compelling and
highly targeted (i.e. a small and agile but "meaty" site)
 Maximize SEO for higher education by using topic-specific keywords
throughout the content
 Don't forget to actively promote it in marketing communications, such
as emails to prospective students
 Of course, your school's main website should be your priority and it
would be a mistake to create new sites without addressing old and
outdated content.
7. Tips for Effective Microsites

Slide 10
Questions?
1.514.312.3968
info@higher-education-marketing.com
Visit our Website: Higher Education Marketing
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
FOLLOW US ON LINKEDIN
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
FOLLOW US ON PINTEREST
FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE+

Are microsites right for your school?

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais de Higher Education Marketing

Mais de Higher Education Marketing (20)

Último

Último (20)

Are microsites right for your school?