In my last post, I discussed how short-term campaign microsites were rapidly falling out of favor with both CPG clients and agencies. And for good reason. Since most traffic to these sites is driven by online ad campaigns (with an average clickthrough rate hovering stunningly close to zero) it is simply too expensive to drive significant numbers of people to a site where, chances are, they will probably never return.
However, I do not put product sites in this same category. Far from it. In fact, I believe that most CPG companies are not getting nearly enough benefit out of these sites. The reason? The sites don’t provide enough value to consumers. Simply putting information about your product on the site is not nearly good enough. You need to offer consumers something else. And what might that be? Preferably, something your brand/product can own.
For example, one of the clients that I work with at Digitas is one of the world’s most popular laundry detergents. They attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to their site every month, by positioning themselves as an expert in stain removal.
So what can your CPG client or product own? Figure that out, provide information and tools that give value to consumers, and you will have a product site that helps build your brand and increase customer loyalty.
