The Basics Of Minisite Design
Posted 8th January 2012 at 08:21 AM by alexcercel
Tags minisite design
If you sell products on the internet you have probably heard the term minisite. A minisite is designed to sell one specific product. The idea is that it is a natural flow from the first line right to the buy it now button. Designing a good minisite can seriously increase your revenue but only if you understand what elements a good minisite must have.
Is A Minisite Right For You?
The first criterion is making sure a minisite is the right approach for your marketing.
These sites work best for companies selling digital and physical products and those getting people to opt into a mailing list. You should only be selling one product on your minisite because the whole idea behind this style of site is to get them focused on and buying one product with no other distractions like a regular site would have.
Even if you have a large product line minisites can be a great way to promote individual products. Minisites are almost always used when it comes to selling digital products and ebooks. So once you are sure you are a good candidate for a minisite there are a few things you have to get right to really get the conversions you are looking for.
Minisite Design 101
The first is a good design. Usually a minisite is designed with a shell that has the content which includes your sales letter and call to action in the middle. In addition your designer will match up colors and fonts of the site so that it all looks good together. What your site looks like is the first impression that viewers will have of you. So spend some time building a minisite that looks good.
Minisite Design - Who's to do it?
You will probably want to hire a minisite designer to design and build your site for you.
Unless you have strong graphic design and html skills you will probably get a better product by working with a professional. They can also help you determine what the best practices are to be sure you end up with a page that is as high converting as possible. This is one area where getting someone with experience can make the process much easier.
Content
Another extremely important element of your minisite is your content or text. The content of a minisite has to be very compelling. Your goal is after someone reads it they will be ready to purchase from your site. So like any good sales technique you will start by identifying the problem that your product solves.
Once you have identified the problem for the visitor show them how your product or service gives them all the tools they need to solve the problem. Listing your benefits in bullet points give your readers small manageable chunks of information to process at one time.
Once you have identified the problem and shown them how your product will help it is time to tell them to buy. Your call to action should be strong and tell them exactly what you want them to do. Use a specific command such as “Click the Button Below to Buy X Product.”
Keep Your Minisite Design Simple
You should add as few distractions as possible to your minisite. Distractions would be anything that could sidetrack them from the main goal of completing your action. If you are going to include links to blogs and social media sites do it at the bottom of the page to make sure they don’t lose focus on purchasing the product for sale. After you have made a sale you will get an opportunity to get people to opt into your list or fan you on Facebook through your order thank you page.
If you include all of these elements in your minisite design you are sure to end up with a page that converts like crazy once you start sending traffic to it. There is a reason that the minisite is the favorite amongst internet marketers that reason is because they are extremely effective sales tools. Getting a high quality minsite set up can really boost sales especially for digital products and downloads. Just remember to think of all the elements as just as important as the others. If you have a great design and terrible content or vice versa you will not find as much success with your site.
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Designing winners since 2005 Alex Cercel has worked with some of the biggest industry names and also helped newbies in bringing their ideas to life. He is available for freelance work at his site http://BlingCovers.com
Is A Minisite Right For You?
The first criterion is making sure a minisite is the right approach for your marketing.
These sites work best for companies selling digital and physical products and those getting people to opt into a mailing list. You should only be selling one product on your minisite because the whole idea behind this style of site is to get them focused on and buying one product with no other distractions like a regular site would have.
Even if you have a large product line minisites can be a great way to promote individual products. Minisites are almost always used when it comes to selling digital products and ebooks. So once you are sure you are a good candidate for a minisite there are a few things you have to get right to really get the conversions you are looking for.
Minisite Design 101
The first is a good design. Usually a minisite is designed with a shell that has the content which includes your sales letter and call to action in the middle. In addition your designer will match up colors and fonts of the site so that it all looks good together. What your site looks like is the first impression that viewers will have of you. So spend some time building a minisite that looks good.
Minisite Design - Who's to do it?
You will probably want to hire a minisite designer to design and build your site for you.
Unless you have strong graphic design and html skills you will probably get a better product by working with a professional. They can also help you determine what the best practices are to be sure you end up with a page that is as high converting as possible. This is one area where getting someone with experience can make the process much easier.
Content
Another extremely important element of your minisite is your content or text. The content of a minisite has to be very compelling. Your goal is after someone reads it they will be ready to purchase from your site. So like any good sales technique you will start by identifying the problem that your product solves.
Once you have identified the problem for the visitor show them how your product or service gives them all the tools they need to solve the problem. Listing your benefits in bullet points give your readers small manageable chunks of information to process at one time.
Once you have identified the problem and shown them how your product will help it is time to tell them to buy. Your call to action should be strong and tell them exactly what you want them to do. Use a specific command such as “Click the Button Below to Buy X Product.”
Keep Your Minisite Design Simple
You should add as few distractions as possible to your minisite. Distractions would be anything that could sidetrack them from the main goal of completing your action. If you are going to include links to blogs and social media sites do it at the bottom of the page to make sure they don’t lose focus on purchasing the product for sale. After you have made a sale you will get an opportunity to get people to opt into your list or fan you on Facebook through your order thank you page.
If you include all of these elements in your minisite design you are sure to end up with a page that converts like crazy once you start sending traffic to it. There is a reason that the minisite is the favorite amongst internet marketers that reason is because they are extremely effective sales tools. Getting a high quality minsite set up can really boost sales especially for digital products and downloads. Just remember to think of all the elements as just as important as the others. If you have a great design and terrible content or vice versa you will not find as much success with your site.
=============================
Designing winners since 2005 Alex Cercel has worked with some of the biggest industry names and also helped newbies in bringing their ideas to life. He is available for freelance work at his site http://BlingCovers.com
