Ten years ago I was practicing content marketing—and didn’t even know it.

Brain Chip Implants

Back then I was a web designer at Sony Pictures in Los Angeles, part of a fun team of people at SoapCity.com. SoapCity, (RIP), was a portal for over a dozen, over-the-top soap operas. Working with show producers and marketing, we regularly created microsites. Their purpose? To extend on-air storylines and push corresponding studio product.

So, for example, let’s say a character was killed in a suspicious speedboat accident.

You could go to the microsite and review the “police files”. This mostly comprised of photo galleries, text, and images we created to “build the case”, such as restaurant receipts or diary entries.  The starting storyline content was reliably hilarious and offered huge opportunity for inserting inside jokes into our custom content.

A key part of every microsite was the associated product for sale. (“Did you notice the gentle lotus flower necklace worn by Warden Smith when she booked Steel MacNight? Just $19.99. No tough woman warrior, or warden, should be without it. Order here.”)

Lessons Learned

Here are three lessons learned from SoapCity microsites that are still applicable to creating successful microsites today (even if yours won’t involve cheating spouses, babies switched at birth, or zombies):

Planning Stage: Niche-er the Better

Plan a diverse little ecosystem for your microsite. If you’re using the site to market products, stick with those that compliment the microsite’s narrowly-defined topic. (e.g. “Vote on which of these gifts would be best for Marlena’s third marriage!”)

Development Stage: Go Ahead, Get Crazy

Microsites are the ideal platform to do something different than the “official” website. Creative approaches are more likely to be embraced provided your audience understands what’s there and how they can benefit.

For instance, we included personal photography in microsite “scrapbooks”. Since this photography was casual and personal it worked to further the illusion of reality built by the broadcast television episode.

Launch Stage: Love the Die-Hards

Microsites are playgrounds for the most passionate about a particular subject. Welcome them! Highly specialized content means it is easier to encourage community development and participation.

At the time social interaction was encouraged via a branded bulletin board. Today, there’s no doubt social media would be used.

PTC: Case Study

Learn how a microsite is successfully used by software industry giant PTC in a case study I wrote for the Content Marketing Institute. Gain more in-depth microsite tips and download the case study for free by clicking here.