Landing pages have long been the darling of the online world; they continue the dialog begun when a prospect clicked on an ad or link. Yet landing pages are rarely truly interactive — one of the cornerstones of true customer engagement.

It’s precisely the capacity for reader engagement that’s driving microsites to the forefront — and made them the darling of online marketers.

From a recent post on emarketer.com

If you build a microsite, they will come, they will engage and you can get the data to prove it.

That is the main finding of a newly released Keynote Competitive Research study conducted in October 2007. The company tracked reactions of consumers planning to buy an automobile within the next six months as they interacted with microsites for various car models, including the Toyota Yaris.

Keynote said the Yaris microsite demonstrated that "the more engaged people are with product and brand microsites, the more satisfied they will be and conversion rates will be higher than for people less engaged."

Engagement metrics remain hard to define, though most vendors seem to be cobbling together a mix of standards, including time on site, pages viewed, messages left, etc.

What’s fast becoming universal among brands is the desire for true engagement — and the recognition that quality content is the cornerstone of that engagement.

Microsites are often better suited to delivering engagement style content — and in engaging prospects in a conversation — hence the rapid growth.

User Driven vs Seller Driven

I’d suggest the success of microsites in a Web 2.0 world is largely a matter of user control; landing pages force a narrative on the reader, while microsites are user-driven, and can offer elements like two-way conversation, social networking features, etc.

In fact, the emarketing post cites a 2007 Marketing Sherpa survey on Viral Marketing Tactics that generated great results and — surprise — microsites came out on top (highest "Great" results with 37%; lowest "Dismal" results at 10%).

It’s a common journalistic tool to end a story with a compelling quote, and this is ours: Keynote Senior VP Don Aoki said

"With interactive advertising, the consumer must be presented compelling content to draw him or her into the interaction. The consumer must be engaged," he said.

Stay engaged, Tom Chandler.