If your event website isn’t “open for business” there are several website substitutions you can use to maintain your existing online audience connected to your organization.
In an ideal world, your event website stays up-to-date with evocative images and engaging content. However, trends tend to change rapidly these days and an “up-to-date” website may soon be out-of-date after it’s been published. If you’re in the middle of an online face-lift, launch, or rebranding, you need to ensure that your online audience is still enjoying your brand in a positive way as they wait for your website to be upgraded.
Here are a few ideas to help you create somewhat of a digital place card to hold your audience’s attention as you work on completing your website on the back end.
A Microsite
A microsite is usually a much smaller undertaking than a business website so getting one of those up and running doesn’t take as much effort. They’re typically only a page or a small number of pages so it’s easy to create just enough fresh content to get people interested. Their message is very targeted and simple to digest. There aren’t a lot of options, just a handful of things to do.
A Landing Page
This is similar to a microsite but it’s usually one small, screen-sized page. No scrolling or tabs. It usually announces that your site is under construction. For a successful landing page you’ll also want to give them a call to action or something to do. They found you so don’t waste the connection.
A Facebook Business Page
A Facebook page for your business or event is something you should have anyway because of the great number of active users on Facebook. This can be a nice place to stay in touch with your audience while you build out your full website.
A Google Business Page
If you have a brick and cement office location, you might consider utilizing a free Google business page listing as virtual real estate. A space where you can include:
- Your hours and days of operation
- Share your latest news
- Offer specials
- Your company info
- Photos of your events
- Reviews. Ask current and past clients to review you and their ratings will appear with your listing. You can also respond to these reviews.
LinkedIn Group
LinkedIn is not really considered a direct alternative for your website the same way the other options are, but it also wouldn’t be a direct competition for your main site once you’re back up. For this reason, it’s a good alternative. But just like a Facebook group, you’ll need to invest a significant amount of time on content and discussion.
Once you finish your masterpiece, let everyone know about it and start driving traffic back to your event website. In the end, you want to invest the time and energy on the site you own. Lastly, don’t feel like your additional efforts were moot because at least you spent time building a secondary platform. Don’t let it fade away into nothingness. Use the energy and buzz gained on those other channel(s) as a bridge back to your site. Your audience engagement could become stronger for it.
