Case Study:  Trend Micro Launches Series of Product Microsites

Summary: Trend Micro Incorporated, (TSE: 4704, NASDAQ: TMIC) - a leader in network antivirus and content security software and services - has launched a series of product focused microsites that contain originally produced podcasts and expert authored blogs. Each microsite - an Internet Web design term that refers to an individual web page or cluster of pages meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website - is, in Trend Micro™'s case, a comprehensive web destination built around specific hardware and software product offerings targeted at each of Trend Micro™'s customer segments: small business, medium business and enterprise customers.

 

Issue: Trend Micro's global marketing team was looking to drive increased lead generation and sales while keeping pace with its competition. The team decided to deploy a series of product-based microsites focused around each of their customer segments (small business, medium business and enterprise customers) that would include comprehensive product information, collateral, thought-leadership and lead generating vehicles such as whitepapers and other downloads. The challenge: their internal IT/web team - although capable - was unable to quickly deploy full-featured microsites (that would include blogs and podcasts) that would include continuously updated campaign landing pages, flash animation, news feeds and more.

 

Solution: Trend Micro looked at a lot of vendors providing outsourced marketing and website solutions and selected iPressroom because of its integrated suite of online marketing tools all built into one powerful dashboard. iPressroom's Online Marketer ProTM provided Trend Micro with a proven platform to quickly deploy and easily manage comprehensive lead gernation microsites. Trend Micro also elected to take advantage of iPressroom's digital content management and new media marketing services (which include blog consulting and podcast production).

 

"The ability to get to market quickly with fresh, relevant content presented in a self-contained portal that would allow us to offer original podcasts, blogs and expert opinion to reach our customers online, drive leads, and support sales, emerged as a critical piece of our marketing strategy", said Martin Johnson, global marketing communications director at Trend Micro, Inc. "We selected iPressroom's package offering which included the technology, online marketing expertise and proven new media/podcast production services all-in-one because it gave us a fast, manageable way to start using new online marketing communications tactics to drive visibility and lead generation without reinventing the wheel."

 

Benefits: So far, there are five sites that each feature Trend Micro software security experts discussing trends, offering tips and providing advice on malicious cyber threats affecting business customers such as spyware, viruses, spam, hackers, phishing, bots and more. Visitors to the sites can comment on blog and podcast content, suggest new topics, or click to chat with a security associate. The sites also feature complete product demos and information, whitepapers available for download, customer surveys and polls, RSS feeds, and multi-language registration.

 

The first site to launch in August of 2006, Gateway Security: Defense in Depth, (http://defense.trendmicro.com/), which targeted customers in medium-sized business, has received over 8000 subscribers to its RSS feeds and referred visitors from more than 22 different search engines with over 1000 referrals from Google alone. The next|| To date, the sites that have been launched include:

All of the new sites are accessible globally and include options for localization (the display of foreign language content through UTF8 encoding) and contain features that include up-to-date information about the latest products, customer case studies, demos, blogs with comments accepted, podcasts with iTunes, MyYahoo! and RSS one-click subscription features, and more.

 

The iPressroom interactive marketing software application service -- which Trend Micro uses to manage all of the content on its Web site without the aid of technical personnel -- bundles all of the latest new media marketing tools into one online dashboard. The hosted software also accommodates flash and windows media player streaming media on-demand, electronic newsletters, surveys, lead capture, measurement, and multiple campaign landing pages with lead tracking and management all in one administrative interface.

 

"Our goal is to help brand marketers reach their audiences online through all of the most effective direct online communications mechanisms including dynamic web content management, micro-sites, podcasts, Blogs, RSS, mobile, and more," said Eric Schwartzman, iPressroom founder and president, a frequent speaker and educator on new media marketing, and strategies for integrating the web into marketing communications initiatives. "Years of experience reaching audiences online through interactive marketing campaigns and new media programs have provided us with insight into how marketing professionals can drive maximum exposure for their campaigns."