My Marketing Strategy
Nicolette Lemmon, President & Founder

This week I was sent the link to “I Do Dog Tricks”,  a microsite that is sponsored by Heartgard, a company that sells heartworm prevention medicine for dogs. It was so clever and fun to interact with the little 5-lb Yorkie that I tweeted it, emailed it to people who I know have dogs they adore, and showed my 12-year-old daughter who loved it!

"I Do Dog Tricks" Microsite

The microsite has a great domain, www.idodogtricks.com and three simple links, ‘Protect Me’, ‘Tell a Friend’, and ‘Heartgard.com’. The ‘Protect Me’ link was a demonstration of how to easily give the medicine and offered a link to getting a coupon (unfortunately it was expired). The ‘Tell a Friend’ allows the visitor to put in your name, email address and your friend’s email address. I have not heard back from the few friends that I thought would enjoy it, so I’m not sure if this feature is still functioning.

The ‘Heartgard.com’ link shows a corporation called Merial that has different names in three different countries. So, that was a little more confusing. However, when clicking “United States,” a nice site for Heartgard does come up with an offer for a coupon that expires in 2010!

The Lost Opportunity

In doing some quick Google research, thinking that it might be a recent promotion, I was shocked to find out that the site was started in 2006! So, that explained why when I went back to get the coupon from the ‘Protect Me’ link, it listed an expiration date of December 31, 2007!

The concept to promote heart worm prevention in dogs by using this microsite was well done. And, the star is Jilli, an adorable Yorkie who also has a great trainer/owner!

However, someone at Heartgard or Merial, must have abandoned the microsite to Internet archives without realizing the longevity of a creative idea.

While Jilli continues to entertain and enchant people like me seeing it for the first time in 2010, I was happy to send it around to a few more dog lovers and share the link on Twitter.

What do you have that is sitting on a website or microsite that you’ve abandoned for updates but consumers may still be accessing?

Looking for tips on creating microsites? Check out these blog posts:

Part 1: The Continuous Rise of the Micro-site
Part 2: The Essentials of a Good Microsite
Part 3: The Mini Website is Born