About a year ago, a client came to us with a simple brief – “We need a slick microsite… and it has to live on SharePoint.”
For many people SharePoint still conjures up memories of a clunky grey intranet page and document libraries nobody can find anything in. The equivalent of a beige office carpet… functional, everywhere and far from exciting.
However, more and more clients are asking us to create polished, branded experiences on SharePoint rather than build something separate. Internal hubs, new initiatives and training programs need somewhere to live and impress audiences, while event landing pages need to survive being screenshotted in a deck.
Why SharePoint makes sense as a microsite platform
Increasingly that software solution is an existing platform, and it makes perfect sense. Most clients already pay for Microsoft 365, so SharePoint is sitting there waiting to earn its keep.
The security, single sign-on, permissions and governance are already in place. It also integrates naturally with Teams and everything else in the Microsoft ecosystem. So, why add another platform that keeps the IT team awake at night wondering where the new site’s data lives?
SharePoint wasn’t designed to be a public marketing platform and there’s still a limit to how far you can push it. Forget complex interactions, elaborate animations and bespoke layouts. The trick isn’t pretending SharePoint can do everything, but knowing where its strengths lie without promising clients the moon.
When done properly, most users won’t even realise they’re using SharePoint. We’ve built sites that feel modern, on-brand and enjoyable to use, by keeping two things in mind:
- Replace standard Microsoft styling with branded layouts to create your own visual identity.
- Design a microsite with navigation, page structure and content to support the user journey.
Better SharePoint design starts with better user experience
Clients haven’t suddenly fallen in love with SharePoint, they’ve simply realised it’s capable of a lot more than they gave it credit for.
Buying another platform isn’t always the smartest solution. It’s making better use of one that’s been there all along… probably located next to a document library called “Playbooks Final_v3_Updated_ReallyFinal”.