Just like brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants need to drum up interest before they open with snazzy signage, online retailers also need to generate some hype before they launch.
That’s where—in the world of online retail—a Coming Soon page is super important. It’s a way to pull shoppers in and grab their attention before officially commencing business.
I’ve compiled a few reasons why you should have a knock-out Coming Soon page for your online store. But first, let’s define.
What is a Coming Soon page?
First, let’s be clear about what counts—and what doesn’t—as a Coming Soon page.
What it is not: An “Under Construction” page or (certainly not) any type of “Error” page.
What it is: A temporary home page heralding the imminent arrival of your amazing website and slate of products.
It’s essentially a splash page for marketing yourself before the curtain parts. There is no header or footer allowing visitors to navigate around as they would on a regular website.
Just one simple, beautiful page.
Most importantly, this page should include a date for when the live site is launching as well as any other information that can help build anticipation up until that time.
Creating hype ahead of launch
One of the big reasons for creating a top-notch Coming Soon page is that it can help to build buzz before your offering goes live.
It can plant an important seed in the mind of your target audience. You can even instill a sense of urgency with the simple addition of a countdown timer.
With the right design and information, prospective customers will be keen to find out more, hopefully returning to your store once it’s fully operational.
What’s more, pre-launch sites can be used to test whether there is a significant enough customer base for your product or service.
By tracking visitor numbers on the page, you can be in a better position to gauge actual interest online and where it’s coming from.
Make sure you have all relevant tracking pixels and a simple form to enable this.
Boosting search engine optimization
SEO is another big reason to get a Coming Soon page up well ahead of time.
All companies with online footprints want to be up the top of Google searches. But, that can be tough given how strict Google is when it comes to indexing and ranking.
With that in mind, if you want to rank high—or at all—a Coming Soon page will come in handy. Even if not fully functional, your limited website will get indexed by Google.
The relevant keywords used on that page will help your brand start to rank, at least for the name. This can give you a headstart on climbing the Google ranks.
Search engines give older, more established, domains more authority. Your new domain has to start from scratch to gain trust on the search engines. This takes time.
So, to cut down on some of your wait, get your preliminary site (in the form of a Coming Soon page) live as soon as you can.
Site crawling robots don’t mind that there is a ‘we are launching soon’ message on the page. They only care about what the site is providing the users.
Their user experience on the page, as well as the content and keywords, will drive search engines to rank the site for relevant queries.
Lead generation
It might not be super obvious at first, but a Coming Soon page can also be a great way to source potential customers before you’ve even launched.
For instance, think about including an email subscription form with a strong CTA (call to action) so you can start to build a network of potential customers.
Additionally, you should link to your social media accounts like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, to help you cross-promote and let more people know about your business.
You can view this pre-launch landing page as a helpful digital marketing tool to build a powerful marketing database of contact information for reaching out to potential customers once you are ready.
Brand identity and reputation
An eye-catching Coming Soon page can also add value in terms of your brand identity. You’ll want to understand your identity before you create this page.
Don’t let it look half-baked with missing elements, poor design, and typos. It needs to be consistent with the future feel of your brand.
Instead, use it as an opportunity to nail your design, color palette, and logos to showcase your soon-to-be-revealed branding scheme.
Don’t overcomplicate
This can all sound pretty complicated and time-consuming.
But remember that what you’re doing with your pre-launch page is informing visitors about what your website and business will be all about and how it will benefit them.
To this end, here are the basics that you want to get right:
- Use creative and exciting copy. Words are powerful.
- Give visitors a compelling vision of what’s coming. Dazzle their imaginations.
- Introduce your brand as a personality. Make them want to talk again.
- Showcase imagery that is reflective of the coming offering.
- Include a strong call to action to engage prospective customers from day one.
- Use socials to create early engagement and easy communication.
Overall, your Coming Soon page can be fairly simple.
A powerful message, the going live date, and a way to keep engaged will all do the trick of pre-marketing your new and shiny thing to the world.
