Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you will be able to set up your site in a couple of days. It is a process that takes weeks, months, if not years (in some cases) to have a fully squeaky clean and functional website that does not look like doo-doo. I made this mistake once and never again.
I did not think that I needed a Coming soon page or anything of the sorts because in my mind I should have had the site live within a week. I will not comment on how long it actually took to get everything set up, but you can safely say that it took some time.
While I was setting up and creating my site, I could have been receiving additional followers on social media and people subscribing on my newsletter or mailing list.
Why is it important to have a Coming soon page?
It is highly recommended that you create a Coming soon page rather than making your visitors watch your site getting fixed and changed up all the time.
You don’t want the visitors looking at a half-finished site which has little to no content on it because it will feel barren and empty. They will assume that there is no point in sticking around for the time being and that they will come back at a later date to see how it has progressed (spoiler alert, they will forget about it in most cases).
So, what are the various things that you can do with a Coming soon or under construction page that will benefit you way before you actually make your site go live?
6 BEST WAYS TO MARKET YOUR WEBSITE BEFORE LAUNCH WITH A COMING SOON PAGE
- Tell people who you are and what you are all about
So, first things first, you have to tell people who you are and what you are going to evolve around. This can be something that you can later on use in your About us section on your site.
It should be self-explanatory what you should write here. Well, it actually depends on the type of site that you are creating and setting up.
If it is a blog of some sorts, then tell people about your interests and what you are going to be writing about on your blog.
If you are going to be selling certain products, then explain the product, perhaps how and where it is manufactured and in which time span will it be shipped to your customers.
Then again, if you are going to offer a certain service like web development, or something else, then you can make a simple infographic that can show your visitors in a quick way what it is that you are offering.
- Show off some of your content
This goes hand in hand with the previous one. You can just post a couple of pictures showing off what you are about. You can Photoshop a couple of pictures that best represent what you are about.
You can add your content from social media that you have posted before. You can add pictures of the team working on the site or product and if you have a blog then you can show pictures of the writers who will be providing your visitors with future blogs and content.
Hell, you can even make a quick video showing off who you are and what you are about. If you are going to opt for a video approach, then I highly recommend that you make yourself an infographic video.
Those things are simply amazing at getting people’s attention and it will make your site and brand look a whole lot more professional!
- Set up your social media pages
This is quite the simple thing to do. When you are creating your Coming soon page, make sure that you allocate some space that will be occupied by social media icons leading to your social media sites.
This is great because it will not only redirect people to your social media sites, but it will also make them see what you are about.
They can then subscribe and follow you on various sites further boosting your popularity on those sites (and they also might share your content which will in turn generate even more followers and subscribers). Awesome, right?
- Set up a mailing list and/or newsletter
This might be a little complex depending on your knowledge of WordPress, but the idea here is that you offer your visitors the ability to fill out a small quick form that will subscribe them to your mailing list.
This is great because it will give you the ability to send them emails giving them a heads up when the site will go live, when you will be having special offers or just general news in regard to the site.
It is also good if you are writing blogs, so you can send them notification when you upload a new blog or when you have a new product coming to the market.
- Engage your new visitors
Give your new subscribers a coupon, or a sneak peek in the development of the site. It is a great way to engage your visitors and make them feel “special” (especially if they are the first to do something like that).
If you will be having a forum or something of the sorts on your site (or just the ability to login and create an account) give the first 10 or so subscribers a special character pin or a special picture frame (for their profile photo).
- Set up an online shop
If you have a product that is being manufactured or if you are offering something that you can give your visitors at this moment, then you should preemptively add an online store.
If there are people willing to purchase your product (or whatever you are offering to sell), then you should not make them wait for the full site to be set up and polished for them to do so.
Final Thoughts
If someone had told me all of these things before I started creating my site, then my life would have been a heck of a lot easier. Not to mention the number of additional visitors that I could have had by now not only on my site, but also on various social media sites.
I highly recommend that you consider implementing some of these things on your site because it will surely benefit you in many ways!