When launching your own eCommerce business, oftentimes there are certain pieces that need to fall in to place before you’re ready to launch your store and make it available to the world.

Sometimes, those pieces take longer to fall into place than you’d anticipated. In some of those cases, it could really help your store to build a ‘coming soon’ page. How so?

Marketing Before You Launch

One of the key things a ‘Coming Soon’ page accomplishes is it starts the marketing process before your store even launches!

Essentially, a ‘Coming Soon’ page acts as a way to tell any potential customers what you’re all about and what products you offer. It gives you a chance to grab their interest and email addresses, allowing you to spread your reach and build an audience more thoroughly before you even launch! It also opens the way for valuable feedback about your approach and marketing techniques, which plays hand-in-hand with one of the biggest strengths of a ‘Coming Soon’ page: they’re temporary!

You can set up your coming soon page using whatever method you think is best and format it according to the marketing strategy you want to go for. And if it doesn’t have the effect you were hoping for, you can change your plan (and your site) before launch!

A ‘Coming Soon’ page is great for businesses who are nervous about sinking money into marketing right away. You can build an audience and test the waters, and then when it’s time to launch your eCommerce business, you can do so to a host of followers already invested in you!

What Should My ‘Coming Soon’ Page Include?

No matter what marketing technique you decide to go with, there are several key features your ‘Coming Soon’ page should have and several vital questions it should answer.

What Is Coming Soon? When Is It Coming?

This is probably the most obvious thing you should put on your page. Not only does this give your customers some of the most vital information you can currently give them, but they get to give you some of the most vital information they can give: you can gauge demand for what you have to offer and continue to structure/restructure your marketing plan accordingly. This data this data can be invaluable to helping with the design of your website or even the development of your product as a whole!

Keep Your Audience Interested

While a ‘Coming Soon’ page can be very useful in letting your potential customers know you’re coming, your efforts will all be for nothing if you fail to keep their interest and attention focused on you. This is why you need to develop your ‘Coming Soon’ page to capture people’s attention and keep your audience hungry for your arrival!

What are some ways you can do that?

  • EMAIL LIST: Creating a email list is a great way to keep your customers interested by keeping them in the loop on the latest happenings with your business. This is a big step and can work wonders in developing a strong relationship with your clients early on!
  • EARLY BIRD PRICING & PRE-ORDER: Everyone loves a bargain, and everyone loves to feel special. Offering special early bird pricing is a great way to give your customers both and show them you appreciate them. Offering a pre-order service is another great way to hook your customers’ interest while also getting some business secured as early as you can!
  • CONTESTS: A little competition never hurt anybody. This is a great way to secure some customers early on. After all, who doesn’t like the thrill of winning free, often times exclusive stuff?
  • CONTROL: Your customers are the most valuable part of your business. So why not grant them a say in what you’re building? This method not only shows your clients you really care about them (thus establishing valuable trust), but also can work to your benefit in terms of marketing. After all, who better knows how to reach your target clientele than themselves?
  • COMMUNICATION: Communication is key to meeting your customers’ needs and wants. Your ‘Coming Soon’ page should offer an opportunity for you and your customers to communicate, whether via email, live chat, or another option. That way, you can gain all that valuable feedback and sculpt your experience to best suit your customers.

    • Make It Easily Shareable

    One of the best things you can do for your ‘Coming Soon’ page is to make it easily shareable on social media by adding the necessary buttons. People who’ll get excited by your product or business will want to share that with their friends and family, and allowing that functionality on your page will open the gates to let your name spread like wildfire!

    You can also encourage the sharing of your site by adding an incentive. For example, if you decide to have some sort of contest or raffle to hook/expand your pre-launch audience, you could make it so that each social media share gets an extra entry! Or, another popular method is to make it so that everyone whom the page is shared with gets something themselves via referral, be it an extra contest entry, a discount on a pre-order, or something else you can think of!

    Conclusion

    A ‘Coming Soon’ page can be a valuable asset in kickstarting your business before you even open, and can work wonders in building valuable customer trust and solidifying your brand.

    Not sure if a ‘Coming Soon’ page would be best for your business? The eCommerce Consulting experts at Gapstow Design Company specialize in assessing and providing unique, personally-tailored eCommerce solutions based on the individual needs of each client. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and see how we can help you build your eCommerce business to sustain maximum growth!

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