The day you launch your new website shouldn’t be the first day you promote it. And it can’t be the last day either. If you want your website to be the essential foundation of your digital marketing strategy, ensure that you promote it as an asset for your company and your customers.
Remember why you redesigned your website in the first place
You spent thousands of dollars as well as countless hours, emails, and phone calls on your new web design. During that time, what was it that kept you going? Think of the main gaps that held you back from your business growth and how you envisioned a new website solving them.
- What did your customers need from you that you weren’t providing?
- What was holding your company back from the next level of growth?
- What new features got you so excited, you couldn’t wait for launch day?
These are the pain points that first brought you to the table. And once the web design process was in full swing, these were the opportunities you discovered that you knew could transform your business for the better.
Since website design projects can take months to complete, it can be hard to remember why you got started in the first place. The initial excitement and vision give way to detailed decision-making and project management checklists. Still, it’s important to reconnect with your original purpose before you begin pre-launch marketing so that you can work with that inner drive for change and call your supporters on board with your vision.
Download Pre-Launch Marketing Guide
And once you have a tentative launch date, it’s time to start leveraging your new website and putting together an effective website launch announcement to get the word out. Here’s how.
Getting Customers to Your Website
Be proud of the website you’ve built. After all, it’s your company’s online home. Over time, it may be the initial entry point for future customers.
But, as proud as you are–as beautiful as your site is–you’re not the target audience. Let me obnoxiously restate that for emphasis–YOU. ARE NOT. THE. TARGET. AUDIENCE.
If you can embrace that notion, you’ll be much more effective at driving business opportunities online and off. In doing so, it’s critical to see the difference between these two invitations:
“Would you do me a favor and visit our new website?“
“Do yourself a favor and visit our new website.”
If you’ve done your homework during the website design strategy phase, you should have a clearly defined target audience by now. But, identifying who you want to reach is only part of the equation. It’s just as important to document your audience’s pain points and needs, as well as their buying process and the factors that influence their decision-making.
When you’re speaking your audience’s language, chances are that they will resonate with your message and start to trust your brand. In time, they will associate you with authority and see you as the right guide to help them solve their problems through your products or services. With an optimized and well-made website, you can prompt your leads to seek you out rather than having to beg them to do business with you.
What makes a good website?
Back to the why question we asked earlier: Why did you redesign your website? Was it for your customers?
Sure, you love it. Your mom loves it. It’s beautiful. It no longer feels outdated, stale, or old. Unfortunately, your potential customers are naturally self-interested and therefore only focused on their own needs. None of those reasons–part from pure curiosity–are compelling enough to expect them to visit your website.
In other words, why should potential customers care about your new website? More directly: What’s in it for them?
Remind yourself that your customers weren’t involved in the months-long web design process. This means you have an opportunity to provide a bit of behind-the-scenes transparency that tells them they matter–in fact, that they factored into your decision-making without ever knowing it.
A good website doesn’t talk about you but directly talks to your customer by showing how you understand their problem, ways that problem can be mitigated long-term, and how you are the right guide to solve it. By using storytelling and user-friendly interface, you immerse your leads in imagining what life would be like if they were on the other side of their pain.
Share the experience. Invent the hero.
In short, you aren’t the hero for launching a new website. Your customer will be the hero for visiting, learning, and finding a solution to a specific need. In promoting your website, paint a picture that shows exactly what your customer will experience as a result of visiting your site.
- Which new features were implemented to make your customer’s life easier?
- What can your customers learn by visiting various areas of your new website?
Ex: We know that choosing an event venue is a long and stressful process. So, we designed our new website to make site selection and vendor research simple and comprehensive for decision-makers who don’t have time to waste. Get started today by trying out our free search tool. You’ll save time and know you’ve made the best decision for your company.
It’s not just promoting your website. It’s promoting your entire business.
At the end of the day, any website is a destination. By promoting it, you’re inviting people to discover your value proposition and your differentiators, as well as your products and services.
PRO TIP: Don’t send everyone to your home page. The more intentionally you promote reasons to visit each section of your website, the better you’ll be able to analyze your messaging effectiveness and audience interest later. Highlight specific features of your new website or drive visitors directly to your photo gallery. Show off the great work you’ve done by sharing a link to your portfolio or use the opportunity to better introduce your team.
Ex: Have you ever wanted to put a face with our names? Here’s your chance to learn about each of our employees’ backgrounds and what makes each of us unique by visiting our “Meet the Team” section.
What website data should you measure?
When your website finally launches, you’ll want it to be ready to track meaningful data from the start. Here are a few of the most commonly tracked questions:
- How many users visited our website this month?
- How did we acquire our users? (How did our users find our website?)
- How much time do visitors usually spend on our website?
- What percentage of our website visitors are new vs. returning?
- Where do our website visitors come from?
- How many visitors sign up to receive our free material?
What should you expect when you launch your new website?
The truth is, it doesn’t matter if everyone or no one shows up on “launch day.”
A website launch, like a new product launch, gives you a reason to remind people what matters most to your company. (HINT: It shouldn’t be your products or services. It had better be “making our customers’ lives easier.”)
Your chances of reaching and compelling a large number of people to visit your website on the same day are fairly small. It’s like calling a thousand people on the same day and hoping they’re near their phone and/or they aren’t too busy to take your call. Even if you do, each person may not be in a position to make a purchase on that day. So, you’d better have a plan for following up another time.
So, use this newfound appreciation for the hard work that went into building your website to give customers valuable reasons to visit throughout the years. If you do, your website will attract the right visitors at the right time, producing quality leads and sales until it’s time to redesign your site again.
New website launch announcement ideas
Here are a few wonderful ideas to use when thinking about launching a new website promotion. What is that one aspect of the website you’re most proud of? Highlight that on all your promotional efforts and give people a reason to visit!
- Use email marketing to reach out to your mailing list about your new website. Highlight the changes you made and how these changes will benefit the customer’s journey, experience, and life.
- Use social media and advertise the main ”whys” behind your new website. What are your goals, and how can you bring your audience on your vision 2.0?
- Publish a press release that highlights your business vision for the next handful of years and why your new website is a reflection of those goals.
- Create a blog post that highlights the best features of your new website and share it on social media.
- Make sure you have a link to your website in your email signature. That way, anyone you interact with through email will be able to easily visit your website.
- Connect with other like-minded businesses in your area and join forces to help one another by getting in front of each others’ audiences.
- Write a value-rich guest blog in your industry niche and introduce your business to the platform’s audience.
Here are just a few more resources that can help ensure your new website launch is successful:
Promoting Your Website Before, During, and After Launch
Why Your Website Should Be ADA Compliant
Social Media is An Online Dating Profile for Your B2B Company
Recommended Marketing Software That Can Make Your Business Successful
We celebrate every new website launch at Idea Marketing Group
We celebrate every website we launch by banging a gong inside our office. Find some way to celebrate your success–and be sure to include your customers.
At our Chicago web design agency, we build, maintain, and market websites so that our clients can grow their businesses and excel over the competition. Contact us today for a free consultation about your needs!