How To Build A Successful Holding Page While Your Website Is Being Built Share: Ballyhoo Date Published 27 January 2023 Categories Blog, Guide Reading Time 5-Minute Read Building a holding page to increase engagement before your website launches A holding page is one, singular page on your website that is live while your full website is being built or under construction. A holding page – or coming soon page – is a sample of your site so that your users can see who you are. It also serves to notify them that your website is being worked on and to encourage them to revisit the site at a later date. Why Are Holding Pages Important? Holding pages allow you to increase brand awareness, build trust, generate leads and boost your search engine visibility – before your website is even live. They are used when a website is being built, and can also be used if your website is ‘taken offline’ before a product launch. What To Include on a Holding Page Appropriate Design The first thing to consider when creating a holding page is its design. Your page should be consistent with your branding and should give users a feel for how your website will look when it’s launched. Using color gradients or an attractive background image can promote brand awareness as users will remember it and, therefore, your brand. Contact Information One of the main things that you should include on your holding page is your contact information. This should be shown prominently on the page to allow users to either stay in contact with you, or to gain more information. Your contact details should include: a contact form an email address any social media links. You should explain why your website is currently unavailable, and give them an incentive to return when your website is ready. Strong CTA Be sure to include a strong call-to-action (CTA) on your holding page to ensure that users know what to do next. Whether this means signing up for an email newsletter, following you on social media or pre-ordering a product, users need to know what they will get by taking action. Incentive Offer An email list is important for the success of your business, and your holding page can help you to grow your email list. When users land on your holding page, it is likely because they are interested in what you have to offer. Leverage this interest by encouraging them to sign up for your newsletter, to help convert users into leads. You can include an email sign-up form as a standard on your page, or, to maximize the number of sign-ups, you could offer users an incentive. Examples of incentives include: a discount code to be used when your website has been launched early bird access to the website free consultation or gifts. You may also want to offer a free download that users will find valuable – this could be a downloadable brand brochure for customers to find out more about you. For e-commerce sites, you may want to include a downloadable PDF product catalogue that users will find interesting and that will build excitement for your product. Users can then come back and purchase from your website once it has been launched. Once you’ve collected your users’ details and email addresses, you can reach out to them to build strong relationships through a series of emails. Europhoenix Holding Page designed by Ballyhoo SEO SEO will be something that you will focus on when your website is launched, but there’s no reason why you can’t start this process pre-launch. Optimizing your holding page for search engines such as Google will allow your content to be found by your target audience. To do this, include relevant keywords and phrases. Pre-sale Offer (Even if Customers Can’t Purchase Yet) Don’t miss out on potential customers. We’ve already spoken about pre-sale opportunities, and this is of high importance, especially if you’re an e-commerce business. Pre-selling a product is a great way to sell it before your website (or the product itself) is launched. Using your holding page in conjunction with online marketing campaigns and events is a great way to build brand visibility and interact with your target audience. Countdowns Adding countdowns to your website or product launch on your holding page is a great way for visitors to see progress and to help them engage with your brand, which helps to build brand relationships. Countdowns instill excitement, increasing the chances that your website’s visitors will return. Including a countdown on your holding page is also a great way to create a buzz around your brand, which will be helpful when your website is launched, especially by allowing you to increase customer leads and gain that all-important customer data. Want a sparkly new website for your business, to help you succeed online? Contact us now for a free consultation to see how we can create your website and bring your project to life. Whether you are building a brand new website or updating your existing one, putting a holding page in place will help you to build and maintain trust with users and website visitors, making it easier for you to build an audience.