A sizable number of eCommerce brands struggle with creating coming soon pages that set the right expectations and communicate valuable experiences. As a result, the outcome is sub-par that fails to garner response leading to a botched campaign.
In today’s post, we will be exploring the best practices that your pre-launch page needs backed by real examples.
What is a Coming Soon page/Pre-launch page?
A coming soon page is a temporary page designed to educate customers about an upcoming product launch. It mentions the details and other product information to pique the interest of the users. The end goal is to build anticipation and effect conversions.
Other elements include early access or pre-order opportunity for customers to get the product at a lesser price before the official launch.
11 Crucial Elements To Power Up Your Coming Soon Page
1. Tell what’s in it for your customers
A Coming Soon page must specify the benefits of availing the offer. Outline what customers will get, and the experiences they will undergo. Mention when the product will be launched.
Post Familiar has created a pre-launch page for Wine Club.
The coming soon page specifies that members get to enjoy club perks and shipments every Spring and Fall. With collaborations with winemakers, a sense of exclusivity comes into play.
Here’s how you can convey value, start by:
a) Visualizing experiences
Narrate the experience that is exclusive to members. In the example above, Wine Club offers bottles of each collaboration, member exclusive wines, first access to new releases, and private tastings.
This creates mental images in the minds of the customers nudging them to make decisions.
b) Using Before After Bridge
To educate the customers about your forthcoming product, tell the problem(Before), the situation when it's solved(After), and how your product can make it happen(Bridge).
For instance, a brand selling gut supplements can use the Before After Bridge in the copy as follows.
- Before—Leaky gut keeping you in the loo. Even worse! When there’s no restroom.
- After—Imagine if your gut problems were solved. Less loo, more fun.
- Bridge—Xxxx contains herbs and vitamins to improve gut lining and digestive problems.
2. Leverage Curiosity Gap
Using this technique led to a 927% increase in CTR!
The Curiosity Gap is the space between the information revealed(what we know) and the information that’s withheld(what we don’t know).
Watertex creates the curiosity gap by stating non-absorbent swimwear on its coming soon landing page.
With water repellent and towels dry, customers are drawn to know more about the product. The mystery element triggers a subconscious urge to know.
To utilize Curiosity Gap in your coming soon web page:
a) Show evidence
Customers shouldn’t get the feeling of clickbait, it's important to demonstrate your upcoming product works. The brand in question features a video demonstrating the product is indeed water-repellant.
b) Give exclusive access
For a product yet to be launched, customers might still be on the fence. Include an email opt-in telling them that they would be the first to receive updates. This gives a feeling of exclusivity.
3. Evoke the right emotions
Emotional marketing refers to the use of persuasive messages targeting human emotions to evoke a response. It includes happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and concern.
Little & Lively in its pre-order page addresses the child’s well-being to draw the attention of the parents.
The entire description features the child as the protagonist. It uses the cause-and-effect principle to elicit the interest of the parents.
To invoke the right emotions:
a) Use powerful visuals
90% of information processed by the brain is visual. Using the right images that resonate with the audience helps have a lasting effect. For example, a happy dog on the website of a pet food brand.
b) Incorporate Sensory Imagery
Sensory imagery is the use of descriptive language to create mental images. The copy must evoke one of the five senses—sight, taste, touch, smell, and sound.
Use adjectives to describe the main elements to help the reader visualize the benefits of the product.
4. Give a sneak peek of the new product
Giving customers a sneak peek helps them decide if it's worth their time. Bird Pickleball features the story behind the creation of their new paddle on their coming soon landing page.
With sufficient information about the build and construction, the pre-order page brings forth the principle of Bounded Rationality. According to this cognitive bias, customers make decisions based on the limited information available. The decision might be rational but doesn't account for all the factors.
To make your sneak peek alluring:
a) Limit availability
Selling fewer quantities triggers a sense of urgency to act due to scarcity. Pickleball is selling only 500 of its limited edition paddles. This increases the perceived value of the product due to its exclusivity.
b) Bring in authority
People are inclined to follow the advice of legitimate and credible experts. Feature doctors, designers, and other experts whose backing can persuade customers.
5. Highlight the key benefit of the product
For a high-consideration product, the benefit determines the perceived value for the customers. Callaway Golf in its coming soon web page sells the benefit to reduce the problem of slicing in golf.
This determines whether a customer is ready to purchase the product considering pricing and other factors.
To sell the benefit, try:
a) PAS framework
Consider these things when writing—
- Problem: What’s the pain point? What does your target audience search for online?
- Agitation: Explain how a problem can affect them. Empathize with them.
- Solution: Tell how your solution can solve their problem. The approach, science, and free trial/return policy to persuade.
b) Let customers do the talking
70% of customers trust recommendations from strangers. Display the customer testimonials of your earlier products to build trust and credibility. The reviews must underline what makes them stick to this brand and the things they like the most.
6. Limit early bird pricing
Early Bird Pricing refers to a discounted rate to the first specified number of customers during a pre-launch event. It gives out the feeling of VIP access in terms of pricing.
Tobacco Motorwear offers early bird pricing for the first 25 orders on its pre-launch page.
This works because of the anchoring bias. As per this principle, customers are wired to base their decisions on the first piece of information they witness. Notice the key message is larger compared to the rest of other text on the pre-launch page.
When offering early bird pricing, show:
a) Early Bird and Regular prices
Use price anchoring for customers to better evaluate the offer. Mention the regular price and the early bird price to increase the perceived value of the product.
b) Dollar-off vs percentage discount
As per the Rule of 100 by Jonah Berger, a percentage discount works better for products priced under $100. While a dollar-off discount works better for products priced above $100.
This is due to the Framing Principle. Customers perceive things differently depending on how it's presented. For instance, 40% off on $90 indicates greater value as opposed to $36. While a high-consideration product requires customers to make a rational decision when it comes to pricing, hence a dollar-off works for over $100.
7. Enforce real urgency by reminding the last date
When the user lands on your pre-order landing page, the user must have a takeaway. Including the last date for the pre-order access enforces real urgency.
April Skin features the last date on its website coming soon page.
This example works because of Attentional Bias. As per this cognitive bias, customers tend to focus on emotional triggers more, when there are other things involved in decision making.
To make the last date binding:
a) Include a countdown timer
A countdown timer increases real urgency by the minute. Place the countdown timer on your above-the-fold banner. Ideally, it should be on the right side of the screen since it aligns with the natural eye-viewing pattern.
b) Add a ‘real time’ nudge
Adding the number of customers viewing the product triggers an intuitive urge to purchase. Ecoflow displays the number of customers interested in the product on its product page, which was available for pre-orders earlier.
8. Build the hype by launching in series
Another practice you can include in your pre-launch page is the psychology of anticipation. To put this practice, announce your product launch in installments or series. For instance, a protein supplement brand can release a product as a part of a special series.
This brings forth Anticipation Marketing—building brand awareness to create visibility and traction with the help of pre-orders, product launches, early access, and early bird pricing.
Here’s how you can build the hype in days using your coming soon template page:
a) Arouse curiosity
Use questions in your copy, exclamations, contractions, and rhetoric in your copy. Give tiny details about the product, the problem it can solve, and how the solution is awesome.
b) Oversee cadence
Cadence refers to the timing and frequency of the message. Update your coming soon page details regularly such as time remaining for the sale, number of units sold, and number of memberships left. Ensure you keep the emails to a minimum.
c) Tailor content
The content must hook the customers. It must contain:
- What is the product?
- FAQs
- The technical details
- What does the offer cover?
- How is this unlike other products?
- A video demo
d) Advocate via Community
Show your community initiatives like cause marketing, sustainability, and environment preservation. Narrate the change you have made and your future goals. 86% of Americans are looking to buy from purpose-driven brands.
9. Tell a personal story to captivate your audience
You don’t always need to lead by a hard-sell narrative. To make the coming soon landing page persuasive, use your personal experience to convey the idea behind the forthcoming product. Customers relate to personal experiences that evoke empathy.
Your personal beliefs must align with your brand ethos and must be put into action. Start with:
a) Brand values
Demonstrate what keeps you going and the passion behind creating the products. The motive behind each design and how customer experience is the core of all product development. Your brand values help in influencing a positive brand perception while building a deeper connection with your customers.
Here’s one of the coming soon landing examples from Brooks Running to give you a sense of direction.
b) Demonstrate cause marketing
87% of customers buy from brands if there’s a mutual match when it comes to causes. Featuring the same on your pre-launch page will lead to brand loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendation, and humanize your brand.
Ivory Ella displays its cause towards elephant conservation and protection.
10. Bring out flattery
People are easily convinced when a generalized description applicable to the general public seems privy to them. This is known as the Barnum Effect.
Use these tips to invoke the Barnum Effect:
a) Identify a problem unique to your demography
Identifying a common problem faced by your target audience is an emotional trigger. For instance, What’s causing your back & foot pain?
- Dull aches
- Stabbing pain
- Shooting sensations
These are highly likely to elicit the Barnum Effect since 80% of Americans will experience back pain at some point in their life.
b) Leverage statistics
Depending on how it's presented, statistics can have a striking effect on the subconscious mind. It makes customers question themselves, contemplate, and make purchase decisions.
11. Break the ice with craftsmanship
Craftsmanship is the attention to detail in creating a product par excellence. It involves knowing the nuances of the craft. Plus, mastery that exceeds beyond design. It reflects a passion for creating long lasting and incredible products.
Here’s one of the best coming soon landing page examples from Graphene-X that leverages craftsmanship.
By specifying graphene, the angle of premium price is justified. All the more, with its promise of enduring harsh terrain, it resonates with the target audience.
To use craftsmanship as a persuasive tactic:
a) Bring in the intellectuals
Show the people behind the product, their expertise, laurels, achievements, and experience to customers. This induces the principle of authority—people follow the advice of high-authority individuals.
Titleist features its authority figure on its website landing page to convince users.
b) Regulatory certifications
Every product has an iron-clad requirement to be met. It could be safety, durability, sustainability, etc. Featuring a certification from a third-party regulatory body sends trust signals to customers. This alone is proof that your craftsmanship lives up to standards.
Airnoggin features its 5-star rating awarded by Virginia Tech Helmet, an injury Biomechanics laboratory.
Coming Soon Page 101
1. What should be on a coming soon page?
A coming soon page must contain:
- A Value proposition
- The gist of the upcoming product in bulleted points
- Typography that includes font type and size
- Visual cues directing the user to take action
- FAQs to address the risk aversion
- Hero Image that grabs the attention of the users
- Incentives for the user
- User reviews over the years
In the end, your coming soon page must be optimized for user experience—the customer must be able to complete the goal without interference.
2. What is a coming soon page called?
A coming soon page, otherwise known as pre-launch page, is a landing page for an upcoming product. It directs users to the benefits, purpose, and problems nudging users to sign up for a pre-order, early access, or early bird pricing.
3. How do I create a pre-launch page?
If you’re using Shopify, we recommend creating a pre-launch page by publishing a different version of your current theme. This gives you more functionality over password protected pages.
- Go to Online store>Themes and click Current Theme
- Click the Actions dropdown and duplicate your current theme
- Head to Theme library>Actions and click Publish
- You can customize your coming soon page from the Theme library with access to the theme editor and can edit the Homepage sections.
4. What is the difference between a landing page and a coming soon page?
With respect to eCommerce, a coming soon page is a temporary landing page created for an upcoming product launch, pre-order, early access, or early bird pricing. Once the product is launched, the coming soon page will be redirected to the homepage.
Whereas, a landing page is designed to attract sign-ups and purchases, for an existing product. This is likely to stay longer as opposed to the coming soon page.
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