Congratulations on your new website! You've put in a lot of hard work, and it's finally time to show it off to the world. But before you do, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make sure your launch is a success. Now you may be wondering how to drive traffic to your website or if people will welcome them with open arms. 

Having a launch announcement strategy is a great way to publicize and get people talking about your new website launch. But amidst plenteous launch announcement ideas, it may be overwhelming to settle down with the best launch announcement ideas or come up with badass designs that will represent your brand. 

Well, in this article, we’ve explained different website announcement ideas, provided you with loads of free graphics you can use, and introduced you to a design tool that sounds too good to be true. So, without further ado, let’s get right into it. 

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Create a coming soon page that picks the curiosity of your audience

Nothing drives people’s curiosity more than suspense. One way to create buzz around your website is to create a coming soon page that displays the date and time for your website launch and includes an email for signing up. Want to pique people’s interest more? Include a countdown timer that dramatically counts down to the big day!

A coming soon page has many benefits you may not even know about. Apart from the fact that it raises awareness and creates buzz around your new website, it is also a way to grow your email list before your website finally launches, boost your SEO ranking and raise awareness about your website and the services you will be offering; here are some reasons we said so 

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Benefits of creating a coming soon page

• Grows your email list:

  Including email signup on your coming soon page allows visitors anticipating to drop their email address, allowing you to start building your email list even before your website launches. An advantage to doing this is that you can directly send promotional and brand emails to them and even notify them through their email when your website eventually launches. 

  Some visitors may be reluctant to drop their mail address, so it is a great idea to include a giveaway or some promotional post to encourage them to sign up. 

• Serves as an SEO boost:

  Creating a coming soon page is a good way to jumpstart your rankings on Google. Google is big on rankings and content optimization. You can include keywords, meta descriptions, meta tags, page titles, and content to enhance your coming soon page. Besides, there is nothing bad in using your coming soon page to start practicing your SEO strategies. So, ensure your coming soon page is fully optimized for SEO. 

• Raises Brand Awareness Before Your Website Launches:

  Creating a coming soon page before your website finally launches is a great way to raise awareness about your website and get your visitors sitting at the edge of their seats, waiting for the Launch day! Ensure you upload your images, logo, description, and promotional products, if you have one on your coming soon page. Also, per adventure someone discovers your business online, they will get the chance to land on your coming soon page instead of an empty page or password-protected page. 

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Create a promotional offer or host a giveaway

Yes, you’ve spent a lot of time and resources on your new website, and you may think that should be enough reason for people to be interested, but that is not always the case. Instead, people are more interested in websites with something to offer; hosting an exciting giveaway challenge or offering mouth-watering promotional products will keep visitors’ attention and spare their interests. Therefore, you should host a giveaway or offer a promotional product to keep visitors’ attention and spark their interest. 

However, a lot goes into creating a successful giveaway. You want your giveaway challenge to attract lots of traffic, create awareness and even turn some into loyal brand followers before your website launches. So, what are the tips for creating a converting and profiting giveaway challenge? 

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Tips for creating a successful giveaway challenge for your new website

• Start with a goal:

  I have seen countless website owners skip this step, which is detrimental to their giveaway challenge. The first question that should come to your mind is ‘What do I want to achieve with this giveaway challenge?’. Do you want to increase awareness? Do you want people to interact with your brand’s posts and share them? Do you want people to purchase from you? What are your goals? 

  When setting goals, ensure you set SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and time-bound goals. For example, if you want people to share and interact with your business’ posts. Your goals should include the number of views you want to achieve, the number of shares, the amount of traffic you want your website to get, and so much more. 

  Goals may differ based on your business needs, so it is okay to have different goals from those listed here, but most importantly, make sure your goals are SMART. 

• Know your target audience:

  Don’t start any giveaway contest if you’ve not defined who your target audience it. I have seen giveaways that didn’t produce enough positive results as expected because there was no clear definition of the target audience. Once you know your target audience, you will be able to determine the giveaway method that will be suitable and the giveaway gifts that will spark their interest. 

• Determine the type of promotion you want to offer:

  Once you’ve set your goals, it will give you pointers on the type of giveaway that will fit your website’s target audience. Anyway, you’ve got to determine the type of promotion you opt for. 

Types of giveaways  

• Like & Comment:

  This is pretty straightforward to keep track of. All your contestants need to do is to like a particular post and comment. The comment may be sharing a good/bad experience they had with a product or service, sharing their favorite X movie Hollywood quote, or any other comment that will allow you to judge and choose a deserving winner. This giveaway is beneficial if you have so many views but little engagement. It will work great for Instagram posts. 

• Tag a friend:

  Another compelling giveaway idea is the tag a friend challenge, where your contestants tag two or three people to qualify for your giveaway prize. This is an excellent idea for brands with few followers and looking to increase their followers. Also, it will work great for Instagram in-feed.

• User-generated Content/Trivia:

  You can ask your followers to post photos of them with your products or post something concerning your product. Another way to do this is to allow your followers to display their talent and skills, maybe to sing or answer a trivia question (only if it is similar to the product you are offering) 

• Hashtag Contest:

  Similar to user-generated content, followers are asked to share a post to their page under a specific hashtag. Hashtags are a great way to work into the Instagram algorithm, create a specific category and brand awareness, and get across to your target audience. A hashtag contest is easy to track and if done well, we drive traffic back to your business page. However, using too many hashtags may get you confused, so try to make use of a few hashtags. Also, when choosing hashtags, make sure it is similar to the hashtags your target audience are looking for

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Giveaway prices 

There is no one-way approach to selecting your giveaway prices. Your giveaway prices can be anything, BUT they must be related to your services/products. People love giveaways and are always interested in winning a giveaway price, even if they don’t care about your services. They will follow you for the contest, and once the giveaway challenge is over, they may unfollow you.

 So, ensure you are offering a giveaway prize that your business target audience or prospect clients will be interested in. 

Also, when considering your giveaway price, make sure it is a product/service that will raise the interest of your audience and will also be budget-friendly to you. For example, offering an irresistible free course on social media marketing as a social marketing agency is a great idea. Or offering the latest iPhone if you are a gadget and electronic store will get people trooping to your page and likely becoming reoccurring customers. 

So, ensure that your giveaway price is valuable to your target audience and is budget-friendly. If you can’t afford a giveaway price, don’t offer it. Find something that is valuable and also budget-friendly for your giveaway contest. For example, if you sell courses, offering one of your courses for free will cost you nothing because you’ve already created it, and you are just sharing the access with one person. 

Here are some giveaway price ideas you can emulate 

• Courses:

  In case your business is content-driven, offering one of the valuable courses you will be launching soon, or you’ve created in the past is a great idea

• Free audit:

  This is helpful for consultation agencies. Let’s say you are an SEO Expert who helps small and medium businesses rank their websites,  telling your giveaway contestants that they will get a free SEO audit for their poor-performing website is an attractive giveaway price.

• Gift cards:

  Particularly helpful for eCommerce stores. 

• Physical products

  (Apple products do the magic): Apple products have been known to be one of the most sought-after giveaway prices. 

• Digital products etc. 

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Create Content:

The next important thing for your giveaway is compelling copy and breathtaking visuals! Your content should be clear and straight to the point. Mention the rules of the challenge and the caveat necessary to qualify for the challenge. Some rules can be 

• Location-bound

• Age Requirement 

Lastly, creating great visuals is non-negotiable. People must be able to fall in love with your giveaway contest at first glance. Your photo should do the talking even before they read the caption. So, spend time creating great visuals. 

Fortunately, I have compiled great graphics examples that you can use for your giveaway contest. Not just that, I also mentioned a design tool that requires no web design experience to create incredible designs. 

Bonus tips

• Keep the rules simple:

  Everyone gets discouraged if a particular process is frustrating and too complicated for a giveaway contest. Ensure that your giveaway is easy to participate in. Don’t set too many rules, use a simple participation method and stick with understandable English. 

• Message those who participated in your contests but didn’t win:

  Don’t forget to follow up on people that participated in your contest. Remember, these people are your target audience and prospect clients. Message 10 to 20 people that participated in your contest, simply thanking them for participating. You can take it a step further by offering them a discounted price for your services or encouraging them to stay updated. 

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Website Launch Giveaway Graphics 

Canva is a great design tool that allows you to create stunning designs without any web design knowledge. It comes with pre-made templates, fonts, colors, and tools that help you in your design journey. I used canvas to create these giveaway graphics, and you too can!. 

Enjoy the 30 days free trial that gives you limitless access to the Canva library and allows you to create stunning graphics. 

Send out an email to your email list.

Now that you’ve successfully launched your website, that’s not all. You still need to build your customer base, and one way to do that is to use the email you got during the coming soon landing page and the giveaway contest. 

So, ensure you send an email to notify them when your website finally launches. Not just one email, but a sequence of emails. Update them regularly with valuable information about your products and services. One way to ensure that you stay faithful to your email is to devise an email marketing strategy and schedule.  

Here is some inspiration for your email marketing strategy 

• Newsletter:

  New website owners start bombarding their new email subscribers with product updates without providing valuable content. You’ve got to understand that your email subscribers are still new, and you have to earn their trust by providing valuable information related to your services that will help them. 

  Tips

  When sending a newsletter, ensure you remain consistent to build your brand’s personality and earn their trust 

  Have a relatable and friendly tone

• Discounted sales Notice:

  Here is a thing for my store owners in the house. People are always trying to save money. Well, help them save some while purchasing your product. Do not hesitate to let your email subscribers know that you offer discounts, whether it is holiday discounts, special bonuses, gift cards, or the like. 

• Birthday Emails:

  Sending this may require additional information, like their date of birth. But if you have these details with you, ensure that you celebrate their big day with them. It will make your customers feel loved and stay more committed to you.  

• Welcome Emails:

  Someone created an account on your website? Or purchased their first product? Sending welcome emails to new members or buyers is another thing that visitors will appreciate, which makes it a good idea for your email strategy.

Collaborate with businesses that have similar target audiences but different products: 

Never underestimate the power of leverage. Many businesses are not offering the same product like yours, but have a similar target audience. For example, let’s say you are a professional photographer; you can partner with a photoshoot studio or an event planner for giveaways, discounted services, and the likes. Whatever will drive positive awareness to your website, do not hesitate to do them. So, I suggest you collaborate with similar businesses once in a while to increase your followership and customer base. 

Post on Social Media

We all know how important social media is to any business. If you don’t, let me quickly highlight some statistics for you

• More than 55% learn about new brands on Social Media 

• 78% of consumers are willing to buy from a brand after having a positive social media experience with their page 

• 83% use Instagram to discover new products 

We don’t want to go on and on because I believe you’ve gotten the point. Consistently post your launching visuals on Social Media to create more awareness. And when you finally launch, make sure you develop a consistent social media strategy that puts your brand out there, allows followers to interact with you, and finally gets them to buy your products or services. Don’t be afraid to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and every other social media app that will grow your business. 

Here are some tips to pay attention to when developing your social media strategy 

Define your goals:  

Everything starts with a vision. Ensure your goals are specific and realistic enough to direct your path. For example, do you want to create brand awareness? Are you looking to increase traffic to your website? Thinking of getting more clients/buyers? Your goals have a significant factor to play in your content strategy. 

Know your target audience:

Knowing your target audience will help determine the approach. If your ideal clients are busy executives, then you know they don’t have hours to scroll through social media, so your posts must be precise and solve a pain point.

Create engaging posts:

Don’t create posts that inform; create posts that inform and engage at the same time. Followers love brands that they connect with, and one way to connect with your followers is to create content that they can interact with. It can be a random Question and Answer post, short tips on your services, or a funny meme that will get them commenting. 

Here are some of the best Canva templates for different businesses  that you can purchase to start your social media strategy business

Consider running Ads

Business owners create ads to target specific audiences willing to purchase from you and follow your website. Creating Ads is a great way to leverage Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter’s database. Ads allow your posts to reach the right audience, saving you time and energy. For example, suppose you want to drive more traffic and awareness to your website. You can leverage Ads for your website launch and future posts. 

Keep promoting

Don’t mention your launch once, and keep quiet about it. Make sure you consistently post it on your Instagram stories, field, and every of your other social media account. We often think that if you already mention our upcoming website launch, new product, or upcoming events, everyone will automatically remember it, but in reality, we are all busy. Many of your followers will miss it if you only mention it once. Let them know your new website is live, and ask if they visit and enjoy it. Ask them to share their experience with their friends and invite their loved ones to enjoy the same experience. 

Website launch announcement Ideas

As we all know, a website launch is a very big deal. You want to make sure that your launch announcement draws plenty of eyes and attention to your website. There are different launch announcement ideas that have been proven and tested. Some of these ideas are; creating a coming soon launch page that informs visitors on when and how the website will be launched. Like we said, including an email signup form and a countdown timer will spice up the whole process. Secondly, organizing a giveaway is an effective launch announcement idea. It will get people talking about your brand and increase your brand awareness. However, make sure you stick with attractive giveaway practices, keep the process simple, and message those who participated in your contest but didn’t win to ensure they stay updated on your services and become reoccurring customers.