A launch page for a new product or service

Publish before it is ready

A page needs time to be found by a search engine or an answer engine, and launch day is the worst possible day to start. Publishing weeks or months early means the page is already known when the announcement happens.

It also lets you collect interest. A list of people who asked to be told is the most valuable thing a pre-launch page produces, and it is worth more than any amount of announcement traffic.

Be clear that it is not available yet. A page that reads as a live product and then cannot be bought produces frustration, and the frustration attaches to the product rather than the page.

Claims about something unreleased

Everything you say still has to be true and supportable, and the fact that the product does not exist yet makes that harder rather than easier. Describing capabilities you hope to build is the common failure.

Describe what it does rather than what it will mean for the customer. Concrete description survives scrutiny, while outcome promises about something unbuilt rarely do.

Our page on honest claims covers the general rules. Nothing here is legal advice, and pre-launch marketing is watched closely in regulated categories.

What a launch page must say

The list below is what somebody deciding whether to care actually needs. A page missing the availability date or the price is a page that generates interest you cannot convert.

• What it is, in plain words, in the first lines
• Who it is for and who it is not for
• What it does, described concretely
• When it will be available
• What it will cost, or what determines the cost
• How to be told when it launches
• What is not included or not ready yet

Pricing before you are certain

If you do not know the price, say what determines it rather than saying nothing. Silence on price is the most common reason a pre-launch page collects interest that never converts.

Where you publish a figure, be clear whether it is fixed. Indicative pricing that later rises is a legitimate thing to state and a damaging thing to omit.

Our page on pricing claims covers the wording. An early price presented as final and then changed is the version that causes genuine problems.

Collecting interest properly

Ask for as little as possible. An email address and nothing else converts far better than a form asking about company size, budget and timeline before the product even exists.

Say what you will do with the details and when they will hear from you. Our page on email collection covers the consent side, which applies fully to a pre-launch list.

Then actually contact them on launch day. A list collected and never used is the most common waste in this entire pattern, and the people on it were your warmest audience.

Launch day

Convert the same page rather than building a new one. Change the availability line, add the purchase route, remove the interest form and keep the address exactly as it is.

That way everything the page accumulated while it was a launch page transfers straight into the permanent product page, which is the whole argument for publishing early.

Update every place that said coming soon on the same day. A site with three pages still announcing a future launch reads as abandoned within a week of launching.

If it slips or is cancelled

Say so on the page, with a new date if you have one. A launch page that quietly passes its own date is worse than one that says the date moved and explains why.

If the product is cancelled, say that too and redirect the address to the nearest alternative. Our page on redirects covers keeping the accumulated value pointing somewhere useful.

Contact the interest list either way. People who asked to be told deserve to be told, and the ones who hear nothing remember it far longer than the ones who hear bad news.