According to web credibility research conducted by Stanford University, 75% of consumers admit to making judgments on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design. With so much importance placed on websites, every aspect of the design, launch, and promotion must be strategic and well thought out. Though there is a lot to consider, in this article, we will focus on how to promote a new website.
How to Promote a New Website
Unveiling a new website to the public can feel like placing a dish in front of Gordon Ramsey inside Hell’s Kitchen. Today’s consumers are honest and sometimes abrasive. They do their research and expect interactive websites with consistent innovations in efficiency and security. But budgeting for a fast, informative, and aesthetically pleasing website is only half the battle. In the era of eCommerce, if a company cannot be found online, does it even exist? Ask this question to any conscious consumer today and the answer would probably be no. Whether their final purchase is made in the store or online, 81% of shoppers conduct online research before purchasing a product. In addition to the 24/7 sales opportunity, a company’s website will offer a place for tracking progress, answering inquiries, and planning ahead. These details support the idea that a company’s website is one of its most visible and valuable assets. Even with all of its amazing potential, this great tool will only work if it is being used by both company and the consumer.
After every search, Google will display the number of relevant results found, as well as the time it took to filter through all of them. In a fraction of a second, searching the word ‘website’ alone prompts 25,270,000,000 results. With only 16 companies on the first page of results, and six of them being search engine marketing (SEM) companies, it’s easy to feel deflated. Knowing that few people visit the second page of Google’s search results, the possibility of being seen in this vast ocean of websites can seem slim to none.
Here at Flyrise, we are well aware of the current SEO landscape, but there is a method to the marketing madness and we are here to help. With years of experience, we can create a comprehensive promotional plan for your company’s new website. Our digital marketing packages can include multiple levels of pre and post-launch analytics, SEO, social media content, email blasts, blog posts, and more. If you like getting your hands dirty, follow along to get the most up-to-date information on promoting your new website! If you want to ensure that your new website reaches its maximum potential, book a call with us and we’ll show you the way!
Website Marketing Strategies
Doing SEO for New Websites
Some of the most important pieces of the promotion plan belong to search engine optimization or SEO. The purpose of SEO is to create organic traffic to a website from search engine results. SEO can take a little time to mature but websites are able to climb the search results faster when the verbiage on their webpage coincides with the phrases consumers are actually searching for. The more times Google is able to attribute information to your page, the better. New websites have no SEO momentum to ride to the top of the search results, which means there is a lot of growth to be made in a small amount of time. Borrowing some of the momentum made by currently successful businesses, new companies should research popular keywords and phrases that are relevant to their industry, product, or service. This research process includes words that may present themselves in the headings, meta descriptions, and/or tags. One of the most beneficial tools for that is Page Optimizer Pro. Figuring out what customers are searching for will allow budding businesses to create advantageous copy for their web pages. In addition to currently popular searches, the marketing and development teams should brainstorm specific words that will allow their company to stand out and lead shoppers to their site alone.
How to Promote a New Website with Social Media
One of the fastest ways to gain momentum on launch day is to ramp up conversations about the new website beforehand on social media platforms. If utilized correctly, each platform can play a major role in the overall image of the company. Boosting a new website launch with social media is the easiest route of promotion due to the fact that it is free and the followers of any entity already support them, or at the very least, are interested in them. Social media platforms also give a great amount of creative freedom to the marketing team. From uploading daily stories to live feeds to vlogs and pictures, the sky’s the limit for generating social media content and consumer traffic.
The most important part of social media is the ‘social’ part. It can take only one positive interaction to win the loyalty of a customer, but it can be lost just as fast. Since the pandemic, consumers have had to manipulate their current shopping habits. Due to availability and location, shoppers have been trying new items and apparently loving it. Almost 40% of American consumers are choosing to stay loyal to an unfamiliar brand they’ve recently found rather than a past family staple. Companies that are trying to gain followers should include social engagement opportunities like giveaways, animated videos, special offers, and preorders. The marketing team should research what types of posts are receiving the most interaction on which platforms and enhance the production of that type of content for said platform.
Advertising Your New Website with Google Ads or Facebook Ads
In the infancy stages, a website can gain and lose momentum with the public quickly. Advertising your new website with Google Ads or Facebook Ads can bolster the impact your website has in the beginning. This approach to promoting a website is called search engine marketing, or SEM. In layman’s terms, SEM uses paid ads in search engine results to generate more traffic to a website by being in the most opportune places on the results webpage. Starting out, this method may seem like more of an expense rather than an investment, but as the website gains attention from the public, and Google, the need for paid ads will diminish. The momentum built in this time will hopefully carry them forward further into their marketing campaigns. One of the best ways to monopolize this opportunity is to have the Google Ads link to a landing page. A landing page is any page on your website that is primarily used to turn visitors into leads. These pages have no navigational links and prompt visitors for information like their email address or phone number within seconds of the page loading.
5 Mistakes to Avoid When You Introduce a New Website
1. Failing to plan to fail
No one wants to start a new entrepreneurial venture focusing on failure but accepting the possibility of potential failure allows business owners to prepare for roadblocks in the future. Since we cannot foresee the circumstances in which these failures may arise, it is best to delineate solutions preemptively. Rather than reacting to a situation as it’s stumbled upon, this process gives leaders a chance to look at problems logically before emotions are stirred. Most website launches do go smoothly, so playing devil’s advocate shouldn’t be the main goal of the marketing meetings. One small example of good preparation for a bad situation would be allowing some less pressing parts of a new website to run offline while the most important active processes can be streamlined without chaos.
2. Using offline verbiage used online
There are some companies who have created their wealth 100% online but many businesses today still start out utilizing an in-person sales pitch before moving to a digital platform. There is nothing wrong with the latter approach but company leaders must recognize the differences between the in-person and the online sales approach. When an in-person salesman is approaching a potential customer many different aspects of that individual can be identified within seconds: age, gender, location, style, health, hobbies. The advantage of in-person sales is that the salesman can create sales opportunities based around these attributes, making it easier for the customer to feel as if the product or service was made just for them. This approach is not necessarily applicable to online sales. Companies cannot tailor the copy of their web pages to each individual customer. The copy on each webpage can be manipulated to reach some very specific groups of people, but this may deter more customers than it does welcome them. The best way to avoid this mistake would be to address your customers as a community of like-minded people who have the same core values. Businesses should find the best voice to speak to their target audience while avoiding sales pitches for everyone.
3. Unveiling a new website before the big event
Promoting a new website can be hard if there is no buzz around the company it’s for. To raise awareness of their company and new website, some companies make the mistake of unveiling their new website at the same time as, or in relevance to, a big event. Although this may seem like a great way to rally consumers in support of your movement, it’s not a great idea to attract eyes to an incomplete, unproven product. This inadvertently creates a huge opportunity for bad first impressions. Bad impressions ultimately boil down to the customer’s opinion of their interaction with said company. These impressions can come from something as small as a misspelled word on the home page or something as big as an ‘About Us’ link leading to an error page. Although 46% of consumers have admitted to staying loyal to some companies after a bad situation, 97% have admitted to changing their buying decisions in the future. Recognizing this fact, customer experience should be the focal point of all marketing campaigns. Ensuring a great customer experience with a tried and proven product is the most surefire way to gain happy, loyal customers.
4. Focusing on SEO/Google over sales/customers
SEO is extremely important to increase organic traffic to a website, but if the customers are not purchasing anything once they land on the homepage the budget set aside for copy customization is being wasted. When this type of situation occurs it can be due to the fact that the focus has been more on Google’s opinion rather than their customers. Just because Google places a webpage at top of the list it does not mean that what they are providing is what that researcher is looking for. As an example, a fictitious company by the name of GreenHeart has recently launched a new website. They sell all kinds of camping equipment, but their website has been optimized for the traffic specifically relevant to outdoor cooking supplies. GreenHeart’s first-quarter Google analytics show that they are ranking number one in the search results for outdoor cooking supplies but their accounts are exhibiting rising sales in sleeping bags. This small bit of information shows that they are not profiting as much as they could be from their marketing investments. From this point, the supply company should reevaluate both their sales and their SEO strategy, focusing on what will benefit them the most in the future.
5. Underestimating the use of blogs
Blogs are no longer monopolized by the traveling copywriter, showcasing other cultures and detailing the world’s vast and beautiful landscape. Blogs have evolved into one of the most profitable ways to attract traffic to your website, no matter the industry. Adding a blog section to a website will allow an increase in internal and external links and can ultimately increase customer traffic by 434%. If a service-based company makes most of its profits from car repairs, it would fit for them to include a blog section covering general DIY repairs and How-Tos. For example, in this section of articles, there could be a step-by-step guide published on how to fix a broken taillight. In this article, where specific tools or parts are necessary, the company can include internal links to pages where these products are being sold within their own website. Adding free informative articles will gain customer trust, and hopefully, put them in the perfect place to find whatever else they may need. A growing company that is not yet well established with the public can also publish its articles on a more well-known site. When a popular or familiar brand supports a smaller unknown brand it instantly adds a level of trust and relief to new-coming customers. Being an active participant in forums is another great way to catch the eyes of target audiences and gain organic traffic.
3 Steps to Nailing Your New Website Announcement
1. Announcing Your New Website on Social Media
As previously mentioned, the biggest advocates for a company’s new website are going to be their current followers on social media. Each social media platform provides something different for each user. Although the voice of a company may change slightly for each platform, the information relayed throughout the promotion campaign needs to be consistent. To successfully promote a new website on social media business owners should research the latest social media marketing trends. This includes staying up to date on the most popular types of content and the latest features for each. Instagram has released multiple interactive components to their ‘Story’ feature over the last few years exponentially increasing customer interaction percentages across all pages. When posting promotional content on social media, businesses should add as many links as possible to the new homepage and landing page(s). The number of links should be dependent upon context and content type; they should not be overwhelming or annoying. Although important, customers will not want to be bombarded with links about a site they cannot yet access.
2. Doing a New Website Press Release
Holding a press release for a new website is a great opportunity to be seen by an audience much bigger than the target. A press release is a written or recorded announcement that a company issues to the media to bring attention to them, their brand, or industry. The press release should be long enough for the news outlet to possibly create their own story but short enough to fit on one page; two pages tops. This is a great opportunity to introduce the company to the public and detail how a new website, product, service or event can change their lives. The information included should be succinct, enticing, and informative to encourage unfamiliar eyes to explore the new website. As tempting as it may be to embellish current statuses, companies must be wary of painting unrealistic expectations for potential customers. Customers are constantly being deceived by attention-seeking companies with false advertising. In no way would it be beneficial for a company to low-ball themselves in their press release but transparency in product performance and quality are appreciated. Due to the publicity gained across multiple media platforms, promoting a new website with a press release could be a company’s biggest opportunity to reach new customers.
3. Email Announcing New Website: Get it Right
Announcing a new website through an email blast might seem a little old school, but this tactic has proven to be successful over the years and its potency has only increased. A current email list is necessary for this tactic but that’s where the website’s landing pages come into play. Once a customer email is captured, it should be seen as a long-term relationship that needs development rather than an immediate sale. Like any other relationship, the rapport built with the customer should focus on the role they play in their daily lives more than the once-a-year sale. Companies should figure out what ratio of email content works best for their subscribers. It is recommended that new companies use engaging imagery, personable videos, and special privileges in their email promotion campaigns. An example of this strategy might be to include a video of the CEO personally touring a new facility. Businesses could also do a screen capture tour to show new customers around the website without having to go live. While testing the waters with different types of content, businesses should encourage their employees to include a CTA with a small snippet of information about the new website in their email signatures, or just the domain name itself could suffice.
Don’t Forget to Add New Website to Google Analytics
If no other information is absorbed from this article, the most important thing for business owners to remember is that analytics dictate search result rankings, and those rankings dictate sales. Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of web data to understand and optimize web usage. Google Analytics is an analysis tool that Google offers to help businesses better evaluate the performance of their website and their customer’s experience using it. Analytics can be extremely useful as long as they are used correctly. Google Analytics can measure multiple aspects of any website interactions so knowing what analytics are relevant to your business and which are not will save a lot of time pre and post website launch. The easiest way to get the most out of these measurements is to establish which user actions need to be tracked before the launch. Business owners should anticipate the need to add new analytics in accordance with company and or website growth.
Finalizing Your New Website Launch Plan
After months of brainstorming, delegation, creation, and testing business owners should have an all-inclusive website launch plan accounting for SEO, SEM, social media email blasts, and press releases. As the date for the new website launch creeps in, the planning phase begins to shift to post-launch performance. It would be great if creating a website was like making dinner in a CrockPot, just set it and forget it. But in all actuality, a CrockPot needs stirring and a website needs maintenance. There will be a time when the fastest processes we have to date will no longer be the most effective or efficient. To get the most out of their investments business owners should be thinking into the future: the future for the company, their consumers, and technology itself. A website may use fresh vernacular, but it will not be long until these words are played out.
Are You Stuck at “I Need a New Website” Still?
Whether you have a new website that you’re ready to promote or you have aspirations of owning an amazing website in the near future, we’re here to help. Promoting your new website doesn’t have to be the bane of your business or existence. With years of marketing experience, our team is ready and willing to take your business to the next level. We are here to answer any questions you may have about us or our promotion planning process. Book a call with us today to see what we do for you!