A Coming Soon page is a savvy prelaunch marketing strategy for any business owner wishing to generate buzz before a launch. Whether teasing a new product line, gearing up for a grand opening, or rebranding, Coming Soon pages build anticipation and help you gather valuable leads.
Ready to optimize your next product launch? Read on for real-life inspiration and learn how to turn your Coming Soon page into a powerful marketing tool.
What is a Coming Soon page?
A Coming Soon page, also known as a pre-launch page, is a landing page where people can learn more about your new website, business, or product.
The primary purpose of the Coming Soon page is to capture visitor interest in an upcoming launch—even while your product, business, or the rest of your website is still in development. Publishing a Coming Soon page means creating a touchpoint to generate interest in your upcoming launch. You can also use Coming Soon pages to collect visitor contact information for your mailing list and reach prospective customers when you launch.
Unlike FAQ, Contact, or About us pages—standard for many online businesses—a Coming Soon page is a temporary landing page you’ll take down once you launch.
Do you need a Coming Soon page?
A Coming Soon page isn’t necessary for every business. For example, certain ecommerce businesses, such as t-shirt stores or dropshipping companies, may not need to set up a Coming Soon page for every launch.
Other types of businesses may anticipate postponing their launch date while they manage the complex process of product development, fundraising, and brand building. Instead of delaying marketing until you open your digital doors, a coming soon landing page lets you develop and promote in parallel, cultivating an engaged audience for launch day.
Benefits of a Coming Soon page
Publishing a Coming Soon page offers the flexibility to:
Get a head start on marketing
Consisting of one simple page, a coming soon website can be brought to market in a few clicks. You can build brand awareness and create excitement about your upcoming launch with little effort.
If you use the right keywords and follow SEO best practices, a Coming Soon page can even jumpstart your website’s SEO, positioning you for better searchability and visibility at launch. Search engines will start indexing your page, which can improve your search ranking before you have a fully developed website. It’s a small investment of time that could lead to significant search traffic returns down the line.
A Coming Soon page can also help you experiment with marketing channels and strategies. You can assess which platforms and messages resonate most with your audience by driving traffic to this page through social media teasers, email outreach, or paid ads. Targeted pre-launch traffic also contributes to SEO, driving early site engagement signals that search engines may factor into rankings. Plus, if you offer your page as a centralized link for influencers or partners, you can extend your reach before launch.
Build an audience of early followers
A Coming Soon page allows you to build a loyal audience before you launch, creating early followers primed for your product. Even without a finished product, an engaging page can generate interest by inviting visitors to sign up for an email list or follow you on social media.
This approach establishes direct communication channels with potential customers, enabling you to share updates, behind-the-scenes content, or even sneak peeks of the product as it develops.
When launch day arrives, you’ll have a built-in audience eager to support your brand. You can engage your pre-launch following by asking themfor feedback and building their excitement with countdowns, interactive posts, and personalized launch announcements.
Get early feedback
A Coming Soon page puts your concept in front of would-be customers so you can gauge their interest and use customer feedback to create a more successful launch. You could include a survey, a feedback form, or even a simple “What are you most excited about?” question on the page.
Your followers’ answers can illuminateaspects of the product that appeal to them the most, so you can prioritize their favorite features in product adjustments. This early input helps ensure your product aligns with customer expectations, increasing the likelihood of a successful launch.
Engagement metrics like sign-ups and social media shares also illustrate market demand and excitement.
Build anticipation and a sense of exclusivity
A Coming Soon page builds anticipation by hinting at what’s to come. Launchcountdowns and teasers can amplify that excitement, especially if you offer limited early access or special perks. A prelaunch strategy that taps into the psychological effects of scarcity and exclusivity encourages visitors to follow your brand, return at launch, and share news about your product.
Claim your domain
A Coming Soon page is an opportunity to secure and brand your domain name before your website is fully developed. Establishing a branded web presence protects your chosen domain and ensures it’s associated with your brand from the start. Your prelaunch page also signals credibility and commitment, reassuring visitors your brand is legitimate.
Build brand recognition before launch
Prioritize clear branding on your Coming Soon page to establish a memorable identity from day one.
By featuring your logo, brand colors, typography, and tone of voice, you cultivate the consistency that brands need to be recognizable. By the time your product or business launches, your brand will already be familiar, encouraging trust and a better chance of conversions.
10 Coming Soon page examples
Ready to create a Coming Soon page for your upcoming launch? Get inspired by these examples from real-life brands that do it well.
260 Sample Sale: Put a spotlight on the call to action
As a weekly event-based business, 260 Sample Sale creates hundreds of Coming Soon pages every year. The brand has its ecommerce basics down with eye-catching product imagery, and minimal text streamlining the shopping experience.
260 Sample Sale’s aesthetic strategy prevents information overload and highlights the high-contrast Notify Me call to action (CTA). Secondary options—like the share button, which encourages word-of-mouth marketing—don’t distract from the primary CTA.
Steal this strategy: Use a simple layout and a bold CTA to make signing up the obvious next step.
Zygo: Use video to engage and inform pre-order customers
After experiencing shipment delays for its waterproof Bluetooth headphones, Zygo reassured customers with regular update videos. The videos explained production delays and detailed product upgrades. By transparently addressing customer concerns, Zygofostered trust and maintained excitement.
Steal this strategy: Publish video updates to inform pre-order customers, showcase improvements, and build trust.
Depology: Collect email addresses
Skincare brand Depology creates buzz for its new products with a countdown timer and urgency-driven CTAs like “Be the first to try them.”
Depology’s Coming Soon page helps the brand gauge customer interest in its upcoming product line. Interested shoppers can sign up for launch notifications, growing the brand’s email list and ideally driving early sales.
Steal this strategy: Add a countdown timer and email signup form to your Coming Soon page.
Fashion Nova: Offer a product preview
Fashion Nova’s Coming Soon page offers a comprehensive view of upcoming collections, complete with pictures, pricing, and product details to fuel shoppers’ interest.
Teasing approaching launches encourages shoppers to stay on site, boosting engagement. FashionNova could amplify the impact by showcasing similar, already-available products, a clever strategy that can drive sales for current and future items.
Steal this strategy: Create a dedicated product page to showcase upcoming product details and pricing.
Purelei: Encourage pre-orders with benefits
Purelei gets ahead of the holiday advertising rush with its 2024 advent calendar, discounting pre-order pricing months ahead of Christmas. This strategy secures advanced sales and incentivizes customer loyalty by trading exclusive benefits for valuable email addresses.
Steal this strategy: Incentivize shoppers who pre-order products or sign up for launch notifications.
Hearth Display: Forecast demand with deposits
Hearth Display, a wall-mounted touchscreen calendar for families, amassed a 150,000-plus waitlist by requiring a $50 refundable deposit to secure priority access.
This strategy distinguished casual interest from serious purchase intent, providing accurate pre-launch demand data. By creating a sense of exclusivity, Hearth Display prioritized its most engaged and interested customer segment.
Steal this strategy: Incentivize serious buyers with exclusive perks or priority access in exchange for a refundable deposit.
Faculty: Share what’s coming soon with loyal customers
Streetwear brand Faculty builds anticipation by sending coming soon emails to its most loyal customers. The mysterious email promises exclusive access and juicy discounts on upcoming products. The casual “text me” call to action adds a personal touch, fostering a connection between brand and followers.
Steal this strategy: Announce your upcoming launch to your most loyal customers.
Jimmy Fairly: Showcase the collection
Eyewear brand Jimmy Fairly psyches up shoppers with a bold Coming Soon header showcasing its upcoming collection. Allowing customers to window-shop before launch is a powerful technique for seasonal products like sunglasses. Generating early excitement primes shoppers so they’re ready to purchase by the time the products—and the right season—arrive.
Steal this strategy: Publish previews so shoppers know what to expect from your upcoming collection.
Hexclad: Offer big advance discounts
Most shoppers expect hefty discounts from their favorite brands during shopping holidays like Black Friday and Memorial weekend. Cookware brand Hexclad promotes its upcoming holiday sales by highlighting discounts to come, incentivizing early signups with even bigger sales.
Steal this strategy: Prime shoppers for upcoming sales by rewarding them with big discounts.
Baublebar: Tailor signups to customer interests
With dozens of products released weekly, jewelry retailer BaubleBar’s organized Coming Soon categorizes products by type, customizing the shopping experience. For example, customers drawn to on-trend jewelry but not the Disney collection can click the on-trend preview tile, pop their phone number in the signup form, and know they’ll only receive the updates for that category. Customized alerts like this prevent overwhelming customers with irrelevant updates.
Steal this strategy: Organize new releases by category on your Coming Soon page so customers can select updates that matter to them.
5 tips for your Coming Soon page
Building a Coming Soon page is simple, but you need to think strategically to reap its benefits. Here are some ways to ensure success with your Coming Soon page.
1. Tailor the page to your pre-launch schedule
Your Coming Soon page should be tailored to your prelaunch marketing goals. A visually engaging placeholder might be enough for a short teaser campaign, while a detailed landing page can generate buzz for a longer campaign.
2. Explain what is coming soon and when
A Coming Soon page is a powerful tool for gauging demand. Monitoring visitor interactions with the page provides valuable feedback for developing your ideas, positioning, and website design.
Resist the urge to use a Coming Soon page as a stalling tactic when product development takes longer than expected. Instead, ensure your coming soon landing page gives a concrete launch date, which you can emphasize with a countdown timer bar.
A clear timeline sets expectations and encourages visitors to return for the launch, especially if it includes limited-time offers. It also builds anticipation and taps into their FOMO (fear of missing out).
3. Build your pre-launch email list
When you’re driving people to a page without purchasing options, you need a strategy to encourage return visits.
Capitalize on your Coming Soon page and capture leads with an email list. You can also implement retargeting strategies or accept preorders to take advantage of early interest.
To maximize email subscribers, entice them with compelling incentives such as:
- Early bird pricing
- Exclusive discounts or freebies for early adopters
- Valuable content such as ebooks and guides
- Entry into contests
- Behind-the-scenes access
- A say in future product development
To gather contacts, establish an email capture form on your Coming Soon page. Or, for a more proactive approach, consider an exit-intent pop-up like Privy, which offers visitors a reason to opt in as they’re about to leave the page.
A mailing list is a valuable communication asset to solicit feedback and ensure your audience remembers you on launch day.
4. Make it easy for customers to get in touch
Prioritize user experience on Coming Soon pages, especially around communication. Providing multiple contact options through email, social media or a live chat improves customer satisfaction, which can encourage sales. Ecommerce plug-ins like Shopify Inbox Chat will help.
Offering accessible contact options empowers you to:
- Field questions and resolve concerns before your launch
- Build meaningful relationships through one-on-one conversations
- Gather honest feedback you can apply to your marketing strategies and product designs
5. Encourage visitors to spread the word
Incentivize visitors to share your upcoming launch with special offers like discount codes or giveaway entries. Contest apps like Gleam help by rewarding visitors for social actions.
The most effective Coming Soon pages create a “viral loop,” a cycle where customers discover a brand, share it, and prompt others to do the same. When every new visitor is a potential advocate, brand awareness can grow organically as they explore and share your content.
Referral marketing widgets such as Viral Loops let you offer tiers of rewards depending on how many referrals a person generates.
How to create a Coming Soon page on Shopify
Because it’s designed for ecommerce, the Shopify platform is ideal for hosting Coming Soon pages. These two popular ways of building Coming Soon pages with Shopify let you design your store at your own pace and go live in a couple of clicks.
1. Launch a password-protected Coming Soon page
For the fastest Coming Soon page launch, use your built-in, password-protected Shopify page. Its default settings include basics like an email signup form and social sharing buttons. It’s an ideal placeholder you can easily publish while you concentrate on building your website.
Some benefits of launching your Coming Soon page on Shopify include:
- Speed and simplicity: Detail your launch plans faster than you would by building with WordPress or HTML. Customize as you wish with Shopify’s drag-and-drop website builder.
- Secure access: Since your page is password protected, you can give select users access as needed.
- Easy lead capture: Customize your newsletter signup fields with on-brand copy.
As a Shopify user, you can activate password protection by going to your preferences and choosing “Enable password.” To finish setting up your password page as a coming soon landing page, head to your theme editor and customize it with Shopify’s drag-and-drop website builder.
This method is most effective for new store owners or those with a short time frame before launch.
2. Publish a “Coming Soon” version of your website theme
- Shopify’s flexible platform lets you build two distinct versions of your store—a Coming Soon site to host your prelaunch marketing, and a working site you can continue developing behind the scenes.
Each version can include elements such as:
- Product photos
- Background images (refer to image sizing best practices)
- Explainer videos
- CTA buttons
- Social proof and testimonials
- Email sign-up forms
- Social media icons
Since you get an entire website to play with, you can optimize the Coming Soon version toward your goals. Use additional pages to drive visitors to your social media accounts or your Kickstarter campaign. And be sure to explore Shopify apps for easy drag-and-drop customizations like a countdown clock, reminders, sign-up forms and custom logos.
How to remove a Coming Soon page on Shopify
Once you’ve launched, you can remove your Shopify Coming Soon page by following these steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Pages.
- Find the Coming Soon page you want to delete.
- Click the box next to the Coming Soon page you want to delete.
Coming Soon pages: Your prelaunch marketing centerpiece
Coming Soon pages let you start marketing before your website or new products are under development. With a high-quality Coming Soon page, you can create urgency within your target audience and build interest so you launch to a full house.
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Coming Soon page FAQ
Why do you need a Coming Soon page?
A Coming Soon page gives your marketing a head start, letting you build an email list and gather pre-orders before launch. You can also encourage visitors to share your brand and get early feedback on your ideas, all while you finish developing your product, website or store.
How long should a Coming Soon page be?
Like most landing pages, a Coming Soon page should be short and include only the most relevant and compelling information.
What do you write on a Coming Soon page?
- Explain what’s coming soon.
- Include a CTA for your email marketing list opt-in.
- Give people a way to get in touch with your brand.
- Encourage sharing on social media.
- Offer pre-orders on upcoming products.
Is a Coming Soon page a landing page?
Yes, a Coming Soon page is a distinct type of landing page. While most landing pages aim for immediate conversions like sales or signups, a Coming Soon page intends to generate excitement, build anticipation, and capture leads before a product or service is launched.
What is a CTA for a Coming Soon page?
A CTA, or call to action, on a Coming Soon page is a prompt designed to encourage visitors to take a specific action, one that builds engagement and anticipation. Common CTAs for Coming Soon pages include options like “Sign Up for Updates” or “Join the Waitlist.” CTAs like “Claim an Exclusive Offer,” incentivize early adopters with perks like discounts or early access.
