Jun 30, 2021

How to Build a Coming Soon Landing Page (That Generates Leads)

How to Build a Coming Soon Landing Page (That Generates Leads)

If you’re launching a product, service, website, or app anytime soon, you might be wondering how you can spark people’s interest in it. The solution? A coming soon landing page.

This isn’t a typical landing page that has a lot of details and form fields. It’s simpler but engaging enough to build buzz around your offer. The best part? You can create a coming soon landing page that grows your leads.

Let’s start by describing what a coming soon landing page is. Then we’ll show you the tips to build yours and examples from businesses that did it right.

What Is A Coming Soon Landing Page?

A coming soon landing page is a type of landing page that lets your audience know that something is coming. It’s a great way to announce your upcoming offer which could be a product, service, website, or app.

Some coming soon pages are designed just like a regular “under maintenance” page. Others, on the other hand, go the extra mile by optimizing for leads and meeting other goals. We’ll show you what that means in a while. But ideally, that’s what you want to get the most out of that coming soon page. And we’re here to help.

Why Do You Need To Create One?

So how does a coming soon landing page benefit you? Aside from its main purpose, which is to announce a new offer, it can help:

  • Boost your email marketing by increasing your leads
  • Get new referrals for your business and spark interest
  • Grow your social media following
  • Drive sales to your offers

You will achieve one or more of these depending on how you structure your page.

How To Create A Coming Soon Landing Page That Gets Leads

Make a well-designed, high-converting coming soon landing page using the tips below.

1. Get clear on your message.

Your landing page should have a clear message letting them know what they can expect. Tell your visitors right away that you’re going to offer something soon, so they should stay in the loop.

You don’t have to give away all the details. Just reveal enough to get them excited and looking forward to it. Here are a few things you can include:

  • The pain point your product/service/app/website will solve
  • The vision/mission behind what you do
  • How they can get notified of the launch (by signing up their email!)

2. Less is more.

Don’t overwhelm your audience with extraneous elements such as text, graphics, forms, and colors. Let’s take a look at the example below from Slidescamp:

Image credit: Canva

Notice that it uses a simplified headline: 1000 slides at your fingertips. It uses a few words. Below the headline are two lines of text that announces the upcoming launch and invites everyone to be a beta tester.

Then, Slidescamp puts one field for the email address. It has a clear call-to-action button that says Request invite.

This coming soon page also has the right color contrast and uses only a few colors.

Tip: When it comes to the colors, use a palette that reinforces your brand. This creates a clean, professional look.

3. Offer an incentive.

Want to boost people’s chances of signing up for your email list? Offer them an incentive or lead magnet in return. In the example above, Slidescamp’s incentive was an early bird access to their product. You could do this or offer something else that’s relevant, such as an:

  • Ebook
  • Whitepaper
  • Templates
  • Training course
  • Huge discount/early access credit
  • Entry into a contest

An irresistible incentive overcomes their objection to signing up. So, make sure to plan for it.

Read more:5 Must-Do’s to Create The Perfect Lead Magnet

4. Turn it into a referral campaign.

Add a virality element to your coming soon page. The idea is simple:

Reward every visitor who signs up and shares your page with as many friends as possible. Once they reach a certain number of points, they can unlock a reward. As a bonus, they also get entered into a draw where they can win a bigger prize during your launch. 🎉🎉🎉

There are many ways to structure your giveaway. You can make it as easy or as advanced as you want, depending on your goals and resources. If you need inspiration, check out our UpViral case studies.

Tip: Use UpViral to build a custom coming soon design template from start to finish. You can also set up email notifications to keep your leads engaged and updated about your launch.

5. Make it mobile-friendly.

About 211 million people in the US search online using their mobile devices. It’s no secret that people have become more reliant on their phones.

That said, check that your coming soon page adapts to both desktop and mobile. It should look great and be fully functional on either platform. Our tip #2 is extremely helpful for ensuring mobile-friendliness. Long copy and too many elements cause mobile landing pages to look cluttered.

Last but not least, test the load time of your coming soon page. The faster it loads on mobile devices, the more conversions it gets. People don’t have to wait long to see your content.

6. Add social proof.

Not all coming soon landing pages have social proof. But if you want yours to generate more sign-ups, it would be great to include that.

Social proof can be anything from your number of users to customer testimonials to case studies to clients that use your product/service (see the sample screenshot below):

Social proof is especially useful for getting people to take action.

When people encounter something for the first time, they pay attention to cues - like opinions and feedback. That’s how they’ll know that they’re making the right move by signing up, purchasing, etc.

7. Create urgency.

You shouldn’t be surprised if people aren’t signing up as soon as you hoped they would. Most of us need more time before we’re convinced to act.

Adding a sense of urgency puts pressure on your audience to respond to your call-to-action as soon as possible. Urgency is imposing a time limit on an offer.

Mention a specific deadline in your landing page copy. For example, “Only 3 days left to sign-up!” or “This offer expires on [date] at [time].” Use marketing words that imply currency such as limited time, offer expires, hurry, and deadline.

Alternatively, you can use a countdown timer. Take advantage of the color red or another bold color in your copy or CTA button. Here’s an example from Fundrise:

Image credit: Canva

3 Great Examples Of Coming Soon Landing Pages For Inspiration

Need more ideas? Here are three pre-launch landing page examples that have generated interest and conversions. See why they’ve worked for the featured businesses/brands below:

Karl Schuckert & Chase Bowers

Karl Schuckert & Chase Bowers were about to launch a Shopify app. They wanted to build buzz around that app and grow their email list as quickly and affordably as possible. So, they used UpViral to set up this coming soon page.

It uses a simple headline, asks for a visitor’s name and email, and includes an explainer video of the app.

After entering their email, visitors are taken to a share page where they need to share the campaign with 3 friends. When they do, they can get early access to the app.

Read the case study here.

Harry’s

This is one of the best coming soon landing pages to take inspiration from. Harry’s, a shaving and men’s personal care brand, collected 100,000 emails within a week.

On the first page, people can enter their email to be the first to know when Harry’s launches. It’s on the second page where the magic happens after someone signs up and clicks the “STEP INSIDE” CTA:

Here, Harry’s thanks everyone for signing up and gives them the chance to earn their product by getting a friend to successfully sign up.

If they refer 5 friends, they win a shave cream… then a Truman Handle with a blade for referring 10 friends… and so on. The prize got bigger and bigger every time, motivating people to keep sharing.

Read the case study here.

Gabe Schillinger

Using UpViral, Gabe Schillinger did a pre-launch that generated 41, 985 leads and $200,000 in sales in 1 week. He ran a contest to build an audience for his launch which resulted in more people buying his product on the big day.

Gabe gave away relevant prizes to his target audience. He also launched on a Black Friday which was a great time of the year to go shopping. Be sure to check out the case study to learn the rest of his strategies.

Read the case study here.

Final Thoughts

By now, you know what a coming soon landing page is and its benefits. You’ve also seen some coming soon post ideas that might help you get started. To summarize, your landing page should:

  • Have a clear message
  • Be simple
  • Offer an incentive
  • Optimize for mobile-friendliness
  • Include social proof
  • Add urgency

We hope you liked this article. It’s easy to set up a coming soon page with UpViral. Build a waitlist of thousands of people in less time and go viral. The best part? You can start now for $1.