Launching a new website is an amazing marketing opportunity. But if you fail to “shout it from the rooftops” when the new website goes live, your existing customers and partners will probably be oblivious to your online transformation.
It’s also the perfect time to attract potential customers with a shiny, high-converting site, while giving existing clients a reason to re-engage with your business.
As you prepare for your next website launch, take advantage of the marketing ideas below to get the most out of this milestone event.
5 Marketing Ideas to Promote a New Website
1. Send out an email blast.
If you have an existing email subscriber list, send out a special newsletter to announce the launch. This is the easiest way to spread the word to clients and potential clients, and invite them to the new site.
In addition to simply sharing the new website, draw attention to specific features, such as an easier scheduling tool, upcoming webinar registration or interactive portfolio. Give people a reason to check out the site, and they’re more likely to click through.
The newsletter is also a great place to share changes to any existing processes on your site. For instance, if you have a membership site and you’ve changed the renewal steps for members, make sure to provide instructions and resources in the email blast. For an e-commerce site, consider offering a special discount code for certain products to encourage sales from newsletter subscribers
2. Share the site (a few times) on social media.
After a website redesign, most businesses share the website just a single time on social media. But you can do a lot more than just one post to generate excitement and incite visits.
Note that you may not want to share the website on social media right away when it goes live, as you never know if there will be any hiccups or last minute QC items during the launch process. If you’ve upgraded the design, create a Before/After post to highlight the amazing rebranding and transformation of your business.
In another post, congratulate the members of your team that were involved in the website project. It often takes a tribe to work on a website, both internally and externally. A congratulatory post also increases transparency and helps your team seem relatable to clients.
Don’t limit your social media posts to just sharing the URL and image; cater the post to the platform that you are sharing on. For Facebook or Instagram, consider creating a video of the home page. Websites today are interactive and include features such as animations and scroll effects. On platforms like Facebook or Instagram, video posts often perform better than simple text and links.
3. Write a press release.
Press releases are a strategic marketing tactic but there aren’t always an abundance of press release-worthy topics for small to mid-size businesses. However, announcing a new website launch is a perfect reason.
Before posting the press release on your own website’s blog, consider distributing the release using a paid service. There are multiple paid press release services, like PR Web or PRNewswire, that will distribute press release submissions to hundreds or even thousands of news websites. These news sites can then pick up the release and publish it on their own site.
This process helps with brand recognition and search engine optimization (SEO). If you’ve included a link or two to your website in the release, you’ll receive backlinks to your website when the release is published on multiple news outlets. After distributing the release, you can also share the news on your website with a blog post.
4. Run a special marketing campaign.
If you are searching for potential topics for focused marketing campaigns, create a unique campaign around the launch of your new site. Your exact offering may depend on whether you have a B2B website design or run a B2C business which sells products.
For a product-based business, you could run a special sale or give free shipping to the first 20 purchases after the launch, or give the first 10 customers a bonus gift in addition to their purchase.
If you’re a B2B provider, consider a campaign around a newsletter sign up or social media giveaway, or encourage sign-ups for an upcoming webinar and direct traffic back to your site. Alternatively, non-profits could pledge donations towards a specific cause for the first two weeks after launch.
There are endless possibilities and the launch of a new website allows you to define the start and end point for the campaign, plus measure the results. Typically, the upgraded website will be optimized to engage and convert visitors better than your previous site, so you’ll see better results from these campaigns than if you were to send them to the outdated site.
5. Write guest blogs and new content.
Lastly, you aren’t limited to promoting your website and brand just on social media nor your existing subscriber base. Content marketing, including guest blog posting, is another opportunity to drive traffic back to your new website.
If you’ve shifted your brand or service offerings with the website redesign, reach out to partners and large content sites that highlight and discuss those services or products. Write articles related to your industry and offer to be a guest author or contributor. Most large content sites are looking for new articles and contributors.
When writing off-site articles, include a link to your website in the article or in your author biography, if permitted. The publication of the article offers an opportunity to connect with a new audience, along with the chance to build up backlinks to your website. Link building is a critical component for SEO and domain authority, and you can support that with each article posted on other sites.
There are other opportunities beyond just articles. Every industry has podcasts, webinars, associations, and events that you can contribute to and share your business and website.
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