Landing pages and coming soon pages are quite similar, which is why people commonly confuse them. However, there are a couple of contrasts that separate them from one another. This overview will help you find out whether you should put up a landing page or a coming soon page on your new website, based on your needs and preferences.
What is a landing page?
This is a term we hear all the time in the digital industries. According to digital marketers, a landing page is a single web page that has a function to capture the audience and has a call-to-action.
For example, visitors might find themselves on a landing page after a Google search, social media promotion click or email newsletter click.
A landing page is quite simple and serves as a marketing campaign. Because of its simplicity, it’s also quite efficient when it comes to AdWords campaigns.
Landing pages are usually exclusively designed for paid traffic. Of course, you can expect some organic hits through SEO, but most marketers focus only on paid ads when promoting landing pages.
What is a coming soon page?
A Coming Soon page is a single web page as well. However, it serves to inform visitors that the site is currently being built or re-built.
It can also have a call-to-action, but it doesn’t have to. It serves as a placeholder which will capture the audience while the process of building the website is not yet finished.
Coming Soon pages are usually placed on platforms for eCommerce sites, news portals, forums or other big websites. A single landing page will almost never have it’s own coming soon page.
Unlike a landing page, a coming soon page usually attracts traffic from keyword searches, organic social traffic, and sharing. It’s unlikely that any marketer will invest a portion of the marketing budget into promoting a coming soon page, although it’s possible.
Permanent vs. Temporary
A landing page is usually permanent and changes to design, content, and function are rarely made. A Coming Soon page is exactly the opposite: it’s inherently temporary and it’s bound to come down one day.
A logical conclusion to this is that you should put in much more time, energy and effort into building a landing page because it will be there to last. For Coming Soon pages, you can greatly benefit from using a WordPress plugin like UnderConstructionPage to save time. This will enable you to quickly put up a Coming Soon page and get it down as soon as you want to launch your site.
One Goal vs. Multiple Goals
A landing page usually has one specific goal with a call-to-action to match; a coming soon page can have more of them.
In most cases, landing pages are built in a way that provides a clear path for the visitor to reach the desired goal. If it’s selling a product, for example, a landing page will make sales calls-to-action quite prominent and easily found.
A Coming Soon page doesn’t necessarily have only one goal. For example, you can use your Coming Soon page to collect emails, sell products, redirect to social media or present content. As soon as your visitors enter, they will see all these multiple options they can choose to go forward with the interaction.
One Target Audience vs. Versatile Audience
As the goal of the landing page is to promote a goal or prompt a conversion, marketers will usually direct it to a specific target audience which is most likely to purchase or consume. For a landing page, it can be a waste of marketing budget not to choose a target audience.
A Coming Soon page, on the other hand, doesn’t have a specific audience in mind. Any type of visitor is welcome, as the page serves to inform that the actual website will launch soon. Just like there are more goals or calls-to-action on your Coming Soon page, it can also feature something appealing for different types of audiences.
Static vs. updates
Landing pages and Coming Soon pages also differ in the frequency they’re updated and altered.
For landing pages, it’s recommendable that once they’re up, they shouldn’t change any more. However, it’s always wise to test out the success of two or more different landing pages before deciding on the permanent one. Remember, a landing page is an important representation of your brand, so it’s important for it to remain static in order to show stability.
Contrary to that, the Coming Soon page can be easily and simply updated. Changing or switching up a Coming Soon page will not harm your brand or message. Rather, it will show that you want to keep in touch with your visitors and update them on the progress of the launch.
With the Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode for WordPress plugin, you can switch up your current Coming Soon page in a matter of a few clicks! Just choose the template you want and you can drastically change the look and feel of your Coming Soon page – for the next time your visitors come around.
Promotional vs. teaser
Since landing pages are used to attract paid traffic, the content on the page is usually carefully crafted. The intention is to give out as much information as possible for the visitor to buy the product or react to the CTA, without being too extensive. The trick is to find the golden mean between saying enough to sell something and not being too in-your-face with promotional information.
A Coming Soon page will fall on the scarce side of this information spectrum. When visitors see a Coming Soon page, they will instantly realize that the website is not up yet, but the information that’s already there could spark their imagination. If you’re crafting copy for your coming soon page, make sure you’re not too wordy: even just a sentence or two about your soon-launched product or service will stir up the visitor’s imagination.