You’ve launched a beautiful new website that better represents your brand. But, now what? You want your customers and potential leads to see your new website, but that won’t happen without a post-website launch marketing plan.
While you may have existing marketing channels which will organically bring in new visitors to your website, you will want to set up a smart post-launch marketing plan so that the time, cost, and effort put into the new website is well worth it.
This article breaks down what a post-website launch marketing plan is and how to create one.
What is a Post-Launch Marketing Plan?
A post-launch marketing plan refers to a strategic plan set for after launching a product, service, or, in this case, a new website. This marketing plan is designed to promote the new product/service/website and ensure the new development is worth the initial investment.
For your website, your post-launch marketing plan will want to display how your brand is represented on this new website, what this might mean for your existing customers, and talk about who your brand is. All of these factors play a role in creating a positive brand experience and continuing to provide excellent or improved customer service.
In essence, you want to use the post-launch marketing plan as a strategic tool not only to reposition your website as an authority in search engines but to improve the brand messaging and increase brand awareness.
Marketing Channels to Strategically Promote a New Website
Many different marketing channels can be leveraged in your post-launch marketing plan. Read this list below to understand how exactly these channels can be used.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful strategic tactic that brands can use to improve the odds of visitors finding their website online. SEO refers to the optimization of a webpage for search engine rankability. This is reflected in on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tactics and might evolve over time.
SEO is critical in digital marketing for any website or online business and is even more crucial after a new website is launched. When a website has been redesigned, Google and other search engines need to reindex the site. This means that your site is being crawled again (on purpose) by search engines that are reading and raking your site. SEO items include proper headers, tags, meta descriptions, keywords, and more.
Having a strategy for SEO will improve the rankability and readability of your site based on your goals. The better your SEO strategy, the more likely you will reach more potential customers.
Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to using content, like blogs, web page copy, images, and videos, to engage and attract new and existing customers.
Content marketing is a powerful tool for long-term sales as the content continually works to promote your business so long as it is maintained and improved over time. This is why continually and consistently adding relevant, high-quality content to your website will help it continue to grow authority, traffic, and rankings.
A content strategy needs to be part of your post-launch marketing plan so that your website will continue to rank with high authority long after the launch day.
Social Media
While ever-evolving, social media marketing remains increasingly effective as a marketing channel. Social media platforms can promote your business in unique ways, either by highlighting your business services/products or showing your online followers that your brand has personality.
Social media can promote your newly launched website and connect with other high-profile sites or social media accounts to increase your reach and improve your brand visibility. Your chosen platforms should strategically support your initiatives and make sense for your brand.
Consider your target audience and spend the most time on platforms where they are active. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can all be powerful tools in your marketing strategy. Consider platforms like TikTok if you can produce quality video content and want to attract a younger demographic.
Instagram and TikTok are the platforms at the heart of influencer marketing, too, so if that avenue is something that makes sense for your brand or product, you should be making moves in that direction following your site launch.
Email Marketing
Email marketing and having a strategic email automation plan is still one of the most effective marketing tools. While it takes effort to grow your marketing list, it can be a valuable tool for sales.
Members of your mailing list are already familiar with your brand. They will be keenly interested in new product releases, sales, and company updates.
Before you’ve launched a new website, you want to ensure that your email newsletter list is ready to go. Clean up your mailing list and consider creating audience segments to more impactfully target your audience.
After you’ve launched, promote your website and new brand through your email list by sending a press release or similar announcement. Consider offering exclusive access to products or services for a limited time to celebrate the launch. This will enhance word of mouth while also potentially helping you to grow the list.
PPC Advertising
Finally, there is PPC advertising. PPC, or pay-per-click, is an advertising method that can bring paid traffic to your site. PPC is powerful in digital marketing, especially for new websites, as it can prove to Google that your website is active.
You can use several leading platforms like Google, Bing, and Meta to promote your business.
When using PPC advertising, you will only pay when someone clicks on the advertisement.
How to Measure the Marketing Success of a New Website?
After you’ve launched a new website, it’s important to set up Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Tag Manager to track important website traffic and data.
All websites built by WDK come with basic Google Analytics, Search Console, and Tag Manager set up at launch. If you need help setting these up on an existing site, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Here are the basics for measuring the marketing success of your new website:
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a primary website analytics platform powered by Google. This site explains to website owners the effectiveness of their website and its content in terms of how it performs. Google Analytics provides key data for website traffic, engagement, and performance, while also informing key stakeholders on areas for improvement.
This should be used in the post-website launch marketing plan as a measure of effectiveness and continuous improvement. Be sure Google Analytics is set up and look at conversions, the number of users and sessions, average session duration, average pages per session, the ratio of new to returning visitors, bounce rate, organic vs. paid sessions, and more.
Google Search Console
Like Google Analytics, Google Search Console is a free tool that helps users measure their site’s traffic and keyword performance on Google search.
It is also where you can receive messages from Google about your site. Google Search Console provides insight into how a website performs in organic search and will indicate adjustments to the site that can be made to improve how Google sees and indexes your site.
Google Search Console is vital in your post-launch marketing plan so you can determine the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts and make adjustments along the way.
Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system to quickly and easily update measurement codes and related code fragments. With Google Tag Manager, you can identify the scroll depth, or how far users scroll on your page, element visibility, and CTA clicks.
Google Tag Manager is a vital resource when launching a new website, so be sure to include Google Tag Management in your post-website launch plan.
Create a Website Conversion Funnel
A website conversion funnel is required with any website. This funnel is the pathway that users take to get to purchase from your company. This might include connecting with a sales representative or purchasing a product.
The conversion funnel from your website should be streamlined to your ideal customer pathway. Whether they sign up with your newsletter, put a product in the cart, or request a meeting, make sure this pathway is optimized so that you reach all your customers.
Conversion Tracking
With your Google Analytics and other data sources set up, your next step should include conversion tracking. Conversion tracking goes hand-in-hand with setting up your website conversion funnel; you want to track how effective these pathways are and see where your resources should be allocated.
This will measure lead generation, sales, and other important website actions.
Regular Data Analysis
Tracking site visitors, organic vs. paid, and even conversion success doesn’t make much of a difference if you do not do anything with that data. Regular data analysis is the last step of an effective post-website launch marketing plan.
By analyzing the data you’ve collected, you can then make improvements to your website or conversion funnels and seek greater payouts.
Remember to Regularly Monitor Site Health
In addition to these important steps, brands must remember to monitor website health. Website health is the ability of your website to function at an optimal level (on the backend).
Some site health issues can be found using Google Analytics and other tools, but regular website monitoring through the eyes of an experienced web development or web maintenance team is the best bet. With regular site health monitoring, you can quickly catch and mitigate web issues before they become worse.
Regular web maintenance services, like those provided by Website Design Kingston, might include:
- Updating critical site features
- Key security updates
- Content management
- SEO and Google Ad management
- Domain management
- Hosting
- And more
Key Takeaways: The Importance of a Marketing Plan
A new website is great, but it won’t be effective if no steps are taken to measure success or collect data for ongoing improvements. With a post-launch marketing plan for your website, you can walk your team through the steps necessary to ensure a successful launch and help your website make a splash.
From setting up your marketing channels to data and analytics, marketing your website is just as important as brand or product marketing, especially if your brand exists online or you want to make sales online. On top of that, you can’t have an effective online channel without a healthy website.
Connect with WDK if you’re concerned about your website health or want to set up any of the above digital marketing services for a new or existing website. Website Design Kingston is your trusted source for all things related to your website and the success of your company.
Additional Resources:
- 12 Benefits of Digital Marketing
- What’s the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing?
- 10 Ways Social Media can Improve your SEO Results
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