How to Set Up an Effective Pre-Launch Campaign at Zero Cost	1.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Anand Srinivasan February 11, 2015

The “world-wide web” hit a milestone last September – there are now more than one billion websites on the internet today. Given this humongous size, it is no longer true that 'if you build it, they will come'. It takes a lot of work and perseverance to make an online business successful. This is exactly why new business launches need to take their pre-launch phase seriously. With a solid strategy during pre-launch, it is possible to build a huge list of targeted prospects who can then be reached out to during launch day for maximum traction.

So how do you do it without nearly spending a dime? Here is how you do it:

For the sake of brevity, we will assume that you have already validated the idea and it is indeed something valuable that people need.

Picking the Right Platform

The first step in setting up a successful pre-launch campaign is deploying a landing page for your website. Since this is pre-launch, you do not need a working prototype of your idea. Instead, we will make use of a free website builder like IM Creator to design a beautiful landing page in minutes. Alternately, if you prefer Joomla based site, you may use a free Joomla hosting service like Hostt to set the landing page. Do note that while most of this is free, you may need to shell out money to either purchase a unique domain name or connect your existing domain to the hosted content.

Elements of a Landing Page

An effective landing page essentially contains the following elements: 1) an elegant background that relates to your industry, 2) A header text in big, bold letters that succinctly defines what your business does, and 3) An email capture form. It is pretty simple to set up such a page using the website builder tools without the need for any sort of coding.

Email Capture

One of the most critical elements of a pre-launch page is the email capture form. Email marketing Service like GetResponse offer a robust email capture service that can hold up to 1000 contacts for $15. One thing to note here is that GetResponse doesn’t necessarily require users to adopt a double-opt-in framework, you can actually disable that option. A double opt-in framework means that a successful registration only occurs when the website visitor verifies their email by clicking a link from their inbox. While this ensures a foolproof setup, this can often reduce the number of total emails captured (not everyone takes the time to click the link from their inbox). Different marketers have differing opinions on the pros and cons of double-opt-in. So in case, you believe in a single-opt-in framework, GetResponse is a good choice to save on leaking subscribers.

Thank You Page

What happens after you capture an email lead? Of course, you could show a Thank You page and close the session. However, a smarter way to do it is to use the opportunity for some virality. Services like ReferralCandy allow users to get rewarded for bringing in new referrals. You may integrate this service on your Thank You page and offer your users reward for bringing in new referrals – make sure that the reward is sufficiently valuable for the audience you target. This could either be in the form of free subscription period later on, or an eBook; depending on your niche. Such referral reward services come with a free trial period that you may make use of during the pre-launch phase (you may upgrade to a paying plan when you have paying subscribers).

Social Sharing

In addition to the referral links, social sharing of your service is extremely critical to maximizing your reach. You can make use of tools like AddThis to easily setup social sharing buttons on your site. It’s also a wise idea to use a social media management platform like Oktopost to schedule all your social shares as well as monitor your brand/site mentions online at all times.

This basically completes the setup of an effective pre-launch campaign page. What is left is aggressive marketing. You should choose all marketing opportunities including Joint Ventures, content marketing, social sharing and email blasts to reach out to as targeted people as you can. But that is a discussion for another day.