One of the most important tools for marketing a mobile app is a high-quality landing page. Your landing page is where you send web traffic to learn more about your mobile app, and the page will contain a clear call to action (CTA) to urge users to download your app.

It may be tempting to wait until your app is released–or near release–to put up your landing page, but this is a mistake. Creating a quality landing page for your app well in advance of your launch date is a critical component of ensuring a successful app launch. It may seem counterintuitive to make your landing page live before launch, as you don’t yet have an actual product.

So, why would you bother with a landing page for an app pre-launch? There are several very good reasons, and much of it has to do with expediting the success of your eventual launch. Your pre-launch marketing efforts will prove to be just as important as your post-launch marketing.

Build Pre-Launch Awareness and Hype

When your mobile app is finally released into the wild, who is going to download it? Sure, you are of course going to shift heavily from development to the marketing phase after launch, but building up awareness of your app to push downloads can be a long, arduous process. On day one, nobody is going to know your app exists if you don’t invest the time in marketing and then drive them to your landing page first.

This lack of awareness is why mobile app marketing should begin well before release. A landing page may be the single most important tool in your marketing tool belt during this pre-release phase. The page is your opportunity to let people know about your app’s development, inform them of what features to expect, and gain some momentum for the hype machine.

You also have to remember that it takes time for a new website to gain traction, and it will take some effort to begin driving traffic to your landing page. By building the landing page before launching your mobile app, you can begin driving traffic immediately rather than beginning to slowly build your traffic after your app has already been released. This will also get you a head start in your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Develop and Test SEO

SEO can take time to get just right, and it’s never perfect from day one. It’s rare for a brand new web page to launch and immediately claim a spot on the highly-coveted first page of Google’s search results. That’s why it’s prudent to develop your mobile app’s landing page as far in advance of your release date as possible. This gives you time to get things right, so you don’t have to scramble to push all of your SEO after the release.

By getting the landing page up early, you can begin to build authority, gain positive traction in your SEO efforts, and test out different SEO strategies and keyword phrases to rank your landing page. Doesn’t it sound like a big advantage if your landing page is in Google’s top spot before you even launch your mobile app?

Waiting until your app is released to begin thinking about your landing page’s SEO can set you back significantly. When you think about all of the digital marketing you’re already going to have to do after your app is released, it only makes sense to ease some of that post-launch burden by giving yourself a head start in the pre-launch stage.

Testing out your SEO keywords with your landing page may also help you understand the best keywords for your app store organic search strategy.

Build an Email List

In addition to building up awareness and hype for your app, a pre-launch landing page is a fantastic way to also try to add as many customers as possible to your email list. Email marketing is still highly effective, and your landing page will serve as the start of your marketing funnel by giving you a place to collect customer emails. This is a great way to keep in contact with those who have shown enough interest in your app to give you their email addresses.

The ability to collect a database of customers makes your landing page extremely critical during the months before release. You don’t have to send daily emails to your list, but providing progress updates once or twice a month will continue to keep those potential customers invested in your mobile app during the pre-launch build-up. Then when launch day finally comes, with the click of a button you can immediately inform thousands–if not tens to hundreds of thousands–of people that your app is now ready for download.

This is a great way to jumpstart a successful app launch, and it all starts with building a quality landing page early enough before release to build up a significant email list.

Share on Social Media

As we’ve discussed, you want to begin marketing your app months in advance of its release to ensure a successful launch. In today’s social media-driven world, that also means building up your brand’s presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Perhaps even try LinkedIn if your app is a good fit for this type of audience. Regardless of the platform you choose, it’s undeniable that social media marketing is a critical component of your digital marketing strategy.

As you build up awareness of your brand and your upcoming mobile app on social media, you continue to build hype and excitement. Much like building an email list, you’re looking to grow a sizable list of followers on your social media accounts. By doing this, you’ve already got another large customer base to advertise to on launch day.

However, building this hype is only possible if your followers have something tangible to become invested in. Because the app isn’t live yet, you need somewhere to send them. That’s where your landing page comes into play.

By linking to your landing page during your pre-launch social media marketing posts, you can send droves of potential customers to your website. Perhaps they will even join your emailing list, so you now have a large social media following while also continuing to add to your email list.

Improve Your App Launch With a Pre-Launch Landing Page

We know that launching an app is difficult. Well, launching in itself is not particularly difficult, but having a successful mobile app launch is. But if you take the time to build a landing page in advance, you’ll be able to build awareness, develop potential customers in advance, and get your page’s SEO up to snuff well before your app launches. This will only make your post-launch marketing efforts easier.

Coordinating a successful app launch can be daunting. If you want to ensure a strong launch, it may be helpful to enlist the help of a knowledgeable and experienced digital product company. Camber Creative has years of experience planning, building, and marketing websites and apps. If you want help with your launch, contact the experts at Camber Creative today.