If something exciting is on the horizon from your business, the chances are you’ll want people to know about it. That’s why many brands utilize holding pages for their homepages that maintain an impactful presence for their services, while the full brand experience is built offline.
If you’ve always considered a holding page as a temporary landing page and a sign that a business is either struggling or lacking in resources to give users exactly what they are looking for, read on as we outline X crucial benefits of holding pages that have been utilized by many leading brands.
It’s an effective way to demonstrate your brand identity and proposition
One of the most tangible benefits of designing a holding page for your website’s homepage – either for the short or medium-term – is to set the tone for your brand and its purpose. Make your holding page as succinct as possible, if you can. Distill your brand’s unique selling point (USP) into one or two short, sharp sentences that are easily digestible. It’s also an opportunity to provide a snapshot of your website’s identity through the holding page, achieved via imagery, typography and brand colors.
Incentivize users to help you gather consumer data
It doesn’t matter what industry you specialize in, having access to contact details from prospects is invaluable. It’s an opportunity to market your services directly to those who have previously engaged with your brand. Using a holding page, you can create a sense of exclusivity and ask users to submit their email address or contact details to be notified of when your full brand experience is live. In the meantime, you can collate these contacts and use them as part of an effective customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. Website analytics experts Deximal used their holding page not only to provide a sneak peek into the functionality of their dashboards but to also entice visitors to enter their email address to join the waiting list to be part of their ‘closed beta’ period. As you can see, it helps to create that air of exclusivity.
A focal point for steering users to regionalized sites
If you are a multi-state or multi-national business, you might consider using a simple holding page as a means of guiding users to the goods or services you offer in their area. While a holding page can help to cement your brand identity and expertise, it’s also effective in simplifying the user experience and directing users to whatever they need in the fewest number of clicks. FOX Bet is a good example of this. As a new US-based online sports betting operator, it currently has licenses to serve only four US states – Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The brand uses its holding page to steer users residing in CO, NJ, PA or MI to their dedicated and regulated online sportsbooks which are managed using geolocation technology, ensuring only those residing within state borders can place wagers online. It’s a clever use of a holding page that quite a few other brands in the industry also take advantage of.
Get your website indexed early by Google
If your brand is new to major search engines like Google and Bing, it can be hard to make an impression and grow your visibility for related search terms fast. Designing a holding page in the early stages of your website’s development is a good way of ensuring Googlebots index your homepage in advance of your full website launch. Just make sure the holding page is optimised for your brand terms, as well as key revenue-driving search terms that will form a part of your long-term search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Steer traffic to your established social media handles
If you are already trying to establish your brand on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can also use your holding page to direct visitors to your homepage to your active social handles. It’s another potential avenue for potential customers to engage with your brand and learn more about your products or services. Social media is an increasingly important layer of customer service in 2021, given the sheer immediacy of social platforms, leading to consumers demanding responses to their queries – fast.
Ultimately, you are only restricted by your imagination when it comes to designing an engaging and effective holding page that works hard to ensure potential customers know your new or developing brand exists.
