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5 Reasons to Launch Your Website Before You Think You’re Ready

By: Jenna Cyprus

 

Vector rocket launch website computer concept illustration. Business start rocket launch

Are you waiting for perfection before launching your website? Do you feel like your site just needs a few more tweaks before you’ll be ready to go live? Are you waiting for your designer to create the perfect logo? If you’re postponing your website launch because you don’t feel ready – for any reason – you’re losing money every day your site isn’t live.

There will always be something to tweak on your website; that’s part of running a business. However, you can launch an incomplete website and get a head start on generating sales without compromising your brand reputation.

If you’re holding back because you don’t feel ready, here are 5 reasons to launch anyway.

1. If you’re using a website builder, you can make tweaks silently

Are you postponing your launch because you don’t want to disrupt your user experience with random changes? If you’re using a DIY website editor, your edits can be made silently in the background. Unless you’ve got a developer working on back-end features like a database or shopping cart system, users will only notice changes when they refresh.

Certain back-end features should be functional before launch

Although most website tweaks won’t disrupt the user experience, there are some back-end features you’ll need to complete before you launch.

If you haven’t started building your shopping cart system, get that in order before you launch. Many DIY website builders either come with a built-in shopping cart or provide shopping cart plugins. If your current builder isn’t working out, check out the features offered by these nine common builders that make website creation easy.

Your shopping cart system should be fully functional before you launch. However, you can continue to tweak appearances and functionality.

2. Perfectionism will kill your enthusiasm

If your website has to be perfect before you launch, you’ll probably never launch. While you fuss over all the details, your enthusiasm for your business will fade. Before long, making those small tweaks to your site will feel like an unending chore that you’ll end up dreading.

Don’t let perfectionism kill your enthusiasm. Get your site running to a minimum standard and then launch.

3. You’ll start generating leads immediately

Setting up a lead capturing system and email list is one of the only legitimate reasons to postpone publishing your website. Email marketing is central to your success. You’re leaving money on the table every day you aren’t capturing leads.

According to data sourced by WPforms.com, 70% of people who leave your website will never return. You can rope them back in with an email marketing campaign.

An email marketing campaign can generate a significant amount of returning traffic. Through email, you can encourage people to complete their purchase or invite them to view more content. With high-level email marketing strategies, you can get subscribers to tell you what they’re interested in and segment your list to speak directly to each segment.

Whether you’re publishing a new website or just updating your old site, you need to start capturing leads as soon as possible. If you don’t want to publish your site until every feature is perfect, at least capture leads on your home page. When you’re ready to launch, you’ll have a captive audience.

4. You’ll get valuable feedback from users and stakeholders

If your goal is to perfect your website, you want to launch it early. Once your website can be seen and used by the public, you’ll start getting the feedback required to move toward perfection. For example, say your mobile users are struggling with your main menu but only on Android OS. You’ll want to know early on so you can fix it quickly.

Your stakeholders will also be quick to inform you of issues like discrepancies in your branding or information that needs correction.

You can’t perfect a website in isolation. To find and remedy flaws, your site needs to be used by your target audience and your stakeholders.

5. You’ve pushed your launch date off more than once

Websites rarely launch on time, usually because developers set launch dates according to unreasonable client expectations. If you’ve pushed your launch date out more than once, you either need to be more realistic about your time frame or just launch with what you’ve got.

Don’t let postponing your website launch become a habit each time you find something that isn’t perfect. Postponing your launch gives your competitors the advantage.

You’ll never be ready – launch quickly

Launch your website quickly to get a head start generating leads, if nothing else. Once you launch, you can spend as much time as you want perfecting your logo, adding content, and tweaking your design.

Published: May 12, 2020
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Jenna Cyprus

Jenna Cyprus is a freelance writer and business consultant who covers business, technology, and entrepreneurship. She's lectured for several universities, and worked with over 100 businesses over the course of the last 15 years. She's a mother of two kids, and loves to go camping, hiking, and skiing with her family.

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