This year’s Brighton Summit is all about desire – and turning this desire into growth.

To do this you need to start dreaming big. You need to aim well beyond the ordinary if you are going to achieve the extraordinary.

Nowhere is this truer than with website launches.

Let’s look at how you can create a dream site launch – and avoid becoming just another drop in the ocean.

Houston, we have a problem…

After months of battling over navigation, page design, copy, image selection, calls to action and video creation your website is just about there.

• It’s on the landing pad and ready to launch (10. 9, 8, 7, 6…)
• The countdown starts as you nervously watch (5, 4, 3…)
• The engines ignite (2, 1…)
• And KA-BOOM (We have lift off…)

But, wait a minute:

• Where are the visitors?
• Where are the enquiries?
• Where are the leads?
• Where are the sales?

Give me that phone!

“Houston, we have a problem.”

Launch problems

The problem is that, as crowded as cyberspace may be, it can still suddenly feel very lonely out there.

The problem is that, as crowded as cyberspace may be, it can still suddenly feel very lonely out there.

This you have to build yourself.

That’s why you need to plan your launch like a dream rather than just go through the motions before you press that button.

And we’re going to show you how to do it.

Why you need a launch plan

Without a launch plan, you’re only preaching to an empty hall – and that hollow echo won’t pay the bills. So sit down, spaceman, take the helmet off and forget all that rocket science.

Let’s make things simple for you.

You are now a caveman, and it is getting dark, so you will need a fire to last the night for warmth and protection.

You smack away at your two pieces of flint until, at last, you get a spark. You blow on your tinder and it lights.

But, you have no logs.

Your ignited fluff just smokes and goes out. Meanwhile, somewhere in the distance, two sabre-toothed tigers bay hungrily.

If you are going to launch your website with a bang, rather than a whimper, you are going to need to think a little bigger.

You need a pile of logs as well as a spark.

The Neanderthal launch (or the launch basics)

Of course, there are certain things you must do when you launch your site.

To be honest, important as they are, they are just like the sparks from flint: absolutely necessary but, without logs, unlikely to set the world alight.

We want to show you how to dream up a pile of gasoline-soaked logs that will truly create fireworks rather than a tiny bit of hot air.

Find out more about the launch basics:

A handy checklist of launch basics can be found here.

We would add to this a heavy dose of local SEO, if you are serving local audiences and have a physical presence near them.

How to launch like a dream

Useful, authoritative content

What will set your site alight from day one?

The answer is a steady stream of visitors, a dose of publicity and a heap load of backlinks.

Here’s how you can get all of these: be useful.

Simple as that.

Just two words: be useful.

Think about your audience and provide them with something truly useful.

It could be an article, a video, an app, a tool or a series of resources.

But it must hit the nail on the head.

And you must think big.

This must be authority content that answers genuine needs and does so in a way that is hard for anyone else to beat.

Hint – this requires a hefty investment of time and resources.

It needs to be something that people will share, will download, will link to and will talk about. The best way to do this is to create something that people genuinely appreciate.

BuzzSumo have helpfully outlined the sort of content that gets shared the most.

Here are some of their recommendations:

1. People like to share content – facts, images and videos – that surprises, inspires, challenges or amuses. This includes new research and trends, particularly if they challenge current perceptions.
2. Curating stunning picture list posts gets the thumbs up too.
3. Quizzes, particularly interactive ones, get liked.
4. Warn them or inform them for guaranteed engagement.
5. Longer content wins pretty much hands down.

They summarise by identifying four elements of viral success:

(Note this is for B2C marketing, you can find their analysis of B2B here).

The more of these elements you can pack in to your useful content the better.

Neil Patel breaks all of this down into some concrete examples for you in his ‘11 ways to get authority links for your new blog’.

The point is not just to get shared but to be discussed online. This creates links to your new site and helps to establish its authority on the search pages.

It’s a virtuous circle whereby the shares you get leads to more visits, which leads to more shares and more links, which leads to more visits.

And so it goes on.

Find out how to create super-useful content:

Tips from BuzzSumo can be harvested here for B2C and here for B2B.

Neil Patel’s step-by-step guide to creating content that is truly king is here.

Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique is a useful model to use to make authoritative content.

Influencers, publicity and PPC

It’s no good having the best resource or tool out there if no-one knows about it.

Creating the content alone will not skyrocket your visitor numbers.

If your super-useful content is your logs, then it’s time to tip some fuel on them and see what happens.

Instead of promoting your new site per se, promote your headline content.

Identify websites, communities, bloggers, authority figures, organisations and journalists who are dominant in your sphere to take a look at what you have.

Use online marketing tactics, outreach and PR to achieve this. Create guest posts around your content’s theme to further your reach.

And watch the flames rise.

If it all needs some extra stoking, you can use AdWords, or Facebook PPC, to get things moving a little faster. It’s worth the spend as momentum creates more momentum.

Find out how to pour some gasoline on your logs:

There are both content and promotion ideas in this useful ‘how to’ for launching a website.

Useful ways to find and reach out to influencers from Kissmetrics.

Discover the essentials of a press release about a new site.

Find a wealth of PPC tricks and tips at Wordstream.

Welcome to the stratosphere

You have now successfully moved from a Neolithic approach to launching a site to creating a rocket that will burst into cyberspace.

Let us know if there is indeed life on Mars!