So you’ve designed your first, or maybe even second or third, and you’re looking for new ideas for your next digital planner. With the rapid progression of technology, digital products are gaining popularity right now, and for good reason. You’ve likely already caught onto this if you’re continuing to design digital planners, which have great business potential in the current market. 

But like any business idea, it’s important to improve your craft over time and continually come out with new, updated designs and features. Especially in the digital planner niche, keeping up with the latest technology is a must. There’s a need for constant innovation and creativity in the digital planner market, which is something to focus on if you’re hoping to improve.

In this article, we’ll be covering the best creative ideas for your next digital planner, such as integrations, community building, and design ideas. If you’re looking to enhance the quality and value of your digital planners, continue reading for unique insights and tips. 

The Benefits of Using a Digital Planner

Though the original paper planner has served us well for decades, times are changing and technology has once again made an impact. Digital planners offer major benefits over traditional paper planner, for starters, they’re eco-friendly since you’re not using paper. 

Digital planners also provide more flexibility. No need for an eraser or new sheets of paper when you can easily rearrange or resize sections to suit your needs. If your schedule changes, just drag and drop events to new dates and times.

While traditional planners help with organization (well, that’s the whole point of them), digital planners help boost your productivity even more with built-in features like task lists, schedules, and reminders keep you on track. You can set deadlines and receive alerts so nothing slips through the cracks.

Finally, digital planners offer convenience. Your planner is accessible on all your devices, so you can plan and schedule anytime, anywhere. No more lugging around a bulky paper planner! Going digital with your planner is an easy way to streamline your life and business. Once you experience the benefits, you'll never want to go back to paper!

Creative Ideas for Your Next Digital Planner

If you’re ready to create your next digital planner, it’s time to tap into your creative spirit. The planner market is becoming more popular with the benefits it provides sellers, so standing out requires innovation. When you’re ready to start designing a new collection, try implementing these unique ideas.

1. Design Minimalistic Planners for Customizations

Minimalistic designs are perfect for customization, not to mention they already look aesthetically pleasing with a sleek and simple appearance. With a clean slate, you give your users the freedom to take their own creative liberty to transform their planner into whatever they need. 

Here’s a few features users can add for customization:

• Stickers: Offer sticker packs with icons, quotes, images and more. Your customers can place them throughout their planner to spruce it up and make it their own.

• Covers: Provide interchangeable covers in various patterns, colors and styles. Swapping out covers is an easy way for people to change the entire look and feel of their planner.

• Widgets: Include widgets like habit trackers, vision boards, budget overviews and calendars that can be rearranged or removed. By giving users options to pick and choose what works for them, they can build a planner that works for them.

A minimal design is like a blank canvas, allowing your customers to personalize their planners in creative ways that suit their needs and aesthetic. With some stickers, a new cover, and rearranged widgets, a simple planner becomes a personalized creation.

2. Provide Inserts as an Add-On

Providing inserts as an add-on to your digital planner is a great way to offer more customization for your customers. Not everyone is on the same journey or has the same needs, so inserts allow you to enhance functionality without complicating your core planner.

Inserts add functionality to the planner and could include:

• Finance trackers for expenses, income, budgets

• Meal planners and grocery lists

• Daily or weekly schedules

• Project planners

• Habit trackers

The variety and versatility of inserts allows your customers to evolve their planner as needed and add missing pages they’re looking for instead of leaving the planner altogether. Offering inserts as an additional purchase will keep your customers engaged and coming back for more.

3. Integrate Google Event Reminders

Is integrating reminders even a possibility? Many people are familiar with Google applications such as Docs, Sheets, and Drive, but Google also has a reminder feature within Calendar. 

Digital planners often have spaces to plan and organize your schedule, but there’s often no reminders. That’s why it’s unique and valuable to create a digital planner with event reminders by integrating Google Calendar, which ensures you’ll never miss an important task or commitment. The integration aspect also makes setting reminders more efficient.

Google Calendar allows you to sync with your mobile devices so reminders will alert you on your phone, desktop, or any other device. That means there are no more excuses for forgetting something because you were away from your desk! With the Google Calendar app, you can view, add, or edit events on the go.

If you’re wondering how to integrate Google Calendar into your digital planner, we teach this exact trick in our course, Reminders Mastery: Integrate Reminders With Your Digital Planner.  You’ll learn reminder integration and more through a simple 4-step process!

4. Integrate Apple Event Reminders

If you’re an Apple fan, this one is perfect for you (though no hate to Android lovers!) Similar to Google Calendar Integration, using Apple event reminders can add that extra boost to your planner that will attract more customers and add value, allowing you to price the planner higher overall.

Instead of Google Calendar notifications, you’ll be receiving Apple Calendar notifications on your iOS device. This provides a huge benefit, considering our phones are almost always with us nowadays. Your planner can become a centralized place for all your productivity and time management by using your phone as a tool to remind you of events.

To integrate these reminders into the digital planner, you’ll need to learn about shortcuts in the iOS device and set custom shortcuts and automation-based prompts. If this sounds overwhelming or you’re not sure where to start, no worries! We cover it all in the Reminders Mastery: Integrate Reminders With Your Digital Planner course, even including a bonus lesson.

5. Design an App-Like Planner Rather Than a Realistic One

Rather than designing a planner that mimics a physical planner, it’s a good idea to create one with app-like design, interface, and features. This makes your planner more user-friendly and helps you stand out among competition. 

Take a moment to think about the appearance and usability of a realistically designed planner. There are likely a high number of tabs, realistic images, and too many decorations. It feels outdated and bulky, and it looks too much like a real planner, which people don’t want anymore.

Now imagine a digital planner with an app-like design. It has buttons instead of tabs, a sleek and modern design, a navigation system, and it uses icons. From a design perspective, it’s minimalistic, yet clean. For usability, it’s so much more intuitive and easy-to-follow.

If you’re looking for guidance on how to identify app-like elements or how to incorporate them into your own planner, our Digital Planner Design Mastery course has a bonus lesson and template that walks students through how to create a unique concept and design your app-like planner.

6. More Than Planning Pages

To add additional value, your digital planner should offer more than just the standard planning pages. Include unique resources tailored to your niche and signature method, for example:

Worksheets

These aren’t necessarily “assignments”, but they’re added resources that help your customers implement your teachings. They add structure and make the planner more interactive.

Resource Pages

We recommend adding pages that include your tools, ebooks, guides, or other resources. Resource pages give your customer further support and resources to help with productivity.

Tutorials

Short video or written tutorials are always a welcome addition if your planner targets a topic that needs to be taught. Walk your customers through important concepts or methods step-by-step.

Providing these types of additional resources establishes you as an expert in your field and gives your customers a planner full of useful content and tools, not just a place to write to-do lists. 

Our Digital Planner Design Mastery course shows you how to determine what extra resources to include based on your signature method and ideal customer. The Pink Ink’s blog How to Add a Digital Planner to Your Business also provides tips, and it’s free to read through!

7. Resource Page: Tutorials, Blogs, Freebies, etc

A resource page on your website is a place to provide useful tools and information for your readers. This could include:

• Tutorials: Add step-by-step guides on how to use your digital planner. These help new buyers get started and keep them engaged.

• Blog posts: Share tips, ideas and insights related to productivity, planning, and your niche. This establishes you as an expert and gives readers valuable content.

• Freebies: Offer free checklists, workbook pages, or calendar pages that complement your paid product. This is a great way to provide value and promote your planner.

Giving your readers additional resources enhances their experience with your product and brand, and it also gives them more reasons to return to your website, increasing traffic and the potential for future sales. A well-designed resource page is a win-win for you and your customers.

8. Build a Community: Invitations and Rewards

Our final creative idea is to harness the power of community building and incentives, which are amazing ways to add value for your existing customers and draw new customers in. Community also helps encourage designers and provides support in their journey.

To get started, offer an invitation for your current customers to join your planner’s community. Explain the benefits and rewards for participating and create a private Facebook group or online forum for members to connect. You can even offer a special discount or bonus for those who join the community in the first month.

Another idea is to set up a points system where the more planners they buy or refer, the more points they earn. They can redeem points for upgrades, exclusive content, or cash back, which encourages them to buy more and spread the word about your planner to earn more points.

Reward your members for participating in the community by assigning points for:

• Sharing about the planner on social media

• Referring new members

• Posting questions, tips, or experiences in the group

• Completing surveys or reviews

A strong, engaged community will lead to more planner sales and brand loyalty. Meet your members where they are and make them feel appreciated and supported!

Implement Creative Ideas to Stand Out

With 8 new creative ideas to take your next planner to a higher level, you’re ready to get out there and start on your next project! We hope these digital planner business ideas inspire you and provide realistic tips on how to improve. Implementing all 8 tips may feel overwhelming, so start with one or two and go from there!

Whether you decide to learn integration through our Reminders Mastery: Integrate Reminders With Your Digital Planner course or you begin to build a community, we guarantee that your customers will notice the effort and continual improvement put into your planners and they’ll be back for more.

Learn and Grow from our Digital Planner Design Mastery Course

Ready to get started? We offer our Digital Planner Design Mastery course for entrepreneurs looking to learn and improve their skills in design and business. Even if you’ve already found success in this niche, there’s always room for improvement and new concepts to learn. You’d be surprised!

If you’re considering implementing the last tip, building a community, then you probably realize the importance of having a strong community that can provide support and advice. Our course provides access to an interconnected community of mentors, students, and new learners. We encourage you to sign up and watch how it helps improve your business. We’ll see you there!