Digital Product Online Business Lessons No One Tells You About
I started selling digital products in 2018, from 1-page printables to 400+ page digital planners, to 2000+ digital stickers to full-on online courses. During this time, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and gained a lot of wisdom.
I didn’t have anyone to tell me how to build my business and, to be honest, my first launching experiences were pretty unsuccessful, but that’s mainly because there was no launch. I would dedicate my time and talent to creating gorgeous digital products and then quietly drop them into my shop without telling anyone. Unsurprisingly, I barely got any sales. It didn’t take me long to learn that engagement = sales. I changed my process to start getting my audience more involved with my product creation process and what a difference it made! I send polls asking about their preferences and opinions. They feel involved and invested while at the same time I use their feedback to create products they like. Win-win.
I admit that this process took me some time to put together and eventually I learned more and more ways to grow my digital product business. I went from randomly guessing and creating products with no purpose to engaging my customers in co-creation and learning to expertly launch, market, and sell my products.
Whether you’re starting an online business, looking to make passive income, or looking at how to improve sales for your Etsy shop or digital planner business.
Here are the four essential lessons I learned in creating digital products that sell and also selling online products with ease.
Lesson 1 - Position yourself as an expert
Choose one niche and show your expertise quickly. By trying to do too many different things, you end up unfocused. When you choose a niche, you have an area to focus on and a specific customer base with the same needs to serve. This also helps to establish you as an expert in your area, so people who are looking for a product in your niche will search for you.
Share valuable and educational content so people know that you are knowledgeable. Whether you have years of product design or are just starting out, be confident that you have something to share. Write a blog, offer courses, and share videos. Your clients will love to know that they’re buying from someone who knows their stuff.
The quicker you position yourself, the more quickly your ideal client will come to you for a sale. Don’t waste time. Put your expertise out there so that the right clients can find you.
Lesson 2 - Utilize email marketing
We don’t own our social media accounts, but email lists are something you will have access to if anything happens to your social media. So, make sure you build an email list to keep your customer database safe.
A sales and nurture sequence can help you to drive sales and nurture leads and email is an essential part of that funnel. Today, it’s important to market through several different platforms. Sending reminder emails or promotional emails helps drive product sales so don’t skip it.
You can make sales from email as well as social media. Social media is flashier and more image-focused, while email is more like a steady workhorse. That steady workhorse drives sales. People do click through to sign up for courses or buy products from email promotions. Ignoring email means turning away sales and you don’t want to do that!
Lesson 3 - Have a waitlist and pre-sale your digital product
Encourage early interest in your products. It’s a rookie mistake to spend months working on a product and not tell anyone about it. Start marketing your product as soon as possible to build interest and sales. Collect emails and start building anticipation. Send out your marketing emails throughout the months or weeks before your launch so customers can become curious and excited about your new product.
If you don’t build hype around your products, no one will care! I used to just launch my products without announcing them and expect people to magically find out about them and buy them. It’s no surprise that approach doesn’t work at all!
Preparing your audience for your upcoming product is key to your success. As you build anticipation about your product, your customers can identify what needs that product can fulfill for them and even share it with other people they know.
Customers want to be involved in the process, behind the scenes. The more engaged your audience, the more sales you’ll make. When customers feel like their opinion matters and you’re building a product for them, they are more invested and more loyal to your brand. Send out polls, ask for feedback, get them involved in the product development, even if it’s something as simple as what background color they would prefer. It makes a difference.
Lesson 4 - Believe in & validate your ideas
If you see a gap in the market, be confident in that. This is a golden moment for any designer and it’s too often that we lack confidence in our ideas and let the opportunity pass us by. If you’ve identified a need that’s not being met, then you’ve tapped into something with great potential. Move forward at full steam.
If you have a desire for a product, it’s likely that others have it too. Don’t think that you’re the only one with a specific need. Others are likely missing that product in their lives too. Your job now is to fulfill that need and you’re the perfect person to do it since you know exactly the pain points it addresses.
Utilize market research as well as your own ideas. It’s always a good idea to find out what else is being offered in this area so you can see how to make your product unique and different. You might also discover related pain points you hadn’t considered before.
Have confidence. Nobody wins sitting on the sidelines. Dare to get into the game and share your talents and ideas. Believe that people need your products because they do.
Final thoughts!
When starting out in digital product selling, many people fail to market their products successfully for lack of knowledge and/or lack of confidence. I hope I managed to offer some guidance on the steps that helped me become a successful digital product entrepreneur. Learning how to market your product, building email lists, and marketing early and often are just some of the ways to be successful in digital product sales. Most of all, believe in yourself and your ideas. They are worthy of sharing with the world.
To take things a step further, check out my Digital Planner Academy program, where we’ll help you select your niche based on your zone of genius, validate your idea, create your products, launch, promote, and more!
