How to Market Digital Products
You've put in the effort to develop your first (or newest) digital product -- congratulations! The next thing, of course, is to advertise the item and get it in front of the people you created it to serve.
Promoting digital goods and making sales can be difficult However, there are methods you can apply to get in touch with as many potential customers and make a good revenue. In this article will be taught some of the promotional strategies you can implement to get the ball rolling.
skip ahead:
- What exactly are digital products?
- 12 methods to advertise digital products and increase sales
- Sell your digital goods and gain more sales
First, let's define digital goods?
Considering how many people consume information online -- 5.18 billion people, that is to say, 5.18 billion people. numerous entrepreneurs transform their knowledge or expertise, however it is to create digital goods that they are able to sell to customers. The digital goods include:
- eBooks
- Video courses
- Music files, audio files
- Templates for graphic and web sites
- Photos and videos from Stock
- Software programs
- Mobile applications
- Coaching packages
- Podcasts
- Memberships
12 ways to promote digital goods and generate sales
To promote your digital items and increase sales, follow these ways to go about it:
Build an online shop or website
The first step for marketing your digital products is creating a virtual shopfront or website which will direct customers to where they can buy from you.
There are a myriad of methods to do this. There are online store builders like Shopify as well as Gumroad. These feature-rich platforms permit you to create online stores completely from scratch, without any programming skills required. These store builders allow you can sell all kinds of digital goods, such as:
- eBooks
- Online video courses
- Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
- Music and audio files
- Memberships
- Digital art
- Videos and photos from stock
- Website templates
- Event tickets, etc.
Gumroad caters to beginners of all levels, as shown by their slogan, "Go from zero to $1". Shopify, on the other on the other hand, is designed to cater to individuals who have a wide range of experiences.
They both offer a vast variety of templates for online stores as well as a drag and drop website editor that lets you modify templates according to your requirements for branding. Additionally, they offer tools to assist you in driving traffic to your store. Shopify, in particular, allows you to download add-on apps to enhance the functionality of your store as well as integrate with third party apps to simplify processes.
Another platform you can use to build an online storefront or website are:
In contrast to Shopify, Gumroad, and , these platforms are completely free to use. But they're self-hosted solutions which means you'll have to buy:
- Domain names ($10-20/year)
- Hosting for Web ($3-30/month, contingent on plans and platform)
- Premium Theme ($100-200 One-time fee)
They allow you to create any kind of website you want, and you can add eCommerce functionality by downloading plugins like WooCommerce, EasyDigitalDownloads, and MemberPress.
Connect to an online market
If you're a beginner at designing and selling digital items You might wish start by joining a marketplace before you start your own site or store. Some online marketplaces you can join are:
- Amazon is used for eBooks and audiobooks
- eBay - for all kinds of digital products
- iTunes is a platform for songs, podcasts, and videos
- Envato - for template designs for websites and graphics video and stock images and royalty-free songs
- Udemy is a platform for online classes generally
- Creative Market : fonts, graphics, and templates for creative projects
However, the downsides that are associated with marketplaces is:
- They usually take a commission from every sale that you make
- Your products are placed between similar products by other designers. This reduces your chances of making as much money as you can.
Create a compelling sales page for your product
This is a factual aspect of selling digital items The first time you sell digital products, your customers won't know who you are, so they're less likely to buy from you until you explain to your customers why they should. This is particularly true when you offer eBooks or online courses.
Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need to be a proficient copywriter to create a captivating sales page. All you need to do is address this question in relation to your prospective customer: Is this item right for me?
There is no need to list every aspect of your digital product. Instead, focus on:
- What can your product do to help them solve their problems
- Why should they choose this product (instead of other similar products available)
Here's a sample sales page created with the intention of promoting an instructional course. Notice how the copy over the fold is clear about who the creator of the course would like to target, i.e. educators looking to utilize their teaching skills in high-level establishments.
Showing prospects that other real-life customers have used your product and benefited by it is one of the best ways to convert them to paying customers.
Why? because you're not the sole person who is proving your product's value and value; others are also confirming it, too. They think: "If this can work for other people, then it could be effective for me too".
Optimize your website for search engines
If you're trying to execute a promotion strategy so strong that you'll still selling on autopilot months ( or even for years) following the implementation and implementing it, you should try searching engines optimization (SEO)
There are three types of SEO: on-page, off-page, and technical.
On-page SEO involves using niche- or product-related keywords in web content. To figure out the right terms to incorporate into your pages for sales or product, ask yourself: If someone wanted to find my product then what term(s) would they type into Google?
These terms are your keyword. Keyword or SEO tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Ubersuggest to discover related keywords and their search volumes. Once you have the keywords you want to use, include them in your titles and subheadings, body copy, URL, meta descriptions images alt text, etc. As Google's crawlers scan the page, they'll know what it's about and rank it appropriately.
Finally, the term "technical SEO" refers to making a site or server more efficient to enable search engine spiders to crawl and index your website effectively. This involves increasing page speed and user experience and structuring web data.
Design a content marketing funnel
In the event that you're selling your digital product via a website (as opposed to a marketplace), you can create blogs video, blog posts, or social media posts that educate the public about your industry and the product(s).
Just like your product pages You can also optimize your blog posts to be search engine friendly by using keywords too. If your products pages aren't ranked, your target audience can nevertheless find you via the blog content that ranks.
As well as driving traffic and leads to your website, pertinent content also helps you build credibility and make yourself appear as an expert in your industry.
Build an organic social media presence
"You can just press record on TikTok but it does not need to be perfect." she says "It's authentic and real, and people know me to be a transparent and genuine person."
To grow your social media accounts Create and share material (images carsousels, images, short videos, lengthy videos infographics, etc.) which educate the public about your niche or industry, tell your reasons for starting to create products in that niche and promote the benefits of these products. If you have customer reviews that you have shared, make sure to share them on your social media platforms.
It may seem like your growth is slow at first, but If you regularly post content users will eventually flock to your page. As they do, interact with them and build friendships by liking and responding to their posts, sharing their posts, as well as giving shout-outs to those who have purchased your products.
Run pay-per-click ads
Building an organic presence on social media will take a while before you start reaping the benefits. But if you're looking to get your product noticed by a large number of people within a brief time you can try paying-per-click (PPC) advertisements. You've probably guessed that pay-per-click (PPC) is an advertising system that requires you to only pay to advertise on websites that people are likely to click.
There are two kinds of PPC ads that include paid social media advertisements and search-related ads paid for.
When you pay for social media advertisements You're running ads across the social networks that your intended audience is using. Before you begin your campaign you'll determine the behaviors, demographic, and interests of your target audience. This will ensure that your advertisements will be displayed in the feeds of those who may purchase from you.
Paid-search ads, on the other hand let your ads be displayed on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) in the event that your targeted users conducts commercial searcheswhich means they're searching for something to buy.
To increase the chances of your PPC ads being hit, try the following:
- Utilize high-quality, visually appealing visuals in the ads
- Use compelling, but concise copy to explain the benefits for your products
- Provide a clear call-to-action that shows people the next action to take following viewing of the ad
Build an email list
Content marketing, SEO, and paid ads are all excellent ways to promote digital products, but what happens if Google as well as all other social media platforms become obsolete (or fail to function)?
The idea may sound a little flimsy, but look at what happened to popular platforms such as MySpace, Friendster, Tumblr as well as Vine. You probably haven't even thought of some of these sites for the past few years. If this happens to any of the most popular networks that you utilize to promote your product, your business will become outdated, as well. The audience you've built will disappear and you'll need to begin from scratch to build your base of customers.
Things don't stop after people give them their email addresses. It is important to maintain the relationship with them and ensure that your company is always prominent by frequently communicating relevant and helpful emails to them. To help make this process simpler, you can use email marketing software such as MailerLite, ConvertKit, and ActiveCampaign to make your emails more efficient. Additionally, you can divide your list of email subscribers according to the behavior of subscribers or interests and then send personalised mailers to every segment.
These automated emails should:
- Inform your customers about why you do what you do.
- Tell them what your product can do to help them solve their problems
- Help them learn more about your business
- Inform them about any coupons, specials or offers that they may be able to take advantage of
Use an influencer as a partner
Because influential people already have established followings, working with them can make a fantastic marketing strategy for your product. Depending on the kind of influencer you're working with as well as the size of their audience and the outcomes you're looking for, you can pay monetarily or give them freebies in exchange for them featuring your product in their content.
Another possibility is to set up an affiliate program where influencers can sign up for the purpose of promoting your product for their followers with the promise of a revenue share for any purchases made using their special affiliate links.
Whatever route you choose to pursue whether it's direct influencer marketing or affiliate marketingusing reputable influencers within your industry could help you connect with people you wouldn't have access to previously. This also positively impacts your own brand and increases your chances of converting and sales.
Build and execute an early-launch marketing strategy
What's better than promoting your digital product after launching it?
Promote your digital item prior to the launch!
The process of preparing and running a pre-launch campaign helps you generate buzz for your product before it hits the market. By doing this, you can build an online community of potential buyers who'll be ready to buy your product the minute it's launched. Not only does this help to avoid the dreadful feeling of having no sales for the first couple of days however, it will also teach how to promote your product, so the whole procedure will become simpler as you promote your product.
There are a variety of methods to attract attention for your products prior to launch. These are some of them:
- Share clues on social media about the kind of product you'll be launching
- Create posters and pictures of your forthcoming product on your site to let people know that there's an upcoming product to be released
- If your product is an eBook then you may provide your email subscribers with a link that will allow them to browse the first couple of pages
- Organize an online challenge with the winner's prize being the first access to your latest launch product
Not only does a pre-launch campaign assist you in promoting your product, but it can also give you a rough idea of how much sales to anticipate from potential customers who have expressed intent to purchase your item after the launch. Additionally, you'll build a loyal customer base to whom you can promote future products with ease.
Give discounts as well as freebies
Just like with physical products, offering discounts and freebies when you market your digital item will draw customers in and motivate them to buy.
For digital products, discounts can come as $X off on the initial purchase, and up to X% discount on Black Friday, while freebies can be a free email course, extra content and bonus chapter. You can also make smaller digital goods that can be purchased in bulk to help you sell more quantities of your primary digital item.
Apart from encouraging people to take a look at your products discount coupons and other freebies will also build your credibility and trust with customers, increasing the likelihood of word-of-mouth marketing as well as repeated purchases. It is also possible to make use of discounts and freebies in order to upsell other digital products you make.
Host a contest online
Hosting challenges and contests online isn't just a great method to connect with your existing customers. They're excellent at preparing prospective customers to be more inclined to purchase your digital products -- provided the challenge assists them in achieving a goal they're working towards.
A great example of this is Avocadu's 21-day weight loss challenge, posted in front of the public on its website.
Avocadu sells recipes eBooks as well as a weight loss program called"the Yoga Fat Loss Bible. Although Avocadu has lots of positive review from customers on its web pages for sales however, they know that consumers will more open to its paid-for products if they can try it at no cost. This is what the challenge to lose fat is for.
Any person who takes on the challenge for free and loses weight will be more likely to purchase the Fat Loss Bible program than someone who just read reviews about it.
For a successful challenge or competition, make sure three things:
- The participants are there for a specific period of time. For Avocadu, it's 21 days. For you, it could be five.
- The players play by making use of (or being urged to make use of) your digital items or lead magnets.
- The challenge gives you room to upsell your paid digital product (or all versions of the lead-generating product) eventually.
Sell your digital items to increase your sales
Selling digital products could be a very profitable side hustle. But, the product you sell won't simply sell itself by a new. You have to make the effort to promote it to your target audience.
The strategies for promotion outlined in this article can help to sell your product however you'll have to put in the effort. There's no need to implement all 12 tips at once Choose a couple at first and experiment. It may take time before you see results however, if you're persistent and consistent, you'll see the results as you figure out the advertising strategies that work best for your product.
Check out our strategy guide for free here for additional tips!