Congratulations!
You’ve made your first digital product.
Now how do you market that ebook, or pdf guide, or online course, or whatever you’ve made.
Or maybe you haven’t finished making your product yet, but you’re thinking ahead to
the marketing part.
You planner, you.
Fortunately, I’ve put together some marketing tips in this video that will help you get
folks excited about buying your product even if you haven’t finished making it yet.
Let’s get into it.
Welcome to “First sale to full scale” a 10 video series that covers the journey
from making your first digital product to running a full-scale online business.
This is video 4 of the series and today I’m going to share our top 5 strategies to help
you market your digital product and get people eager to buy.
Let’s jump into the first strategy.
Strategy number 1: Email marketing Topping our list is one of the most effective
marketing strategies and that’s email marketing.
If you haven’t already built an email list, definitely check out the first video in this
series where we talk about how to find an audience and build your email list.
Email marketing is still a highly effective marketing channel, and with email automation,
you can build a sales funnel that will continue to market and sell your product while you
sleep.
For most digital products, we recommend creating some kind of lead magnet to get people to
sign up for your list, and then using a 5 email drip sequence to sell your product.
That’s a series of 5 emails that will go out to new subscribers automatically on a
schedule with each email is designed to pull the subscriber further and further down the
funnel, so that by the last email, they’re ready to buy.
In this video, we go in-depth on the 5-email-drip-sequence and how to set that up in Podia.
For now, I’ll explain the purpose of each of the 5 emails.
Email 1: Introduce and engage - Use this first email as an opportunity to introduce yourself
and ask a specific question related to the problem they might be experiencing.
Email 2: Share Key Insights - In this email you’ll share specific knowledge or insights
that solve the problem you mentioned in your previous email.
Email 3: Reveal your solution - Now that your new subscriber trusts you and sees you as
an expert, explain how your product can solve their problem.
This is what we call a soft sell.
You’re not trying too hard to get them to buy, but if they’re convinced and ready,
you want to give them the opportunity.
Email 4: Overcome objections - Use this email to address some of the common concerns or
questions that might make them feel hesitant or hold them back from buying your product.
Email 5: The final pitch - If they’ve made it this far and you’ve done a good enough
job answering their objections, it’s time to sell, sell, sell!
We recommend scheduling your first email to go out as soon as they sign up for your list,
with the others following in no more than 2 or 3 day increments.
You could even send them out daily.
Many people join an email list already primed to buy, so don’t let too much time pass
before you turn those subscribers into customers.
Strategy number 2: Guest post Guest posting for an online publication or
another creator with an established following can be a great way to introduce yourself to
a new audience.
This strategy can work as a way to build your email list as well as selling your digital
product.
On the Podia site, we’ve got a great article with best practices for making the most of
this strategy.
I’ll link to it in the description so you can check it out.
For now, let me cover some of the highlights.
Find creators or publications with a following that looks like your target audience.
The more alike your audiences, the more value you’ll be able to provide and the better
your chances of winning over some new folks.
Center your proposal around providing their audience value.
The next best thing to directly providing value to our audiences is pointing them to
people or resources that will help them.
Offer yourself with no strings attached.
More often than not, the person or publication for whom you’re guest posting will give
you an opportunity to tell people who you are and where they can find you online.
In some cases, they’ll even encourage you to make a sales pitch.
Don’t go in expecting this, but be ready to sell if they give you the opportunity.
Don’t just go after the big names.
While it’s definitely possible to work your network and connect with someone who has hundreds
of thousands of followers, marketing data suggests that guest posting is most effective,
meaning you get a higher percentage of engaged subscribers, when guest posting for Micro-Influencers,
or influencers with an audience size between 1000 and 100,000.
It’s important to note that while this is a powerful strategy, building the relationships
necessary to make it work takes time, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a ton of
yes’s right away.
Strategy number 3: Host a free webinar Webinars are a fun and engaging way to sell
your digital product.
They’re similar to the email marketing strategy in that you typically offer some kind of free
value to get people to show up, then use the webinar as a kind of live sales funnel, encouraging
attendees to buy your product by the end of the session.
We made a whole series about webinars including equipment recommendations and tips for making
them more engaging, which you can check out here.
For now, just remember these tips:
Get people to attend by promising to solve a small problem related to your product.
Be sure to fulfill your promise with the content of your webinar.
Explain how your product could solve a bigger or related problem.
Consider offering some kind of bonus or deal to people who buy your product within a certain
window.
And a bonus tip for webinars.
Live webinars can be really engaging, but pre-recorded webinars can be just as useful
as a sales tool, or even as a stand-alone digital product.
Strategy number 4: Get customer reviews Reviews provide a vital piece of the marketing
puzzle: social proof.
But how do you get customer reviews before you’ve gotten customers?
Two words: Beta-version.
Find a group of 15-20 people.
These could be people in your audience, friends, or even family, but try to get folks who are
most like your target audience.
Invite them to be a part of a special group who gets access to the “beta-version”
of your digital product in return for their honest review.
Most people will be excited to get access and happy to share their review, though you
may need to give them a gentle nudge.
When asking for a review, ask for specific feedback about their experience with your
product.
Ask them for stories of how it helped them or solved their problem.
You can use these reviews on social media, in your email marketing, in your webinars,
and most importantly, on your sales page, which is what we’re going to talk about
next.
Strategy number 5: Build a sales page Even before you’ve finished making your
product, you can build a sales page and even start getting sales prior to launch.
In the next video in this series, we’re going to do a deep dive into what makes an
effective sales page.
For now, in addition to a big beautiful buy button, consider including the following:
A product description.
When describing your product, focus the content on your potential customer’s problem and
the specific way in which your problem solves it.
Testimonials.
Social proof helps potential customers feel like they’d be making a smart decision by
purchasing your product.
Frequently asked questions.
Take this as an opportunity to address common concerns, questions, and objections.
A creator bio.
It may seem like talking about yourself on a sales page would be counter-intuitive, which
is why your creator bio is not going to be about you, but about your customer.
Or put another way, it’s about how you became aware of their problem, and what qualifies
you to create a solution.
An email list sign-up.
Not everyone who visits your sales page will be ready to buy right away, but that doesn’t
mean they won’t be in the future.
Your email list provides a way for them to stay connected to you, opening up the possibility
that they’ll buy something from you when they’re ready.
And those are our top 5 strategies for marketing your digital product.
If you have an effective marketing strategy we didn’t mention, tell us about it in the
comments below.
[Next] In the next video we’ll go into even more depth on building an effective sales
page, but for now if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments.
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.