It’s estimated that only 55% or only a little more than half of new digital products will
actually succeed in turning a profit.
Some estimates put that number as low as 15%, and with those odds, trying to sell a digital
product can feel like a gamble.
In this video we’ll share strategies to help you fight the odds and make a digital
product that not only sells, but sells faster.
Let’s get into it.
Hello creators!
I’m Ben Toalson from Podia where we empower creators like you to make a living doing what
you love.
The idea of making money selling a digital product is really attractive, but it can take
a long time to actually get your product to market and once it’s there, how do you know
if your product idea will actually sell?
With the following strategies we’re going to answer that question and help you make
sales faster.
Strategy # 1:Talk to your audience
One of the best ways to learn what people will spend money on is by starting a dialogue
with them.
If you’ve already built an audience, there may be some great ideas just waiting to be
discovered.
To tap into your audience, follow these three tips:
Look at previous interactions There’s a good chance that past comments
or conversations hold clues to problems you could solve for your audience.
Look at some of your past content.
Were there any topics that really struck a cord and got people engaged?
Did you share something that got people really fired up?
That may be a great starting point.
Ask open-ended questions about problems your audience faces.
Think about the problems you typically address with your content and come up with questions
you could ask your audience to help you dig a bit deeper.
For example, if your content focuses on obedience training for dogs, you could say, “Tell
me about some of your dog’s behaviors that cause you the most trouble right now.”
This can begin a dialogue that might lead you to a more specific problem you could solve
with a digital product.
Share your idea for a product and see how people respond
If you already have a product idea in mind, talk about it and see what people say.
If you get crickets, it may be a signal that there’s not really a market for what you
are offering, but if people enthusiastically flood your comments section, you may be on
to something.
If you don’t have an audience, it’s okay to go to other creator’s comments sections
or forums where your topic is discussed and interact with people.
Now, this isn’t the best place to try to sell your idea, but it’s a great place to
ask questions and try to better understand what kind of solution people are looking for.
In some cases, people may have commented literally asking for a solution to a specific problem.
Strategy #2: Solve a smaller, more specific problem
Once you have an idea of the kind of solution you’d like to build for your customers,
take a step back and see if you can provide a smaller, more specific solution.
For example, maybe you want to build an online course about “How to produce an amazing
podcast,” but as a first step, you could offer a mini-course or digital download about
“How to choose a podcast theme that will resonate with people” that would serve as
a faster solution to one aspect of making a podcast.
There are several benefits to this approach.
First, it’s easier to promise results.
By providing a strong solution to a smaller problem, you’ll be able to speak with more
confidence to its effectiveness.
Second, and this may seem obvious, but you can get a smaller product to market faster.
This means you can make money faster and also get feedback sooner about whether or not your
product is something you can build on to make a larger solution.
Third, solving a smaller problem is a faster way to build trust with your audience.
If you can provide a small yet effective solution, they’ll trust you enough to buy a product
that solves a bigger problem down the road.
Finally, while a smaller solution may not make you as much money, it does provide some
important information about how interested people are.
This could become your doorway into a conversation with your customers in which you’re essentially
being paid to gauge interest in a larger solution.
Strategy #3: Start selling before you’ve made your product
Why wait to make money until you’ve made your product when you could start earning
money before you’ve made it?
How do you do that?
By pre-selling your product.
One of the best ways to validate a product idea is for people to actually pay you for
it, and it doesn’t have to be finished in order for you to make money.
This is a great option especially if you already have an engaged audience.
Do all of the things you’d normally do to market your product as if it was finished,
things like making a sales page, writing a product description, designing the product
graphics or artwork, and most definitely, set up a way for people to buy.
If you make an online course or digital download, you can easily pre-sell your product through
Podia.
Once you’ve created your product, you just go into settings and set a future start date,
and you’re all set.
If you do a great job articulating your customer’s problem and convince them that your product
is the right solution, people will be happy to buy before it’s released.
As a bonus, having a deadline can be a great motivator to get that thing finished.
Speaking of getting that thing finished, how do you know when your product is done, I mean,
really perfect and ready to share with the world?
Will this leads us to strategy #4: Launch a beta or MVP
Well the good news is your product is never going to be perfect, but your goal is not
to launch the perfect product, but to make a product in the first place.
As a wise person once said, “You gotta make somethin.’
This is where I’d like to introduce you to the concept of your MVP.
MVP stands for minimum viable product, and is a term you may have heard before that means,
the most basic version of your product that still solves your customer’s problem.
This is similar to the idea of solving a smaller problem, but is focused more on the packaging
and delivery of the solution.
So if you plan to make an online course, for example, you may envision making a full-production
video based course with cool titles and graphics, but your minimum viable product could be a
presentation based online course.
Another similar approach is to launch a beta version of your product.
If your product is released as a beta, most people understand that’s not the final version
of the product and don’t really care as long as it’s still effective at solving
their problem.
Now I know what you’re thinking, you really want to make a great first impression and
put something out that’s top of the line.
But the most important question you can ask is, can I produce the same result for my customer
with a simpler version of this product?
If the answer is yes, start there.
You can always work your way up to your original vision, but determining your MVP is the fastest
way to get your product to market, start producing results for your customers, and start making
those sales.
Strategy #5:Gather feedback and refine your product
The sooner you put your product out there, the sooner you can get feedback about it and
find opportunities to improve it.
When you’ve finally launched your product, it can be tempting to think, that’s it!
I’ve done it!
It is finished!
But my friend, you’ve only just begun.
Maintaining open lines of communication with your customers makes it possible for them
to share the ways your product has worked for them, and the ways your product could
be improved to be an even better solution.
At Podia, all of our plans come with our messaging feature, a live chat tool that you can use
to communicate directly and in real time with your customers.
If you really want your product to be the best solution, make it easy and convenient
for people to share their feedback with you.
Open up your DMs, make a post and ask for people to comment, share an email address.
The more data you can gather about how people are using and experiencing your product, the
more equipped you’ll be to take that information and refine your product to make it great.
Launching a digital product is no small task, but following these tips will hopefully lead
you to a great product idea and get you that much closer to seeing it become a reality.
What kind of digital product have you made or plan to make?
Let me know in the comments.
If you found this video helpful and you want more content like this, click the subscribe
button and hit the notification bell so you’ll be sure not to miss any future videos.
Thank you for watching and I’ll see you next time.