What is the essence of creating a digital product if it is not to sell it?
Sometimes last year, I created an eBook that sold only two copies. A close friend bought one and the other was from a supporter.
So, I know how frustrating it is to not sell your digital products when you have spent precious time researching, writing, and creating the product.
In this post, I have written eleven ways that will help you sell more of your digital product as it helped me and you know what’s cool?
You don’t have to spend a dime. I mean it. Everything is absolutely free.
But I have to tell you this. In digital marketing, you either spend money or spend time or both.
That means you will need to spend time doing the tips in this article maybe not lots of it.
If you’re still with me, that means you are really serious about increasing your sales. So let’s begin.
Before you begin to jot things down, let’s do some real questioning.
I need you to answer these questions as honestly as possible, this will help you discover what you need in your online business vis-à-vis digital product.
Is it to increase the sales of the current product(s) or create another digital product(s)?
3 Questions to help you decide your digital product fate
1. Do you have an audience?
This is a very important question to ask yourself. It is always the audience first, not you, not your product.
Audience first.
So do you have an audience? If no, go find one. If yes, good for you but another smaller question to ask yourself is “do your audience trust you enough?”
You would not do business with a stranger, would you? I mean you don’t know if the person is a scammer or a liar so you definitely will not involve yourself.
The same goes for your audience.
No one is going to buy from you (except your mom) if they do not trust you. There is too much scam online and people are scared that they can’t buy from anyone.
The way out is for you to have an audience and make them trust.
2. Are you selling the right product?
Audience first again
You have an audience and they trust you enough to buy from you but are you giving them what they need?
I love what Sunny Lenarduzzi said about buying. “People pay for transformation not information”
This means people do not buy information, they want to transform their lives. Transform their lives and they would hand over their hard-earned money to you.
Is what you are selling informing your audience or transforming their lives? Think about it.
Also, consider the format of your digital product, some products are meant to be in a video format not eBook. You need to know which format is right for your product.
3. Do you have a marketing strategy?
After creating what your audience needs, you need to create a marketing strategy. In it, you write down a step by step approach to market your product.
An important thing to remember when drawing out a strategy is your customer’s persona.
A customer persona or buyer persona is a fictional description that represents the key traits of a segment of your audience based on the data you’ve collected.
Basically, it is the representation of the person that will buy from you.
I prefer to distinguish my customer persona from my audience persona, your customer is a segment from your audience.
Think about this,
Your audience is a group of beginner golfers who want to learn how to swing like a pro that means every beginner golfer will fall into your audience.
When you create a product for beginner golfers say a video that explains everything in detail, do you know that not every one of your audience will buy it.
You need to know those that will buy and that is your customer persona.
Now that you have answered the questions, I assume you are ready to increase your sales.
Let’s dive in
12 Way to sell more digital products
1. Edit your sales page
This is also called your landing page. It is where your audience gets to read everything about your product before making the decision to buy.
If you do not have a sales page for your product, you need to create one now, like right now.
I’m not joking, go create a sales page.
This page is so important that everything on it needs to be good enough to persuade your audience to open their wallet (and really give you money).
And that is where your skill as a copywriter comes in (if you have the skill).
Have a bad copy on your sales page and your audience walks away without regret but with a good copy, your audience will drop their money with a smile.
Let’s see what’s next
2. Adjust your marketing plan
Earlier in this article, I asked you to ask yourself if you have a marketing plan. I assume you do, now it is time to revisit it.
Check out what is working for you and what is not working.
Keep your eyes on this part of your business because you need to always adjust and notice what is working for you so that you can do more of it and increase your sales.
3. Create a blog post
Who said you cannot use a blog to increase sales?
According to a study conducted by Hubspot, companies that published over 16 blog posts per month received almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that published between 0-4 times per month.
The same study concluded that companies with more blog posts received approximately 4.5 times more leads than companies with less.
Your blog post can be a way to increase sales of your product. It is a great way to showcase the benefits of your product to your blog readers and audience.
Usually, a blog post should either entertain, educate, or persuade your audience or all three hence you should leverage on that.
You also get to build trust in your audience when you give them value in a blog post hence they believe in you and want to buy from you even without your advertising.
4. Create an affiliate system
Affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission for selling someone else’s product.
In this case, you are the affiliate, not the marketer hence you are the one giving out the commission.
Talk to people in your niche (influencers, consumers, experts) and let them know they can earn when they promote and make a sale.
That is how to create an affiliate system.
5. Create a contest and offer a giveaway
Online contest and giveaway is a great way to connect with your audience and build trust.
A lot of businesses and brands are keying into the giveaways not because it is popular but because they understand how it can increase their sales and awareness.
6. Promote to your email subscribers
If you have not been building your email list as an online business owner, you are missing out on a massive opportunity to increase your sales.
There is a lot to gain from smart email marketing. Billions of emails are sent out across the world on a daily basis.
99 percent of consumers use email every single day (Hubspot) and 58 percent of consumers check their email before doing anything online (OptinMonster).
The above stats show that you can promote your digital product to your audience via email. These five tools will help you in your email marketing business.
Your social media is not just for pictures of your cat and dog. Promote your product on your social media accounts.
I personally love Instagram because it is visual-oriented (I love visuals) plus I understand marketing on Instagram more than any other social media.
That’s not the point, the point is
Promote your digital products on social media.
8. Promote on Facebook groups
Look for Facebook groups where your audience are members, join and promote your product.
Wait. You cannot just promote your product in someone else’s group, that’s rude plus no one will buy from you.
You need to become an active member of the group, give members a reason to trust you by delivering value, and then promote your product.
9. Include testimonials
You are more likely to buy a product when someone tells you about their experience with the product. You won’t buy a product no one has used.
People want to be sure others with similar problems have used the product and they want to know the result.
Include testimonials in your landing page, emails, sales copy, anywhere possible to influence your audience’s decision.
This brings me to the next point.
10. Collaborate with influencers and expert
Leveraging on the influence of people who have gained the trust of your audience already is a great way to not only make sales but also give your brand visibility.
Try to locate with influencers or experts in your niche, make sure they already have the audience and find a way to collaborate with them.
11. Create a sense of urgency
Some of your audience are still in the decision-making stage, they are thinking “should I buy this right now?”
It is your job to help them make that decision quickly and to your own benefit.
You can do that by creating a sense of urgency.
Tell them the product comes at with a limited offer, a discount that expires soon, a limited stock, whatever you think will push them to hurry.
12. Simplify your checkout process
You and I don’t like taking too much time in doing something likewise for your audience.
The technology age has come with short attention lifespan so everyone wants something done with the shortest possible time.
According to research by the Baymard Institute, 27 percent of cart abandonment are due to a complicated or extended checkout process.
Keep it simple, make it super easy for your customers to purchase your product.
Conclusion
Whether it is an eBook or an online course or template, whatever the type of digital product that you create or have created your goal is to get it into more hands as possible.
To do that, you have to make sure you are available to do the work. It is not going to happen at one try. It is not a one-time attempt.
You need to keep at it, try everything (well, you don’t have to), and notice what works for you. When you figure it out, note it and stick to it.
The most important thing for you to note is that marketing online is a function of trust. If your audience does not trust you enough, they would buy from someone else.
Take your time to understand your audience, gain their trust before selling to them.
Abayomi Afolayan is a freelance writer and content marketer. He writes about online business and content marketing. Get in touch with him on his blog yomisblog.com and Instagram @abayomi_afolayan
