Digital products are one of the fastest ways for businesses to sell an intangible asset and make money. Today, the popularity of digital products can be attributed to the accessibility and ease of delivery of the products. No wonder, the digital products market is expected to cross $240 billion by the end of 2022.
New players are entering the digital battlefield to gain benefits from the booming market, leading to increased competition. Each digital product owner needs to put their product out in the market and promote it right to gain success.
This is where this marketer’s guide can come in handy.
This write-up talks about digital products and then goes on to cover the various steps required to sell a product from a marketing perspective. In the end, you will also find some simple yet effective marketing tips to sell digital products in 2021.
What is a digital product?
In general terms, a digital product is anything that does not have a physical presence and is an intangible asset. Such a product can be sold on digital platforms for people to download and stream online. These are intangible assets that give returns.
What makes digital products beneficial for many businesses is that it does not need new product development for each sale. You can invest in one-time development costs and can sell the services or their licenses for its use.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to supercharging a digital product. And with new technologies, the options keep increasing.
There are different types of digital products that you can sell in today’s digital ecosystem. Some of these are:
- Software: Hire software developers or build a development team to write codes for software. You can then sell digital products to users. These could be WordPress Plugins, remote working tools, task managers, or any other type of software with a market need. There are several software as a service products/SaaS product ideas that you can work on to get started with your digital product.
- eBooks: While paperback books are still a charm, there is a growing inclination towards eBooks. You can create an eBook and build a website to sell the same. You can even sell it on different platforms like Amazon Kindle to get amazing returns.
- Audio and Video: Another type of digital product that is fast gaining popularity is audio and video product. These could be anything like lectures, study material, fitness audios/videos, reusable music, and much more.
- Photographs: Several online platforms and websites sell high-quality pictures. If you also have a knack for photography, selling digital pictures can be a great idea to start selling your digital product.
- Courses: With the pandemic hitting all aspects of life, the way people studied and received education has changed. You can now sell online courses or even ask for membership to get access to each segment of the course.
These are some of the popular types of digital products that you can sell online today. You can contact product development companies to build your digital product and start selling it online. But how do you sell a digital product?
Let’s find out below.
Steps to start selling digital products
When it comes to selling digital products, there is a lot that marketers need to know. The most important of it is about the sales funnel described in inbound marketing. This is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to capture more leads and boost sales.
The inbound marketing sales funnel includes different stages like awareness, consideration, buying, and then loyalty. There is a need for the product owner to keep these stages in consideration while selling the product. It will not just help in boosting sales but also in keeping users engaged throughout the process.
However, this also follows a step-by-step process. So, let’s find out the steps you need to follow to sell your digital product effectively.
#1. Start With Creating Buyer Personas
The first step is always about analyzing the target market and researching the audience. This will enable you to create a strategy that is focused on the targeted buyers.
Let us understand by defining what a buyer persona is. In simple terms, a buyer persona is a fictional character or representation of a particular segment of your target audience. To define it, you must analyze demographics like the age group, browsing patterns, behavior, background, motivation, goals, challenges, pain points, etc. The data can be collected from the existing customer data and competitor data.
The next step is to define the various stages in the buying journey. This includes the awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage. In each of the stages, you should add the situation/context, search query, and accordingly the content that the marketing team should create.
Creating a buyer persona helps in creating a more detailed representation of your target audience to amplify your marketing efforts more effectively. You have real people instead of fake representation to create your marketing copy. With buyer personas, you will know exactly what type of content to offer and when to offer personalized marketing.
#2. Build Your Online Brand
The next step is to build the online brand. A product company without a great brand image won’t sell as much as a product with a great online presence. By brand image, here, we mean creating a feeling of familiarity with the brand name, logo, color choice, etc. It will be the way that your target audience perceives your brand.
Simple steps to building an online brand include:
- Market and audience research
- Thinking about the business name
- Creating the look, logo, slogan, etc., for the brand
- Keep promoting and building the brand as per the feedback and response received
The first three steps are clear and concrete. These can be done with some research and help from a web development company. They can help build your logo, website, and other elements of your site based on the theme you choose. However, it is the fourth step where companies with digital products get stuck.
How do you promote the online brand?
Here is how:
- Work on search engine optimization to start ranking for major keywords on search engines like Google. 49% of users surveyed by Think with Google in 2019 agreed that they used Google to find new products.
- Start a blog and continue to write informative content based on the buyer personas and the stage in their buying journey. Over 57% of companies have acquired more customers owing to their blogs.
- Guest blog on high authority sites to gain exposure and link juices to rank better.
- Don’t forget to keep your social media profile alive and buzzing. Ensure consistency through each social media platform.
#3. Create Product Excitement Pre-launch
The pre-launch time of the product is crucial for any digital product owner. Marketers need to be in full swing during this period. They need to be prepared to create excitement around the product. The best way to do this is through social media.
Social media has proven to be a great platform to create buzz for a product. All you need is to be creative and innovative with your marketing strategy. Here are some things you can do to keep your audience engaged with high excitement levels:
- Build suspense for the digital product by sharing some information but hiding main details. You can share some features of the product that will make it stand out during the pre-launch.
- Share behind-the-scenes videos of the product development. This will create excitement for the product launch. For example, if you are creating an eBook, share a few quotes or a question related to the storyline.
- Update about development and progress in the product development to create excitement regarding the launch.
- Leverage the fear of missing out or FOMO. You can launch some limited-time offers or early-bird offers to attract more customers.
- Start a countdown before the launch to keep the users informed and excited about the launch of your digital product.
- Elicit participation by hosting contests and offering discounts or limited free products before the launch.
#4. Have a Landing Page Before Sales Page
When it comes to selling digital products, most product owners feel they just need a sales page like they do for online stores. However, this shouldn’t be the case. From a marketing perspective, there should always be a landing page before the main sales page. This is because not every buyer would be there to buy. There are some who are simply browsing or considering the purchase.
A landing page will enable them to clear all doubts about digital products. It should have the features, USP, and other information that a buyer may need. Not just that, it should have a call-to-action form for those planning to buy.
This practice of having a landing page as well as a sales page will help strengthen your sales funnel and generate more sales. As digital products are not tangible entities, there is a much greater need for marketers to follow the sales funnel and offer marketing content accordingly. A landing page will help get details of the lead and can be sent out with other details regarding the product. This helps in boosting conversions and even engaging customers who are not ready to make a purchase.
Marketing tips for selling digital products
When it comes to selling digital products, marketers play a very crucial role in the entire process. While the product’s quality and the market needs are pivotal in sales, the way a marketer promotes digital products is also an important factor in success.
Here are some tips that can help marketers sell digital products and boost sales.
#1. Partner with Influencers and Micro-Influencers
Influencer marketing is gaining a lot of traction. In order to boost sales, you can get in touch with influencers and micro-influencers from the niche to try the product and promote it among their followers. This will help build trust and confidence in people to try it out.
#2. Create Buzz For The Product
The next way for marketers to sell more digital products is to create buzz. Be it by inviting guests during launch, going live, hosting an event, or through any other means, creating a buzz is imperative. Social media is one of the most effective ways to do this. Become a social bee and spread the word about your product.
#3. Choose a Name That Says What It’s Offering
In a bid to put a unique name, many product owners name their products totally different from what it’s offering. Marketers should be consulted while naming the product to ensure the name reflects what the product is all about and why customers need it.
#4. Get The Pricing Right
Pricing is another important factor in the sale of digital products. It should neither be undervalued nor be over-expensive. In fact, while marketing, marketers can also use comparison to show how investing the amount in the digital product can be more useful than in any other purchase.
#5. Host Contests
The next great marketing tip to sell digital products is to host contests. You can ask people to enter certain details to register for the contest and also share them with friends and family to increase the chances of winning. Offer giveaways or collaborate with brands to get more collective efforts put into the contest.
#6. Leverage Rewards
Who doesn’t love rewards or free gifts? Tap into this feature of human nature to increase awareness or users for your product. You can offer rewards to everyone bringing more references.
#7. Generate Reviews
The next marketing tip is to generate reviews and testimonials. People trust word of mouth and reviews/testimonials from real people. An eMarketer report suggests that product reviews are trusted 12x more than descriptions.
#8. Create Convincing Product Videos
Wyzowl reports that 84% of people were convinced to buy a new product by watching a brand’s video. Videos are going to get bigger in the coming years and will become a prime source of consuming information. Creating convincing product videos will help understand better to boost promotion and sales.
These are some effective marketing tips that you can use to boost the sales of your digital products.
Build an awesome digital product
The first step to turn an idea into a selling digital product is to build one. You can start by creating the product from scratch, hire the best team to build the product, or get remote product development.
Once the product is ready and in a beta-testing version, start with the pre-launch marketing tactics. Running contests, setting countdowns, and sharing short clips of the product can be a great move at this time. Once the product is launched, get in touch with influencers and others to collaborate on promoting the product.
The right marketing strategy holds immense importance in the sale of a digital product. Just building a product and not marketing it is never beneficial.
Guest author: Tanya Kumari leads the Digital Marketing & Content for Classic Informatics, a global web and custom software development company. She is an avid reader, music lover, and technology enthusiast who likes to be up to date with all the latest advancements happening in the techno world. When she is not working on her latest article on tech dynamics, you can find her by the coffee machine, briefing co-workers on the perks of living a healthy lifestyle and how to achieve it
The post How to Sell Digital Products in 2021: A Marketer’s Guide appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
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