Creating and selling digital products can be challenging, but not if you've got the proper digital product sales funnel!
This post will serve as your roadmap through our Done With You Accelerator!
You don't have an email list to mail to and get a quick hit in revenue… You don't have affiliates you can call to mail your offer out… Nor do you usually have any data that will help you determine that your thing will sell.
If you've been in your space for a while or creating a product because you found a solution to a problem you faced, you've got a much better chance of knowing it's viable, but you still have to get the sales funnel structure right.
I'll walk you through the basics of setting up and selling digital products in this mini-tutorial. You might already be halfway down this list, and that's awesome… Good for you!
After working with hundreds of clients and launching hundreds of offers into the marketplace, this is our process for getting it done…
Step 1: The Product
The first step to selling anything online is to figure out what you should be selling. Sometimes, that's gut instinct. Sometimes, you see a need in the market that you know needs to be filled. Other times, you see a way to put your unique spin on something to make it more effective or solve a related challenge.
You need to ask yourself, "How can I best help my customers solve a problem in their lives…" Is that through a digital product, a service-related offer, or a consulting experience?
The other question you need to ask yourself is, "How do I want my business
There are plenty of things you can sell and various formats you can package them in.
You can put together the following:
- eBooks delivered as a PDF or through a Kindle/iBooks
- Video Courses fulfilled on your website or through a Learning Management System (LMS)
- Audio Courses fulfilled on your website or through an LMS
- Digital newsletter delivered regularly through email
- Membership is where members receive access to any of the formats mentioned above
Step 2: The Offer
And you'll need to create the product, too :0)
Unfortunately, most people new to building a business online think that once their product is complete, they're all done… When really, they're just getting started. The next step is selling digital products online (or offline!)
Next, you need to figure out your "offer." In simpler terms, you present an offer for acceptance or rejection.
You might offer your membership for $67 a month, your ebook for $37, or your "assisted coaching program," which gives members access to a digital course for $1,500 a month.
Your offer is where you can get creative. You can do the following:
- Single, one-time payment
- Multiple payments spread out over a payment plan
- Monthly payments for as long as your subscriber remains in your program
- Front-end downpayment with smaller monthly payments as they remain a member
- Free trials with memberships after so many days or weeks
There are lots of ways you can make your offer… You might want to bake that into your request if you wish to subscription revenue. If you'd rather have upfront cash, that's fine, too.
Step 3: The Sales Funnel
When selling digital products online, you will need a sales funnel.
A sales funnel isn't a standalone page that gets an email optin… That's called a landing page.
It is also not a standalone page with some sales copy asking for the sale—that's a sales page.
A "sales funnel" is a series of pages, sales copy, and email copy that quickly moves a prospect through the buying process and automates as much of it as possible.
Your sales funnel needs to be built for your offer. We discuss this extensively in the Convert book.
If it's a higher ticket, you'll need a webinar. You can get away with a sales video if it's the lower ticket. In both cases, you will want to have a lead magnet set up to get people converted into your email list so you can market to them in the future.
Here's an example layout of our Webinar Sales Funnel:
And here's the design of our Video Sales Letter Funnel:
Each funnel starts with a landing page giving away a free 'something' like a report or ebook.
Then, there's either a sales page with a sales video:
Or, a webinar registration page:
And, each of those sales pieces is backed up by some solid email marketing automation…
Your conversions will be better if you ask for the sale earlier. If you wait too long, your prospects won't be as engaged as they should be…
So, we create done-for-you sales funnels with our clients that capitalize on buyers ready to take action immediately AND buyers who still need some warming up!
That way, you get the fast revenue you need to re-invest in growing your business while also growing a tribe and loyal base of customers that will buy from you for months and years…
Step 4: Getting Traffic
Now, there are lots of ways to get traffic… You can write blog posts, wait for Google to index the content, and hopefully rank you somewhere favorable.
You can try to wrangle affiliates to mail for you, but you need to put up with their schedules and suffer a lot of rejection if you don't have a personal relationship with them.
You can write press releases or sit on forums answering questions and hopefully directing enough people back to your site to make a dent.
Our favorite way of getting traffic is to pay for it! This is from a guy who used to say he was allergic to paid traffic and lived for SEO'ing websites…
Now, there are many places where you can get traffic, but only a few will make sense for your offer. You can get traffic from:
- Facebook - the one most people start with because it's generally easy to set up
- Google Adwords is arguably one of the best sources of traffic on YouTube, but it is more challenging to figure out.
- YouTube Ads - solid when you're using video in your marketing
- Pinterest - very niche-specific but low cost when you use it correctly
- Native ads - works well with offers embedded in blog posts and advertorials
Also, we're happy to dive in and take a look at what the best traffic source is for you and your offer if you set up a free Action Plan call with us here:
Wrapping Up
Selling digital products is an excellent way of starting and growing a business online. The cost of fulfillment is almost non-existent. You don't need a physical location or inventory. However, you need to solve a real problem in the world and also make sure that your target market knows you exist...
Building an online business isn't a "Build it, and they will come kind of thing...
If you don't figure out how to grow your brand awareness and put people on your sales video or webinar, it will be an uphill battle no matter how much work you've put into the product.
If you'd like to jump on the phone and chat about your product, traffic sources, or sales process, please click here to set up a call with us!