Selling digital products right now is HOT! Everyone seems to be jumping on the trend, expenses are kept at a minimum, and the potential profits are high if you do it right. So Digital products are trending, and if you have been thinking about jumping on the bandwagon, then today, in the blog, I will be laying down the roadmap for you on how you can start selling digital products successfully.
After selling over 10 000 digital downloads, I have had my fair share of lessons, experimentation, and figuring out the secret ingredients to creating that perfect recipe that WORKS. Yup, I will be sharing snippets of those ingredients in this blog so keep reading if you're ready to start creating digital products that sell!
In the blog, I will be explaining these 6-steps to you and breaking them down into easy-to-digest action steps so that you can get started today.
Figure out your niche
Market research - Pinterest, creative market, Etsy
Where you want to sell
What will you use to create products
Creating your products
Marketing and selling
1. FIGURE OUT YOUR NICHE
You're not wrong if you think the digital product market is oversaturated right now. Thousands of people create similar digital designs, from Instagram engagement template packs to business planners. Every other person has made an ebook/workbook template, and if you're starting with digital products in 2022, doing what everyone else is doing won't cut it. I'm not saying that if you create those products, they won't sell. However, you will have way more competition, and it will be much harder to have consistent sales.
I cannot recommend enough niching down in the digital products you create. Let's look at how you can niche down and a few things that might help you decide where to start.
- What are you good at? Do you have a specific skill that you could use? For example, if you are a photographer or have done photography before, then creating digital products around photography will be a great idea or if you have done real estate before, then creating real estate templates is another niched-down type of template you could create.
You are already a step above the rest when you know the templates you create. In addition, you already have a competitive advantage because your templates will be unique and come from knowing what your ideal client would need or want.
One of my bestselling digital products is these Virtual assistant templates right here. I have managed a few social media accounts in the past and have a social media content club called THE CONTENT CLUB. So I have experience in copywriting and creating content. With my VA templates, I made them unique by using prewritten content. Not just placeholder text. These templates are so jam-packed with value because they are ready to post and give virtual assistants tons of content ideas. I found a unique and competitive edge, and you can too, all by niching down!
Remember, niching down doesn't mean creating another type of template. You could create multiple more "niched templates." Another one of my best sellers is my anxiety post templates, which are also a more niched-down topic with valuable prewritten content.
When you niche, you also become the "go-to girl." The "go-to" for photography templates or the "go-to" for health coach templates is what you want to be aiming for. After figuring out the niche and route, you want to go with what kind of templates, then write a list of all the ideas you have and let's look at how we will conduct market research.
2. MARKET RESEARCH
It's super important to do market research before creating templates. This most definitely does not include stealing other people's work but looking at what they are doing, and their unique selling points so that you can do better.
You can do market research by simply googling and seeing what comes up and websites that sell templates like Creative market to see your competition.
A few market research questions to ask yourself:
What is the price point?
What is the quality of the templates? e.g., how many templates? Is there prewritten content? Design-wise - is it professionally done?
What is the bonus value? What bonuses does your competition offer with purchases?
What do their designs look like? Is the majority professional looking? What are the trending colors? What are the trending fonts?
Once you have answered all of these questions, you will have much less analysis paralysis, and you will have a better idea of how to start designing templates that will sell and compete with what's currently out there.
3. WHERE YOU WANT TO SELL
There are a few places you can sell your digital products. I would look at:
Creative market
Etsy
Design bundles
Your website
Once you have listed your products on platforms like creative market, I suggest creating your website and driving traffic there through Pinterest and email marketing will be an excellent way to go.
4. WHAT WILL YOU USE TO CREATE YOUR DIGITAL PRODUCTS
There are a few things you can use to create digital products. I love and use Canva. If you have never used Canva before, you can try it here. Canva is an easy drag and drop design platform. They constantly bring out new features, and if you want to create anything, social media Canva is the way to go.
InDesign (if you know how to use it) is always a powerful tool if you want to create planners to sell.
Corjl is another platform to create templates like invitations that your clients can then purchase and change dates/numbers to suit their needs.
have not used InDesign and Corjl before. Canva is my go-to, and with my experience, it will stay that way. I'm a full-on Canva fan!
5. CREATING YOUR PRODUCTS
I'm going to give you a mini breakdown of my product-creation process to give you an idea of how you could do it. When I made my first template, I was pretty overwhelmed and unsure how to do it. So I hope this helps you!
First, do the research and decide on the final product, e.g., Instagram templates about anxiety.
Choose your fonts, color palette, and stock images to match
Start creating (this is the fun part!)
Once you have finished your templates, go through everything and check for spelling mistakes/grammar/design mistakes.
Place stock images (if needed) inside the templates
Download templates as a PNG
Take screenshots of your templates to use in the listing images
Upload screenshots to Canva
Create listing pictures
Delete sock images (if not licensed) from templates
Create a pdf access file
Write a description of the product
Upload it all!
That is a breakdown of my process. Although I like to be strategic about doing things, having a step-by-step process saves time!
6. MARKETING & SELLING
If you upload your products to websites like creative market, you will already have some traffic coming to your shop through that online platform. This is great, but you are giving that platform ALL THE POWER. If you lose your shop or the platform is no longer there for some reason, you lose your business.
Creating your website and knowing how to drive traffic are equally important.
A few places you can create your website are:
1 - Shopify
4 - WordPress
5 - Wix
I'm sure there are more, but these are some great places to start researching and finding out which one would suit you best. If you click on the website names above, they will take you directly to the platforms so you can have a look. I love Kajabi because I can have The Content club, The template vault, my website, blog, shop, and so much more all in one place!
After you have created your website, I would look at doing the following simple things to get the ball rolling:
Start creating freebies related to your niche, e.g., If you sell Canva templates, make a freebie where your audience can get 5 or 10 Canva templates for free when they subscribe to your list.
Market and share your freebie on Facebook, Instagram, and using Pinterest pins.
Nurture your email list and eventual sell to them
Creating Pinterest templates that link to your products is also a great way to drive free traffic to your website.
So there you have my 6-step roadmap to help you start creating digital products today that sell!
If you are new and need some guidance you are more than welcome to drop me an email anytime at hello@catecreatesit.com
*Pease note this blog post contains affiliate links which means that I get a small payout if you click a link and sign up to the program, I only recommend and link to programs I have used and loved!
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