by There’s a lot of buzz nowadays about generating “passive income,” those ways to earn money without actually having to do anything to get it. Of course, no income stream is 100% passive, but some are less demanding than others.
You could try affiliate marketing or selling advertising space on your blog, but one of the smartest steps to grow your business and boost your passive income is to sell digital products.
Even with selling digital products, money won’t fall from the sky. You still have to put in the work to create and market your wares. But the beauty of digital products is that you only make them once, but you can sell them again and again – and with no fulfillment costs, too.
Once you put together a successful marketing plan for your digital products, you’ll be able to attract and nurture customers without having to actively drum up more business.
Here’s a five-step guide to growing your business using digital products.
Step #1: Choose Your Product
The first challenge is to decide what digital product to sell. It should be something connected to your business and that draws on your skills and knowledge. eBooks, software like apps and SaaS tools, and cheat sheets and guides are all popular options.
One of the most profitable digital products is an online course. It’s an excellent way to market your expertise. Online learning is extremely popular, as it’s expected to be worth over $240 billion by 2022. Online courses are relevant to basically every business. For example, a personal trainer can sell a stretching course, a beautician can sell a course in dramatic evening makeup, and a marketer can sell a course on triggered email drip campaigns.
Before you get too committed to your digital product, do a little research by asking around on social media and inputting keywords on Google Trends to check that there’s enough interest in your topic.
Step #2: Prepare Your Marketing Campaign
“If you build it, they will come” does not count as a marketing campaign for digital products. You need to prepare a careful marketing funnel that stimulates interest in your product and draws in prospects.
It’s best to begin by creating a simple landing page on your website, and then planning how to attract visitors to your landing page. Your marketing campaign should be cross-channel, which means it needs to include social media posts, email newsletters, and should be mentioned on any guest blog posts and on your own website.
If you’re going to sell an online course, and you’re deciding between platforms like Kajabi vs. Teachable, or any other online selling platform for elearning, it’s important to know what features are most important to you. I recommend opting for a platform with built-in tools to help you set up landing pages and construct a marketing funnel, so that everything is in one place and works seamlessly.
Step #3: Raise the Anticipation
Now you’ve decided on your product and your marketing campaign is in place, it’s time to drum up more interest. Think about setting up a waiting list for your digital product, just to increase the excitement.
You can create a lead magnet to capture email addresses of eager prospective customers.
Throughout all these steps, you should keep on producing valuable, high-quality content on your own website or blog and in guest blog posts, too. This way you’ll bring more traffic to your landing page and raise your reputation before launching your digital product.
Step #4: Build and Refine Your Product
It’s finally time to actually create your digital product. Look around for a good platform that will give you the tools to create and store it. Advanced graphics tools will help make your cheatsheets or guides look more professional; e-publication platforms support and improve your eBook creation; platforms like Appy Pie and Appery help with mobile software development; and the best online course platforms give you structure blueprints to work from.
Make sure that you allow enough time to build your product and test it before you launch it. Do ask for as much feedback as possible, and don’t be afraid to tweak it and make it better.
The difference between an excellent digital product and a mediocre one frequently depends on how much time you spent improving it.
Step #5: Launch Your Product and Extend Your Reach
It’s time for the moment you’ve been waiting for. You’ve got your marketing funnel and you’ve built your digital product. It’s time to launch. You’ll begin by selling it to your existing customers and subscribers and everyone on your waiting list.
That’s not the end. Once you’ve launched your digital product, you can roll it out to even more customers. Allow some time to see how well your product is performing and get some more feedback from your users, so that you can make it even better.
Now is the time to invest in paid advertising to get your marketing in front of more eyes and boost your user base.
Digital Products Make Your Business Grow
Hopefully, all your hard work is paying off. With a steady stream of passive income, you should have a growing database of leads for your core business. Now you can start all over again with a new digital product!
