Are you ready to tap into the lucrative world of digital products? The digital media market is set to hit an unprecedented $848.5 billion by 2027. And with that kind of money on the table, there’s no time like the present to start earning money selling digital products online.
Want to get in on your slice of the digital pie? In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of how to create digital products that stand out from the competition, from identifying your target audience to harnessing the power of AI-powered tools. Let’s get into it!
Click here to start creating and selling digital products with The Leap. It’s free!Why you should sell digital products online
So, what are digital products? In a nutshell, digital products are anything you can sell online as a downloadable file. These include everything from ebooks and online courses, to templates and guides.
Digital products have grown in popularity as a revenue stream with the recent explosion of the creator economy. Within this ever-growing market, digital products have become a lucrative option for many creator entrepreneurs looking to diversify their revenue streams and, more importantly, generate passive income.
How can you earn passive income from digital products?
How are digital products effective passive income generators? Well, digital products only need to be produced once before copies can be sold virtually endlessly. This means that, once you’ve published your digital product to your online store, you can sit back and watch the revenue roll in without needing to worry about restocking your inventory.
Because your digital products only exist online, your digital product business is also very easily scalable. While physical products depend on tangible inventories and IRL warehouses, which can be clunky to upgrade or expand, your digital products are hosted and stored in online storefronts, which can be easily upgraded with the click of a button.
In addition to all of this, the startup costs of selling digital products are fairly minimal. They’re often reduced to ecommerce and marketing expenses, which come down to your online store of choice. Options like Stan Store ask users to pay a monthly fee to access online storefront and email marketing features, while platforms like The Leap provide users these essential features for free.
Set up your link-in-bio store on The Leap today. It’s free!How to create a digital product in 4 steps
Interested in creating your very first digital product? It might seem a little daunting at first, however, taking a methodical approach can help ease you into the process of transforming your knowledge and expertise into a profitable venture.
You can create you first digital product in four simple steps. Let’s explore each in detail.
- Identify your target audience and their needs
- Choose the type of digital product to sell
- Build your digital product
- Publish your digital product
Step 1: Identify your target audience and their needs
Before you start creating your first digital product, you’ll need to understand your target audience. This means gaining insight into their paint points, needs, and desires.
So, why is this initial step crucial? Because any successful digital product will solve for a problem or a pain point. Once you’ve identified your audience’s struggles, you’ll be able to provide them a digital product that solves for their problems or provides value in their lives.
In order to learn your audience’s pain points, you’ll need to conduct market research. There are many ways to do this, including:
- Asking your audience directly: Use Instagram Stories poll and question features, ask questions in your posts’ captions or ask questions in your video content.
- Explore online communities: Visit Facebook groups, Discord servers, Subreddits, and forums and other places where your target audience hangs out to see what kinds of questions they’re asking and solutions they’re looking for.
- Check out the competition: Browse the comments sections of your competitors’ posts to see what kinds of questions their followers are asking.
- Conduct market research calls: Call current followers and past customers to ask questions regarding their pain points, their digital product preferences, and their experience with your content and digital products.
By understanding your audience and their needs, you’re all the better equipped to create the products they’ll love — and to build a product offering they’ll want to keep purchasing from again and again.
Step 2: Choose the type of digital product to sell
Once you’ve identified your target audience and their needs, it’s time to determine the type of digital product that you want to create.
From ebooks to online courses, there are tons of different types of digital products to create and sell. The one you choose depends entirely on your own niche and expertise, along with your audience’s needs and preferences.
Deciding which product works for your online business requires a little bit of research. We recommend looking to your competitors to see which types of digital products they’re selling. Also, some digital product formats suit certain niches more so than others.
For example, subscriptions and memberships are a great fit for fitness instructors selling recurring workout sessions and livestream classes. On the other hand, downloadables like templates might be better for graphic designers looking to share their expertise.
Step 3: Build your digital product
So, now that you’ve chosen which type of digital product you’d like to create, the next step is to create it!
Especially if you’re new to the digital product game, we suggest starting small. Begin with a bite-sized digital product idea, like a simple template or a mini-course, so you can perfect your creation process and avoid doing too much at once. What you don’t want to do is burn yourself out before you can start earning an income.
Smaller, more manageable digital product ideas include simple templates, tutorials, guides, and mini-courses (in lieu of a full-fledged online course). Think of these products as experiments or an opportunity to master the creation process before you can dive into more complex projects.
Of course, if you’re looking for a really easy way to create polished, professional products, you can always try The Leap.
The Leap is a free link-in-bio store that comes with an AI-powered digital product builder. Whether you want to build a mini-course, tutorial, challenge, or guide, The Leap can help you bring your digital product idea to life in just minutes. Watch the video below to learn how it works:
Step 4: Publish your digital product
Now that you’ve built your product, you’ve got to get it out there and let your audience know it exists. The easiest way to do this is to publish your product on your own online store and build it a unique sales page (also called a landing page).
Luckily, there are a number of digital storefront platforms that exist, from link-in-bio stores like The Leap, to premium ecommerce options like Shopify. Either way, a well-designed and easily accessible sales page is key to promoting your digital product and converting your followers into paying customers. Not only does a sales page give your product somewhere to live online, it also provides your customers with the opportunity to browse and purchase your products via a single link.
Your product’s landing page should highlight its benefits and unique selling points. Want to supercharge your sales? Consider including positive reviews and testimonials from past customers. Don’t underestimate the power of social validation!
Don’t forget to include a link to your product’s sales page or your online store in your social media bio. Mobile-optimized link-in-bio stores like The Leap make this step easy, providing you with a single link to share your entire product offering via your social media profile.
Create sales pages in seconds with The Leap’s AI-powered landing page generator.3 Ways to maximize your digital product sales
Now that you’ve created your digital product, you’re probably wondering how you can get it flying off those (digital) shelves. There are a number of ways to effectively boost your digital product sales.
By following these steps, you can maximize your digital product sales and build a successful digital product income machine. Let’s dig in!
1. Promote your product through content
As a content creator, the most intuitive and effective way to promote your digital product is through, well, content. That’s because, whether big or small, you already have a pool of potential customers for your product — i.e. your followers. This means that, once you’ve launched your product, all you need to do is promote your product through content to let your leads know it’s available for purchase.
Whether your platform of choice is TikTok or Instagram, there’s one tip that you’ll want to keep in mind while using content to promote your digital products: don’t make your digital product marketing content look like an advertisement. It’s important to remember that your audience follows you for your unique genius — and that they’re smart enough to sniff out when they’re being told (or sold) something inauthentically. This means that you’ll want to keep your promotional content as authentic, entertaining, and educational as your regular content.
We suggest making your marketing content tonally and topically similar to your usual feed content. From there, you’ll want to include a subtle CTA letting your audience know that they can learn more about your topic of choice by purchasing your digital product via your online storefront.
2. Build an email list
Think email marketing is antiquated in the age of social media? Think again. According to recent studies, email marketing remains the most effective and lucrative digital marketing strategy around, generating a ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, which is higher than all other channels. This means that email marketing is a great way for you to convert your audience into customers — and to boost your digital product income.
If you want to start harnessing the power of email marketing, you’ll first need to build an email list. This is your list of subscribers (i.e. potential customers) who will receive your newsletters, promotional emails, and sales funnel emails.
There are tons of different ways to capture your followers email addresses and grow your email list. As a creator, the simplest way to gain your audience’s emails is through your content. First, you’ll want to begin by adding an opt-in form for your newsletter to you link-in-bio tool. After you’ve done that, you can also promote your newsletter through content, mentioning your newsletter in video content and driving your audience to sign up via links in your posts’ captions.
Click here to start building your email list with The Leap today, for free.3. Create a lead magnet
Offering your audience lead magnets is another great way to grow your email list and generate leads — both of which will boost your digital product sales.
In case you’re new to the lead magnet game, lead magnets are free assets or resources that you offer your followers in exchange for their email addresses. Because lead magnets provide value to your audience, they’re an effective way to quickly grow your email list (i.e. your pool of potential customers).
On top of helping you build our your email list, lead magnets also provide your leads with a taste of your expertise and digital product offering. A great lead magnet acts as a high-quality sample of the kind of value that your paid products will deliver your audience. In other words, your lead magnets provide your audience with a small taste of your unique genius, getting them hooked so that they’ll return for more of what you have to offer (aka your paid product offering).
Want to start offering leads magnets to boost your email list? The Leap makes it easy with its AI-powered digital product builder, which empowers you to transform your products into lead magnets to boost your email list — and your income. Watch the video below to learn how it works:
Start creating profitable digital products today
Building and selling digital products can be not just a rewarding but a totally profitable endeavour. However, in order to boost your profits, you’ll want to stick to the steps outlined above, which include promoting your products through content, building out that email list, and creating lead magnets, which you can do using The Leap.
The Leap also enables you to create your very first digital product in just minutes. Because it’s powered by generative AI, The Leap’s digital product builder brings your digital product ideas to life for you, saving you tons of time and energy. In addition to being an authoring tool, The Leap also serves as a mobile-optimized link-in-bio storefront, which means you can build, sell, and market your digital products all from one platform.
The best part? The Leap is free to use. Create your free account today to start selling your digital products.
Build, market, and sell digital products all in one spot with The Leap!
How to create digital products that sell FAQs
How do you create a digital product?
To create a digital product, you’ll want to start with market research to determine which kind of product you will create. This will help you come up with product ideas and ensure that your digital product solves for your audience’s pain point. This step will enable you to create a digital product that will sell well within the current market.
After conducting marketin researching, you’ll need to build your product using an online tool. From The Leap to Canva, there are a number of platforms you can use to create your digital product. The platform you choose depends on which kind of digital product you want to build.
If you’re looking to create an educational digital product, including a mini-course, tutorial, guide, or challenge, you can use The Leap’s AI-powered digital product builder to bring your product idea to life in minutes.
Create and sell digital products in minutes using The Leap!
Is it hard to create digital products?
Creating digital products doesn’t have to be hard. The key is understanding your audience and how you can solve their pain points with a well-crafted product.
What are some examples of digital products?
Digital products come in many forms, including an online course, ebooks, tutorials, digital art, and stock music.
How can I effectively promote my digital products?
You can promote your digital products by leveraging content marketing, email marketing, social media, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, and paid advertising.
What is a lead magnet and how can it help me sell digital products?
A lead magnet is an asset or resource you offer in exchange for your followers’ email addresses. These assets helps you grow your business by building our your email list, which is used in your email marketing endeavours. A larger email list means a larger pool of potential customers who will be served your regular newsletters, promotional emails, and sales funnels.
Follow The Leap on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more monetization tips for creators. We also make a newsletter.
Further reading
- How To Sell Digital Products Online: A 6-Step Launch Checklist
- 15 Digital Product Ideas To Sell for Every Niche
- How to Price Your Digital Products for More Sales
- How To Promote Your Digital Products: 10 Ways To Boost Sales
- How To Make Passive Income Selling Digital Products
- 15 Profitable Digital Products To Sell Online (+ Real Examples)
