Digital products for service businesses have become the way to stream passive income. I love waking up to orders and knowing I am making money in my sleep. If you create a solid product that your customers need, trust others will want to buy it.
Ideas
I know a plethora of people who own creative businesses who get writers/creativity block. It has happen to me numerous times since launching my consulting company because I am constantly creating content on this platform, social media, and digital products. However, the best tip for sourcing ideas is storing them up actually. There are days I feel wildly creative and will come up with 10 projects I can launch. Most people decide to take on all the ideas at once. That’s a huge mistake. Think, Zune came to the market to early and Apple killed them with a “10,000 songs in your pocket” speech.
You can span those 10 digital products over 8-10 months. You want to constantly have new products to introduce to your audience. Generating constant sales.
Digital products: white sheets, eBooks, eCourses, eUniversities, online Workshops
Design
There are a multitude of different ways for you to create eBooks on your own without ever hiring an actual graphic designer.
- Turning a Word document into a PDF
- Using Canva
- Illustrator
- Apple Pages 09
However, if you are doing this on your own, you do need to understand the actual design element of an eBook. As stated, last week I outsourced my design for my first set of books to a graphic designer intern. The second time around, I actually went to through the process of finding a graphic designer that I actually meshed with. Then, on top of that, I sketched the products.
There are a vast amount of people who can design the product for you. Hiring them is the hard part to be truthful. You need someone who meshes with your style aesthetic. Late last year, I reconsidered making eCourses as a mid level product for my company. I bought several eCourses on how to do an eCourse.
Personally, I suggest hiring someone to design your digital products, even the staged styled photos you will use on social media. Before, on my site there was just an eBook cover. Now, the photos are styled and products can appear on iPads.
Marketing
Show Your Work is your marketing plan. People love being apart of the process. This is what I have learned after launching almost 20 digital products for my business. The first set of ebooks I shared with people but not as much as now. To point out one thing, most of the photos are staged and as well as a couple of steps behind of where the process actually is. One word of advice I give clients is, it is best to fail behind closed doors. I have announced things too quickly in the past and they have failed miserably. Now, I am more cautious but at the same time keep my audience in the loop.
In addition, you can create email marketing campaigns around your product launch. I tend to do an introduction email about the product 1-2 weeks before it arrives.
Platforms to sell
There are a multitude of ways that you can sell your digital product after you launch it. It is important to have this place already established versus launching them at the same time.
- Self hosted WordPress – Launch on WordPress
- Squarespace – Launch on Squarespace
- Gumroads – Sign-up for Gumroads
- Course Craft
- eJunkie
- Etsy
You will use your current platform to collect emails before the launch. That way you can target your audience with the right content before the launch.
The most popular and easiest digital product to create for a service company is an eBook. The book can be 5 pages. It doesn’t have to be an in-depth eBook. You can create series that go up different levels. A plethora of people will even instruct you to turn old blog post into digital products. If you are not going to give your audience new content with the digital product don’t do it. It will leave a bad taste in your audiences mouth. I purchased an eBook last year from a blogger for $20 it was her blog post word for word.
