Designing Digital Products That Are Profitable
by Sarah Baker
Have you ever spent countless hours creating a digital product, only to hear nothing but crickets when you went to launch it?
It’s enough to make you want to curl up in bed and have a good cry, wondering what went wrong…
As entrepreneurs we often pour our hearts and souls into our businesses, and not seeing the return on that investment of our time, energy and effort can feel very discouraging.
But I’m going to let you in on a little secret here… and it’s going to change the way you go about designing digital products forever!
If you’ve recently had a digital product “flop,” you might be moping around and wallowing a bit, wondering to yourself…
“Are my design skills terrible?”
“Did I price it wrong?”
“Do my marketing skills suck?”
“Am I just missing the secret ingredient somehow??”
Have you noticed the common denominator in all of these questions?? It’s YOU.
But guess what the not-so-little secret to successful and profitable digital product design is?
Making it about THE CUSTOMER!!
If you’re not highly attuned to your customer’s needs, goals, desired outcomes, pain points, and even the potential objections for why they may not buy your product, then your marketing is bound to fall flat.
Ready to transform your digital product game?
Join Profitable Product Academy, and learn the exact steps to create a product that stands out like a billboard in Times Square, and practically sells itself. No need to stress sweat for sales anymore!
With the unique, hands-on learning style in which the course is taught, you won’t just learn how, you’ll actively set up your business (including the behind the scenes technology needed to make sales 24/7!) and develop your first super juicy digital product that will have people saying “take my money!” while you go through the course!
Profitable Product Academy isn’t just “another course” – get ready to roll up your sleeves because this is a hands-on, learn by doing experience that will take you from hearing crickets to that sweet sound of daily sales notifications in no time!
Understanding Your Audience (AKA: Market Research)
Before you even think about designing or creating a product, you need to dive into market research.
I know, I know, I can almost hear you now … “but Sarah, I know what my customer wants and needs, I don’t need to do market research!”
I promise you, this is the most important of all the product design tips I’m sharing with you in this post.
“Thinking” you know and actually knowing because you heard it straight from your ideal customers are two very different things!
Take the time before you do all the work building and developing a product to speak to people who are within your audience.
Ask them questions about the topic around the product you’re thinking of creating. And ask in a way that allows them to provide open-ended answers.
Record their exact answers in their own words. Their words and the way they describe their pain points, the way they describe their goals, etc. will become some of your most powerful marketing copy.
When you use those powerful words in your marketing it will make your potential customers say “OMG it’s like she’s inside my head! She knows exactly what I need. I need this product.”
PRO TIP: when you wrap up talking to these people while doing market research, ask them “if I created a product that solved this problem, and it was priced at $XY – would you buy it?”
If their answer is “HELL YES!” then you’re on the right path to a profitable digital product!
If they’re not sure… ask them what their hesitation is – and then dig deeper and continue to develop your product.
If they say no, you may need to develop a different product idea.
This market research helps you tailor your digital product to meet your ideal customer’s exact needs, ensuring it’s something they can’t resist.
This is what makes your product so dang juicy that they’re practically climbing over each other to be the first in line to get their little hands on it!
Choosing the Right Type of Digital Product
Remember how I got up on my soap box about how important understanding who your customer is, and doing market research?
There’s a reason we do that step before we jump right into the digital product creation stage.
It’s because some digital product formats work better for different niches!
For example, in the fitness niche, a PDF eBook might not be as successful as a video mini-course, as many people prefer a visual demonstration of how to properly perform exercises.
Think about how you can provide your product to your ideal audience in a way that helps them to consume it easily, solve their problems most efficiently, and allow them to go from learning to implementing what they learned ASAP.
Are they on their phone or their computer more often?
Do they spend a lot of time on their feet or in their car?
Do they wake up early or stay up late?
Is it something they need to be able to see (video) or hear to understand?
Choosing a format that doesn’t allow the customer to easily consume the content is probably one of the most common digital product mistakes that leads to low sales or a “failed” product.
The wrong format for your product makes it more difficult for your customers to consume your product, and therefore no matter how amazing the content is, they simply won’t benefit from it.
Create High-Quality Content For Your Digital Product
As a general rule of thumb, I try to over-deliver on every product.
Personally, I want my customers to feel like they can’t believe the value of the products they purchased from me – like they got such an amazing deal.
Why? Because once they know that the digital products I create deliver high-quality content, they’ll come back and purchase again… and again… and again.
The lifetime value of those customers will increase and they will become repeat customers. And many of them will even refer their friends. That is priceless.
On the flip side of this scenario, if you put out low-quality / low value content, your customers will likely not purchase from you again when you launch subsequent products – leaving you back at square one having to find all new customers and “reinvent the wheel” every time you launch.
As you grow your business and your customer and email list, the process of digital product creation can and will get easier for each product you create if you’ve built a loyal following!
If you’ve earned their trust be providing high-quality content, not only will it become easier to make sales but you can also reach out to this group of past customers to do market research for new products you’re thinking about.
Think of them as your “beta testers!”
What Tools Are Best For Designing Digital Products
The list of potential tools to use for designing and creating digital products is almost endless.
Here are the Top 5 tools I use daily in my own business:
1. CANVA
Hands down, my #1 most used tool is Canva.
Canva offers a treasure trove of pre-designed templates and design elements, making it easy to create professional-grade products with ease, even if you’re not a design whiz.
Spend just 5 minutes scrolling on the site, and the number of Canva digital products you see will get you excited to start creating right away!!
It’s user-friendly, has a really robust free version, and is perfect for busy moms who need to get things done efficiently.
I also love their mobile app for designing on the go!
2. ASANA
Project management tools like Trello, Notion or Asana are fantastic for organizing all of the details of your digital product as well as keeping track of your progress during both the development stage and also once you launch it for sale.
I personally love Asana. It also has a strong free version and a fantastic app that allows you to access all the details for everything within your business in a matter of seconds.
3. PINTEREST
This one might surprise you! Pinterest is one of my top tools because it is such a fantastic source of design inspiration, as well as a great place to do market research and see what is trending.
4. CHAT GPT
Using AI to help create digital products can be a controversial subject. I believe there is a place for it, but it is not to write your product for you! Use ChatGPT (or Gemini or your preferred AI) sparingly.
They are great for helping to get your creative juices flowing with ideas, but make sure your product sounds like YOU and not generic advice churned out by ChatGPT – or you’ll risk your customers not feeling like you provided value.
5. SIDE HUSTLE PROKIT
If you’re going to create video courses, you’ll need a place to host your videos and lessons.
I’m a huge fan of all-in-one software platforms such as Side Hustle ProKit, for the ease of use.
Side Hustle ProKit can host all of the videos and makes it super easy to put together mini- or full-length courses.
Design A Profitable Digital Product With Profitable Product Academy
Profitable Product Academy students get 6 months of free access to Side Hustle ProKit, our all-in-one software, included with the course. (YUP, 6 months!)
Learn how to set up systems that work for you through hands-on application of what you’re learning in real time while you leverage cutting-edge technology to get your business up and running ASAP – and start hearing that sweet, sweet sound of sales notifications on the daily!
Inside your Side Hustle ProKit Account you’ll also have instant access to:
As well as easy to follow step-by-step video tutorials showing exactly how to customize each of the above templates.
Profitable Product Academy launches soon – but the doors are open now with an exclusive 40% OFF Presale Price for early action-takers!
If you want to secure the lowest price this course will ever be, sign up now and get access to the entire course on Launch Day!!
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