This is the podcast for digital creators by digital creators with me, your host, Dylan Schmidt. Let's dive into insights on content entrepreneurship, creator strategies, and the occasional random topic because why not? Whether you're on day 1 or 1,000 of being a digital creator, Let's learn and grow together. You're listening to digital creator. I'm gonna share with you 5 essential tips for creators who wanna turn their expertise into digital products. I've been creating and selling my own digital products, Dozens of them over the last couple years since starting my own personal brand online from scratch. But behind the scenes, I've created and sold digital products for different types of people in different types of industries for over 10 years now. And something interesting, I think, is that, you know, over the last 10 years, The foundations of creating and selling digital products hasn't changed that much even with the rise of AI and ChatJWT. So if you have any interest In selling digital products or maybe you've tried to sell digital products and haven't been successful, this should hopefully clarify things for you. Tip number 1 is creating high value Content. So like I mentioned with the rise of AI and ChatChippity, mistake a lot of creators are falling into is using ChatChippity to do all the heavy lifting for their digital product, and it's outputting really generic stuff. Because we're all overwhelmed with more and more information, if you're solely focused on Quantity over quality, audience is gonna notice that and they're gonna respond by not buying your digital product. So while you can churn out a high volume of content these days, If it lacks value in-depth, it's not gonna engage your audience effectively, and they're not gonna invest in your product for their use case. And the reason behind this though is solid thinking. You think if you just produce a lot of content that that will lead to Sales that will lead to solid products, and maybe you could just put together a bunch of things in your digital product and people will see how much is in there and they will see the value in Matt, that's not really the case. People are always asking themselves what's in it for them. Right? What's in it for me? And if the content lacks a value, like, There is nothing in it for me. There's a lack of trust. There's a lack of credibility, and there's an overall lack of authority which are needed to sell your digital product. And the best way you can do this is by taking a lot of time to research and dive into your audience and getting to know their specific pain points, getting to know what makes them tick, getting to know what genuine problems they have. And the best part though, when you actually take the time to create a quality solution for a quality problem that your audience has, it just takes Your relationship to another level because they're gonna trust you a 100 times more once they invest in a solution that you provided that actually helps their problem. Tip number 2 is to market strategically. So the mistake I see here is digital creators have absolutely no strategic Plan, nothing to follow when it comes to launching their digital product. Most of their energy, I would say 95% of it, goes into actually creating the digital product. And then once they've made it, They're like, alright. If I just list it up on Gumroad or my Squarespace website or the link in my bio for sale, it should just Fly off the shelves. Right? I can maybe post an Instagram story about it, maybe do an Instagram ad or something. That's not how it works. And the reason for that is people need, according to Google, Eleven touch points before they make a buying decision. That means they need to be seeing your product. They need to be understanding how it works. What's in it for them? How does it fit into their lives? How easy is it? All of the objections, all of the questions they have need to be answered. And so 11 touch points doesn't mean that they just see 11 pieces of content from you. It means that they see your digital product 11 times before they make a buying decision. And I just see So many digital creators create ebooks, for example. They put it up for sale once. They may be included in an email newsletter and then never again. So the tip here is to focus on a strategic marketing plan. Don't think that all of your energy just goes into creating the digital product and not marketing it. It's really 5050, if not more on the marketing side. Because after you launch your digital product, you can always improve it and Give the improved version to people who have already bought, but so many people will launch a digital product, put it up for sale. It doesn't sell. They go, well, that's a flop. Move on to the next one. I've been there. I've done that. It is really a marketing problem, most likely not a product problem. So think about those 11 touch points that you need to create. How will you create them? How will you mention it? How will you show your audience? How it fits into their lives? How it solves their problems? How can you pull from your digital product to make content in your social media, in your YouTube videos, your podcasts, and how can you do that over enough time so that people who had no idea you were making this digital product, They would enter your world. They'd be exposed to it. And then they'd go from not knowing who you are to then wanting to buy the thing that you're selling. Tip number 3 is diversify your revenue streams. So huge mistake I see with digital creators is they think, I'm gonna create this digital product and it's gonna solve all my problems. I've never created a digital product 4, but I got a great idea, and this is just gonna be huge. And, again, maybe it's an ebook idea, and maybe you're thinking, well, this is gonna be a new revenue generator for me. Instead of doing an online course, I'm gonna do ebook. And if I just sold you know, you start doing marketing math. You know, if I just sold 500 at $40 a piece, and then from there, I could do all this. Right? You don't know until you know. And if you're trying to predict how much money you're gonna make off something that you've never sold before, it's likely gonna be vastly different. And most of the time, it's gonna be way lower. So all I have to say, unless you have data to prove otherwise, don't solely put all your eggs in 1 basket and mess up some other revenue you have going on just for this digital product you're creating. If you narrow your focus too much, it's gonna create income instability and make yourself vulnerable to market fluctuations. And even after you've started to sell your digital product and you start to find success with it, this happens a lot also is where they just get complacent. Creators get complacent Because it worked once so they can just do it again and again and again. That's not always the case. Things that sell online today don't always sell, you know, tomorrow. And so that kinda ties back to the 1st tip. If it's not high value enough to your audience, they're not gonna buy it. And when you diversify the type of digital that you're gonna be selling. You're not gonna only open yourself up to more income potential. You're going to make your income more stable too. Tip number 4 is package your product in a way that your audience needs. Huge mistake digital creators make when it comes to launching their digital product is they spend All of their time making the thing. Now when it comes to time to marketing it, they mess up that part. And they mess it up because they just put it up in a way that They would buy it. But you gotta remember, you are not the person buying it. You know the product so well, and your audience has different needs and preferences than you do. And that's the problem with people who are experts in one area is that it's the curse of the expert. You know too much. So when you're packaging your product. You have to get out of the mindset of, you know, product creator into product marketer, product designer, and that's thinking about where your audience is at. They're at a different spot right now than where they will be when they finish your digital product, so you gotta speak to them at Beginning. There's certain things they don't know about themselves, about the world around them, and your digital product is gonna take them through that evolution. Where are they at? Speak to those things on the front end, in the marketing, and as they complete and go through that journey. The last tip to number 5 is build a strong brand. So if you're neglecting the importance behind, you know, your own visual identity, you're doing yourself a disservice, and you're gonna have to work a 100 times as hard to do things that could be a lot easier. If you think that you don't need any visual consistency, repetitive colors, any logos, or faces like your own or identity behind it, I would think again. Because don't just think about your 1st digital product. Think about your 2nd, your 3rd, your 4th. And when it comes time to selling your 2nd and your 3rd, if there's already a familiarity there With your first one in terms of just, like, the visual identity of it, certain little cues, whether it's the color combinations, the fonts, The way things are done, it's so much easier for someone to then make a second purchase. Think, for example, the iPhone. If the iPhone looked Like an iPad on the 2nd version, people would be like, what? This isn't the first one. We go, oh, yeah. That's like this. Right? So similarly with your digital products, If you're creating an ebook about one thing and then you're gonna totally do a different topic on the 2nd ebook you make, make the 2nd ebook around the general same idea of what worked best with the 1st ebook. Could be the layout. It could be the way you ask questions after each chapter. Could be the way you interviewed guests throughout the book, whatever it was. Regardless of what you do here, just decide on your brand's visual identity and the overall personality you're bringing forward to your audience and the people who buy your digital products. Because a well defined brand not only helps you stand out, but it's gonna help you build trust and loyalty among your followers, ultimately leading to more profitable opportunities. That's all I got for you today. I hope this was helpful, and I'll catch you in the next one.