The Savvy Seller with Kristen Doyle

138. Get More Eyes on Your Products: 13 Strategies That Actually Work to Increase Traffic

• Kristen Doyle, TPT seller, SEO coach, and web designer

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If you’ve been feeling like it’s getting harder and harder to get your digital products in front of the right people, you’re not alone. But here’s the thing - I don’t believe in sitting back and hoping people magically find me. Sometimes, we have to get a little creative with our marketing strategies! In this episode, I’m sharing 13 powerful ways to get more eyes on your products, no matter what platform you’re selling on. And I have a feeling there are a few strategies in here that you haven’t tried yet!

We’ll talk about some of the most effective ways to attract the right audience, including a few underrated strategies that don’t rely on social media. I’ll also dive into the power of lead magnets—how to make them work for you, where to put them, and why they can be such a game-changer for converting freebie seekers into paying customers. Plus, I’ll be sharing a simple tweak I’ve made that helps me generate more organic traffic without spending hours on content creation.

And that’s just the beginning! Whether you’re looking to build stronger relationships with potential buyers, tap into new audiences, or make the most of the platforms you’re already using, you’ll walk away from this episode with plenty of fresh ideas to test out. Let’s get more eyes on your products and boost your sales!

02:47 - Setting up an affiliate program to get more eyes on your products

04:59 - Two collaboration strategies for increasing your traffic

11:31 - Important SEO strategy for your marketplace and website

16:01 - Why you should be taking advantage of email list segmentation 

18:51 - Getting more mileage out of your content

Links & Resources:

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode138

Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business. 

 

Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training 

Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything

Kristen:

Hey, y'all, if you have been feeling like it is getting harder and harder to get your digital products in front of the right people, you are not alone. But here's the thing, as business owners, we can't just sit back and wait for people to find us. Sometimes we have to get a little creative with our marketing strategies. Today, I'm sharing 13 ways you can get more eyes on your products no matter what platform you're selling on, whether it's a marketplace or your own website. I am willing to bet there will be at least a couple of strategies in here that you haven't tried yet. Are you a digital product or course creator, selling on platforms like teachers pay teachers, Etsy or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you're in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen Doyle, and I'm here to give you no fluff, tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process. Things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automation, and so much more. Let's get started y'all. Okay, the first strategy that I want you to think about is getting really strategic with your lead magnets. So the key here is you want to give away something that is valuable enough that people can't help but want to download it, but it's also something that naturally leads people towards your paid products. So for example, in this business, I might give away a simple SEO checklist that helps people optimize one blog post. This gives them a quick win, but it also shows them that they might want my full SEO course to learn the complete strategies. Ideally, your lead magnet is something that solves a quick problem for your ideal customer, it could be anything from a template to checklists or quick start guides, maybe even a small training or a workshop. Make sure it connects naturally to one of your paid products, and make sure that it is going to attract the perfect customers for that paid product and turn away people who aren't going to be a good fit for the products or the services that you offer. Once you've created that lead magnet, use it on your website in lots of different places, from exit intent pop ups to your footer to putting it in the middle of your blog posts. And consider ways that you might be able to use it on the marketplace where you sell as well, depending on what their rules are. Don't just stop at delivering the freebie either though. Make sure you set up an email sequence to nurture those leads, to welcome them to your list, and to start pointing them to your paid products. Next, let's talk about setting up an affiliate program. Now, I know that might sound complicated if you've never done it before, but there are some pretty simple tools out there that make this super easy. Essentially, the affiliate program is there to incentivize other people to promote your products. You're going to give them a commission that makes it worth their time and give them some swipe copies, some images they can use, and of course, those unique links that they can use to send people to your products so that they get credit for those purchases. Now, when it comes to tools like I said, it doesn't have to be super complicated. If you're using WooCommerce, you can use a plugin like affiliate WP to help you create an affiliate program for that. If you're selling courses or memberships, most platforms like Teachable or Thinkific, Kajabi, ThriveCart, most of those platforms have affiliate features built right in that make it really easy for you to start an affiliate program and pay out your affiliates. The key really is to make it super easy for your affiliates to promote your products by giving them those promotional materials, making their links easy to find and to make your terms really clear. You want to think about things like what your commission rate is going to be. Most people pay out somewhere between 20 to 50% on digital products in order to make it worth the person sharing the links. You also want to be really clear about the cookie link, how long cookies are being tracked, and think about things like minimum payout thresholds or how often you're paying out. You may not want to pay instantly on every single purchase. You might want to leave a window for refunds and things like that. So there are some things to consider for sure. You just want to make sure that you create some really clear terms and that you have a tool, whether it's a plug in on WordPress or affiliate tools that your course platform already has, you just want to make sure you have a tool that's going to make it really easy to track everything. Strategy number three is one that's worked really well for me, and that is participating in virtual summits. These are great because essentially, what you get to do is tap into someone else's audience and position yourself as an expert in your field. The key here is to make sure that you are choosing the right summits. So look for summits where their target audience matches your ideal customer, somewhere where you really can be an expert and you can present some information that will provide real value for the people who are attending, but will also give them a reason to get on your email list or to contact you in some other way at the end of the presentation. You want to make sure you leave with a clear call to action so that you're taking advantage of this new audience that you've just gotten in front of. And then once you do get their contact information, make sure you're following up with them. Maybe that looks like creating a special nurture sequence for your email list, just for people who came from that summit, or following up with them in some other way. Make sure that you aren't just letting the ball drop after the summit. Number four, let's talk about collaborating by creating bundles. This one can be really good! If you sell digital products, then look for other creators that you can join forces with to offer some product bundles. The trick here, similar to summits, is to find people who have products that complement yours, who serve the same audience as you, but their products don't compete with yours. So for example, if you sell planners, you don't want to join a planner bundle where everyone sells planners, but you might partner with someone who creates social media templates or something else that your audience might want to use in their business or in their personal life that relates to what you're selling them. So keep in mind that you need to pair with the right creators who have those complimentary products. You'll want to make sure, when you get started on this bundle that everyone agrees on pricing and how the profit is going to be split up front. Now, if you're joining an existing bundle, the bundle organizer has probably already done that for you, but if you're creating your own, you'll want to make sure to think through those things and be really clear about them. Create a promotional plan together. Make sure you're setting clear timelines and expectations, especially if you're the one organizing, and you'll want to make sure you're using some limited time offers to create urgency for people to buy this bundle. It shouldn't be a bundle that's available all the time. That window should be really short, and you might even consider things like an early bird offer to get people moving quickly. Okay, this next strategy might cost you a little money, but when you do it right, it can really, really pay off. Think about running what are called retargeting ads. These are ads specifically to let you show up in front of people who have already visited your website or looked at your products or engaged with your social media. These tend to convert really well because you're reaching people who've already shown interest in what you offer. In order to do this, you'll need to include tracking pixels on your website or your marketplace shop. And then what you'll want to do is create some ads that show off some of your best selling products, or the ones that you really want to get in front of more people. When you do your targeting for these ads, you'll want to target people who have been identified by the pixel as having visited your site or gone to those product pages. And you'll want to just start with a small budget testing out different ad formats and different types of targeting, and then scale up the ones that work really well and shut off the ones that don't. Now, I love strategy number six, because it is such a fun way to create some excitement and engagement with your potential customers. Think about creating an interactive quiz. You've seen them, you've taken them. You know how tempting and how fun they are. Creating a quiz that eventually points people to exactly which of your products is right for them can be super effective. And as a bonus, you can use these as a lead magnet to grow your email list too. Think about creating a quiz that will help people to solve a problem that they have. Those questions should eventually guide them to specific products or offers that you have that are going to help further solve that problem. And like I said, you can use it as a lead magnet to get people onto your email list so that then you can follow up with specific targeted emails based on their quiz results. So if they got result a, you send them email sequence a that goes along with it, but if they got result B or C, then they're going to get a different email sequence. You'll want to share that quiz on social media. Send it out to your existing list. Even though they're already on your list, no one can resist a quiz, so send it out and let it point them to the right products for them. That'll also help tag them in your email list, if you set it up so that they're being tagged based on their quiz results. Now the next strategy is one that I see working really well right now for digital product creators, and that is running some live workshops. Not necessarily a huge event, but little workshops. You can do these for free, just to grow your audience, so treat them like a lead magnet. Or you can charge a really small fee. If you're going to charge a fee, it should be an easy yes amount. Think numbers like $9, $19. Either way, it gives you the chance to show off your expertise, to get people some wins, and then to naturally lead them toward your products. You'll want to choose a topic for your workshop that ties into your products or your offers, but make sure that you're providing some really good value in the workshop and not just doing a sales pitch. You'll want to have a clear call to action and make sure that you are recording it so that you can reuse this on evergreen down the road. If you've never done this before, then think about testing out both paid and free workshop models to see which one works better for your audience. Okay, strategy number eight, you know, I couldn't do this episode without talking about SEO at all. So strategy number eight is to make sure you're taking advantage of the SEO on the marketplace where you sell. So whether you're selling on Etsy or TPT or anywhere else, you need to make sure that your products are showing up at the top of their search results. This means using the right keywords in your titles and your descriptions, but of course, doing that in a way that still sounds natural and makes sense to actual humans who are shopping. You'll want to research what terms buyers are actually using, and if you can research using a keyword tool that is specific to your platform, that's going to get you the best results, because the things that someone searches for on Etsy are different from what they would search for essentially the same product on TPT, and that is different from how they would search on Google for very similar products. So make sure that if you have the ability to do so, that you are doing keyword research based on each individual platform where you sell. Once you identify your keywords, you'll want to make sure you use those naturally in your titles, in your descriptions, that you're completing all of the category or tag fields that are available for you, and don't just set it and forget it. Check up on those keywords regularly over time. See what's performing well, see how those keywords are changing, and make updates if you need to now. Strategy nine goes hand in hand with your marketplace SEO, but don't forget about your website SEO as well. You really want to make sure that your website is showing up in Google searches. So what that looks like can be very similar to marketplaces in terms of using the right keywords, placing them strategically, doing your keyword research. But what I want to talk about specifically for your website is creating content on your site that answers the questions that your ideal customers are asking. Whether you're writing blog posts, you're recording podcast episodes like I do, and then putting the show notes on your website, or maybe you create video content and you put those show notes on your website. Make sure you're creating content to answer the kinds of questions your ideal customers are asking, and then don't forget to link to your products and your offers naturally within that content, or even just on the page with the content in other places. Now, when it comes to your own website, you want to make sure that you are optimizing the images and those meta descriptions, and if you need more details about that, then look for the rest of the SEO episodes of this podcast. I'll drop some links in the show notes for you. Strategy number 10, let's talk about making sure that your products are super easy to find on your website. I see a lot of people who rely on people clicking on a shop link in their menu bar, and they've got all their products hidden away in there, but if people don't happen to click on the shop link, they would never know. And there are so many more places that you can and should feature products on your website. Your homepage should definitely have your best sellers featured prominently on the page. And don't forget about adding things like courses or memberships, those bigger offers that you have that may not be in your website store right there on the homepage as well. Don't forget to add related products into your blog posts. This is such an easy way to show people products that solve the exact problem they're already reading about, that you know, they're already interested in. One thing that works really well for that is having a little call out box right in the middle of your blog post with those related products that people might want to take a look at. And don't forget about category pages. Make sure that you're organizing your products into categories that make sense for your customers, not just for you, and make it easy for them to navigate around and locate the products that they are looking for. When it comes to products, make sure, wherever you're highlighting them, that you include clear call to action buttons that stand out and grab attention. You don't want people to miss the fact that there is a product there or not click on something because they didn't see a button or realize that it was clickable. All right. Strategy number 11 is to take advantage of email list segmentation. This is something that really can make a huge difference for how your email marketing works and for getting traffic over to your products. So instead of just sending the same emails out to everyone, break your list down based on what people are interested in. You can do this depending on your platform, with tags or segments, and that way, you're able to send more targeted promotions to people who are interested in them, and then they're more likely to convert really well. Now, in terms of figuring out what people are interested in, you can start tagging any links you send out in emails to your whole list, so that when someone clicks a link that tells you that they're interested in a certain topic, they get a tag in your email platform related to that subject. You can also create rules that automatically apply tags based on how someone opted into your list. So if they opt in on a certain freebie, then they get a tag related to that freebie for whatever that topic is. Then you can set up automated email sequences that go out to those segments. You can also track which segments are converting the best and send out some targeted promotions to each group of people based on what they're interested in. Now this next one is one that I see a lot of people not really taking advantage of. We all have reviews or testimonials for our products, and I see a lot of people who leave those testimonials sitting right on the marketplace site where they got collected and not really doing anything with them. When someone tells you that they love their product in an email or a DM, make sure you ask if you can share their experience. But if they have hosted publicly on a public website, like your marketplace platforms, then you should be safe to screenshot those testimonials and use them in other places. So you can use these on your product pages. You can use them in social media posts. You can add those screenshots into emails that you're sending out. And the reason that this is so important is number one, it gives you a reason to talk about your product. When you are sharing a customer's specific result or something like that, you now have a good reason to talk about this product. It also gives you another piece of content that you can create. But the real benefit here is that you are sharing someone else's words about your product or your offer, and that goes a long way in building trust. See a potential buyer will see these and might think that they want this result for themselves too. So then they might head over, because now they trust that you've gotten this result for someone else. All right, last, but definitely not least, let's talk about getting more mileage out of your content. If you create a blog post, it should not just live on your blog and stay there forever, turn it into some social media posts. If you do a live workshop, maybe you can turn that into a blog post one day. If you're recording podcasts or video content already, turn those into blog posts, and then take clips from the blog posts and turn them into social media posts or clips from the audio or video. The key is to create one piece of content and then use it in multiple ways to reach more people who might not like to consume that first type of content that you created. So decide what your primary content type is going to be first. I'll give you an example for me that is this podcast. Create that first and then turn written content into video or audio or vice versa, break that content into smaller pieces, whether it's text quotes or audio or video clips that you can share on social media. And don't forget to go back and refresh older content, especially if it's older content that you feel like maybe is no longer valid, or maybe the traction that content had has died off. Go back and update and refresh that content. You don't have to start with a brand new idea for every piece of content you ever create. All right, here is your action step for today. Pick just one or two of these strategies and focus on implementing those in your business over the next week or two. If you're not sure where to start, I would recommend starting with either your SEO or your lead magnets, because both of those can give you some pretty quick lens and they can set you up for future success down the road as you start to implement some of the other strategies. Remember, you don't have to do all these things at once. In fact, you may not need to do all of these things at any point in your business. Pick what feels doable for you right now and start there. You can always add more as you go. That's it for today's episode. If you found this helpful, don't forget to follow the show wherever you're listening, and I would love it if you would rate the show and leave a review to help other sellers, just like you find the show. I'll talk to you soon.