There are certain types of goods that you cannot hold with your bare hands. Instead, all you can do is see it and enjoy the digital service it provides. These types of products are called digital products and have gained much recognition since their emergence on the Internet.
Although they can't be considered the direct replacement for physical goods, they have many benefits and satisfy customers. If you study deeply, you will realize that you can sell digital downloads and attain benefits that don’t come from physical goods.
Before digital products, entrepreneurs knew they required big business capital and expenditure to run a business. For example, if you want to sell merchandise, you must rent a commercial space, buy stocks, hire human resources, and pay for pre-operating expenses. As you move forward with your business, this list is expected to grow even further.
Due to their popularity on the Internet, many online entrepreneurs are learning how to sell digital products. When selling digital products in the market, you virtually have an infinite inventory stock. Another great thing about these products is that they don't have an expiry date, which means that your business won't be at a financial risk.
What is a Digital Product?
Digital products are the type of products you can create and sell in the form of merchandise, noting that they don't have tangible features.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Digital goods is a great asset to the eCommerce industry because it is a great collection to sell with a reduced risk in business efficiency. Since you are a business owner, you don't need to worry about deadstock because you have a digital reservoir at your disposal.
Once you have a collection for selling digital products online, you can start to distribute your products without investing much time and energy. In addition, you don't need to invest in your promotional materials, as everything else will occur online.
Tips for Selling Digital Products
1) Understand Your Audience
Understanding and building hype within your target audience is essential for selling digital products online. Social media platforms can help you communicate with your audience effectively. You can build hype not just regarding your products but also your brand. Blogging, and other forms of content marketing, can also be influential in connecting with your audience and developing solid relationships with them.
If you cannot attract followers initially, you can collaborate with influencers to promote your online store. Influencers have a huge online fan following and can help you reach loyal audiences and increase your reach. Collaboration with influencers makes sense if you want to spread your brand message quickly. These strategies can help you sell digital products according to the audience's demands. Experimenting with different formats may help you determine what your audience truly wants.
2) Start With the Problem
When you understand how to create digital products to sell online, you should always prioritize your audience's problems. After all, people buy any product to solve their problems. Therefore, your products must address the audience's problems carefully. Being a digital expert, you should answer their queries with meaningful solutions, so they can start trusting you with the related subject.
You must identify why the audiences have landed on your platform and gather their areas of interest. Then, the product you would be launching in the market should revolve around their areas of interest or be connected with their niche.
Once you have convinced your viewers that they need your product, you are only halfway to your destination. There is a chance that they need clarification about your product's availability and sustainability which hardly fits their utility zone. If these questions arise in your customers' minds, all your hard work may get wasted.
Image taken from YouTube
One of the best ways to resolve your customers' queries is to ask them. You can search for different tools and SaaS products to conduct an audience survey on the Internet. You can focus on how the products can resolve the issues of your target audience and why they should be tempted to purchase them. You should only over-brag about your products until it seems fake to the audience. Instead, you should prove why your product is amazing.
Furthermore, you may have the following challenges to counter before selling digital products:
- Competition with free content: When discussing digital goods, it is better to find free alternatives. To compete with the free content, you must come up with better solutions and unique benefits.
- Risk of theft: Precautions must be taken to overcome risks in digital product sales. Ensure you use the right tools to protect your content from copyright infringement.
- Restrictions on the sale process: Depending on the eCommerce website and your country's legal status, you may have complications in selling digital products to international customers.
3) Provide a Solution
Since you have identified the problems your customers are potentially facing, it is time to step into the trust zone and see how your product can be a solution. Your customers should only be motivated to purchase a product when convinced about its use.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
It is wise, to be honest in your marketing strategy, as your customers will only have to invest in products that appear tricky or unnecessary. You must connect your products with the desired outcomes to make it easier for your customers to make their buying decisions.
It would be best to address common concerns while selling digital products online at each phase so your customers don't feel like they are wasting money on your product.
4) Present the Solutions
Since you are a business owner, you must educate your audience on what they should expect from the product samples. For example, you can share demo versions of your website themes. You can also use introductory videos or add product images to communicate your message.
There can also be a space for risk-free experiences. For example, you can give a trial period to your customers so they can get an idea about your product. Likewise, mini-previews can be handy for online courses or e-books so your customers would know what you are offering.
While selling digital products, you can also build trust with your customers by offering safer payment gateways and a smooth checkout process for online purchases. Partnering with established eCommerce platforms is also an effective way to attain the trust badges of your customers. Once you have an SSL certificate on your website, your online store will be secure and ready to manage all transactions.
5) Eliminate Distractions
Removing distractions is vital to your success with online conversions. The objective is to create quality visuals and eliminate unnecessary elements on your page. Please refrain from forcing your customers to buy your products. Instead, encourage them through a simple call to action (CTA). Your navigation menu should also be simple and easy to use. The perfect user experience (UX) is vital for maintaining a high conversion rate.
Sell Digital Products on Strikingly
Strikingly is a professional website builder that allows you to sell digital goods without problems. We provide our users with all the fundamental features to build their eCommerce websites and sell their digital products quickly.
Before selling digital products, you must complete your registration on our platform and choose your website template. Once you have selected your template, you can customize the design and add sections.
Image taken from Strikingly
Next, you can add a simple store to your eCommerce website. The simple store is the platform that allows you to sell digital products online. It will be the section your customers see when they want to buy digital goods from your store.
Being a website owner, make sure you connect your domain with the website. Note that you can only sell digital goods if your domain is connected to your site. If you don't have a domain yet, you can purchase it worth $24.95 in the first year of your subscription plan on Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly
When you upload your digital product, ensure that you have selected "Digital Downloads" as your product type. You must provide all the necessary information in the fields (name, price, description, and image). Strikingly supports the following formats of digital goods:
- Document: .pptx, .doc, .pdf, .xlsx, .ppt
- Image: .jpg, .png, .gif
- Audio: .mp3, .mp4, .m4a
- Zip files: .rar
Once you have added your digital products, you can shift your focus towards the payment section. Strikingly allows you to accept payments from PayPal, Stripe, and Square. To ensure that you avoid fraudulent transactions, only accept online payments for digital goods. You can also refund the amount to your customers through these payment gateways if they have applied for it.
Conclusion
Digital goods provide many opportunities for customers and entrepreneurs worldwide. You can display and sell these digital products in the market. Once you have added all the relevant specifications of digital goods, head to Strikingly and build your eCommerce website today.
Selling digital products is a massive part of your customer care plan. If you surf the Internet today, you will find many digital goods that make the most out of the broader market. Since you are an entrepreneur, you must do in-depth research on your products and make it easy for yourself to sell digital products online.
