Digital products are the most popular product in today’s world.
So much, that all professional bloggers, speakers, and other influential public figures have benefited from this trend, employing it in order to achieve more publicity, promotion, and profit for their businesses, and they have produced desired content such as PDF guides, e-books, podcasts, videos, etc.
And because of the importance of digital products in the contemporary and ever-evolving global technological market,
We preferred to provide this content in order to clarify some concepts related to digital products, including:
- What are digital products?
- How do digital products differ from traditional physical products?
- What are the most appropriate methods or tools for promoting digital products?
- A group of the most popular and profitable digital products.
What are digital products?
Digital products are intangible products, only found on digital devices.
Its popularity is increasing and its use increases with the advancement and development of technology.
They are easy to innovate and can be replicated without limits.
They are also easy to distribute and are often presented in files such as PDF, PNG, JPEGs, MP3 files, videos, and other plug-ins that can be downloaded at any time depending on the platform that the producing site uses to complete the sale, purchase and download operations.
This is far from the complications associated with shipping operations, dealing with international customers, taxes due, laws, import and export regulations, inventory management, etc.
Therefore, digital products are more accessible, sustainable, and durable than traditional physical products.
Digital and traditional products:
Have you ever wondered why digital products are preferred over physical products?
We will answer you.
But before that, you must know the difference between a traditional product and a digital product:
A traditional product is every element that you can perceive with one of your five senses after capturing and touching (such as smelling, tasting, or listening to it), and you can sell it for cash or trade.
It may be a piece of clothing, a meal, or an electronic device, or household furniture, or others.
It is the only sale that was prevalent in the past, until e-commerce came and business concepts changed for the better, and the virtual world opened wide areas for the emergence of a new class of products (which are digital products) with which many entrepreneurs started their business on the Internet.
As for the digital product, it is the product that you sell via the Internet without having a physical form that can be described, such as electronic books, programming programs, applications, and others.
Digital products can be converted into physical products, such as buying an electronic PDF book, then printing it, and it becomes physical, but it started in a digital format.
Digital products have many advantages over their physical counterparts, especially for the businessmen who sell them, and the most important of these features:
- With digital products, there will be no inventory problems, whether in surplus or inability to meet demand.
- Digital products reduce the time spent on thinking processes and searching for a place to store products.
- In most cases, customers can receive the digital product immediately after purchasing it. There is no need for much human participation, as long as you sell a product that does not require much customer service.
- The digital product does not need exorbitant costs in the creation and iteration process, as it is often created once and sold an unlimited number of times.
- There are no costs related to material, assembly, or shipping.
But this does not mean that you can use any digital product and make a fortune.
Digital products always need to be developed and updated to provide the desired benefit from them and to provide the expected and amazing values together in a way that guarantees customers’ encouragement and their return to deal with you repeatedly.
Therefore, you can convert the time and money you save on creating digital products into:
- Creating new digital products for your customers.
- Develop your old digital products.
- Marketing and advertising for your digital products and developing your brand.
There is no doubt that creating digital products and dealing with their storage, sale, distribution, and marketing is much easier than it is in traditional products, but it also needs a lot of craftsmanship and effort in industry, design, and development in order to achieve the distinction and benefit that customers demand and to show them the required quality that they expect.
How to promote your digital products:
Marketing digital products are not much different from marketing physical products.
You should also here:
- Define your target audience.
- Target them with messages relevant to your brand.
- Keep lines of communication open between you and your customers.
But one of the main differences is that explaining the importance of a digital product is sometimes more difficult than explaining the benefits of a traditional product.
Explaining the need for an electronic device, for example, can be much simpler than explaining the need for the latest mobile application or explaining the need for an online course.
And if you have a digital product and are looking to increase your sales and profits, here are some methods you can use:
First: Content Marketing:
“The content is the basis.” We often hear this phrase, until it has become more like a “cliché,” but it is still correct, and this is what we care about.
Content marketing is one of the most important pillars of the methods used to learn how to promote a product.
Statistics indicate that nearly 70% of consumers learn about products through “descriptive content”.
This is not a simple percentage. Rather, it deserves a lot of attention from business owners and tries to benefit from it in directing their marketing methods to serve their profit goals.
Most people (naturally) are comfortable paying for what they feel they know or understand.
Therefore, all you have to do is use the content to educate customers and inform them of the features and benefits of your product in a way that attracts them and encourages them to purchase it.
Here are some of the types of content you can create and use to boost your digital marketing campaigns:
- Ad content.
- Blog Posts.
- Case Studies.
- E-books.
- Image.
- Infographics.
- Podcasts
- Social media posts.
- Testimonials and Recommendations.
- Videos.
- Website Pages.
With all these options, the margin of failure in marketing and promotion becomes narrower.
To make sure of this, you just have to choose the appropriate, attractive, and compatible theme with the interests of most of your customers, if not all of them.
This requires you to do some simple things that may suffice:
- Little research on your target audience and their interests.
- That you interact well with your audience and customers.
- Adopt buyer personas to help you get to know them better.
All of these things will help you know what type of content will be valuable and attractive to your customers.
Here’s another tip:
If you have a successful content marketing segment, and you have used it in a specific digital marketing medium, do not ignore it or forget about it, as you can republish it in all other digital marketing campaigns on various platforms.
It may only need a little time to reformat.
Second: Facebook ads:
Studies and statistics related to Facebook ads indicate some important facts that must be known, including:
- Around 3 billion people use social media around the world, and half of them use Facebook.
- Facebook has 2.23 billion monthly active users, and 1.47 billion daily active users.
- About 79% of people online use Facebook.
- Almost 76% of Facebook users search for interesting content.
- About 74% of people use Facebook for professional reasons.
Truly amazing numbers!
With it, your target market must be using Facebook in one form or another.
And you should take advantage of this, and put your product (of any type) in front of your audience in Facebook ads as long as it is legal and does not conflict with Facebook’s advertising policies.
There are some important things to keep in mind when setting up a promotional campaign using Facebook ads: The main ones are:
- Define clear goals for your campaign by thinking about why you’re running the ad in the first place.
- Determine your general and distant goals.
Third: Google ads:
It is a type of Pay Per Click (PPC) ads, in which the advertiser pays the publisher every time a potential new customer clicks on the ad.
Google Ads is another great way to use it when learning how to promote a product.
It has become Google’s main source of revenue, which indicates its effectiveness.
And if you ask yourself: Why should I use this digital marketing method?
We answer you with the following facts:
- Google ads help your business appear on the first page of search engine results.
- Around 64.6% of people click on Google ads anytime they’re looking to buy something online.
- Paid clicks account for around 66% of buyer-targeted keywords.
- Google Ads is selected by 4 out of 5 companies that participate in PPC campaigns (this is directly related to Google’s popularity).
- Brand awareness can reach 46% of pay-per-click campaigns such as Google Ads.
- doubles your investment if you choose to advertise on the platform.
- measurable (with its various metrics that will help you know what works and what doesn’t).
- faster than SEO as you can start getting impressions and clicks right away.
- relatively easier than SEO because they are easy to learn, and they take less effort to maintain.
- complements your other marketing efforts, such as remarketing that targets people who have shown interest.
So sure, Google Ads will help direct traffic to your site, and help you learn how to promote a product.
Fourth: Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
SEO is both necessary and effective in learning how to promote a product.
SEO is the process that makes web pages easy (finding, crawling, and ranking), and helps potential customers get to your product.
And if you do it right, your website is sure to end up on the first search engine results page (SERP).
Notice:
Data shows that around 74% of consumers use search engines to learn more about local businesses.
Given the way consumers typically scan and review the first two pages, having your website at the top of the SERPS is ideal.
SEO has become very important to a successful digital marketing campaign.
But it requires a sound strategy to do so.
Here are some points you need to consider when developing a solid SEO strategy:
- Use Google Analytics to help identify your target market.
- See more search engine options.
- Be more mobile-friendly.
- Create high-quality content that is relevant, consistent, and valuable.
- Make sure your website is clear and easy to use and navigate.
- Create high-quality, relevant links to get a high volume of high-quality traffic.
- Set up a social media platform that is comprehensive and constantly updated.
- Fix relevant keywords to help align with your ROI.
- Always keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process, and you can never rest for a long time even if you are currently successful, as everything changes and evolves constantly, from search engines to customers and their behaviors as consumers.
But ultimately, it all about your target audience, and the importance of making them aware of and promoting your product.
And if your integrated SEO digital marketing strategy can promote your product and get your customers to notice and buy it, then it is definitely worth the effort.
Fifth: Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the simplest and most effective methods of digital marketing.
And the stats indicated that promotional emails led to nearly 66% of consumers buying (which is high!).
Moreover, if you want to use email marketing as part of your promotional strategy, here are some tips:
- Personalize the email by adding the recipient’s name.
- Subject lines longer than 70 characters must be included with appropriate phrases.
- The best time to send emails is on the weekend or at night.
- Ensure A / B testing is done so that customer engagement rates increase.
In addition, here are some email marketing topic suggestions that might interest you:
- Ask for a customer review.
- Attract customers’ attention to items left in the shopping cart.
- Send important and relevant company updates.
And when thinking about how to promote a product using email marketing, you can use newsletters.
Sending out an email newsletter is a great way to reach current and potential customers.
You can also send the latest information and developments about your product, and share relevant news and pictures that may interest them.
And to create some suspense among your customers, you can also send:
- Exclusive offers.
- Exclusive discounts.
- Promotional deals.
An important fact to keep in mind is that email marketing is not primarily used to generate new leads.
But its main use is to retain potential customers who have already shown interest and interaction and meet their needs.
Sixth: Publishing on social media:
There is no doubt that Facebook has its own place among social media platforms, due to its huge number of users and its great influence on a wide range of users.
But social media is much more than just Facebook, and you need to take advantage of all of them in order to ensure the continuation, spread, and success of your business.
According to Statista, social media users are increasing day by day, and their number is already 2.6 billion.
What can you do on social media?
- If you have a new product and want people to know about it, you can create a post about it, and talk in an encouraging way about its features, importance, and how it can help people or make their lives better.
- Create a cool and attractive hashtag (i.e. your hashtag).
It needs to be unique and distinct so that people (especially potential customers) can find your site or information about your product using it. - Increase the excitement by adding some content (such as photos, posts, or videos that show some interesting things that you didn’t show the audience at first).
- Use social media contests, polls, and giveaways to increase the interaction between you and your followers.
According to a survey, a simple Facebook contest can give you, on average, up to 34% of new followers per promotion.
And if you are tech-savvy, or have a social media marketing team, you can use social media ads to your advantage as well.
Social media ads are paid for with thousands of more people than if they were just regular posts.
Different social media campaigns are optimized for different purposes as well, as you can create campaigns that focus specifically on website traffic and sales.
Whether you use social media as promotional publishing platforms or use social media ads, you can take advantage of both methods when learning how to promote a product.
Seventh: Website design:
Your website is your best marketing tool.
There are many ways in which you can improve the design of your site so that it is easy to access and navigate, and provides the required information and services in multiple and simplified ways.
But what we advise you to do here (and perhaps the most important thing) is the following:
Ensure that your visitors have a perfect customer experience while they are on your site.
Users intend for websites to fulfill a specific need, and often prefer that they be met instantly and easily.
But if it takes a long time to implement what they came for, it is very likely that they will click away from your pages and exit your site.
Even worse, they decided not to repeat the visit at all.
Most Popular Digital Products:
- E-books:
E-books were and still are one of the most popular digital products.
This is relatively easy to create, given that it requires little more than written text and some related images.
They are easy to distribute across large online markets and self-built online stores.
Ebooks are also easily consumed by customers who can read them on e-readers, tablets, computers, and even on their mobile phones.
The beauty of creating e-books lies in two things that are closely related:
-
- You can share anything you know or care about in text form.
- You can educate your customers, advise them, or reformat and update the existing contents in the form of e-books to then sell them on your website.
The popularity of e-books is increasing day after day.
Experts also predict that e-books will eventually take over physical books in terms of sales.
And the beautiful thing about it is that once you complete the manufacture of the product (the e-book), you will not have to do any other work (other than the marketing of course), which allows you to earn additional income over months, and perhaps years.
- Photography:
High-quality images are one of the most popular digital products today.
The most popular consumers of images online are bloggers and website owners.
The website is a vital part of the photographer’s portfolio, as displaying his work beautifully on his site is essential to uploading his profile.
With competitive prices, and excellent quality images, he may be able to sell very profitably the standalone images or images that a customer requests on his website.
And as millions of people post content on websites daily, there is a constant demand for unique and distinctive photography.
Notice:
Stock photo sites, such as Fotolia and iStockphoto, may purchase images from their creators.
Alternatively, some photographers may want to sell their photos through their website (which many photographers do in order not to have to share their earnings with existing markets).
A great way to get people excited about photography is to post your photos on sites like Flickr and Instagram.
These platforms allow you to retain all rights to your photos, protecting your intellectual property while exposing you to potential clients.
- Educational and training courses:
E-learning is an innovation-rich industry, and today it is growing with unprecedented momentum.
As they grow, we are seeing traditional educational institutions exploring new ways to make their content available to online learners.
Training courses have become an increasingly popular basis, or complementary, component of online businesses, due to consumer trends first, and the proliferation of affordable and easy-to-use learning management systems second.
In addition, it provides a profitable outlet for anyone with knowledge or experience and enables teachers to reach a wide audience without being restricted by geography, technology, or time.
An online course is similar to a classroom course except that you teach online through text, video, and audio.
You can create educational courses in different sizes and at different prices as well.
And your clients can take your course on their own time without having to worry about meeting deadlines or stressing themselves.
Some courses are completely independent, while others offer interaction with the teacher or interaction with assignment references.
Many courses provide students with some form of certification or reward upon successful completion.
As for the sale of educational materials, it takes place in different ways, including:
- One-time downloadable courses.
- A set of courses that can be downloaded repeatedly.
- Membership (subscription) of an educational service on the Internet.
Often training courses are sold the same way as other digital products, with the same tools.
And according to recent user surveys, the number of people using Easy Digital Downloads to sell courses 4 times in one year.
- Video, Audio, and Music:
Videos are a very popular communication tool, and it is very effective for communicating information over the Internet.
Video content can be educational, informational, or entertaining.
It is much more attractive than text and can be used easily by clicking the play button and watch.
In general, users like the content of the video and prefer it to the other, and in many cases, they are happy to pay for it.
If you are a great speaker, have a passion for visual media, or love to share your ideas via video, with little editing time, you can invest in videos online and make a profit.
Voice and music are powerful means of communicating messages.
There are many different types of digital audio products, which include:
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- Recorded lectures.
- Musical samples.
- Audiobooks.
- Foreign language lessons.
- Reusable sound effects.
- Lyrical musical compositions.
And other audio clips that people pay for because it entertains them, calms them, teaches them, inspires them or helps them achieve their business goals.
So if you are a freelance vocalist or a freelance musician, you can make an excellent living by selling your own audio creations.
You can record your own music, and put it up for sale anywhere you want.
And since you no longer need to produce a physical product (such as a CD) you can create your own music, publish it, and sell it as digital files, people can listen to it via MP3 players and their computers or other supportive devices.
- Software programs:
Many software programs are sold as subscriptions, meaning your customers pay a small monthly fee to use your software, and as long as they pay, they retain access to it.
The software industry is a huge and ever-growing industry, and its fields and possibilities for work are endless.
Anyone’s ability to write code of any kind can lead to new and useful “software” products, let be it desktop software, web-based applications, website templates, mobile apps, and video games, or anything else supported by code.
And if you are proficient in a sophisticated programming language, you can develop many things to sell online, whether you have experience in applications, plug-ins, and themes, websites, or anything else, and you can thus convert the codes into cash.
Conclusion:
Despite the economic fluctuations that the world is experiencing today, e-commerce continues to prosper and develop.
With technological advances that have expanded the use of the Internet, and the consumption of digital media has brought many degrees closer to the prevailing trends in societies’ behavior, it is no wonder that digital products continue to increase in demand.
You probably did not know; But you are certain you have consumed a digital product before (if you have read this content, you have consumed a digital product).
Digital marketing has evolved tremendously and significantly, and today (as mentioned), it doesn’t provide just one method that you can use when exploring how to promote your digital products.
There are even several ways you can go for people to become aware of your products and then buy them.
Just remember that all these strategies and campaigns continue to evolve and change with the development and change of the audience, and you only have to continue experimenting and continue to analyze, develop and improve things until you achieve the required goals.