RYB 908: How To Validate and Sell A Digital Product Before You Ever Create It (The 3 Step Process)

Today I'm fired up to break down the three-step process of validating your digital product before you take the time to promote and create it. I'm going to share a recent coffee talk that I did related to this topic because we went into great detail. To join our weekly coffee talks head over to takeactioncrew.com. We'd love to have you, and you'll be able to ask questions and get more involved. So, it's a win-win!

 

One of the biggest hangups people have with creating their own digital products is that they feel like they are too difficult to create. To help, I actually just taught and recorded a digital product fast track workshop. We teach you how to validate, create, and sell your digital product within 30 days. It's much easier than you might think, and I walk you through each step of the process.

 

The First Steps to Create a Digital Product

 

If you're thinking of creating a digital product, I recommend validating the idea before you actually move forward.

 

If you don't validate your brand, you'll end up doing a lot of work to discover that there isn't enough traffic or ways to monetize. The same goes for your digital products. You need to make sure that people want what you're creating. The best way to have people validate is with their wallets. This is where preselling your course comes into play.

 

If you have any reach on Facebook or have an email list, you have a way to test out your product before creating it. Minimal Viable Products (MVP) are also a great way to get started. The goal here is to get a good quality product out there quickly without actually creating the product until you know that people are genuinely interested and willing to pay you for it. There is no point in creating something to only realize down the road that no one wants it.

 

The way that I look at it is when you come up with an idea, you need to make sure that your market is interested first. With a digital product, it's fairly easy to validate quickly so you can be on your way to selling and creating the product. 

 

Have you ever had someone commit to something but not follow through. That happens when you start to build an audience for your brand. Typically it's because people are busy, overcommitted, or don't have the money to pay for it. However, when someone votes with their wallet, that is deemed a true vote.

 

Step 1: Validate Your Digital Product Idea

 

When I started marketing my Email List Building Fast Track Workshop, I didn't create a product at the start.

 

All I did was draft up a Facebook post to see if anyone would be interested in the workshop first. I didn't email my list or anything thing. Just from posting on Facebook, I had 120 people say they were interested. After a few days, I direct messaged everyone who showed interest and included a link to the payment page. From doing that, we had 50-60 people who actually purchased the course.

 

I posted on Facebook again after the initial sign up and shared the same information along with the date of the course and asked people to comment who hadn't yet and wanted to purchase.

 

Keep in mind that Facebook will flag you if you send too many direct messages in a short amount of time. But there are plenty of ways to get around that.

 

Before you ever create a digital product or course, you should create an email list. So you can reach out to those people and promote your digital products once you're ready. As long as you have your list ready first, it's fairly easy to reach out after that because those people have already shown some interest in your market and brand. You'll use this audience to help you validate your digital products before you create them. If you don't have any ideas on what type of product to create, you can always ask your audience what type of content they would be interested in.

 

Step 2: Have Your Audience Validate With Their Wallet

 

Offer a special promotion for the first few people that sign up for your course. Make them feel like they are a part of the creation process and to show that they are getting a special deal because of it. You don't need to make it complicated. When I first started, I was collecting payment through a PayPal button. It's as simple as that.

 

Step 3: Create Your Digital Product

 

As you build and create a digital product, you'll be able to show a sneak peek before the course is live. This will get the people excited who have already signed up and for those who haven't yet, help get them motivated to take action and sign up. So, you're serving both audiences at the time without double the effort.

 

As you get closure to your launch date, make sure to share some of the behind the scenes as you continue to prepare. You can do this by sharing pictures, screenshots, videos, and explanations. Better yet, get your audience involved and ask them questions about particular parts of the content you're creating and what they want to see. You'll get them excited for what's to come and give them a chance to feel like they are apart of the process, so they know you're including things they care about.

 

Once your course is complete, you'll be able to use it for years to come. You can drive traffic there from social media, your website content, etc. You're always planting seeds that will help benefit you later on down the road. This is why it's essential to create evergreen digital products that can be purchased at any time.

 

We Started Brand Creators Academy Because We Saw a Need

 

At our event last year, we had people say they wanted access to me and Chris, a community, and resources to help build their own brands. So, from there, we built out Brand Creators Academy, and it's been a huge success a year later.

 

Every single course or piece of content we create is based on what our audience is looking for. We've created both free and paid content to meet the need of our audience, depending on where they are in the process.

 

Consider Selling Products Under $50 to Start

 

Keep in mind that when you sell a product or course over $50, people take a lot more time to think about the purchase. My goal with my fast track workshops under $50 is to acquire people investing in the training while allowing me to reach people who are willing to put some skin in the game. Once they purchase my workshop, it shows that they are one step closer to potentially signing up for Brand Creators.

 

There you have it. That's exactly how I have created my own digital products time and time again. I get to know what the market wants and from there have people vote with their wallets. This is all before I actually create the course, so I can save myself time from building something that people don't want.

 

I've done this twice within the last two months. First, with my email list building workshop. I validated that my audience wanted it, and from there, I decided to teach it in a live workshop. I showed up for three hours and taught the course live. I also recorded it, so it's now a digital product that people can pay and take the course at any time to learn to grow an email list of up to 500 people within 30 days! I'm teaching everything that I am doing myself that has worked.

 

It's the same process with ebooks, templates, and video series. You need to validate the product, create an MVP, and get sales quickly. You can always polish and make changes later on down the road.

 

As always, I am here for you, I believe in you and am rooting for you. Now it’s time for you to take action and go rock your brand!

 

Take-Aways From Today’s Episode

1. The First Steps to Create a Digital Product (4:50)
2. Step 1: Validate Your Digital Product Idea (13:33)
3. Step 2: Have Your Audience Validate With Their Wallet
4. Step 3: Create Your Digital Product (27:30)
5. We Started Brand Creators Academy Because We Saw a Need (31:18)
6. Consider Selling Products Under $50 to Start (33:20)

Links

• Take Action Crew: http://takeactioncrew.com.
• Coffee Talk: https://brandcreators.com/coffee
• Playbook: http://brandcreatorsbook.com
• Checklist: https://brandcreators.com/checklist
• Brand Creators Event: Grab Your BAL Recording HERE
• Email List Workshop – https://learn.brandcreators.com/email-workshop-sales-page

 

Quote: If you don't validate your brand, you'll end up doing a lot of work to discover that there isn't enough traffic or ways to monetize. The same goes for your digital products. You need to make sure that people want what you're creating.