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A digital marketing blueprint is a focused, strategic plan aligning the organization with a digital vision and clearly articulating how to create value for customers, channel partners, key internal constituencies, and the company’s businesses and brands. The plan should guide investment decisions and lay out how digital enables the company to implement innovative business ideas and immersive customer experiences.
Selling information has long been a profitable career path for many individuals in a variety of niche markets. Traditionally, this was done by way of publishing houses and agents who could get you a book deal.
But now, anyone who has ideas and information to share can do so in an online process without the need for a middleman. You don’t need sky-high start-up funds or any extravagant tools to create a digital product to sell to a hungry audience.
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Create a Kickbutt Content Calendar
Depending on how much you want to put in your creation and how long it will take you to convey the message, it may only take you a total of 30 days – more for some and less for some.
From the competitive research you’ll be doing through the post-launch tasks, you’ll be able to easily follow a four-week plan to conceive and publish your product as a leader in your niche.
Day 1: Research the Types of Digital Products on the Market
When you make the decision to become a vendor of digital info products online, you want to first start by looking at what kind of digital products are on the marketplace in every niche.
What you probably find is that there are three main categories. These include downloadable eBooks in PDF format, video courses that contain a multitude of modules, and password-protected membership sites that buyers can log into to access their purchases.
You may also find some offshoots, such as printable downloads that consumers buy for a variety of reasons as well as private label rights content that is sold in digital format to a hungry audience.
Day 2: Make a List of Popular Info Products Selling in Your Niche
Next, you want to look specifically in your niche to see what types of digital info products are being sold to your prospective audience. You can start with Google or a search engine of your choice and look for eBooks, video courses and memberships on your topics.
If you aren’t sure what topics are popular for your niche, you can conduct some research using Amazon bestseller books in both print and Kindle versions and also look on the cover of popular consumer magazines to see what is being touted as cutting edge information.
Day 3: Discover Your Audience’s Pain Points Online
Your info product topic will not be chosen in a single day. This is a multi-day process to ensure you nail down the correct concept. Today, you want to look at what your prospective buyers are discussing online.
There are three places you need to look today. Start by going to a forum in your niche and reading the posts and replies to see what emotions and problems people are having.
Follow that up by visiting social networking groups and immersing yourself in there to see what the chatter is. Lastly, you can look at the comments and engagement on public social media posts and consider which hashtags are performing the best.
Day 4: Spy on the Competition to See What They’re Succeeding With
On this day, you will be spying on your competitors to see what types of products they have released into the marketplace. To find these, you can look on the platforms themselves, go to the competitor’s website to see what their product listings are, and sign up to their list to see what they promote in terms of products they have created themselves or those they recommend.
Day 5: Make Note of the Various Price Points and What’s Included
Revisit the best products that you have found in your research and start taking notes today about the price points being presented on the sales page. You don’t want to undercut the competition too much, but you don’t want to be overcharging, either.
As you go through this process, make note of what all is included in the info product. Part of being competitive is being able to overdeliver at the right price point. If you are looking at an eBook, make a note of how many pages it is and whether or not it comes with additional files such as a checklist or cheat sheet, for example.
If you are looking at a video digital product, make a note of how many modules or videos are included, as well as how many minutes or hours the product has in total. You will also want to see if it comes with any additional elements such as transcriptions for the video files.
Day 6: Be Aware of Upcoming Trends and News
Before you take the plunge and finalize your own info product idea, make sure you take a quick look at the news and trends that are emerging in your niche. Start by signing up for a Google alert so that you get an email whenever something new is released about your topic.
You also want to sign up for any trade magazines in your industry, where leading experts are often discussing breaking news and trends with their colleagues. You may also be able to find memberships for leaders where they discuss these issues as well.
Day 7: Brainstorm Your Digital Product Idea
Today’s the day you will brainstorm your own idea for a digital info product. This should be something that serves as a solution to the problems of your target audience. It should motivate and inspire them to succeed with goals of their own, whether they are financial, emotional, physical, or something else.
You may want to start with a broad idea or you might want to drill down a bit and create an entire line of info products that focus on one specific topic at a time. For example, instead of one massive eBook about how to lose weight, you may want to start with one that teaches people how to lose weight on the Keto diet.
Day 8: Choose a Format for Your Info Product Creation
Next, you will be deciding what type of format you want to create your product with. Part of this will be determined by your skills. You may have no idea how to create online videos for a course, or you may feel more comfortable with videos and want to stay away from text creations.
You want to choose a format that your target audience would like to learn in. For example, if you are teaching people how to build a blog, it’s often good to use video so that they can see an over-the-shoulder implementation of your instructions.
Anything you don’t know, you can learn or get help with. If you don’t feel confident with your writing, you can hire an editor to polish the finished product. If you don’t know anything about video creation, you can take a quick online course or watch a video on how to do it.
Day 9: Create a Detailed Outline to Work From
On this day, you will be creating your own outline that details what all will be going into your info product creation. You can do this in a broad or detailed manner. For example, if you have 10 chapters or modules, you may want to just write out the titles of each of those.
However, you may be the type of person who wants to go one step further and put your thoughts into a more expansive outline, such as writing out five main points that you want to go in each chapter.
Day 10: Devise a Profit-Pulling Funnel Concept
Today, you want to go a little further than just your front end product. You will be considering what you can create for an entire funnel. A funnel is when the buyer of the front end product is presented with additional buying opportunities, also known as one time offer upgrades.
While there is no limit as to how many upgrade offers you can have, most consumers don’t want to experience more than two per launch. If they have to sit there and go through seven or more pages before they get to the download page for the product they wanted, they will become frustrated.
Day 11: Pick Prices That Will Appease Both Affiliates and Consumers
After you outline what all will be included in your info products and upsells, you want to put a price tag on it. While you may be willing to undercut your competitors greatly, especially for your first info product, it’s not always the wisest thing to do.
You have to pick a price that will be enough for top affiliates to come onboard if they are earning 50% of the sale. If you are pricing it cheaper, then you will want to give affiliates 100% on the front end.
Keep in mind that even though you are new to the marketplace, customers have certain expectations about the money that they spend. It’s not always smart to price your products low, because consumers will associate the price point with quality.
Info products can sell at price points of anywhere from $7 to $97 on average. Many fall somewhere in between, such as $27 or $47 and occasionally you will find niche gurus who are selling courses that are priced around $1,500.
Day 12: Make a List of Perks and Rewards for Top Performing Affiliates
Once you know the pricing incentive, you will want to make a list of additional perks and rewards that you want to offer to top-performing affiliates. This may be in the form of a revenue-earning contest, where you pay out cash prizes to those who sell the most products.
You can also agree to private incentives, such as a bump in Commission for those who you know will perform well. Or, you can give them a coupon code for their customers to use or a spot on your download page where you can host a banner ad for them.
Day 13: Find Out Where Buyers in Your Niche Purchase Products
Next, you will be doing some research about the platforms that typically sell the info products in your niche. For many online marketers, those resources are usually ClickBank, Warrior Plus, JVZoo, Udemy, and other platforms.
Of course, if you have a tool such as AMember, then you can host the sale of your product and the affiliate program directly from your own site. While there are benefits to this, such as not having to pay fees to the platform, you also lose a lot of exposure that you would have gotten in their marketplace and on their leaderboard.
Day 14: Pick a Competitive Date and Time for Your Launch
You’re going to want to list everything early on so that affiliates can get onboard and make some plans for their promotions. Some of them will have limited availability in their emails and others will want to create a bonus so that they can be competitive or increase sales and commissions.
There are certain criteria some people go by when picking a date and time for their lunch period ideally, you want to list it at least two to three weeks in advance of your launch.
You may want to look and see who else is launching on certain dates so that you’re not trying to compete with anything comparable to your course or when there is a major launch happening for a top marketer and you know most affiliates will be promoting that.
If you are launching on a third-party platform, keep in mind that you will have a better chance of landing on their marketplace leaderboard if you launch earlier in the day so that you have time to increase sales.
Day 15: Create a JV Page for Affiliates with Launch Specs
You will want to create a joint venture (JV) page, which is where you will house all of the details for your upcoming info product launch. This is where affiliates can go to find out details about your product, get their affiliate link, download swipe emails to use, and more.
You want to make sure that you explain what all is in your funnel at every step, along with the various price points and commission levels that you are offering for each one. Some marketers will decrease commissions if they are offering a high ticket upgrade, but many affiliates will balk at this.
Day 16: Choose Your Platform and Create Your Listings
You will need to make a decision about which platform you want to use for your launch period keep in mind that if you spread yourself thin and launch on multiple platforms, it will look as if your product did not sell very well.
Once you decide on your platform of choice, create your listings so that affiliates can then go get their link and prepare their email autoresponders for the promotion. Each platform has a different system for their listing, so make sure you follow their instructions.
Day 17: Engage in Some Recruitment Efforts for a Profitable Launch
When your listings have been set up and linked to from your joint venture affiliate page, you will want to begin recruiting affiliates on a more personal level. You want to choose affiliates who have a strong following in your niche.
Many new digital product creators make the mistake of asking their marketing friends to promote for them, even if they are not in the niche. This will only ruin your conversions and make everyone think your product is not worth buying or promoting.
Do some research to find out who promotes products in your niche. You can look to your competitors to promote for you and also look on previous contest leaderboards for similar topics.
When you approach these individuals, introduce yourself and tell them about your product. You want to send them the link to the JV page and let them know that you will be sending a review copy as soon as the product is ready.
Day 18: Let Your Circles on Social Sites Know What’s Coming
Another place you want to share the link to your JV page along with the details of your launch is on social media sites. If you have a lot of marketing friends on Facebook, for example, you can make a post letting everyone know about your upcoming launch.
There are also groups on certain social media sites where people post about their launch is so that members can consider promoting for one another. You can also create a YouTube video letting prospective affiliates know about your plans.
Day 19: Make Official Announcements to Your List and On Launch Sites
In addition to these recruitment efforts, you will also want to make an official announcement to your list of affiliates, if you have been building one. You can also announce the upcoming launch to your regular subscribers so that they can be on the lookout for your product.
Some of your competitors will likely be on that list as well, so this will give them a heads up about something they may want to promote. Be sure to create a listing on any launch sites, such as MunchEye, so affiliates can find and prepare for their promotion of your product.
Day 20: Create the Front End for Your Digital Info Product
Now it is time to create the actual info product if you haven’t already begun. This is a step that may take a few hours or could take weeks, depending on what you plan to teach and how adept you are at sharing the information.
Regardless of what media format you have chosen to work with, make sure that your finished product is one that is well polished and informative. This will be your first impression with many buyers, and if you want them to become repeat buyers, then your initial product needs to be good.
Day 21: Spend Some Time Perfecting the Copy for Your Sales Page
When you have finished the product, you’ll want to create the sales letter for the front-end offer. Here, you will need to implement headlines, bullet points, a storyline, a call to action, and other copywriting elements that help convert a prospect into a buyer.
You can use a pre-built theme for your sales letter or hire a graphic designer to create something specific to represent your brand and idea. Even though the product is a digital download, you should have a graphic representation of what the customer is buying.
Day 22: Create Your One-Time Offer Upsell
Next, you will want to create your one-time offer upsell(s). If you have more than one, you will want to take a few days to complete the process. The one-time offer upgrades should be something that complements the original product or dives deeper into the topic.
Day 23: Write or Record the Copy for Your Upgrade
You will then need to create the sales letter for your upgrade offer(s). You can either use the same type of template that you used for the front end, with the addition of appreciation that the buyer purchased the product on the previous page, or you can create one that has a hybrid with video to personalize the message and convince them to add on to their purchase.
Day 24: Create the Download Page Where Customers Will Claim the Product
The download page is what will house the product for the customer. You do have the ability to upload the files directly to certain platforms, such as Warrior Plus. But a download page gives you additional opportunities to build your list, cross-promote your products, and showcase the banner ads that you allowed certain affiliates to have space for.
Day 25: Distribute Comp Copies to Strategic Partners
Once everything is ready, you will want to go back to those top affiliates that you initially reached out to and provide them with a complimentary copy have your product so that they can create a thorough and authentic review.
Day 26: Finalize Your Listing and Make a Test Run
Upload your files to the platform that you will be selling it through and test the process to make sure your buy buttons work, the customer is sent through your entire funnel, and they end up on the download page as promised.
Day 27: Create an Unexpected Bonus for Buyers
Whenever buyers are put through the purchasing process, they will have the opportunity to be added to your email subscriber list. While many will initially sign up, some will unsubscribe as soon as they have their download.
You can help keep more buyers on your list by giving them an unexpected bonus. This should be something that they would be willing to pay for normally. It might be an extension of your initial course, or a sneak peek of what’s coming up next.
Day 28: Sweeten the Pot for New Buyers with a Wow-Worthy Welcome Email
Once you have created the free bonus gift, you want to add it to your welcome email and provide the new subscriber with a personalized, genuine message of what they can expect in terms of value and service if they stay on your list.
Day 29: Hype Up Affiliates with Ongoing Communication and Praise During the Promo
Throughout the launch, regardless of how many days it is, you want to periodically post to social media and email your affiliates with praise about the top performers. You want to make sure that you thank everyone for their promotions, and make a big deal out of the leaderboard winners at the end if you have hosted a contest.
For many, it’s not so much about the money as it is bragging rights for their ability to bring sales. Having this type of fanfare discussed about them will help them get additional perks from other vendors with upcoming launches.
Day 30: Use Your Momentum After the Launch to Increase Profits
As your launch winds down, don’t forget to make plans for what you will do afterwards. You should have a plan in place to continue creating additional info products and also to leverage the list you have built and earn affiliate commissions by promoting the products of your competitors.
Create Your Digital Marketing Blueprint
An investment in digital marketing is the most valuable when it comes with a plan. A digital marketing blueprint designed for your business and its customers will generate a higher return on your investment than a trial-and-error approach.
A Vital Tool to Use as A Solo Entrepreneur
Digital marketing uses the internet, social media, mobile devices, and other electronic tools to reach customers. It is also known as online marketing, and it has been around for decades. It’s become an essential part of every business’s marketing strategy. Digital Marketing includes various techniques from SEO to email campaigns, from Facebook ads to content marketing. It is about understanding what your customers want, which will help you sell your product or services to them.
The following is why digital marketing is critical to use as a solo entrepreneur:
Brand Awareness and Visibility
From social media to email marketing, entrepreneurs can use these tools to connect with and reach their target audience. As a solo entrepreneur, you need to understand digital marketing because it can help you grow your business by reaching out to more people and increasing your customer base.
Improved Customer Experience and Relationships
Digital marketing plays a vital role in developing customer relationships and improving your customer experience. Entrepreneurs need to have a fundamental understanding of using digital media to ensure positive customer interaction. If your audience doesn’t understand your value or can’t use your products and services quickly, they won’t have an enjoyable experience. You retain an audience by giving them a good user experience and providing high value through content.
Cost-Effective, Scalable, and Sustainable
Digital Marketing is now more affordable than ever before, and it’s easier to get started with. Businesses can invest in advertising their products and services with a relatively small budget, and the potential customer base is exponentially more extensive.
Increased Sales and Profitability
Digital marketing can increase sales and profitability by providing a more efficient and direct reach to your ideal customer. It is easy to increase your revenue when your target audience knows about you and what value you can provide. Content optimized for search engines, Facebook ads, and lead magnets are three great ways to increase your sale and profitability through digital marketing.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, digital marketing is crucial for any business owner who wants to succeed today. You are unlikely to find your target audience or effectively communicate with them without it. On top of this, digital marketing also enables you to find new opportunities for your products and services. So, if you need a way to target potential clients interested in what you do and want to learn more about your work, you must invest in digital marketing.
