7 Reasons Why Your Digital Product Isn’t Selling

Last Updated on July 7, 2020 by ellduclos

Have you ever created a digital product and got SO excited to launch just to have it flop? Don’t let that defeat you! Many will think the reason their digital product flopped is because it isn’t good enough but many times that’s not the case! You could have an amazing product but, without the proper marketing strategies your amazing digital product won’t sell. That’s why today I wanted to help you SELL your digital products. I am sharing 7 reasons why your digital product isn’t selling.

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Dsiclaimer: Affiliate links are used. You can read my full disclosure here.

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When I created and launched my first ever digital product I was extremely nervous. I thought it would fail and I worried no one would want to purchase it. To my surprise I was able to sell 239 copies that month and made over $3,000 in revenue.

Now in 2020 I am making a full time income just off of selling digital products.

Here is a screenshot of my digital course sales the past few months:

& I just launched my own customizable Pinterest Templates just 2 weeks ago and was able to sell 45 so far!

When you have a proper marketing strategy in place, your digital products WILL sell!

I want to talk about 7 reasons why your digital products aren’t selling and how to fix it.

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1. You don’t have an audience

I hate to break it to you but, if you don’t have an audience your product isn’t going to sell. In order to make sales you need an audience! I am not saying you need 100,000 monthly blog views to make sales. When I launched my first digital product I had 50,000 – 60,000 monthly blog views BUT, most of my sales came from my Facebook community Boss Girl Bloggers that had about 15,000 – 20,000 members at the time.

My point is, if you don’t have an audience your product isn’t going to sell. I share a content marketing strategy in this post that might help you grow an audience. I also recommend learning Pinterest marketing. My blog was receiving 50,000 + monthly blog views at the time of my digital product launch because of Pinterest marketing. Now Pinterest brings my lifestyle blog over 100,000 monthly views!

2. Your product doesn’t relate/offer a solution to your audience’s problem

Here’s the thing, you don’t want to sell a product for yourself. You want to sell a product for your audience! If your digital product isn’t offering some kind of solution to a problem your audience has, then it’s not going to sell.

I know a lot of bloggers think that you need to sell a digital product about “how to blog” in order to sell digital products and make sales. This isn’t true! If you have a lifestyle blog and the first product you market on your blog is a course on “how to make money blogging” then it’s most likely going to flop because a majority of your audience isn’t bloggers.

When I launched my first digital product it was my Pinterest course. I was a lifestyle blogger BUT, I had my Boss Girl Bloggers facebook group that was filled with 20,000 bloggers. I learned through trial and error how to grow my blog traffic using Pinterest and I created a course to teach this to other bloggers. If I didn’t have my Boss Girl Bloggers community I wouldn’t have created this course right away because my blog audience at the time wasn’t targeted for bloggers. If I were to market this only on my lifestyle blog I wouldn’t have made any sales.

However, I knew that I had an audience who wanted to learn how to do the same thing for their blogs because of my Boss Girl Bloggers community. That’s a huge reason as to why I was able to sell my product. You need an audience that needs your solution. 

I also can’t stress this enough, if you take a course, don’t take the info you learned and resell it a month later as your own. This happens too often in the blogging community and comes off as disingenuous.

So let’s say you have a niche that is for example “self care and mindset” you can easily create digital products related to this topic.

Examples:

• Digital printables
• Journaling pages
• Mindset courses
• Mindset ebook
• Mindset workbook

Let’s say you are a health and fitness blogger,

Examples:

• Printable meal planning guides
• Customized workout routines
• Workout classes

You have to think about what your audience’s problem is and then offer a solution. Maybe you are a mom blogger and your audience struggles with time management, staying organized and keeping the kids busy at home…

You can create affordable printables that help moms get organized, manage their time, plan their daily schedules and even printable worksheets for kids. GET CREATIVE.

If the product doesn’t relate at all to your audience, it’s not going to sell.

3. Your audience doesn’t trust you

So let’s say you have an audience and your product is related to what your audience needs but, it still won’t sell? Then perhaps you have an audience that is still trying to trust you.

There are a few ways to build trust with your audience:

• Offer FREE valuable content. This includes offering valuable freebies to build your email list. I recommend this email marketing course if you need to learn email marketing.
• Provide results and proof if you can (I wouldn’t sell my Pinterest course without showing proof that I get blog traffic from Pinterest)
• Have a handful of people test your digital product in exchange for feedback

Without trust your digital product isn’t going to sell.

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PAUSE: Grab a list of over 600 blog post ideas!

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4. You don’t have a marketing strategy

A huge reason why your digital product isn’t selling might be because you don’t have a marketing strategy in place OR you aren’t talking about your product enough. Once you have your digital product created it’s important to market that product in order to make sales.

How can you successfully market a digital product?

Email Marketing

I am assuming that you have an email list that you actively grow, if not, you definitely should! Email marketing can be a game changer when it comes to making sales. I suggest Mailerlite as an email list builder. I have been using it for over 3 years.

I talk more about how I use email marketing to make digital product sales in my Mastering Sales with Ell course.

Creating sales funnels can take your digital product income up a notch! The idea is to get your audience to trust you from your valuable blog posts to then want to subscribe to your blog. You can also get them to subscribe by offering a valuable freebie!

Next you want to welcome them with a welcome email that’s valuable and you can mention your digital product briefly in this email. I like to offer a discount code in my welcome email. You can start building connections with your subscribers by sending bonus content 2 times a month that is exclusive content only for your email list. Offer bonus free valuable content to build that trust with your subscribers so they know that your digital products are going to be worth the cost.

Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest is a goldmine for bloggers and for selling digital products! Every pin leads to a product or website. The key is to create 600 x 900 pins that stand out in the smart feed. You’ll want your pins to have click worthy titles so those impressions turn into potential sales!

I have tons of articles related to Pinterest marketing and an affordable Pinterest Growth Course that teaches you step by step all you need to know about mastering Pinterest! One of my most recent Pinterest related blog posts is this one – 8 Pinterest Mistakes

Social Media Marketing

Did you know that you can also make digital product sales from your social media audience? 2 platforms I use that get me sales daily is my Facebook Community and Twitter.

Many wouldn’t think to use Twitter but, I have made amazing connections with my readers and have received tons of leads thanks to Twitter.

As you can see in these screenshots, Twitter can bring me anywhere from 150 – 500 link clicks from just one tweet.

I also started a Facebook group “Boss Girl Bloggers” back in 2017 and it now has over 43,000 members. I am active in my Facebook group every single day providing free value and building personal connections with my audience which helps build trust. This allows me to also make sales in my Facebook group.

People aren’t buying a product… They care about “can I trust this person to provide value for the cost, will this product help me and provide a solution, is this person trust worthy to purchase from?”

Make connections with your audience, provide free value on social media and the sales will come.

Check out this post if you are struggling with growing your social media audience.

5. Your digital product is too cheap or too expensive

Pricing your digital product plays an important part in making sales. You don’t want to undersell (which I have been guilty of many times before) and you also don’t want to be so expensive that no one will purchase. It’s important to know your audience’s budget but, to also be fair to yourself.

I suggest checking to see what others in your niche are marketing similar products for. You also want to consider the time you spent putting your digital product together AND how much it is costing you to sell the product. Are there service fees to consider?

When I launched my first product I started it at $15 and this was SUPER CHEAP. Sometimes having a cheap product at that cost (especially for courses) might make someone question if the content is actually valuable. When they see a higher price point it’s usually considered more valuable, right? Even if your digital product is valuable, others might not see it that way if the product is cheap. There’s been many times I wanted to invest in the more expensive product because I assumed the quality would be better. These are just some things to consider when pricing your digital products.

Another mistake I made when I first started selling digital products was having sales too often. Having sales on your digital products can be great but, if you have them too often people will just wait for your next sale. This leads to you making very few sales at your original price.

6. Your sales page doesn’t sell

The most important part of your marketing strategy is a sales page that SELLS. You want to use your sales page to really pitch your solution!

A good sales page should include:

• The solution to a problem (what’s your product and why does someone need it? What solution does it provide?)
• Results! Show your results. This only applies for products that can offer results.
• Have reviews from previous purchasers.
• Have an F.A.Q section (any frequently asked questions can be answered here)
• Be clear on if you have a refund policy or not. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.

7. You aren’t clear and consistent with your income goals

The last reason as to why your digital product isn’t selling is because you aren’t clear and consistent when it comes to your income goals.

Serious question, do you set income goals every month? If not, you are missing out! Setting income goals has been a game changer for me. It’s also important to make sure to break down your big income goals into more obtainable goals.

Here is exactly how I set income goals for my digital products. 

Step one: Set your monthly digital product income goal

As an example I will set an income goal of $5,000 in digital product sales. 

Step two: Break that monthly income goal into a weekly goal

Now if I take that $5,000 goal and divide it by 4 weeks, I would need to make $1,250 in digital product sales a week. 

Step three: Break that weekly income goal into daily sales

If I take $1,250 and divide that by 7, I would need to make $178 a day in digital product sales.

Step four: Figure out how many products you have to sell to meet your daily income goal

I have 3 digital products that I sell currently… a $39 Pinterest Course, a $99 Sales Course, and 86 Pinterest templates for $29 

There are so many different ways I can reach my goal. I could sell one sales course a day and 3 Pinterest templates to reach my goal. I could also sell 4 Pinterest courses each day. Either way, I know I need to focus on making roughly at least 4 sales a day. 

Step five: Create your daily/weekly marketing strategy

Now I want to figure out daily and weekly marketing tasks that will help me reach my digital product income goal.

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I hope you found these tips helpful. If you haven’t started a blog yet and want to learn how, then sign up now for my FREE “How to Start a Money Making Blog” crash course!