Easy Digital Downloads to Boost Sales
What is a Digital Download?
Digital downloads are digitally downloadable products. An easy digital download can include any kind of product that was created with some type of software and then made available to use or download on a device like a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Today a digital download can be anything from an app for our phones or to a digital graphic created for use in graphic art.
Digital Downloads allow you to sell products electronically.
Most Profitable Digital Products
Pinpointing the most profitable and easy digital download can be tricky. There are digital products that cost less because of their simplicity and then there are products that cost more because of their complexity.
Assuming that the more expensive products are the most profitable is false. A winning, simple product can do extremely well, and a complex product presented to the wrong audience can bring in very little in terms of revenue.
The most profitable digital product is the one that is offered to the right audience, solving the right problem. Let’s take a look at five types of digital products.
Printables
What are Printables?
Printables are digital downloads that can be printed out and used as a physical product. Printables are (generally) cheaper and more widely available than their physical counterpart.
Rather than having to go to a store to purchase something like a planner or a journal, we can now just go online, download one, and print it out. A definite pro. This same characteristic is, if you are someone who would rather purchase a paper product already printed and assembled, multi-page printables may not be for you.
There are more and more editable digital downloads on the market, where you can use them without having to print them out, but you have to be sure it is editable prior to purchase. These types of products are generally non-refundable because of the nature of the product.
Small Business Printables
Printables or easy digital downloads can be used by almost any business. Whether it is to attract more customers, promote their products or services to existing customers, or to add value to an order, printables are a great addition to a business owner’s arsenal.
Digital Product Ideas
Lead Magnets
Nowadays it’s all about the email list! If you own a business and have not yet thought about collecting emails from potential or existing customers and clients, you should think again.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways of creating a list of people that will be waiting to hear from you. If you are able to collect emails from people who already know what you offer, they become part of a pool of people that will be more receptive to your promotional materials than someone who has never heard of you or your business.
This is called converting cold traffic to warm traffic. Cold traffic being the complete stranger who has no idea who you are and warm traffic being the person who has already willingly given you their email address. To which would you rather send your marketing materials? Exactly.
Printables like free ebooks and checklists can be used as a lead magnet, designed to attract potential customers. You offer a free printable and they give you their email address in exchange. It really is that easy. While the concept is easy, figuring out a good lead magnet can be a little more challenging.
A lead magnet should be something that doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to create, but it has to be good, at least good enough to make it worthwhile for someone to part with their coveted email address.
With so much spam today people are way more discerning about who they give their email address to, so make something that makes them feel compelled to share it. Give it a shot and you’ll see how a free business printable can make a difference.
Make Money Selling Digital Products
Regardless of your profession, business-type, or career, printables can be designed, created and sold as a way to earn passive income. Selling printables doesn’t have to be your job, it can be a part-time gig or side hustle.
There are a ton of software programs that you can use to make them, Canva, Word, Adobe, Powerpoint, the list goes on and on. Start out small, make a simple list or guide, save it to pdf and you’ve got a printable. Many programs like Canva offer great templates so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Sell Trackers
People love trackers and logs. If you can find a tool that will help people stay on top of a routine or goal, it’s a sure winner as long as you can get it in front of the right people.
If you are in the fitness niche, for example, a water, supplement, or workout tracker is great. If you can find out where those people hang out online, get your offer in front of them there.
Offering a tracker that is unique and thorough will give you the best chance at being successful. Take your time to create something that you could actually sell, and then give it away. Counterintuitive, I know but it works.
Provide Value to Customers with Free Printables Related to Niche/Audience
If you are selling to a particular niche adding a printable as an extra offers your customer even more value. Everybody loves a free gift or an expected extra so think of something you can offer that compliments an existing order.
Get Organized With Budget Planners
One of the most popular and sought-after printable is the planner. Whether it’s a monthly, weekly planner or one specifically geared towards one type of planning, there is an audience for it.
These can be offered for personal use or to business owners for commercial use. They’re easy to use and typically much cheaper than their physical counterpart.
Selling Printables
Printables can be created on almost any word processing or graphic design program. The list of programs would be too long to list but the main components are text, lines, images, graphics, and shapes. If you can create using these tools, chances are you can create an easy digital download.
The design of a checklist is obviously very different from the design of a planner. If you are just starting out it’s a good idea to start with something simple so you can become familiar with how to lay out the design and how to size and download it properly.
More complex digital downloads can involve shading, layering, and can be offered in several different sizes. Printables that allow you to write something can be made editable with software. This makes them easy to use on electronic devices like smartphones, tablets and computers.
Printables that are made editable can be sold at a higher price because of the extra time that goes into creating them and the convenience they provide to your customers.
Sell E-Books
An E-book can be created as a freebie in exchange for a potential customer’s email address or it can be created to be sold on platforms such as Amazon KDP.
An e-book doesn’t have to be any particular length or have a minimum word count. If you cover one topic thoroughly you can create and sell your book. A brief overview of a topic can be offered as a lead magnet on your website or blog.
An E-book can be created with software such as Canva, or any word processing software. I prefer using Canva because it allows you to use e-book cover templates. It’s easy to add pages and you can add or create your own graphics. These are still a very popular form of easy digital download.
Online Courses
If you have knowledge in any subject area at all, online courses are a great way to create passive income. Create a course one time and you could have an awesome method of earning money.
Courses don’t have to cover everything there is to know about a subject, you can limit it to one subject or instruct students on how to accomplish one goal.
There are platforms like Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific to host the course. They all have their pros and cons but think of Udemy as a platform with a built-in audience.
People actually come to Udemy to look for courses on a particular subject. With the two others you have to drive traffic to the platform. If you have a website or offer content in a different medium you would share your course link so students could log into your online “school”.
You will also have to create the course using other software and then upload it, you cannot actually create the course on these platforms.
The awesome thing is at the time of this post these platforms allow you to publish your course on more than one platform, so if you wanted to try it on more than one to see where it performs best, you can do that.
A webinar can be offered with a worksheet or workbook as a freebie or as an upsell to anyone purchasing the webinar. Both the worksheet and workbook are easy digital downloads that can help boost the sale of a webinar when paired together.
Offer Memberships
Website memberships offer members to have access to a website or portal that would otherwise be restricted. Memberships are usually offered as a way to access restricted websites or to access restricted content within a website.
In either case regular content is usually added to a library to keep members engaged and encouraged to remain a member. This is usually a great option for anyone who has compiled a significant amount of resources.
Some of the items that can be found on membership sites are articles, ebooks, interview transcriptions, recorded webinars, and courses. All forms of digital downloads.
How to Sell Easy Digital Downloads
A digital download can be sold on several different platforms. Because of their nature they do have to be sold online, but the way in which you can do this is only limited by your imagination. I know, so cliche, but it’s true! In addition to adding them to a website or blog, they can be offered using social media posts, on pins on Pinterest, and mentioned in a podcast episode or YouTube video with the link to the digital download in the description box.
In addition to these ideas you can also list a digital download product on a platform like Gumroad, where customers can search for downloadable content.
There are other programs like Payloadz, and Payhip that allow you to sell digital downloads on other platforms. They are not marketplaces but they allow you to add a shopping cart on your website. Embed this cart on your website or send links to your customers so they can access your shopping cart.
Payhip Allows You to Add a Shopping Cart to Your Website
There is also a market for digital downloads on Etsy and downloads like printables (blank templates, forms, journal and planner interiors, etc) and other design elements can be sold on Creative Fabrica and Creative Market.
If you are artistic and can create fonts and other design elements like patterns, SVG files, icons, and clip art, both of these websites come with a customer base eager to purchase your art for their own projects.
Easy digital downloads are a great way to earn passive income. Like any other business you have to offer the right products to the right customers, but it’s definitely a form of revenue worth trying, regardless of your niche. If you would like to join a FREE 3-Day Workshop that can show you how to create a printables business on Etsy CLICK HERE!
Have you considered selling digital downloads? Comment below and let us know!