It was frustrating…
Everyone was raving about making their first sale and counting.
I spent a lot of time recording videos, creating graphics, and designing the sales page.
I did it all the scrappy way.
It was a paid Facebook group challenge.
I did all the assignments like a star student and finally launched through a webinar after rehearsing for 3 days.
I finally launched, but I found myself selling to crickets, and crickets are freeloaders.
These orthopteran insects make excellent music, but they do not pay for courses.
I wanted to quit and never go through that again, but I am a relentless rebel; I had to figure out what did not work.
That failed launch, which was also my first, crushed me.
I was also embarrassed because I shared every step of my process inside the Facebook group.
I confess, I even questioned if there was still room on the online space for another done-for-you design product.
Where did I go wrong?
That was the burning question I had to answer before pulling the plug on everything.
My first launch flopped, but that failure taught me 4 things that I wish I knew before creating my first digital product.
Thing #1: Start with a smaller offer
Stop exchanging hours for money working one-on-one with customers, they said, create a course.
Although I was new to the digital product world, I fell into the trap and created a course.
That was a big mistake.
Creating a course takes time, money, and mental bandwidth.
You don’t want a course to be your first digital product.
If that’s the first time someone is buying from you, you do not want to create a paywall making it hard for them to pay you.
Instead, take a smaller portion of your course and sell it as a tiny offer.
People are more likely to open their wallets to a low-entry offer. If you over-deliver, and you should, they are more likely to buy a course from you.
You need to earn their trust with that tiny offer.
Thing #2: Prime your audience before creating anything
My second mistake was to create a product I thought people wanted because other entrepreneurs were selling the same thing.
I went straight to selling and skipped the pre-launch phase.
I started posting on social media about my upcoming offer only 3 weeks before launching.
Couple of things I did wrong:
- I did not spend enough time getting people to see me as an expert regarding my offer.
- I did not create an interest list, a list of people interested in my upcoming offer.
- My audience didn’t even know that’s a problem they needed to solve. In fact, the people I was pitching to wanted someone to do it for them. They were not convinced they needed my product.
If people are not convinced they need your digital product, no marketing will convince them because you’re pitching to the wrong audience.
Thing #3: Specificity On your sales page copy
I let a software write my sales page copy. It was an excellent copy, but I was targeting anyone willing to pay.
I needed to first know the level of awareness of the people I created the product for.
- Are they beginners who do not know they have a problem?
- Are they fully aware they have a problem and are ready to pay for a solution?
My sales page copy was talking to a broad audience, anyone willing to buy. I was afraid of leaving out some people, and that strategy did not work.
My sales page copy was supposed to address people dealing with one problem, people with only one level of awareness of that problem (beginners, intermediate or advanced), and provide one solution.
Thing #4: Always do a funnel diagnostic
I came out so frustrated after that first launch that I pulled the plug entirely and vowed to never do this again.
I didn’t go back to analyze each step of my funnel to find friction, any place along the path that caused resistance, that caused people to fall off, or that created confusion.
When friction occurs in your funnels, it either prevents the sales, lowers the sale, or causes you to lose the sale after the fact (a refund).
I received great feedback from a few people that looked at my offer, I heard them, but I did nothing with the information.
I had a list of 1200 people; I did not ask them about the offer or what they wished I had included on the offer.
I did not use the resources I had to figure out what caused my offer to fail:
- Was my offer irresistible?
- Do I need to change the bonuses?
- How was my pricing? (I received feedback on the pricing. The person told me the offer looked terrific, but the price was too low. She wondered if it was too good to be true.)
- Should I change the headline?
- Did I do a good job crushing all the objections with my sales page copy?
Those are a few of the questions I should’ve asked myself to diagnose my failed launch. Looking back, I now know that the offer was great, but I was targeting the wrong audience, my pricing was too low, and I needed to be more specific with the solution I was providing.
What about you? Do you have an idea for a digital product, and you’re hesitating to move forward with it? Let’s chat about it; schedule a free discovery call with me!
