Hey everyone! Charlie here, I own a little piece of the internet over at www.tideandtree.com, and I’m here today with 11 tips I’ve picked up along the way when selling creative digital products online!
Just a bit of background
I sell nature-inspired stock photography and mock-ups on my own site (through WooCommerce), and on the Creative Market website where I’ve seen some great success over the past 12 months. I’ve been featured in their free weekly giveaway bundle along with their monthly discounted bundle deal, and I’ve picked up a fair few tips over the past year on what to do, and what to avoid!
So what is a digital product?
First off, by digital products, I mean when a customer purchases something from you from your website or a marketplace, and in return they get their product as a digital download as opposed to a physical product in the post. Things like:
• Stock photography
• Mock-ups for products and prints
• Social media templates
• Fonts
• Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions
• Website themes (WordPress, etc.)
• Illustrations and designs
• Branding packages
• Presentation templates
• Inserts for planners
And probably a million other things!
You can sell these kinds of products in a variety of different places, but the two most popular by far are Creative Market and Etsy. Of course, I also highly recommend you set up your own website as well.
First things first…
If you’re new to selling digital products, there are a few home truths you need to know. In no way should this put you off, but it’s important to set some expectations…
Skill
Make sure you can do what you do really well. That’s not to mean you need a Masters degree in it or anything, but you need to be really good at it, with the aim of being absolutely amazing in it. Don’t just pick up a camera, take a few pics, stick them up as stock and expect them to sell. Don’t get me wrong – you can learn to be great at anything, but if you’re not great at it yet, then expect to put some hours into your education first. And make sure it’s something you will enjoy doing every day.
Passion
Speaking of doing something you enjoy, sometimes selling digital products can be really boring. No joke. I sell stock photography, and when I have 100+ images to package up, design covers for, upload and tweak one-by-one, it can get pretty monotonous (bulk editing only gets you so far!). You need passion for what you’re doing, you need to love it, even on the days where you pretty much hate it. And trust me, some days you will hate it.
Patience
It simply won’t take off overnight. It will take weeks, months, maybe even a few years before you’re bringing in an income from your digital products. There’s simply too much supply and not always enough demand. But if you keep going, be persistent, and show up every working day – your business will continue to move forward and you will get there. But you must be willing to accept your income will be small and intermittent for a while. And that’s ok!
Strategy
If you want this to be more than a hobby, you need to treat it like a business. That means diversifying your income revenues – i.e. selling on other platforms or setting up your own website. It means doing continuous market research to discover new pain points that you can offer a solution for. It means reaching out/networking and building collaboration opportunities. It means advertising, building traffic and growing a solid following. It also means setting long-term goals, which you then break down into annual goals, which you break down even further to quarterly or monthly goals so you can continue to track your progress.
So with all that in mind, here we are with my top 11 tips for selling creative digital products:
1: Start simple on one platform
Don’t sign up for 10 different marketplaces at once – you won’t be able to keep up. Pick one or two and go with that – get really good at that platform before you branch out. I started with Creative Market before anything – even before my own website.
Why?
– You get to learn that platform inside out and how to maximise the potential of that site without spreading yourself too thin.
– You can test your business model, products, packaging and customer base before you ‘make it’.
– You are free to make mistakes that won’t impact your business too much.
2: Batch produce your work
You’ll do better on marketplaces such as Creative Market when you regularly post new products – weekly or fortnightly tends to do best. But there’s a lot to do when setting up and running a business, and you can’t actually devote all your time to your passion. So get organised and batch create your products! Dedicate one full week a month (even if it’s evenings after work) where you’ll do nothing but create your next few products. I often create 3 or 4 products in one week that will then last me an entire month, to release and promote. Your business model may require more or less time, but try and pin down a regular slot to do nothing but batch-create.
Why?
– It leaves you free to devote the rest of your time to branding, traffic building, networking, admin, accounts, and goal-getting.
– We should be spending more time promoting our products than actually producing them believe it or not.
– Your customers won’t know you’ve not produced your latest creation that week. They’ll just see you release work regularly, showing you’re active in your business and accessible.
– You can 100% focus on your product creation without worrying about other business tasks – so the quality of what you produce will increase.
– You’re more likely to get featured in their bundles and free giveaways which can cause a huge surge in traffic to your shop.
3: Create stunning covers
Seriously, I can’t stress this enough – if you’ve created a beautiful scripted font for instance, but just displayed a screenshot of what it looks like on your laptop, you’re letting down a potentially great product! It doesn’t have to be an extra skill or expense for you to package up your product – for that I can’t recommend Canva enough. It’s free, easy to use and there are loads of templates to get you going. Just check out some of my covers and graphics, I created them in about 10 minutes with Canva!
Powered by Creative Market
Powered by Creative Market
Powered by Creative Market
And for more inspiration check out some of these gorgeous covers by other designers!
Powered by Creative Market
Powered by Creative Market
Powered by Creative Market
Why?
– If your product is great but looks awful – no one will want it!
– Unfortunately in this industry your products are judged by their cover – so give your products the best chance of being clicked on.
– Customers scroll quickly through the vast amount of products available. If yours doesn’t stand out, it simply won’t get noticed.
4: Create beautiful ‘catalogues’
It’s not just about the cover. When people browse for their next font, website theme or stock photography bundle, they want to see them in use. Create a template in Canva for each type of product you create that you can use as a base to save you time. For instance here you can see the catalogue I’ve created for a single mock up and a bundle to show the various ways people can use my creations. I use these templates as a base for all my products to save me time.
Powered by Creative Market
Powered by Creative Market
Why?
– Your customers can’t always envision their end goal without a bit of help, so by showing the multiple ways your design would look amazing, it can seal the deal that your product will solve their problem.
– It shows an added layer of dedication to your work, and that you’re a serious artist, designer or photographer.
– It helps open the floodgate of ideas for your potential buyers as often you can show your product being used in ways they hadn’t even thought of.
– It gives an opportunity for a CTA (call-to-action) to check out the rest of the collection or similar products.
5: Prepare to be featured
It was such an amazing feeling to be featured in the Creative Market free good giveaway, and then again in their December bundle. It caused a huge surge of traffic to my shop and website, lots of sales and a load of sign-ups to my mailing list. Make sure if you get selected (and new stores who apply the tips here often do!) your shop is already in order and ready. Make everything look consistant, on-brand and beautiful. Sort your banner, shop graphics and profile picture out. Make sure your description is clear with a link to your site (even if it’s just a coming soon page with a sign-up form – that’s all I had!) Also refresh older product covers and tidy up product descriptions if needed.
Why?
– You want to make the most of this traffic as you don’t tend to get featured again. Marketplaces like Creative Market like to boost new and promising stores over older shops.
– You’ll get such a large amount of traffic that you’ll likely get extra sales, sign-ups and followers – if you look legit.
– You’ll get loads of traffic to your website so if it is live and running, you can maximise engagement there.
– The bundles and giveaways only last for a week at a time, and you often only get a week or two notice beforehand, so you won’t have a lot of time to get things looking right.
– Shops that look cohesive and professional have a better chance of being featured anyway.
6: Create a product description template
It’s important you have a strong, on-brand description for your product so customers can see you’re a business and not a hobbyist. It makes an even stronger impression if it’s cohesive and consistent for all products, but as you can imagine, that’s a lot of text to write out! Save it as a template in your notes, and then you only ever need to change the specific product detail section! Mine goes something like this:
Intro to Tide & Tree and what I sell
–
Specific product detail including the niches and uses it’s perfect for
–
CTA to see more of the same collection if relevant
–
What’s included in the download
–
Why stock photography – what pain points does it solve?
–
Get social – link to social media handles
–
Basic terms and conditions, and copyright notice
Why?
– It looks super professional.
– By saving a template it makes it easy to edit and make subtle changes as opposed to writing a totally new format for every product.
– It helps show the potential buyer the benefits of the product but also of your business, creating more opportunities for future sales and customer loyalty.
– Saving a template just saves so much time!
7: Be seasonal with your shop
Change up your website shop headers or profile banners with a seasonal themed branded image or graphic. For instance, I change my profile banner on Creative Market 3-4 times a year – so I can create a seasonal presence for autumn, winter, spring and summer. I change the shop banners on my website with each new collection and new season. Something as simple as these (again, you can design this so easily in Canva!):
Also stick any ‘seasonal products’ (if your business creates seasonal-based products) to the top of your shop. It helps to do this at least a month before that season begins – no one wants to wait to start marketing Christmas things until December!
Why?
– It’s a 5 minute job that shows you’re active and working on your business constantly.
– It helps customers see they also need to work on their seasonal business and will look to your shop for answers and inspiration.
– It gives you the opportunity to do an end-of-season ‘clearance sale’ on any seasonal products and then either remove them from the shop or shift them to the back of your product listings.
8: Create a CTA within your download file
Don’t let your customers forget about you once they’ve made that purchase! Include a thank you text file or (like in my case) a PDF instruction document. It shows customers how to use my stock and mock-ups along with my contact information for support, and a CTA to sign up to my mailing list for free stock pics. If you have your own shop you could include a coupon code for 10% off the next order in return for a testimonial. Get creative and think of some ways you can grow that customer fan base of yours!
Why?
– It gives customers a clear and easy way to stay in contact with you and go back to your store.
– Increases your mailing list opt-ins and/or social media following.
– Creates opportunities for repeat sales.
– Creates opportunities for reviews and testimonials.
9: Keep pricing consistent
Don’t have the same type of product listed for two totally different prices. Naturally if one product has a lot more in it than another, adapt your pricing to suit. But otherwise keep your products a similar price. Check out other sellers in your niche to get an idea of pricing. It’s difficult to price digital products, but take into consideration your time, skill, effort and ideal profit margin. Also take into account the commission bracket you’re getting from your marketplace and any seller fees from PayPal/Stripe if you sell on your own site.
Why?
– Sporadic pricing confuses customers and will put them off.
– It allows you to stay consistent with the industry and avoid over or under pricing your products.
– It creates healthy competition within your niche, allowing your products to stand out even as a new seller.
– It shows you’ve considered your pricing and didn’t just pluck it out of thin air.
10: Understand licensing and terms
This one’s important and the rules around it vary greatly depending on what you sell. If you sell stock photography like me for instance, you need to make sure you have a non-exclusive licence if you’re ever planning on selling on more than one platform. Creative Market is non-exclusive, leaving me free to sell my work on other platforms as well as my own site. Another important thing to consider is whether you’ll sell your products as a standard or extended licence, which comes down to whether your customers are going to make money from using your products or not. This is explained for Creative Market very well here. It’s also important that it’s listed in your terms for customers to see. For instance I make it clear to customers that they cannot purchase my stock to re-sell as stock. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised.
Why?
– Breaking licensing rules as a seller can cause your shop to get shut down at a minimum, and has been known to cause lawsuits.
– It doesn’t do well for your reputation and can cause negative reviews.
– If customers don’t know your terms and conditions because you didn’t make them clear enough, there’s not a lot you can do if they break them.
– If you see your business as a long-term goal, you need to get your foundations right and be clear on the rules and terms to avoid conflict and problems later on.
11: Be accessible
As your shop takes off, you will get sales questions, support requests, even the odd refund request. Make sure your email address/es and contact forms are easy to find as it helps create positive customer relationships. Your customer service needs to be top-notch to answer both pre and post sales questions. Set up an auto-responder if you have a business email, clarifying that you have received their email and give a reasonable timescale for response (mine is 48 hours). I also list my response time in my terms on any product page, in any instruction document that comes with my products and on my contact page on my website. Then obviously, make sure you respond within that timescale.
Why?
– It creates customer loyalty and repeat business.
– Increases positive reviews and recommendations.
– If you’re getting the same question constantly, it gives you the opportunity to address it and improve the product or service as a result.
And there you have it! My top 11 tips for selling digitally either through a marketplace like Creative Market or on your own website.
Do you have any tips or have you tried any of the above? Comment below with your experience!
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