Digital Product Release (Part 1)

Synopsis

Digital space keeps evolving and the tech continues to grow, which makes digital hard to sell. To be successful, you need a stiller strategy and marketing plan for your new product launch. With our data-driven, product-centered slide decks – Digital Product Release (Part 1) and (Part II) – you can introduce your digital product to the world with more confidence and less stress, and watch demand for your product skyrocket.

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Slide highlights

With the help of this slide, go over problem statements, project goals and objectives, benefits and critical success factors to explain to your audience why this product is going to resonate with the target audience and be profitable.

Introducing your stakeholders to the solution to the problem your product offers is critical, so spend extra time populating this slide. Consider adding quantitative data, A/B testing results and current customers' testimonials.

Communicate your competitive landscape analysis, using this slide. This will allow you to demonstrate your position in the market, define your objectives and approaches and show in what ways you can beat the competition.

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Application

Follow these eight steps outlined by Inc. specifically for launching a digital product:

1. Validate your digital product idea – always research your market before you begin to create any digital content. Start with Google Trends and search for topics of interest, relevant forums and social media groups. Also consider Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs and Moz, which allow you to analyze the monthly search volume and projected competition on specific keywords.
2. Set up a waiting list – this is one proven way to validate your digital product idea. Create a simple landing page on your website before you build anything related to your upcoming digital product idea and see how many people express interest by driving targeted traffic to this page.
3. Start building your audience with free content – once you have a landing page ready to collect email addresses, give reasons for people to sign up. Start with generating high quality blog content for your site and building a targeted list of potential companies, brands and influencers who may be interested in sharing your content.
4. Create your digital product – when you have a substantial email list or have a sizable social community (shoot for at least a few hundred to a thousand loyal users or followers), you should have a trickle of regular traffic to your website. Now is the time to develop the product.
5. Incorporate feedback and tweak your product – you want your digital product to evolve with your audience, so listen to their feedback. It is far easier to upgrade a digital product than a physical product, and your customers will appreciate receiving updated versions.
6. Install the right monetization tools – (Editor's note) consider Outbrain, Taboola, AdZerk and WP Bounce.
7. Target and involve strategic launch partners – make your digital product launch a big event. This will get your audience excited, keep you motivated and bring you higher conversion rates.
8. Launch to your existing audience, then expand – set up a sequence of emails to build anticipation with your existing audience. Focus on scheduling at least three to six emails that function in three strategic phases: showing your audience the problem; agitating the problem; and offering the solution.

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Example

Outlier

Aaron Rasmussen has co-founded and served as Creative Director at MasterClass, an online education platform featuring industry leaders from Vogue Editor in Chief, Anna Wintour, to Disney's CEO, Bob Iger. So it came as no surprise that his new digital product launch was widely successful. In January 2020, TechCrunch reported that Rasmussen's Outlier.org, a startup that allows students to take online classes for college credit, has raised $11.7 million in Series A funding.

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What sets Outlier apart from the competition is that it only charges $400 per class (that covers all costs, textbooks included), which is much more affordable than a class someone would take at a residential college. "Our mission is to increase access to high-quality education and reduce student debt," Rasmussen said in a statement for TechCrunch. "With this funding and the insight that we have gained from our two pilot courses in the 2019 fall semester, we will continue building more intro-level courses and expanding to accommodate more students and more experts in their fields who can provide top-quality education at a reasonable cost."

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