Today I want to talk through how to come up with ideas for digital products that people actually want to buy. Easier said than done I know, especially if you don't feel you have a creative bone in your body. But you don't need to be creative to solve your customers' problems.

Making money while you sleep through the sale of digital products is the holy grail for most business owners who are tired of trading their time for money. But waking up to an email saying “you just made a sale” is a taste of freedom that many want, but few are able to implement and get consistent results from.

Research

We have access to this amazing thing called Google, that will direct you to whatever you need to find when you’re asking what your audience would ask when they’re looking for help.

Put yourself into their shoes.

What problems are they trying to find solutions to and what question would they type into Google to find it?

What phrases would they use to find information?

You’re going to go down a rabbit hole, so carve out a day for this and record all your findings. Don’t forget to bookmark pages so you can go back to them.

You may not find digital products you can purchase immediately, but what you might find are freebies, books, ebooks and other content. So check out the engagement and reviews on that content.

What you’re looking for here are solutions that have worked for your niche. The answers might surprise you.

Also, buy other products! Test them out… what worked, what didn’t. You can model, but NEVER copy… and always try to improve whats out there.

During the research phase look carefully at the reviews – this is a direct link to your customers honest thoughts and feelings and gives you insight into the transformation they’ve gone through from having the problem to finding the solution.

Next up have conversations with those that you know might have the problem you want solve. And get their insight into what they are experiencing right now. Ask them what they have tried and what would be their ideal solution right now.

Listening to how people describe their transformation of finding the solution to what they were looking for, will give you clues as to how you pitch the product to new leads.

Talking to your customers is always a great place to start with this. They’re going to be very open with you as you’ve built that trust with them.

Testing ideas for digital products

Next up, its time to start testing your product idea with your audience. And you don’t need to invest any money at this stage.

You simply want to create content on the subject and create an irresistible freebie to go with it in exchange for their email address. That is enough to know whether your audience are interested.

The test freebie can simply be a splinter of the full product that you want to offer to keep it simple.

So for example, if you want to offer a course on how to make cupcakes…. the splinter of that offer might be a video tutorial on how to make your best buttercream recipe. That tutorial could be shared on a blog about your favourite cupcake buttercream flavours. The next obvious step for creating great buttercream is a full-blown cupcake course.

But the key here is making that tutorial content they need to opt-in for. Giving away your email address is an exchange of value, and the first step in gauging genuine interest.

And don’t forget to get feedback on that freebie, that will be invaluable when it comes to creating the paid product.

If your audience are loving the freebie then great, you’ve now created an email list of people who may be interested in testing your product for you – and here’s the great thing, you can create that product as you go and offer them an attractive discount for being your beta testers. Don’t forget to ensure that they agree to a testimonial as part of that discount.

What if my test doesn't work?

If no one bites – then this is where patience and testing comes into play. Because if your audience aren’t engaging with the free content, they’re not likely to pay for it.

If people are paying other companies for what you want to create, then either the audience you’re promoting your content to is wrong or you haven’t quite created what they really want.

Don’t get disheartened at this stage – you’re simply testing ideas and no one said this was going to be easy! Nothing in business that’s worth having ever is. And by not wasting your time on creating the product in advance you’ve saved yourself time and money.

So if no one is interested, you either start getting your content in front of other audiences – for example by trying different social media platforms or trying different targeting with your ads. Or you change the positioning of your content. Just try other angles.