Avoiding overwhelm in your digital product

[00:00:00] Rene: Hey everyone. Welcome to Your First Digital Product, a show that helps maxed-out service providers create their first digital product so they can gain an additional income stream, grow their impact without increasing one-on-one work and experience more time freedom. On the show, I talk to business owners who have launched digital products and dig deep into how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. I’m your host, Rene Morozowich. Let’s go.

[00:00:28] For my birthday a couple weeks ago I wanted to go to brunch with my partner and my son because I love brunch and them. My partner shared a post he found online “Pittsburgh Brunch Guide: Where To Go This Weekend” so that we could find an amazing new place to try. Okay, great. I started to read through it. The first place looked amazing, as did the second place. The third one too.

[00:00:51] And by the time I got to the 10th one, I was so overwhelmed that I just closed the tab. I looked later and there were actually 23 places on the list, so I didn’t even make it halfway through. There was a lot of information on the page, but it wasn’t clear where each of the places were, if they were open on Sundays, if they took reservations, if there were good vegetarian options.

[00:01:12] I didn’t wanna drive to the other side of the city just for brunch. I didn’t wanna get really invested in a place only to find out they weren’t open on Sundays. I didn’t wanna go somewhere and stand outside for two hours that morning. You get the idea.

[00:01:25] I gave up and continued on with my day, but we still hadn’t decided where to go. My partner came back later with just three places. I asked where they were and he told me. One was too far out of the way, so that left two. One took reservations, so we picked that one.

[00:01:39] It was way easier to sift through so much less information to be able to make a decision more easily, and it felt a lot more manageable for me. Now, these epic posts can be great. They can get a lot of promotion, be re-shared by all the businesses in the post, have a lot of keywords, so they probably rank really well.

[00:01:56] Maybe the time on page is longer because the post is longer [00:02:00] for people who don’t just bail like me, that kind of thing. But I wonder if a better approach to help readers avoid overwhelm would be multiple posts. What if it was “The Five Best Places for Brunch in Pittsburgh That Take Reservations” or “The Four Best Brunch Spots in Pittsburgh in the East End” or “Three Amazing New Vegetarian Brunch Options in Pittsburgh?”

[00:02:22] Anything that makes the information more specific, kid friendly, great view, open later. You name it. When you’re more specific, yes, you give less information, but what if less information is actually better for people? It’s easier to consume. It’s more in line with what they’re looking for. It’s actually helpful, and because it gets straight to the point, it helps people more quickly.

[00:02:44] So let’s talk about how overwhelm relates to your digital product in two ways. Knowing yourself and knowing your audience. I think it’s important to consider yourself first. I get that the customer is important and ultimately who your product is for. But if you as a creator are not able to actually create the product due to overwhelm, then the customer doesn’t really matter.

[00:03:04] How does overwhelm factor into your first digital product? Do you feel like you need to include every point that exists on the topic? Does every piece of your product have to be perfectly designed and edited? Do you think that you need all of the pieces right away? The full sales page, the email sequences, the social posts, every possible piece of marketing that you’re ever going to need?

[00:03:25] Does it need to be the best and most amazing product of all time?

[00:03:29] Or is overwhelm holding you back from actually creating and putting your product out there? And then let’s consider your audience. It can be somewhat tricky to determine if your audience is overwhelmed.

[00:03:41] Before we dive into this though, I wanna touch on why your customer is actually so important here. If you have a customer buy your product, great. Sales are a great form of validation. And who doesn’t love the extra income?

[00:03:53] But I believe in creating a product that doesn’t just sell, but actually gets consumed. A product that sells is [00:04:00] great in the short term, but if your product sells and gets consumed, that helps everyone. Your customer gets their problem solved. They feel the money they spent was a good investment. They’re more likely to recommend the product to their friends, and they’re more likely to come back to you for more products or even services.

[00:04:18] This is a long-term strategy. If you have launched products, you may be able to determine how they’re being consumed so that you can try to determine if your audience is overwhelmed.

[00:04:27] Maybe you’re thinking, wait, Rene, I listen to this podcast because I haven’t launched a digital product yet, so why are we talking about this? Because you may need to come back to this after you do launch, and just bear with me.

[00:04:38] I’ll talk about what to do if you haven’t launched in a bit. So if you have a product, see if you can find any data. Data can come in the form of numbers. If customers are watching all the videos or completing all the modules, for example. It might be safe to say that if customers are consuming all of your content, they aren’t overwhelmed.

[00:04:56] But data may not be the best marker. Some customers may get the information they need from part of your product and be just as satisfied as if they consume the whole thing. A better marker may be what customers actually say. Are you checking in with people to help them feel supported? Are you asking for feedback?

[00:05:14] Where they got stuck? What was confusing and what they need help with? How are they responding? If you haven’t launched products, overwhelm will be even harder to determine. But here are a few tips. Look at any existing content and try to determine if people are consuming it and see how people are interacting with it.

[00:05:32] In the case of the brunch blog post, the website may be able to see how far down I scrolled, how long I spent on the page, if I clicked on any links or if I signed up for their email list to determine my level of satisfaction. Ask. I’ve said this before and will say it again, that a great way to figure out how to meet the needs of your audience is to actually ask your audience what their needs are.

[00:05:55] Make it okay for people to say that they’re confused or need more clarification. [00:06:00] This can come in the form of sharing questions that others have asked and the answers to those questions. If people see that others asked a question and that there are questions, they may be more likely to ask theirs themselves. And launch something. Once you actually launch a product, you can investigate, talk to customers, get the feedback, and iterate and or create new products.

[00:06:22] So let’s recap. In this episode, we talked about knowing yourself, how you may be overwhelmed, and if that’s stopping you from creating a digital product. And knowing your audience, and how to determine if they are overwhelmed, both if you have or don’t have a digital product. Now, let me ask what resonated with you in this episode?

[00:06:41] What part of creating your first digital product has you overwhelmed? Send me a voice message at yfdp.show/share. I’d love to hear from you.

[00:06:50] Hey, thanks for listening. I’d love to continue the conversation in your inbox. Email SUBSCRIBE to hey at yfdp.show or sign up in the show notes to get bimonthly emails about how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. Can’t wait to see you there.