Dealing with disappointment in your first 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] Hey friends. It’s Rene. Today I want to talk about dealing with disappointment in your digital product. Now, I think it is very worthwhile for service providers to try digital products for a ton of reasons. And we can talk about those in another episode, if you already haven’t heard me talk about them before. But it’s not all rainbows and bubbles and baskets of kittens and buckets of money. There are a couple of different ways that you may experience disappointment with your digital product, or maybe you’ve already experienced this and I have a couple of tips on what you could do.

[00:01:02] But real quick, before we dive in, I am looking to learn more about the problems that you’re having with your digital product. Creating, launching, marketing, something else entirely. I’m doing free 15 minute calls, no strings attached, no pitches, no sales. And I won’t even add you to my email list unless you really want to be on there. If I can offer any thoughts or resources, I will. But my goal really is to learn more about you so that I can understand and create the best possible content. I’m looking to do 25 of these calls by the end of 2023. So if you would help me out, I’d be forever grateful. You can go to yfdp.show/convo to sign up and learn more.

[00:01:40] So a couple of things I want to talk about in terms of disappointment. The first is the typical one that you probably think of is disappointment with sales. So this typically happens if you don’t get a certain number of sales right away. Like this is some arbitrary time period that you’re setting in your mind, like the first hour or the first day or the first [00:02:00] week.

[00:02:00] And if you don’t get that certain number of sales right away, I think some people end up disappointed. So what I would suggest is to really have a realistic view of what your sales might be or what you would be happy with. So I would look at things like your audience size, how much launch marketing you’re doing. Basically look at some data and try to figure out if you can find maybe a realistic view of what your sales might be, or again, what you would be happy with.

[00:02:29] Now, remember you’ll be promoting this for a while. The idea of a digital product is not that it’s just over. Right. So if you don’t get a ton of sales in the first day, that’s okay. It’s going to be around for a long time. You should keep promoting it. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. But your product is going to be out there for awhile. So you have tons and tons and tons of chances to continue to promote this, to continue to get more seals. So don’t worry so much if those sales don’t happen right away.

[00:02:57] You can also do a smaller launch and get feedback or reviews maybe from a beta group, and this can help with your marketing as well. And I know we’ve talked about that before.

[00:03:07] Now what if you’ve already launched your product and you have been disappointed with your sales. Now, the first thing I’m going to ask you is are you marketing your product? A lot of people do what I like to call whisper from the rooftops marketing. Like, Hey everybody, I have a product and you say it one time, and then you never say it again.

[00:03:26] So let’s brainstorm a couple of ways that you can continue to market that product. So think about your own content. Blog posts, social posts, videos, emails, lead magnets, really anything that you are creating that you can use to market your product. Now, these don’t just have to be, Hey here, buy my product. But identifying the problems that people are having. And then positioning your product to solve those problems. So think about what kind of content can you create that would lead into your product?

[00:03:58] You can look [00:04:00] at other content. So newsletter sponsorships, guesting on podcasts, being a part of a bundle, paid ads, affiliates. There are a lot of ways that you can work with other people to promote your product ongoing.

[00:04:14] I would also think about the timing. Depending on the type of product, there may be one time or a couple of times during the year that you may find that you get more sales than other times. So think about the timing and is there any special time that your product might do better during the year or the quarter than other times.

[00:04:34] Also continue to get that feedback and that social proof, because that really helps a lot of people determine whether or not they want to buy your product. They want to identify with someone else who has found success in your product. So don’t forget to continue to get that feedback and social proof.

[00:04:50] Also what feels comfortable for you? What feels comfortable in terms of marketing? There has to be something out there. I know people don’t like to sell and you know, we really just want to have this mentality of if we create it, people will just come to it, but that’s not really how it works. So think about what feels comfortable for you.

[00:05:08] And lastly, think about if maybe your product needs just a quick refresh. So you could do a quick refresh of the product and then relaunch it again in beta or just a full launch or both. So that is another thing that you could do if you have experienced some disappointment in sales.

[00:05:25] Another area you may encounter is disappointment from friends. Friends, colleagues, those people close to you. When you create a product, you may be hoping that they will support you in a very specific way. So I would say ahead of time, make sure to let those specific people know how important this is to you and how they can support you. Also look for people maybe outside of that circle who are providing support and good vibes. So this could be anything from buying your product to consuming your [00:06:00] product and giving you feedback or a testimonial, maybe sharing your product, maybe just even saying, Hey, you did a great job on this. I know it was a ton of work and I’m so proud of you.

[00:06:10] So think about how you can prepare those people or find those people ahead of time so that you don’t run into the thing where you launched something and your best friend really is kind of ambivalent about it, which might hurt your feelings.

[00:06:23] Now, if you’ve already launched, you may have experienced this disappointment sadly. So you’re looking maybe for friends or colleagues or certain people to react in a different way than they are reacting. They, again, may not realize how much time you’ve put into this or effort or really like what you’re looking for. So again, let them know specifically what you need from them or what you’re hoping from them.

[00:06:48] Like, Hey, you know, this was a really big deal for me. I would love it if you reviewed it, shared it, whatever it is. Again, you can look for that support or those cheerleaders in other places. So maybe your best friend isn’t super excited, but you may have some additional friends or colleagues who might really support you in the way that you would like to be supported in this product.

[00:07:09] I would also kind of turn the tables and because you’ve experienced this, see how you can support other people in their products. So this again, could be buying their products, rating or reviewing or sharing or anything like that. But now, you know what it feels like, see if you could put some of that good karma out there into the world.

[00:07:28] Another thing you may encounter are disappointing reviews. Now I definitely recommend having a system in place to get those ratings and reviews because feedback is really essential. I think a lot of times we get into our heads about what we think people’s problems are and what we think a good solution might be. But we really want to get that feedback from our actual customers about their actual problems so that we can provide a product that they actually want. And then again, more people will buy. So remember your product may not be for [00:08:00] everyone. That is totally okay. And think about it, as hard as it might be, that this could be an opportunity to improve your marketing or your communication.

[00:08:10] So I had a client who launched a product recently and once one of the customers got the product, they were unhappy with what was included. So I asked her to see if there was an opportunity for her to share more specifically what was included so that people would know ahead of time. And again, that was not a very comfortable situation for her. She did not like getting that, that bad feedback, but it was an opportunity to avoid that in the future. If possible. Now, again, you’re not going to avoid everything ever. But if there is an opportunity to avoid that, we definitely want to.

[00:08:47] And then make sure you pay attention to those good reviews too. I think that a lot of times we will get one bad review and tons and tons and tons of good reviews and we kind of just disregard those good reviews and really focus in on that one bad review. So don’t do that. Don’t forget that there are a lot of people out there who might like your product and are happy with it. And maybe one person might not be as big of a deal.

[00:09:13] Now if you have already launched and maybe you’ve gotten some negative feedback. The advice is very similar. Now, again, try to look at it as an opportunity. Is there any truth to what they’re saying? If you want to try to get more information you can. And is there anything that you can change? Now you don’t need to change the product. But if there is a way that you can avoid this in the future I think that goes a long way.

[00:09:41] Also, I think it’s a great opportunity to provide exceptional customer service. So I’ve encountered this before and maybe you have as well. Where I have purchased something and not been really happy with it. And let the person know but if they come back and they say oh you know I hear you. I made a [00:10:00] change or here’s what I can offer you. Something like that; I’m an even bigger fan than I would have been otherwise. If the product had been totally fine. So think about that. Think about is there a way for you to show exceptional customer service here and really get a follower for life.

[00:10:16] So have you encountered any disappointment in the creating, launching or marketing of your product? How did you overcome it? I would love to hear what you have to say at yfdp.show/share and next time I want to let you know that we’ll be talking about other emotions that you may encounter in your digital product journey; so stay tuned for that solo episode in two weeks.

[00:10:40] 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.