Summary of "15 Steps to Sell Your First Digital Product"
Summary: 15 Steps to Sell Your First Digital Product
This video by Matt, a media business and newsletter expert, provides a detailed, actionable playbook for founders, creators, and publishers to sell their first digital or information product—even with a small email list (as low as 500 to 1,000 subscribers). Matt draws from his experience generating over $100,000 in his first launch with a 4,000-subscriber email list and helping clients collectively generate hundreds of millions in sales.
Key Frameworks, Processes, and Playbooks
Audience Size & Quality
- Minimum viable audience: 1,000 organic email subscribers (not paid/ad-sourced).
- Organic subscribers convert 5x to 10x better than paid subscribers.
- Focus on growing email lists via LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube.
- Email list is critical; social followers alone don’t convert well.
Customer Discovery & Validation
- Conduct at least 10 phone calls and 50 email/DM conversations with your audience.
- Offer paid 45-minute coaching/consulting calls ($100 starting price, increase by $100 every 5-10 bookings).
- Use AI transcription tools to capture insights from calls.
- Run a 10-20 question mostly multiple-choice survey with optional open-ended questions; incentivize with a $100 gift card.
- Conduct 15-minute research calls with survey respondents for deeper insights.
- Use these conversations to identify audience problems, prior solutions tried, and product opportunities.
Product Types (“Media Products”)
- Only 10 types:
- Digital products
- Events
- Courses
- Live learning (cohort-based)
- Coaching
- Masterminds/peer groups
- Subscriptions/memberships
- Tipping/support
- Hybrids
- Recommended first product types:
- Live learning (cohort-based courses)
- Simple digital products (ebooks, templates, swipe files, databases)
- Coaching
- Avoid recurring subscriptions as a first product (harder to sell without deep audience understanding).
Pricing Guidelines
- Digital product: $29–$99
- Traditional course: $499–$999
- Cohort-based/live learning course: $999–$2,000
- Coaching programs (6-12 weeks): $2,500–$10,000
- Content subscriptions/paid newsletters: $99–$200/year (not recommended as first product)
- Start with industry-standard prices and increase over time based on demand.
- Doubling prices over 12 months is common.
Tech Setup (Lean, Minimal)
- Sales page: simple blog-post style page using tools like Beehive, Substack, Card, or even Google Docs.
- Checkout: Stripe payment links for easy credit card processing.
- Thank you page: simple hidden Beehive page with product access.
- Delivery: manual email sending for first launches is feasible with small customer numbers.
- Content delivery: Zoom for live sessions, Google Calendar invites, Notion for recordings and resources.
- For scaling: use two main tools — an email service provider (e.g., Beehive) and a membership/LMS platform (e.g., Circle).
Social Proof & Testimonials
- No need for product testimonials before launch.
- Collect “character testimonials” from industry peers, clients, past employers, or loyal readers.
- Request testimonials on why you’re credible to teach or share knowledge.
- Use these on sales pages to boost conversions.
Sales & Marketing Strategy
- Overcome fear of being “salesy” by offering an opt-out link in marketing emails.
- Typical opt-out rate: 0.1–0.2%.
- Sales copy is critical—invest time in learning copywriting via books (e.g., Breakthrough Advertising, The Boron Letters, Expert Secrets) and swiping good emails.
- Practice writing sales copy by launching and iterating.
- Promotion cadence:
- Use 7–14 day heavy promotional campaigns monthly or every other month.
- Outside campaigns, focus on value and light promotion (e.g., small CTAs).
- Example 7-day campaign:
- Day 1: Announcement email
- Day 2: Reminder email
- Days 3-4: No emails
- Day 5: Newsletter with CTA
- Day 6: Third marketing email
- Day 7: Two emails (morning and afternoon) for final deadline push
- Then no marketing emails for 30 days.
Positioning & Authority
- You don’t need to be a top expert; just 2-3 steps ahead of your audience.
- Your relatability and recent experience as a learner is a strength.
- Document your accomplishments.
- Use character testimonials to build credibility.
Launch Expectations & Metrics
- First launch sales expectations: $1,000–$10,000 is a success; $100,000+ possible.
- Key KPI: conversion rate from free email subscriber to paid customer.
- For high-ticket ($1,000–$2,000) products:
- <0.5% = poor
- 1% = good
- 2% = great
- 3%+ = world-class
- For lower-priced ($50–$200) products:
- <2% = poor
- 3-4% = great
- 5%+ = world-class
- For high-ticket ($1,000–$2,000) products:
- Focus on conversion rate over absolute revenue.
Refund Policy
- Offer a simple, generous 30-day 100% money-back guarantee.
- Clearly state refund policy on sales page.
- Later add a 10% refund fee to protect IP and reduce piracy.
- This policy reduces buyer uncertainty.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Framework: Short, Narrow, Small
- Short: 2–12 hours max to consume.
- Narrow: Solve one specific problem or deliver one outcome.
- Small: Feature-light (3-4 features max; 1-3 ideal).
- Focus on transformation, not just information.
Product Validation & Pre-Sale Strategy
- Don’t build before selling.
- Use consulting calls, surveys, and conversations to identify the #1 problem.
- Run a pre-sale with:
- A simple sales page and email.
- 50% off pre-order price.
- Refundable pre-orders with 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Minimum pre-order threshold (e.g., 10, 50, 100) within 7–14 days.
- Close cart after hitting goal, build product, deliver to pre-order customers.
- Collect feedback and testimonials post-delivery.
- Launch full-price product afterward.
Actionable Recommendations
- Build an organic email list (minimum 1,000 subscribers).
- Engage directly with your audience via calls and surveys to discover real problems.
- Start with a simple digital product, live learning cohort, or coaching.
- Price within recommended industry ranges and increase prices as demand grows.
- Use simple tech stack (sales page, Stripe checkout, thank you page, Zoom/Notion).
- Collect character testimonials before launch.
- Run focused 7–14 day launch campaigns monthly or bi-monthly.
- Offer opt-out options in marketing emails to maintain trust.
- Practice and improve sales copywriting continuously.
- Use a generous refund policy to reduce buyer hesitation.
- Validate product ideas with pre-sales before building.
Key Metrics & Targets
- Email list size to launch: 1,000–10,000 organic subscribers.
- Conversion rates:
- 5% for $100 product = $5K sales from 1,000 subscribers.
- 2% for $1,000 product = $20K sales from 1,000 subscribers.
- Conversion rate benchmarks by product price tier (see above).
- Refund window: 30 days.
- Pre-sale minimum order threshold: 10–100 orders within 7–14 days.
- Launch campaigns: 7–14 days heavy promotion, then 30 days no promotion.
Presenter
Matt — media business and newsletter expert, founder with 50,000+ newsletter subscribers, multi-million dollar business owner, and consultant who has helped clients add 10 million+ subscribers and generate 100+ million in sales.
This video is a comprehensive, step-by-step playbook emphasizing lean startup principles, customer discovery, MVP focus, and practical marketing tactics to successfully launch and sell a first digital product with a small but engaged audience.
Category
Business
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