Pre-Sell It Smarter: A Lean Launch Strategy for Busy Digital Product Creators - Heather Ritchie

Learn how to validate, build buzz, and sell your next digital product with a simple pre-sell strategy designed for busy creators who want results—without burnout or wasted time.

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[00:00:02]:
Well, hello there and welcome to this presentation. Please Sell It Smarter, a lean launch strategy for busy digital product creators. In case you don't know me, my name is Heather Richie. I am a certified content marketing strategist, AI specialist and SEO content writer over at Writer's Life 4U. And I'm really excited about this training because I remember I used to be terrified to pre launch. I came up with all these excuses why it wouldn't work. I'm here to help you not make up excuses because this is going to be your new favorite launch strategy. So let's dive into the training.

[00:00:38]:
All right. Are you ready to learn how to pre sell it smarter? I'm telling you, this is going to make your life a whole lot easier and you'll probably make more money on your products. So what you're going to learn is I'm going to talk about validating your idea without doing like second guessing yourself. Endless polling. Although we are going to talk about surveys and you can use polls on social media, like those are perfectly acceptable. Like an Instagram story with a poll. Yeah, so that is definitely something that can help. We're also going to build excitement and urgency with light touch launch assets.

[00:01:17]:
I like to say, because we're not doing a whole 10 email campaign here, we're just doing a minimum amount of emails. And then I'm going to talk about setting up a simple sales flow that works even while you're building the offer. So you're bringing in money while you're building it, you're getting paid to create it, basically. And then I want to talk about using audience feedback to help co create a product that's easier to sell and that your people will love. So let's stop building products that no one buys. And believe me, we have all been there. I have had many failed launches. As a matter of fact, the more you launch, the better you get.

[00:02:01]:
So those failures make you better at it. I know that sucks to think about, but it's really true. So if you're tired of launching to crickets, you know you're definitely not alone. We have all dealt with this and done this, especially the way the online business world keeps changing these last few years with the way people buy, buyers are getting more savvy, they want more touch points or need more touch points, I should say. And then they want more of you in this driven world. They want to feel that connection. And so this is kind of like getting them in on the action. So I tried pre selling like way like six years ago or something.

[00:02:38]:
And it did not work for me. And I was like, I'm never doing that again. That just sucked. I knew it would suck. And I was like, okay Heather, let's, let's not dump pre launch forever. So I ended up bringing it back probably like three years ago and I love it. So that was just a one time flaw flop. It happens.

[00:02:58]:
So we're going to talk about that too. So I use one simple survey to uncover exactly what my audience needed. And I'm going to show you that survey later on. I pre sold the offer while I was building it and you know, I use their words to build the sales page with copy that they would resonate with. You know, you can put it in your emails, you can put it everywhere. It was faster, easier and actually made more money. Some of my pre launches have been my best launches. So now it's really my favorite form of launching because as somebody with chronic illnesses I never know when I'm going to be up or down.

[00:03:34]:
You know, my energy is low, I have brain fog and things like that. So I have to. Big launches wear me out and they're harder for me to do. So why should you pre sell instead of building first? Well, first of all it saves time and energy because you're not wasting that building a product that nobody buys. It also confirms that your offer is sellable or viable like people actually want it. So that way when it goes on evergreen or when it goes, when this fully creating goes to full price, you know that it's sellable. It also builds interest while you create. You're also hinting along to your audience like this is what I'm doing.

[00:04:12]:
And then it grows your email list while validating. So I don't know about for you guys but every time someone signs up for one of my digital products, for most of them they get in, they enter into my post purchase welcome sequence which teaches them how to use the product. You know, gives them helpful tips and things like that. Well, I still send the welcome email, they're on my list. And if you've had affiliates help you launch or something and you have new people coming into your world that sign up for, then you're basically growing your email list. And really pre selling isn't about cutting corners, it's about being smart with the time you actually have. And this is especially true if you've launched before without the best results. So step one is to validate without that guesswork.

[00:05:00]:
So survey your list with specific and even clickable or like drop down menu, something that they can Click on and you can ask some questions like, what are you struggling with most right now? And you can do it with your niche. Like, what are you struggling most with in content creation? What are you struggling most with in financial? In business? Financials. You know, something like that. And if you don't have an audience yet, you can still research your, you know, you can, you can see if a product is viable. My brain's not working. See. So what I like to say is you can join Facebook groups where your ideal audience hangs out. You can even go in forums like Quora and Reddit.

 [00:05:43]:
That's the other one. I was trying to think YouTube comments are gold because people will say like, oh, you covered this, but you didn't do that. And this is what I always have problems with. Same in the Facebook group you're going to see like, I can't in the blogging groups, I'll be like, I can't get SEO to work for me or I can't get my website built right. I mean, you can see all the questions that they ask. You can also use AI tools like ChatGPT to spot patterns and brainstorm. I actually have ChatGPT analyze all of my surveys because I'm just not as good at that. And that is one of ChatGPT superpowers.

[00:06:17]:
And I'll have it pull out the insights for me. I even had it ranked. The one quiz I'm going to show you about AI tools in order of most popular. So I knew what to attack first. And I just really like to keep it simple, like just what obstacles are your people facing and all the feedback you get. It really helps you shape your ideas and shape your product. Step two, build interest with your simple assets. So you don't need a fancy funnel, although you can have one.

[00:06:51]:
You can use a short checkout page or even a Google Doc. Now I have bought from people that just had a Google Doc. There are some people that only do that now. And that's a perfectly fine way to do this. I usually do a short checkout page and I wait to build the full sales page later. I have a whole bunch of checkout pages right now that I need full sales pages for. But that's just if you're really providing all these information your people need on those pages and in your emails and that's really all you need. You can do though a sales page, that's not a problem.

[00:07:23]:
And then I usually start with one or two simple mock ups like a desktop and a tablet, or maybe the desktop, tablet and smartphone. Because you haven't created this yet and you may not know what all is going to go in it. So if you have a workbook in it, it might not be created so that you can add the different pages of it to your mockup. But if you have bonuses and you know what you're going to add, you can add them in a fuller mockup so that you have more like pages fanned out or something like that. You can actually do that and then write four to five emails. You know, if you wanted to do more, you could. Some people do two pre launch emails, but for four or five, for one you could explain that you had this idea that you've come up with and you just want to run it by people and see if they're interested and then see if people will respond back. You can also invite.

 [00:08:15]:
And then the next one would be to invite them to join. It's kind of like the open cart. You might have limited seats. You're definitely probably going to have a lower price, like an early bird price, something like that. And then just really be clear about when the course or digital product or whatever it is is going to be ready. That's probably the most important thing. And I put that everywhere. I put that in their welcome email.

 [00:08:37]:
I put it on the thank you page once they signed up for the course. I put it on the sales page. I try to put it everywhere so that they know hey is when you're getting your course. And then the next one would be like FAQs. Like I would do an FAQ email or just answer some questions and kind of bust those objections. And then the last one could be like the close. If you limit it, you might not send the last one. If you only have 10 spots open and you sell all 10 in the first two or three days, then you're probably not going to have a last one.

[00:09:05]:
But if you did limit it or you still have a few seats left, you can do like a closing. This beta or this presale is closing. You know, if you want in, you got to jump on the bandwagon now because I'll have two spots left. Basically you're focusing on clarity and not perfection. We're not doing a whole full blown out launch. It's just enough to get your get people's eyes on it and interest in your offer. All four. I can't speak offer.

[00:09:34]:
I'm trying to make sure I have all my notes here. Okay, so I do want to throw this out there. What does it mean to pre sell something so Pre selling is selling an offer before it's fully created, while a beta launch is a first round version offered at a discount rate. I see these kind of commingled together a lot of times. Usually people that are pre selling are kind of doing a beta launch to a smaller group of people and they may have them help finish the product, but then before they create it, they may use them to help finish the product. Sorry there, I had a bit of a coughing fit. So a lot of people will put these two together. So you may have 10 seats open for three or four days at a low price.

[00:10:27]:
Then those people will help you, like tell, tell you what they need, what they want to see, and then you can finish building it out. You don't have to do a beta, you don't have to limit the seats. But I feel like that gets more people signed up because it's that urgency or, you know, makes people act or that scarcity is like, okay, there's only 10 seats I want in this, I need to get in on it now. And of course this is going to help you validate your idea, test that interest and fund your creation. Or basically you're getting paid to create that product, which is amazing, and then you deliver it after they buy it with clear communication about when it's going to be done. So step three is sell it before you build it. So you're going to offer that early bird or beta pricing, be transparent. It's being built right now.

[00:11:18]:
This is really key, like I said, involve your buyers in shaping the final version and deliver it in phases if needed. So I have found myself though one thing that I do not get as much of is the feedback that I'm really looking for when I do these. I feel like that's kind of normal because somebody was just in my inbox the other day talking about it themselves. And so this does make it difficult. If you sign up for somebody's beta or pre launch and then you don't give them feedback, you're kind of not holding up your end of the bargain. It does happen, so just be prepared for that and delivering in phases. Maybe it's a really big course that you're doing. So you may drop one or two module.

[00:11:58]:
Yeah, one or two modules a week or bi weekly or something like that. So you could clearly lay out that launch schedule because you're still giving yourself enough time, but you're telling them when they can expect the content. Because that's what's really key here. This actually builds trust, not doubt. Because I know you may be thinking like, but are people going to want something that's not bought yet? Yes, they will. They absolutely will. They like being part of the process and you can even ask them in like that. Welcome email.

[00:12:28]:
Hey, what would you like to see in it? Is there something that you specifically looking to see in this digital product on X or whatever like that? So from buyer to builder, you're going to use your audience language for the copy and content. This is amazing. This is parroting back to them. This is how you're going to get other people to look at your sales page and be like, oh my gosh, she read my mind. Or yes, this resonates with me. You can use it in your course content, your emails, sales page, everywhere, social media posts, everywhere. Prioritize what they say they need. If you are getting feedback, you may have this whole outline of your course in mind.

[00:13:05]:
But if people are coming in and saying, I really expect this and you don't have that in your outline, well, I would put that in there and I would prioritize that over something they haven't asked for. You can do it all, but just make sure you're including. If 9 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 people are asking for one thing and you didn't even think about adding it, then you might want to do that and then build what sells, nothing more. And that feedback is conversion gold. This is basically how you make something that sells itself because you built it around what people really wanted. And so this is an example of a survey that I did and basically I had all these ideas for custom GPTs that I wanted to build or AI products, but I wasn't sure which one to create first. So I think this survey only had two or three questions. It might have had more than that.

[00:14:02]:
And basically I had them choose all that they were interested in and then I got chatgpt to analyze it and be like, these are the ones that you should create in the order that people ask for them. Some of these I had already done like the custom, the custom content repurposing GPT and the one that creates workflows and SOPs. Because I did kind of want to gauge. I'm like, maybe people don't know about this, but I have these already, so maybe I should sell them again, something like that. But you can see they had a whole bunch of things to choose from and so I just kind of created in the order that they gave me. I was actually really excited about this because again, I wasn't delivering something that a lot of people weren't going to buy. Now I will put out there. Sometimes people will say they want something and then they won't use it or they won't.

 [00:14:51]:
Shouldn't say they won't use it, but they, they don't get it. When you put it on sale and you're like, but you asked for this. Well, sometimes timing is just off. Your messaging can be wrong, the positioning can be wrong. So that can happen. Don't be scared because again, anytime things like this happen, it's all a learning experience. I think I'll go out and show you the surveys now. So this first one is really one I just did a couple weeks ago.

[00:15:19]:
Oh. And I like to incentivize people and it's not a huge thing. I'll just be like, hey, everybody, that fills it out. I'm entering to win a drawing of a $20Amazon gift card. And so that has got me three times or more the replies. It's got me quite a bit now still. A lot of people don't fill out surveys, but I think I had 70 some people, which is a good chunk of people. And so that's how I get people to actually answer them.

[00:15:47]:
And so what I'll do is I'll then once people submitted, I'll put all of their names on like a wheel. I can't remember what it's called, but it's like a wheel spin thing. And then I do that. I do a video of that so that I'm transparent and they can see me spin the wheel and see who won. And I include that in the video when I announce the winner. When I announce the winner. So this was. This is airtable.

[00:16:11]:
I love airtable, but I love it even better with fill out. So fill out. This is fill out. Fill out is based on. You can base it on a lot of things, but airtable is one thing. So I'll have the grid view of the form, which is like the questions and everything, but maybe not the form filled out over in Airtable. Then I'll come into fill out and it lets you connect that Airtable board behind and then it lets you create the form from there. It's really easy.

[00:16:41]:
You just drag and drop the things in because the questions are already up there. And I just really think these are pretty. So this one was more about what their struggles were. And this was very interesting because this question, do you currently have a team or work with contractors or are you a solopreneur? I got a lot of responses for this and only 2 said they had contractors or a team. Most everybody said they were a solopreneur. But this is just really interesting to know. Do you have mostly beginners on your list? Do you have people that are intermediate or advanced? And I have almost an equal mixture of both beginner and the intermediate, you know, and you can get what their biggest struggles are and are you struggling or want to learn more about the following. So I let them choose these different topics basically and I'm like, oh, if a whole bunch of people said this and I'll do that.

[00:17:31]:
Do they have more than one income stream? You know, no. Just client work? No, just digital products or. Yes, or whatever. Anything else you want me to know. So see those are just really, really. They come back with such useful information that if you've never done a survey before, I, I would recommend doing it. I do at least two a year. I usually do a semi annual.

[00:17:54]:
I do more surveys as far. I mean I have people do fill out feedback for all my courses but as far as like surveys like that to my list, I usually at least do twice a year. So I know that there are fears that may have stopped you from pre selling and here's how to solve them. Because I was that person the very first time I tried pre selling I think something happened and I had a hard time getting it done. I can't remember what it was. I think it was something unexpected. I've just learned to give myself plenty of buffer time. So you may be thinking, what if nobody buys? Well, then you use it as feedback and refine it and try again.

[00:18:33]:
It's data, it's not failure. It doesn't mean maybe that they didn't like the offer. Maybe again it was the positioning or messaging or maybe they didn't like part of it. But you didn't. Nice thing about this is you didn't create that product yet so you didn't launch it to a list of people that didn't want it. What if I don't finish on time? That's another one. Well, set a clear delivery date and buffer time. Build and deliver in phases.

[00:18:53]:
You know, if it's a really big course or something, then just tell them, you know, you're going to expect this content, this, you know, this day, this content, this day. And you don't even have to be exact. You can say the second week of August or the third week of August, something like that. What if I disappoint buyers? Being transparent. It's a beta. Tell them it's a beta because people really love being a part of the process and then the what if I'm not ready? Well, pre selling gets you ready. Clarity comes from the doing and not waiting. And like I said, the more you sell the easier it gets.

 [00:19:23]:
So I have a freebie for you guys I'm really excited about. It's been a very popular one recently. It's the Busy Content Creators Guide to Selling Digital Products with AI. It includes includes workflows, AI prompts and some content creation tips. Download it and follow up this weekend to keep this energy in this motion going. You would be surprised how fast you can get a digital product idea to finished and selling it in a weekend or less. So I really hope you download that because I think you'll I think you'll really like it. And then you've got this.

[00:19:58]:
You don't need a big launch to start selling. Focus on feedback, not perfection. Build what your audience asks for. Pre sell it smarter. You've totally got this and I can't wait to see what you come up with.