We’re a big fan of digital products – and for good reason. As we’ve explored in depth, digital products, such as digital downloads, are a low-risk way to generate passive income with minimal investment necessary. Meanwhile, they offer convenience and support to your audience, not to mention are here to stay. Deloitte’s ConsumerSignals recently found that “US adults surveyed estimate spending from $120 to $130 per month across 12 digital goods and service categories” and that, as a spending category, digital products and services measured comparably to traditional everyday categories, such as apparel and electronics.
We’ve covered what digital products are, the numerous types to consider, and why to sell them, but when it comes to getting started, it can be easy to get overwhelmed or stuck somewhere along the way. Whether you’re in the ideation, design, marketing, or selling phase, we’ve rounded up everything you need to get them up and running – and working for you. Here are digital product creation tools to help you execute with ease.
Starting your journey: Idea generation and market research
For many digital product creators, coming up with an idea is the easy part. In fact, creators may have so many great ideas that they can’t commit to or follow through with any of them. Fortunately, there are resources to help you flesh out an idea, so that it can move forward into being executed.
Basic and traditional software, such as Microsoft Office and Google Drive, is helpful but limited, in the sense that capabilities are linear in scope. Fortunately, there are innovative brainstorming apps and mind-mapping tools to make collaborating more effective.
Brainstorming and mind-mapping resources
MindMeister
With MindMeister, you can visualize ideas with different mind map layouts to choose from, collaborate with your team, and manage tasks – all in one place. On the free plan, you can create up to three mind maps with unlimited collaborators. Paid plans are under $20/month per user but require a 6 or 12-month commitment.
Coggle
Similarly, Coggle is a web application that allows you to create branching diagrams and collaborate with others. While it doesn’t have as many bells or whistles as MindMeister, let alone the capabilities of Miro or Stormboard, it’s a simple, easy-to-use, and effective resource for organizing thoughts and collaborating with others. With the free plan, you get three diagrams. Paid plans are under $10/month per user.
Miro
Miro is also a collaboration app with a much wider range of templates and integrations. It facilitates visual project management, making it ideal for team communication. Comparably priced to other mind-mapping software, Miro is ideal if you’re looking for versatility and enhanced capabilities over basic functionality.
Stormboard
Finally, Stormboard has a more corporate look and feel, helping teams stay on track. Like the others, it offers many interactive features. In addition to collaborative templates, you can hold meetings, manage projects, and facilitate structured brainstorming sessions. While it is trusted by many corporate organizations, the business plan for digital product creators and small-business owners is under $10/month.
Market research resources
Once you have some potential product ideas, you can test them out using simple market research tools. Even if you’re not a researcher or marketer, these simple resources can help you get into the mind of your customer:
Google Trends
Google Trends is helpful for identifying topics that are trending, as well as keywords for content planning and search-engine optimization (SEO). It gives you insight into what people are searching for generally, and you can utilize this free service to discover what people are interested in – what there is already a demand for – and brainstorm product ideas accordingly. In addition to seasonal trends, you can also take note of trends by location and analyze competition.
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is similar to Google Trends, only it expands on topics, so you can get even deeper into the minds of your audience to see exactly what they’re asking about them. Hello, editorial calendar cheat sheet! You can also see analytics and similar search terms to help with SEO efforts. With the free version, which you simply need to create an account to use, you get three searches a day. Upgrading to the $11/month plan gets you 100 free searches a day.
Google Forms
Create an easy-to-use form with various fields, including short and long answers, multiple choice, checkbox, and dropdown, to ask your audience simple questions and gain valuable data about their preferences. Market researchers and public relations specialists use surveys to get feedback directly from their audiences about their likes and dislikes, pain points, experiences, etc. to create a product, service, or experience tailored to them. Google Forms allows you to customize fields and appearance, while collecting, organizing, and analyzing responses that can also be easily transferred onto a Google Sheet or exported.
(Pro tip: Squarespace and Wix users can also create forms connected to your website. You can get notified when new responses come in via email and sync your Google Drive to collect responses in a Google Sheet. Depending on what kind of survey you’re creating, having it live on your website, rather than linking away to a Google Form, might be a better user experience for your audience – and keeps them engaged on your site.)
Section 2: Bringing your ideas to life - easy design and creation tools
Graphic design resources
You don’t need to be a graphic designer or artist to have visually-appealing, attention-grabbing graphics. In fact, with the resources in this section, people will think you have an amazing graphic designer on your team.
Canva
Canva is by far the best for beginners, with endless templates, sorted by asset type (i.e. Instagram post - square, YouTube thumbnail, etc.), and even an expansive library of stock photos to choose from. Beyond social media assets, Canva also offers templates for presentations, resumes, whiteboards (similar to the digital product creation tools mentioned in Section 1), and more – all quick and easy to create, especially with their new free AI image generator. Additionally, Canva has the functionality to collaborate with other team members. There is a free version, but the $15/mo paid plan is well-worth the investment, thanks to the high value and endless features for digital product creators.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark, on the other hand, offers more advanced design and professional-level features. You might choose this platform if you’re working on more complex customization projects. While it is ideal for intermediate designers, newly-introduced AI features can accomplish advanced-level tasks. If you’re an Adobe Creative Cloud user, Adobe Spark is an obvious choice for seamless integration.
Website resources
Once you have a product to sell, as well as design assets to promote said product, it’s time to showcase your products on a website. Selling products on your website can come with an additional monthly cost (which is why we’re a bit biased that Teachable truly is an all-in-one solution). Nevertheless, these website-building platforms are great for offering digital products:
Wordpress
Ideal for tech-savvy creators, this classic website builder boasts endless themes and plugins to work with. Be mindful, though, that there are two Wordpress routes you can take:
- WordPress.com takes care of hosting, security, and maintenance for you, but has limitations on customization and plugins.
- WordPress.org requires you to find your own hosting provider and take care of security and maintenance, but allows for full customization and plugin installation.
Wix
With Wix, you can stay connected to third-party apps you know and love, as well as utilize its business-essential tools, such as email and SEO. With many templates to choose from, it’s on the intermediate side but still easy to use with many support features, including AI plus community of Wix users.
Squarespace
Squarespace has similar features to Wix, but is even more user friendly with simplistic functionality, such as a drag-and-drop builder, and aesthetically-pleasing templates that are easy to customize.
Course creation resources
Teachable
Of course, if you don’t want to go through the trouble of website maintenance, you can lean on us. Teachable is a one-stop shop for creating, hosting, and selling digital products and online courses. We even have built-in AI features to support you in the process!
Video creation resources
Whether it’s essential to your digital products or not, video content is a great skill to have and addition to either your offering, marketing strategy, or both. Fortunately, it’s even easier than ever to create quality videos with the help of these reliable resources.
VideoAsk
VideoAsk is a beginner-friendly platform that’s great if you’re dipping your toes into video creation. It allows you to add interactive elements, such as polls and questions, to your videos. As with all video resources in this section, there are various pricing tiers tailored to experimenting (with the free plan), individuals ($30/month or 20% less with annual subscription), and businesses ($50/month or 20% less when you pay annually).
Descript
Descript, on the other hand, offers advanced editing features, ideal if you’re already somewhat familiar with creating and have content to edit. These features are ideal for fine-tuning and include transcribing and collaborating tools.
AI options
You can even leverage AI for video content creation. While we firmly believe AI is not a substitute for human creativity or originality, it can support you in the complex content creation process. Here’s how:
- ChatGPT is ideal for creative writing, so you might consider using it during the initial brainstorming process, as well as for scriptwriting. It can also lend a hand for research, summarizing, and curating your content.
- Powered by Google, Gemini is also a great resource for brainstorming and scriptwriting, especially if you want to factor in trending news and information, plus SEO optimization.
- Claude AI is best for ethically-sourced information, so consider when you need credible sources, fact-checking, and to explain complex material.
Section 3: Getting the word out - marketing for beginners
Once you have a home for them, it’s time to spread the word and promote your digital products by sharing the link with your audience. Social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook, are an obvious place to start. And if it doesn’t feel that obvious or simply feels unnatural, know that you have to talk about your digital products, so that your audience can know they exist. Engaging on these platforms also helps your audience grow by allowing your ideal customers to find you!
Social media resources
Streamline your social media communications with the help of beginner-friendly social media scheduling tools:
Meta Business Suite
You don’t have to look far for help scheduling social media posts; you can schedule Facebook and Instagram posts all from Facebook’s creator hub, Meta Business Suite. All you need to take advantage of the professional dashboard is a page or business account, which is free. In addition to scheduling, you can also create ads, see analytics on post engagement, and more.
Buffer
If you’re looking for a simple, streamlined service for scheduling posts and reviewing analytics, Buffer is your best bet.
Hootsuite
If your social media strategy is a bit more complex and nuanced, Hootsuite is a great go-to, as you can manage multiple accounts and collaborate with team members.
Email marketing resources
Email marketing is essential for communicating with your audience through newsletters or email blasts. Many website builders, including Wix and Squarespace, now have email marketing features. While you don’t need a website to sell digital products, if you do have one, utilizing built-in email marketing is great for branding and cohesion, as well as keeping everything in one place. If you don’t have a website your products live on, a newsletter provider can help you stay in touch with your audience and communicate how they can find your products and offerings.
There are many email marketing platforms to choose from with comparable pricing (including effective free plans) and features. Here are some options we recommend and why you might lean toward them:
- Mailchimp - best for beginners
- Convertkit - best for automation
- Mailerlite - best for your budget
- Flodesk - best for beautiful campaigns
- Constant Contact - best for small businesses and organizations
- MyEmma - best for advanced targeting
SEO resources
As we’ve touched on, SEO stands for search-engine optimization, and it refers to how easily your product can be found when people are searching for something similar on the web. Fortunately, there are easy-to-implement tools, so SEO can be one less thing you have to stress over.
Yoast SEO for WordPress
Yoast SEO is a Wordpress plug-in that will scan and rate the copy on your web pages. It offers recommendations for how to improve SEO, making it a must-have for Wordpress users.
Google Keyword Planner
If you’re not a Wordpress user, you can turn to Google Keyword Planner, which is a free tool to help research, identify, and assess relevant keywords you can incorporate on the front and back-end of your website and product page.
Section 4: Understanding your audience - feedback and analytics tools
Analytics resources
Reviewing website visitor behavior is valuable information to understand what is and isn’t resonating. One way to do this is with heatmap tools, which offer color-coded maps of where users click, spend their time and for how long, etc. Understanding user engagement can help with ways to improve and optimize.
Google Analytics is a great resource for overall analytics, while Hotjar and Crazy Egg have advanced heatmap capabilities to increase conversion. It’s always a good idea to start with the essentials and work your way up to diving deeper as you grow and learn.
Customer feedback resources
Similar to creating forms for market research and analyzing initial ideas, you can also utilize simple surveys to get feedback about your current product offerings. By tracking product performance, you can gain more valuable insight on ways you can improve or what more customers might be willing (and eager!) to buy from you. As mentioned above, this is a technique many public relations specialists utilize to understand the public even better.
Google Forms
As mentioned above, this is a convenient option that is already connected to your Google Drive. It’s easy to customize and helps organize and store the data you collect.
SurveyMonkey
A third party app that can easily be integrated into other web platforms, SurveyMonkey is a tried-and-true survey app that allows you to go deeper with your survey needs. Whether you’re requesting simple feedback or complex research, SurveyMonkey has a vast collection of templates and question types, plus analytics and reporting features. It also comes in the form of a third-party integration, so it’s most likely compatible with your other digital product creation tools.
Typeform
Typeform offers an engaging user experience, beyond a basic survey. With its interactive interface, aesthetically-pleasing themes you can customize, and conversational functionality, it’s great for engaging with your audience.
Website Forms
Again, most website-building platforms, including Wix and Squarespace, have forms that can be directly embedded onto your website. Not only can you collect information at any time if it’s always available, it’s also a lead magnet opportunity – to capture site visitor information, so that you can connect with them in the future, build a relationship, and market your digital products to them.
Section 5: Continuous learning and support
Digital product creation comes with a learning curve. Technology is constantly evolving and adapting to offer more intuitive tools and features. It’s important to stay up to date with industry trends. Fortunately, we have many opportunities to support your continued learning, including our blog, podcast, teachable:u (mini courses), educational events, and more.
Even if you don’t tap our resources, there are many creators and experts with their own platforms for sharing digital product creation and selling information, not to mention other online communities and forums, such as Facebook groups or Reddit subreddits, to connect with other digital product creators and learn from their experiences. Research your niche or topics that resonate with you to find some individuals or groups to follow and connect with.
Conclusion
Every digital product creator will have different tools in their toolkit. While there are seemingly endless resources to consider, it’s a good idea to consider and weigh your specific wants and needs before committing to all of them. The key to success is to start with simple-yet-effective, multipurpose resources that are compatible, and gradually build up your tool kit as you scale your offerings and business. (Pro tip: When considering some of these third-party resources, research to see if there are integrations or plug-ins for what you already know and use.)
Embrace the learning process by being open to trial and error. You have all you need to take action and create your first digital product today.
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