Writing an ebook or creating a product to sell online are some of the simplest and most effective ways to earn a passive income. Sure, you may have to do some work upfront in order to produce a book or develop a product, but once you make it available online, you can just sit back and collect your earnings, right?
Not exactly. Although there are people out there who’ve managed to create products that attract customers with little to no marketing, it’s much more likely that you’ll need to take some initial steps to promote whatever it is that you’re selling.
Don’t think of these as difficult tasks that aren’t worth the effort. After all, you can always hire freelancers to handle them for you. Instead, think of them as basic components of almost any successful passive income strategy.
Following are a few essential tips to keep in mind as you market your product. They’ll help to ensure that the right people notice it.
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Emphasize Quality Design
Perceived value can make or break a product. Imagine that you’re thinking about buying an ebook on the topic of earning a passive income, and you’ve narrowed your choices down to two options, both with nearly identical customer reviews. One eBook, however, boasts a professional cover design that catches your eye without bombarding you with too much imagery or information. The other one has a plain white background with a couple stock photos of money pasted over it, no identifiable color scheme, and a misaligned title that’s written in a Comic Sans font.
You know which one you’re going to buy. Even though you’ve been instructed all your life not to judge a book by its cover, most people do so anyway. That’s simply how perceived value works.
For this reason, it’s important to invest in quality graphic design services when marketing your product. No, you don’t need to hire an expensive design firm. You can easily find qualified freelancers online who won’t charge you a lot of money, or you can even create your own designs with software such as Canva. You just need to ensure that every aspect of your product, from the cover to the promotional website, looks professional.
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Use Social Media
Social media offers you many opportunities to attract customers. Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or all three, you can look up relevant hashtags and create posts targeting the kinds of people who will buy your product.
Facebook actually offers you the opportunity to reach more customers through “boosted” posts. While they may cost money, if you do your research you can attract many engagements at a very low price. When boosting a post, you can define your target audience based on age, gender, location, and interests. If you boost a post that your ideal audience will respond to, then you’ll earn quite a few likes and shares within a short period of time.
Best of all, there’s an easy marketing trick that not all Facebook users know about, one that will help you to cultivate a loyal following. When people have liked one of your posts, you can click on the likes to see who they are. Facebook then allows you to invite these people to follow your page.
After all, just because someone liked or shared one of your posts, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll go on to buy your product. You need to constantly engage with them via social media before they make a purchase. When they follow your page, you have more opportunities to make a sale. This strategy is particularly useful if you plan on selling other similar products in the future.
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Consider Starting a Blog
Although you can sell a product online without having a dedicated website, it’s hard to do so. A website with SEO-friendly content will help potential customers find your product more easily.
For even better results, consider including a blog on your website. Make sure the blog offers valuable content to your target customer.
This will not only help you to establish yourself as an authority, but it will also give you even more opportunities to attract customers via SEO content. The more blogs you post, the greater the odds are that you’ll show up in relevant searches.
Again, this isn’t something you need to handle entirely on your own. It’s easy to hire bloggers who will generate regular content designed to bring more customers to your site. Add in a mailing list, and you’ll soon develop a loyal following of people who’ll be likely to buy your other products if you ever choose to sell more than just one.
You can absolutely earn a substantial income with little effort by selling products online. With that said, people need to know about your product first. By following these basic promotional strategies, you’ll be much more likely to get the word out.