How to Recover Digital Product Sales After a Lull

Are your digital product sales taking a nosedive? You’re not alone.

Many businesses face fluctuating sales figures, especially in today’s competitive digital landscape. But don’t despair!

This comprehensive guide will equip you with actionable strategies to understand why sales might be declining and, more importantly, how to recover them.

🔎 In this article, I’ll cover:

What Causes a Lull in Digital Product Sales?

It can happen to the best of us: one moment, your digital products are flying off the metaphorical shelves, and the next, things have slowed down so much that you feel the need to take some action – and fast!

There are a wide range of reasons for a lull in digital product sales. Below are some of the most common.

• Market saturation and increased competition. The digital marketplace is constantly evolving. New competitors emerge, and existing ones refine their offerings. This increased competition can directly impact your sales, especially if you offer popular digital products.
• Changing consumer preferences and trends. Consumer tastes are fickle. What was popular yesterday might be obsolete today. Keeping up with current eCommerce trends and adapting your products accordingly is essential.
• Ineffective marketing or sales strategies. Your digital content marketing and sales efforts might not be reaching your target audience effectively. An outdated or poorly executed digital sales strategy can significantly hinder sales.
• Technical issues or poor user experience. Glitches on your website, complicated checkout processes, or download difficulties can frustrate customers and lead to abandoned purchases.
• Pricing strategy issues. Incorrect pricing, a lack of price tiers, or a perceived lack of value can deter potential buyers.

Analytics can only get you so far. To really get to the root of the problem, you need to look at your store from the customer’s perspective.

How to Recover Digital Product Sales

Now, let’s dive into the strategies you can implement to revitalize your digital product sales.

1. Improve Marketing and Promotion

Effective marketing is the lifeblood of any successful digital product business. Let’s take a look at some essential digital marketing tactics you can use to help recover sales. 

Content Marketing & SEO

Create valuable, informative content (blog posts, articles, videos, etc.) that attracts potential customers searching for solutions related to the types of digital products you sell online. Optimize this content for search engines (SEO) to improve visibility.

• Conduct keyword research to identify relevant topics (using tools like LowFruits, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, etc.).
• Create high-quality blog posts, infographics, or videos. Try experimenting with different formats.
• Optimize your content with relevant keywords and meta descriptions.
• Promote and market your digital products and content on social media and other platforms.
• Restrict some content to paying customers.

If you’re not already, install an SEO plugin like AIOSEO to help optimize your website and content for search engines.

You can improve your website’s visibility, attract more organic traffic, and rank higher in search results.

Social Media Marketing

Leverage social media platforms to connect with your target audience, build brand awareness, and promote your products.

In the digital age, social media has become the new town center. It’s where people go to find out what is going on, what you have to offer, and what your brand is all about – including what people are saying about it. 

If you want to polish up your social media, take a look at the following things:

• Is your brand cohesive across all social media platforms?
• Are you posting consistently at regular intervals?
• Do you ask questions to engage your audience?

If you’ve made social media part of your marketing strategy already, you can try taking a different approach with Social Discounts.

This Easy Digital Downloads extension lets you reward visitors via discount for promoting your products with their own social media following.

💡Learn more strategies for boosting sales with social media.

Email Marketing

Good communication is essential for selling digital products, especially if you want to nurture a loyal following of customers who will return to your site to purchase products regularly. 

Build an email list and nurture leads with targeted email campaigns. Offer valuable content, exclusive discounts, and product updates to engage subscribers.

Easy Digital Downloads makes this easy by integrating with popular email services. This includes MailChimp, Constant Contact, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, and more.

You can send cart recovery emails. EDD’s Conditional Emails addon lets you send automated eCommerce emails when certain events (like someone abandoning their cart) occur.

One of the most useful tips for successfully communicating with your mailing list subscribers is simply to get to know them. Segment them into groups based on factors like types of products purchased and engagement with newsletters, marketing emails, and certain types of content that they care about.

This helps you direct your marketing efforts to the right people. You can also personalize emails with smart tags, making your communication as effective as possible.

If you use a service like MailChimp, you can define groups of subscribers by things like purchase activity, location, date, and other factors. Customers can also select from groups you’ve created when they subscribe to your newsletter.

Delivering only the content that is most relevant to them helps prevent unsubscribes, and keeps them engaged with your brand, ultimately promoting sales conversions as well!

Influencer & Affiliate Marketing

Partner with other businesses or influencers to promote your digital products to their audiences.

The magic of working with affiliates is that, once you give them some basic support and digital art and resources (banners, links, etc.), they essentially do the promotion work for you.

Affiliates can significantly boost your business overall and bring in all kinds of traffic you might have previously missed out on.

If you’re using Easy Digital Downloads and/or WordPress, AffiliateWP makes leveraging affiliate marketing incredibly easy. We even use it for our own affiliate program.

💡 Learn how to start an affiliate program.

Similarly, expanding your brand reach to the audiences of popular social media influencers and other industry figures with large followings can do wonders for beating the lull and bringing your numbers up. Collaborate with relevant influencers in your eCommerce niche to reach their followers and build credibility.

2. Enhance Product Value and Quality

A high-quality, great digital product is the foundation of long-term success. 

Regularly update and improve your products for sale based on customer feedback and market trends. This demonstrates your commitment to quality and keeps your offerings relevant.

Offer Bundles or Packages

As a general rule, product bundles sell better than single products, giving customers more value for their money – and who doesn’t love a good deal? In fact, customers often choose the better deal over the better price when given the option. 

Create and sell digital product bundles or packages to increase the perceived value of your products and encourage larger purchases.

There are different types of product bundles you can use.

Type of Product Bundle	Summary	Example
Similar Products	Includes products that are from the same line, series, category, or topic, giving customers the opportunity to score a deal on similar products they are already likely to be interested in.	A travel hacking eBook bundle, a collection of tropical-themed logo templates, or access to several health and fitness web apps.
Sequential Products	Gives customers several products that are part of a learning sequence, such as a digital course.	A special deal on an entire digital marketing course sequence (levels 1, 2, and 3), or a bundle of how-to videos in order of prerequisites.
Top Products	Includes your top sellers or most popular products, which is especially appealing to customers for its high value.	A package of top-selling or featured digital downloads.
Add-on Bundles	Focuses on one core product, plus other complementary add-ons or extra products that bump up the value.	You might create a “quick start” bundle that includes a pack of Photoshop actions, along with a PDF guide, digital art/templates, and video tutorial series.

3. Optimize Sales Funnel & User Experience

A smooth and seamless sales funnel and user experience are crucial for selling digital products online and convert visitors into customers.

When investigating why you’re experiencing a lull in sales, it’s wise to look into the cart abandonment problem. Most eCommerce stores experience a cart abandonment rate of almost 70%. This means that, for one reason or another, nearly 7 out of 10 people decide not to buy at the last minute.

Auditing your brand experience from start to finish is essential, and it’s also one of the things you have the most control over. Customers can easily get turned off by outdated branding, a cumbersome purchase process, a clunky, hard-to-use layout, or any elements that might inhibit sales.

 In an effort to create an enjoyable shopping experience that improves conversions, take some time to examine the following components of your brand experience.

Streamline the Checkout Process

Make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase your products. Reduce the number of steps required and offer guest checkout options. 

Provide various payment methods (credit cards, buy now/pay later, etc.) to cater to different customer preferences.

I always recommend the Stripe payment gateway. There are so many ways to use it to optimize your checkout. It’s easy to use, secure, and offers plenty of payment options.

Improve Website Design and Usability

Your website represents everything about your brand, from the look and style, to your brand voice, quality standards, technical expertise, and industry authority. It’s also your most powerful marketing tool and channel.

Ensure your website is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and mobile-friendly.

When evaluating your digital product website, ask yourself questions such as:

• Does it need any updates? Are there any bugs or broken features?
• Is the design modern and relevant? Are you lagging behind your competitors in style or functionality? Could it benefit from a different WordPress eCommerce theme?
• Is your digital product copy engaging and interesting?

Creating a digital product demo is one of the best ways to build trust in your brand and let your customers really experience your products, leading to better sales.

Offer Excellent Customer Service

Don’t forget the importance of exceptional customer service and support. Make it easy for users to get in touch if they need help.

It’s also smart to use live chat, FAQs/online documentation, and other self-service resources. That way, people can find answers to questions without waiting to hear back from a support team member.

4. Leverage Pricing & Promotions

Strategic pricing and promotions can significantly impact sales.

Offer Discounts and Promotions

Run limited-time discounts, special offers, or seasonal promotions to incentivize purchases.

Things like short-term sales or other time-sensitive offers get customers acting quickly, as the window of opportunity is limited.

Alternatively, you could offer other extras or free add-ons, such as a bonus PDF guide, digital templates, podcast episode, or graphic asset pack (for example), a bonus product, an extra discount on a future purchase, or bonus access to gated content.

Anything you can add to your product increases the value the customer receives, making the offer more enticing – and more likely to get people buying!

Exit intent pop-ups can help capture visitors and promote your special offers. OptinMonster lets you create them with ease.

Consider Different Pricing Models

Explore alternative pricing models, such as subscriptions or tiered pricing, to cater to different customer needs and budgets.

This is another area where Easy Digital Downloads can help you optimize your digital product business. You can use it to accept recurring payments and subscriptions, set up tiered or variable pricing structures, and more.

Analyzing Results and Making Adjustments

Sometimes markets change. They become saturated, or customers just lose steam. If you want to keep your digital product sales healthy and out of lull land, you may have to make some adjustments now and then.  

People have a lot of choices these days. With so many options available to them, it’s up to you to stay relevant, stay competitive, and offer enough value to make people want to spend their hard-earned money. 

Be sure to measure your progress over time. 

Continuously monitor your results using analytics tools. EDD has comprehensive built-in eCommerce reports you can access directly from your WP admin area.

I also suggect using MonsterInsights to integrate WordPress and EDD with Google Analytics.

Track key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and customer feedback. Use this data to identify what’s working and make necessary adjustments to your strategies.

🔎 Check out important sales reports to keep your eye on.

Helpful WordPress Plugins & Tools

Selling digital products online is significantly easier with the right tools at your disposal. I’ve already mentioned most of these earlier in the post.

To recap, below are some of the best WordPress plugins and tools for selling digital products and maximizing sales.

Easy Digital Downloads

This is a complete eCommerce solution for selling digital products on WordPress. It simplifies the process of creating a digital storefront, managing digital products, handling payments, and tracking sales.

Easy Digital Downloads can help recover sales by providing a streamlined and user-friendly purchasing experience for customers.

There are some particularly useful extensions to leverage that can help recover and boost digital sales.

EDD Extension 🔌	Purpose 🔑
Cross-sells and Upsells	Suggests related products to customers at checkout.
Advanced Reports	Provides detailed reports on sales, customers, and products.
Purchase Rewards	Rewards customers for making purchases.
Campaign Tracker	Track orders and Google Analytics campaign data.
Email Reports	Stay updated on key stats from your store.

OptinMonster

This is a powerful lead generation and conversion optimization tool. It allows you to create eye-catching opt-in forms, popups, and other campaigns to capture email addresses and grow your subscriber list.

OptinMonster can help boost digital sales by converting website visitors into potential customers and nurturing them through targeted email marketing campaigns.

AffiliateWP

This is a full-featured affiliate marketing plugin that allows you to create and manage your own affiliate program. You can recruit affiliates to promote and sell digital products and reward them for successful referrals. AffiliateWP can help recover sales by leveraging the power of affiliate marketing to reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your website.

MonsterInsights

This is a popular Google Analytics plugin that makes it easy to track and analyze your website traffic.

You can gain valuable insights into your audience, their behavior, and the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. MonsterInsights can help boost digital sales by providing data-driven insights to optimize your website and marketing strategies for better conversions.

FAQs About Recovering Digital Sales

Let’s wrap up with some frequently asked questions about how to successfully recover and sell digital products after a lull or slump.

Boost Your Digital Product Sales After a Slump

Not every season is going to be a busy one, and that’s okay. When it comes to running an online business, consistency is key. As part of your comprehensive digital product sales strategy, make sure you’re regularly monitoring and tracking eCommerce performance. This way, you can notice any lulls and take the necessary steps to correct them.

Grab your Easy Digital Downloads pass and get started in no time:

Looking for profitable digital product ideas to help generate passive income? Refer to any of the following guides for digital products to sell online:

• Most Profitable Digital Products to Sell
• Simple Digital Product Ideas to Sell Online
• How to Sell Digital Products to Create Passive Income

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