The Ultimate Checklist for Getting Your Digital Product Ready to Sell

I once had a coaching call with a service provider who desperately wanted to start offering digital products so that she could replace some of her income and get back more time. We started by reviewing her content bank, and I noticed in the paid offers column, that besides her services, she had 4-5 products listed. 

I asked if these were just ideas or drafts. She told me they were done, but she hadn't done anything with them yet. So here she was with a goal of offering digital products, with digital products already created, just sitting there for at least a year. The biggest thing stopping her? It felt like such a hurdle to get the salespages done and products ready to sell.

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A lot of business owners find this crucial step overwhelming (so if you’re in a similar procrastination-ship, know you’re not alone). Creating your digital product is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actually selling (keyword – selling) digital products.

This post covers part 3 of taking your digital product from non-existent to actually making you money. 

• No idea what digital product is right for you? Start by reading part 1: 4 Steps to a Gotta-Have-It Digital Product Topic
• Still need to create your digital product? Check out part 2: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your First Digital Product

Ready to move forward and get ready to sell? Let’s dive into the 5-step process.

Want the full roadmap for creating and selling your first digital product? 

Step 1: Create Your Offer Docket

Selling your info-product effectively is all about nailing down cohesive, aligned messaging. This is why every launch, every sales funnel, every campaign I run and manage⁠—for others and myself⁠—starts with an offer docket.

An offer docket is a document you create that outlines what your product is, who it’s for, and what’s included. You can think of this as your one-stop shop for all things about this product.  

Here are some examples of the questions to answer in your offer docket:

• Description of the offer (long and short)
• Who it’s for + who it isn’t for
• Main transformation of the offer
• What’s included
• How the offer’s delivered
• Fascinators (feature so that… benefit)
• Frequently asked questions & anticipated objections
• Pricing and special offer
• Important links (salespages, checkout page, thank you page, links to access the product)
• Customer or client profile + journey
• Testimonials

Whatever you do, don’t skip this step. Your offer docket will make your life easier when creating any content (especially marketing and selling content) related to your offer. You can always reference it as needed to help you frame your other selling and marketing assets.

Ready to create your offer docket? Read How to Create an Offer Docket to Position Your Offers and download the Offer Docket checklist as the first stage of positioning your info-product to sell. 

Step 2: Write Your Salespage

Once you have your offer docket, your salespage is up next. The good news? Writing a salespage is actually really easy when you take your time to create a really high-quality offer docket. 

I recommend creating your salespage with two separate steps. First, you simply want to assemble the information. Don’t worry about making the copy perfect. 

All you need to do is compile all the information you need onto the page in this order (this is just one sample of a salespage outline – you can add more or less sections as you see fit):

1. Headline (pull name of the info-product)
2. Paint the “before” picture (pull problems from the offer docket)
3. Paint the “after” picture (pull transformations from the offer docket)
4. Introduce your solution (pull description section from offer docket)
5. Add a call-to-action 
6. Share what’s included in your info-product (pull features/benefits from offer docket)
7. Present your special offer (pull special offer in offer docket)
8. Add another call-to-action 
9. Show your social proof (pull testimonials from offer docket)
10. Add a final call-to-action

Once you’ve got all of this information on your salespage, it’s time to finesse it. 

This is where you make the messaging even more effective through my 4 phase editing process

Editing Pass #1: Edit for Clarity. 

Go through each section and ask yourself:

• Does this section make sense? 
• Do you need to add different sentences or different words? 
• Do you need to smooth things out so that it flows more logically?

Editing Pass #2: Edit for Personality

Next, you want to make sure the copy sounds like you or your brand voice. If you have a personal brand, these are ideally one and the same.

Go through each section and ask yourself:

• Does this sound like me? 
• What can I do to make this section more branded, more myself? 
• Where can I add some more personality into the copy?

Editing Pass #3: Edit for Emphasis

The next editing pass focuses on emphasis, especially through formatting. 

Take your time going through every section and ask yourself:

• Can I add more headlines and subsections so the page is easy to consume for scanners? (aka the majority of your page visitors)
• What is the most important piece of information and how can I make sure this part stands out? 
• Can I add more bullet points so that this page is easier to scan?
• What graphics or visuals will complement each section?

Editing Pass #4: Final Proofread

The last and final editing run is to go through each section and do a final proof. It’s best to leave a day or 2 in between so that you’re coming back to your copy with fresh eyes or potentially ask someone else to do this pass for you. 

This is when I like to add things to Grammarly to check over too – although I don’t accept all of the recommendations if there are any typos, it’s usually pretty good at picking them out. 

If you’re ready for a deep dive into salespage creation, read The Easy Way to Write Your Next Salespage, and don’t forget to download the Salespage Writing Kit that goes along with it.

Step 3: Gather Your Design Assets

Before diving into the design of your salespage, make your life a little easier by simply gathering the design assets you’ll need before (much like making sure you’ve got all the ingredients for cookies before you start cracking those eggs). 

Here’s a list of some typical salespage design ingredients:

• Mockups of your products and individual elements
• Banner 
• Checklist or visual of the steps the product takes someone through
• Testimonial headshots

Gathering all the elements you need before starting the actual design process will save you bucketloads of time by avoiding context switching (which will help especially if you feel like this is an area of the process you’re tempted to put off).

Step 4: Design Your Salespage

Designing your salespage might sound like a big task, but if you’ve completed all the other steps to this point it won’t be as tough as you think. 

I like to start by roughing the whole thing from start to finish so all the sections—just getting all my copy and images onto the page even if they’re super ugly at this point. 

And then go through section by section and clean it up⁠—just as you would have done with your copy if you followed my 4-phase editing process above.

Here are some extra design tips to keep in mind when designing your salespage:

• Build in sections alternative light and dark (or pattern). So your header might have an image background, then the next section would be a white background, the one after that a dark colour background, etc.
• Use a drag and drop builder if possible. There are so many options available nowadays for easy tools to build a salespage or landing page without needing to know any code. My top recommendations are LeadPages, MailerLite, Divi
• Design the main version first and then review it on your phone for changes you need to make for a mobile version. Most people will be on their phones, so make sure you design with this in mind!
• Final steps: Remove header/footer, add terms and conditions, add Facebook pixel, consider adding chat box or social proof widget, and adding a timer for limited-time offer versions.

Step 5: Finish Your Purchase System

The final step is basically to finish dotting those I’s and crossing those T’s by making sure you’ve created and hooked up each step of the purchase process. We’re talking the checkout page to thank you page to welcome email and access automations. 

There’s no worse feeling than getting that email from a customer who says they didn’t receive your product or they’ve been trying to sign up but the button doesn’t work. This final step ensures every piece is in place so your customers can have a seamless transaction when they purchase your digital product. 

Here's what you need to do to finish your purchase system:

1. 1. Create your checkout page: My favourite place to create this is in Thrivecart but if you’re using a course hosting platform (like Teachable or Thinkific), you may also have the checkout pages built-in so use those to keep things simple!
   2. Create your thank-you page: My hack to make this easy is to duplicate the salespage, delete all the sections except the header and one text section and then update the text. This helps it feel cohesive from salespage to thank-you page. On the page, thank them and include what’s going to happen next (i.e. you’ll receive an email with your files or login information).
   3. Create your welcome email: Write an email that delivers their digital product, breaks down the first steps to take, and make sure it’s added to an automation that gets sent after someone purchases.  
   4. Make sure everything is hooked up: You want to make sure that each step is connected to the next. For example: your salespage has buttons that link to the checkout page. After someone purchases, they’re redirected to your thank-you page. Then they’re added to your email service provider and into the automation that delivers their digital product. If you’re using a course platform, you’ll also need to ensure that after they purchase, they’re added there too and a password is generated.
   5. Test everything: I’m guilty of missing this step with my own products, but the best thing to do for this step is to create a 100% off coupon and go through the entire purchase flow yourself to see if any of the steps need attention. 

• Add the links to your offer docket

Making a Difference with Digital Products

Whether you created digital products to gain more passive income, increase your potential for exposure, or share your expertise and passion on a subject you know well (or a mix of all 3)—that’s never going to happen without the selling part. 

Every part of the process counts, so don’t miss a thing by downloading the FREE Digital Product Roadmap below: