6 product promotion strategies (that should be illegal)

By Ritvars Lauza read
29 Mar, 2024

Wouldn’t it be great if all the world (or at least your target audience) were notified with a ping when your awesome product comes out? Even better – if there was no competition and your product – or service – was the only one out there?

Sadly, the world doesn’t work that way.

This means that creating your amazing digital product won’t be enough to get it noticed – you’ll have to put some effort into promoting it and eventually selling it.

Fret not! With the marketing promotional strategies laid out in this article, you’ll hack your way through digital product promotion and boost your sales in no time.

Psst… We believe that some of these promotion strategy examples work so well they might just become illegal one day. (Just joking). Hurry up and be the first among your competitors to use them to your benefit.

1. Make them count days until your product launch

That’s right – you can start promoting your brilliant product even before it’s finished and ready to sell. If you have a trusted audience that follows your news, create a surge of anticipation and excitement among them before launching the product.

Some ideas on how to do it:

If you have a YouTube channel of your own, post videos that highlight situations where your product would work great (and don’t be shy to say so) or sneak peek videos about some of its features. You can even post a link with a waiting list to get your product when it’s ready.
Post about it on your social media, adding a countdown image or hashtag showing the number of days left until the product launch.
Send a “coming soon” email to your subscribers. If you haven’t started email marketing on Sellfy yet, follow these simple steps to send your first newsletter:

Go to ”Email marketing” from your Sellfy dashboard and click ”Send new email”. Choose the most suitable type of campaign and the recipients of the email. Then, compose the email by typing in the text and adding visuals.

2. Tempt them with “Pay what you want” pricing

You might doubt that letting the customer choose the price is a good marketing promotional strategy. Here are two reasons why it is:

With the “Pay what you want” (PWYW) pricing model, your product conveys confidence, basically telling the customer “we are so convinced the product is awesome that you will want to pay for it.”
PWYW pricing empowers customers by letting them decide the value they might get from the product, and pay an appropriate price.

Studies show that PWYW pricing is especially effective for last-minute sales & raising money for charity. For example, Christian Guzman, a fitness model, entrepreneur and personal trainer from Texas, used Sellfy’s “Pay what you want” feature to gather donations for cancer organisations.

However, PWYW pricing carries certain risks – for example, some people could download your product without paying anything, or underpay significantly. Others might feel confused about what the appropriate price is, and walk away.

That’s why you should consider setting a minimum price with the “Pay what you want” option. For example, composer Danny Rayel has set a minimum price threshold for most of his products, e.g., a €12 minimum for his Unforgettable Paths Piano Sheet Music.

Alternatively, offer a free or “Pay what you want” preset for your customers to test, and another premium preset pack for a fixed price. Chris Hau’s Sellfy store offers this kind of product promotional strategy example – customers can choose to acquire both paid and free (“pay what you want” starting from $0) presets.

3. Run awesome product-related contests

Nothing creates hype around your product better than a chance to win a prize.

Make sure the contest is related to your product and engaging enough for people to spread and share information about it thus increasing your brand’s reach.

The most popular way is to launch a viral giveaway or a social media contest via your profile or business page. For example, create a Facebook post that invites your followers to tag a friend in the comment or engages them with a question. Or, make contests part of how you use Instagram for sales, e.g., add links or include voting options in your Insta stories.

Let’s look at how Sorelle Amore asks her Facebook audience for ideas for her Advanced Selfies in 2019. She doesn’t make a contest out of it; however, she could, thus increasing the hype around her post. For example, she could offer her next preset pack for free to those followers whose suggestions she picks.

Alternatively, you can run a contest in the comments under one of your YouTube videos. For example, Chris Hau, who has named some of his presets after lipsticks, mentions this fun fact in his YouTube video and invites fans to guess the lipstick names in the comments. The next step would be to announce that everyone who guesses right will participate in a lottery to get your next preset free.

4. Create attractive product packages

If you package several products into one kit, your potential customers will probably see more sense in buying it than in choosing separate products.

It’s also simpler to promote product packages because their perceived value is higher than that of a single product.

Let’s take Lightroom presets as an example – you could sell each preset separately, but most people won’t see much value in it unless they are looking for something very specific. Instead, include variations of similar presets under one theme – this will give your buyers a useful set, instead of a single preset they may have to adjust manually. Some examples of preset bundles could be Landscape presets, Romantic lighting presets, etc.

These promotion strategy examples are used by many artists who sell their digital products on Sellfy’s platform. For example, videographer Peter McKinnon combines more than 50 sound variations into one sound pack for videos. One or several sounds might not cover it for most people, while a bundle of 50 sounds seems like good value for money.

5. Offer discounts for (any) holidays out there

Many online sellers make the mistake of thinking that holiday sales are only good for customers because they can get the same product for a cheaper price.

But holidays are also a massive opportunity for you as a seller to boost your sales at the time when people are most interested – and prepared – to buy.

Furthermore, on days like Cyber Monday people actually expect discounts, and won’t pay your brand much attention if you don’t offer any promotions. But you don’t have to wait for major international holidays like Valentine’s day, Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas – you can make use of any holiday that demands gifts in your part of the world.

To set up a discount on Sellfy, go to ”Discounts” from your dashboard and click ”Add new discount”. You can choose between a coupon code discount or a sale, and decide to give the discount on specific items or all products.

To create a sense of urgency, set the Sellfy countdown timer that will appear below the price and show how much time is left until your promo ends. As an example of this product promotional strategy, Christian Maté Grab adds short-term discounts to the products on his Sellfy page.

6. Start upselling – today!

If you haven’t tried cross-selling or upselling your products yet, you might be missing out on a big opportunity.

Studies show that upselling (selling additional products to existing customers) works in 60-70% of cases.

What can you upsell?

Well – anything, really. For example, if someone has bought your square design icons, consider offering them round design icons for half price. Here’s how it looks and works on Sellfy:

Go to ”Upsell” from your Sellfy dashboard and click ”Add new upsell”. Choose which of the products on your store will show the upsell option. You can determine if the added-on product with have a discount or full-price.

When a customer adds the respective product to cart, the upsell popup will show up. They can either add it to the cart or decline the offer.

Which of these marketing promotional strategies will you steal?

There. We’ve revealed some of the hottest promotion strategy examples that still aren’t widely used by your competition. Now it’s up to you to decide which will be the most suitable and worthwhile for your brand and product.

And remember – Sellfy is probably the simplest and most efficient platform for promoting and selling your digital products. If you still haven’t tried it, jump on the bandwagon and start a free trial today.