Creating An Evergreen Digital Product

When you take a close look at many of the “How To” eBooks and software programs on the market, you see two categories. – those which address a current “Trend” and those which have an “Evergreen” nature with virtually “perpetual” applicability and demand.

Now you can generate terrific cash flow with a Trend-driven product. However, you have to move fast  as many others will be seeking to capitalize and generate fast returns as well. The reality is that demand for these products is often short lived, sometimes as little as 1-2 months.

Evergreen digital products take a lot longer to create but they have significantly greater life spans – in fact, if done properly, they can provide returns for years to come IF you pick the right subject.

Our Real World Marketer is an example of an Evergreen digital product. It’s a Business Coaching program delivered in a digital format and focuses on subjects which every business owner needs to address at some point.

Here are some of the principles we adopted in the development of this product, some – if not all – of which you may want to consider when developing products of your own:

Goal:

The Real World Marketer is not a replacement for courses which deliver specific training in a particular area – e.g. how-to technical guides, niche marketing strategies, etc. Rather, it delivers a BIG PICTURE” perspective of what is required to succeed.

You can always get experts in specific areas to bring the nuts and bolts together for you but as you will find, many are so focused on their specific area of expertise that they invariably cannot give you the big picture. It’s why many offline marketers have not been able to emulate their success online and why many online marketers are too quick to rule out other (offline) options.

Our goal was therefore to provide a training and guidance program which delivers a HEALTHY BALANCE.

Target Market:

We selected the Business Coaching niche as there is a proven “perpetual” demand. Of course, we also have considerable expertise in this area, having been active managers and trainers for more than 30 years. Picking an area you are good at and for which there  is ongoing demand is crucial.

Scope:

Business Coaching is a huge area and so we decided to focus on 47 topic areas. Some are huge spanning up to 17 pages when printed out. As we use a small font, this is equivalent to 30+ pages if the usual / normal font used by eBooks were to apply. Many eBooks of this size sell for up to $27.

Differentiation:

This is really important. The authors of this product – Joe McAleer, a former VP marketing Bank of America, and myself – have worked for and with big companies. However, it’s our perspective from being based and working in multiple markets (USA, Asia and Australia) which makes this different.

Delivery:

We initially launched this as a secure eBook but very quickly converted it to online delivery so that users could access the materials anywhere at any time. In hindsight, this was the right move as today many are using cell phones and tablets to access the Internet. We have avoided delivering this in Video format as delivery is dependent on bandwidth which, in some parts of the world, can be poor at times.

Relevancy:

I periodically go in and update The Real World Marketer to ensure currency. Every time I do, I peruse the materials in detail and each time it sparks a new idea or reminds me of something I have forgotten to do. I have been advising others about this strength for some time. If a product can help me personally in this way, then it can deliver the same benefit to others as well.

Pricing: