Stand out, source: Shutterstock.co
Do you want to make your digital products stand out from the crowd? Let me give you a walk-through on how to do that. Permit me to take some time to appreciate Lulucartoons for giving doing a wonderful photo of me as Iron man.
Lulucartoons was started because of the need to create more interesting products. Gift artworks are becoming boring, birthday presents yet lame, the same “#1 dad” or “#1 mum” coffee mugs and exactly similar wall art that over 10,000 other people also bought. Nothing special!
Realizing this, they decided they wanted to make a product that stands out from the crowd. Lulucartoons, which started as a team of talented and well-vetted artists, has grown remarkably and they still create awesome digital products for their customers.
Lulucartoons has also partnered with some of the best print shops in the industry, totally revolutionizing your experience when it comes to getting custom drawings you can show off in your home and outside. You can get one for yourself or your loved one(s) by visiting their website here.
Prosper Yole as Iron Man; courtesy @Lulucartoo
Evolution of Digital Productions
When I was much younger, I loved to make beautiful artworks with pencil. Many of my friends were great pencil artists and I was too, at least for a start. However, due to other pressing demands and contending priorities, I had to lower my interests in arts a little bit but that doesn’t mean I still don’t desire to develop my drawing skills, you know?
I’m quite not the only one who loves artworks, am I? Everyone loves arts in general, and we all get fascinated by exceptional products that stand out. However, very few people finally decide to enter the scene to make the arts we admire today.
There are several types of visual artworks – oil paints, brush and pencil works, yarn on boards, sculptures, charcoal, …, the list is almost endless. A few years ago, there was a huge transition in the world of arts, in their form of expression. Physical artworks gradually birthed out digital art as the world went digital. This is a trend that many artists have evolved into as well.
The digital revolution was not limited to products of art. Other genres of visual and imaginative expressions were affected by the wave. A few years ago, this blog post would have otherwise been written on paper and circulated, maybe as a magazine with an old cover design hard enough to withstand being distributed far away from Germany to Africa. Thanks to the digital evolution, distance is no more a barrier.
Why go Digital?
Even though “digital products evolution” is hitting quite hard, a few people are still reluctant to join in. Maybe they are stuck in the old ways and unwilling to evolve, or they just feel it’s too difficult to start making digital products at this time of their lives. I can’t guarantee that going digital in your works will be easy, especially at the start, but you just have to hop right in. Also, there are a host of resources to help you through your journey as a digital product creator in your niche.
One major advantage of digital products over their classical counterpart is the luxury of easy circulation. Digital products like arts, writing, content creation, music production, video recording, etc, can easily be redistributed to a large audience without the need to perform them or re-create them each time.
Also, digital products creation solved the problem of distance. What would have taken days, weeks and months to deliver to a client now requires only a few hours if it is digital.
Digital products might require less physical resources, they might require less physical energy and still give exquisite value, sometimes out-of-this-world experience to the end-users/readers.
Aside from merely keeping up with the current trends, digital products have become very financially valuable today. A few months ago, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were introduced in the digital art scene. which took influence from the world of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and the new metaverse project by the Facebook group. This is a story for another day but NFTs are another example of how lucrative digital products can become.
Why You Should Make Your Digital Products Stand Out
Blogging is my digital product platform. I write inspiring and enlightening articles for my audience including you, but this has been a journey of almost a lifetime. When I started blogging a few years ago, the struggle to be recognised among the millions of other bloggers was real. I needed to be seen, after all, what is the essence of creating something if no one sees it.
The only way to get the desired visibility and publicity is to make your digital product stand out. This is what every one of us realises at one point in our digital journey or another. However, it is not always an easy thing to do, if at all. Your ability to make your digital products stand out from those of thousands of others being created on a daily basis will depend a lot on your experience and what you have learnt over the years.
Just before I talk about how to make your digital products stand out, what do you remember about what they say concerning the competition at the bottom? There are millions of people trying to navigate their way to the top and this makes the competition fiercer and the struggle more difficult at the bottom. However, with these few practical secrets, you can make your digital products stand out and have an unfair advantage in this competition.
Secrets to Make Your Digital Products Stand Out
Here are 6 of my top secrets to make your digital products stand out.
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- Think like your audience
- Give them enough time
- Be consistent with your tone, or brand signature
- Proof-screen your work again
- Resist the urge to make substandard products
- Keep on moving
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Think Like Your Audience
No matter how technical-related your topic is, you need to realize one thing; that your audience are humans too. Create your digital products to put into consideration their capacity to enjoy and understand the information you present to them. This is something I’ve had to learn from several masters over the years.
As an example, if you want your digital products to be targeted at children as your primary audience, you need to try to think like them. What are the things that appeal to them the most? On the other hand, if your target audience involves seasoned professionals in a technical field, you should factor in how they may be thinking while assessing your product. Also, presume some of the questions they might ask and provide answers to them while your product is still in the making.
This might look easy to do but it can be quite challenging in practice. But if you are deliberate about understanding your audience, this can make your digital products stand out with time until you become one of the top performers in your niche.
Be Consistent With Your Tone, or Brand Signature
“People can be better than you in many things but the one thing they can’t do better than you is being you”. You are special in your own right. Knowing this and making efforts to highlight your peculiarities is the best way to make your digital products stand out.
Your audience wants to see your own perspective of things. They want your digital products to be worth it if they are ever going to stand out. You should define your own tone or brand signature and be consistent with it.
A majority of the audience for your digital products may not have seen you in real life and some of them may not have the opportunity to ever do so. The only way to highlight your personal peculiarity and tone, therefore, is to be consistent with one thing, the same values and interests for a considerable time.
As part of your brand signature, you should make a brand logo that reflects what your digital products represent.
Being consistent does not mean you are opposed to change and innovation. You are free to evolve or venture into other aspects of your digital product niche, but you must never forget to include your own special ingredients, tone and expressions into them.
Proof-screen Your Work Again
If nothing else, the one thing I have come to find out is that, no matter how great you think your digital product is at the initial completion, a few more touches will be required to make it stand out exceptionally. You might think you have done a perfect job already but as usual, there could be some errors you didn’t notice earlier.
You should screen your digital product, at least a second time, for possible areas for improvement before making it public. This way, you promptly discover loopholes that need to be fixed and fix them accordingly. If it is a graphic work, re-check the colour contrasts, light intensities, blending options, transitions, etc, and for a written work, proofread your content for any errors or for opportunities to make it better.
When screening for errors and opportunities, however, the one precaution I’d like you to take is, not to be a sheer perfectionist. You don’t need your product to be a hundred per cent perfect before making it public. You are going to have to let it out sometime for people to see. Won’t you?
Resist The Urge to Make Substandard Products
The truth is, there is no better testimony of your competence than the works you have done in the past. If your products meet your desired standards, customers who have previously patronized you will speak to others about them. Thus, you must vehemently resist the urge to concede to the temptation of making products below your standards.
While growing in my writing career, I can attest that I had some blog posts I am not proud of. At first, they felt good to me but thanks to improvement. I later realised they were not good enough. There is always room to improve. The one thing you should never be caught doing is compromising your standards instead of improving your quality.
Give Them Enough Time
To produce great work, you have to put in much attention and effort. You also need sufficient time to highlight details, modify them to fit, like I mentioned, to think like your audience, proof-screen your work and re-organize it.
Digital products often allow you sufficient opportunity to correct subtle mistakes long after you have created them. No lies, creating a thorough product might require some extra time than when it is a bedraggled or unthorough one.
Also, as much as you want to spend enough time to get quality, you should also learn to efficiently maximize your time. Long time does not always equal good quality, so much that you should be intentionally slow and lazy in the name of giving enough time to your digital product.
Efficiency at time management comes with years of practice, up to the point when you can achieve great quality with lesser time than you previously spend to achieve similar results. However, in any case, you must commit sufficient time to the creation of your digital products to make them stand out.
Keep on Moving
The ultimate secret to making your digital products stand out is persistence/resilience. There are times you will feel discouraged, as though your efforts are not paying off, or no one notices what you do. It may look like you have perpetually remained unsuccessful at making digital products that intrigue people but you must never give up until you get there.
Experience comes with time of active practice and practise. As you keep learning and engaging in the production of your digital works, your skills improve; your mistakes and experiences of the job creates a path towards mastery for you and someday you will rise to the limelight too.
Final words
Making your digital products stand out requires time, dedication, and patience from you. The entire process may not be easy, I can’t tell you otherwise, but it is totally achievable and the end is always worth it.
To make your digital products stand out, you need to put many things into perspective. Understand your audience and produce what they will definitely love, give yourself enough time to produce a great piece and never give up. I hope this was insightful to you. I wish you the very best always.
