Excited to hit the road with your digital products, but not sure how to set your online shop up for success? It’s time to let your hard work finally do the heavy lifting for you! Specifically, I want to talk about the FASTEST way to set up your online shops with Minimal Viable Products (MVPs), and how an MVP can help you kickstart your online shop!

https://youtu.be/-2XK8hRNzIM

What are MVPs, anyway?

So you might be wondering: what are “Minimal Viable Products” and why should I care? Basically, MVPs are digital products (or any products or services) with the bare minimum of features needed to launch the thing.

These “bare-bones” products aren’t meant to give your audience the bare minimum; far from it! The efficient nature of these products is meant to eliminate any complicating factors (including your perfectionism or self-doubt), so it’s easier to see what parts of your product resonate with your audience. This will help you build amazing products with all the bells and whistles later on!

MVPs help to validate the core ideas of the product to see whether or not it is something people want. You identify a common pain point or problem in your industry and then create a simple product to address it directly. Then, you presell the idea of the product and see if it clicks!

Setting up your shop TODAY

Do you have your MVP idea in mind? Good! Now’s let’s go over how to actually set up your digital product shop to put that minimal viable product to good use.

Step #1: Do your research!

First thing’s first: to have an online shop, you have to have a digital product to display in it! (Well, unless you’re just dying to have an empty Shopify store, I suppose?)

If you aren’t sure what sort of digital product you want to create, I can help! Ultimately, you should pick a digital product that you and your audience will be excited about, and then get started. 

Don’t get hung up on finding THE perfect product just yet. That can become a paralyzing cycle, so once you find something you are inspired to do, jump in and give it a go!

Step #2: Find your niche audience

The key to creating an awesome digital product is to get specific about your audience. A product made FOR everyone still isn’t going to appeal TO everyone; it’s hard to get excited about a product that generic! 

Instead, find your niche audience. Who do you connect to in your audience? They can be solopreneurs, artists, single parents, people who inexplicably love the Oreo cookie part more than the cream; the choices are endless! 

Once you get your niche down, you can target your audience for your digital product. You’ll want to tailor the product to their pain points, and make it something they can incorporate into their day-to-day routine the moment it’s downloaded. Don’t be afraid to get creative!

Step #3: Put your MVP on your chosen platform 

Third: Get Your MVP product on a platform. Now, we get down to where rubber meets road: actually posting your digital product to your shop.

No matter what platform you have in mind — Shopify, Sellfy, Etsy, a sales page you build on your website, etc. — you want to optimize your listing as much as you are able. This is like those gorgeous displays in the mall windows (for those of us who are old enough to remember malls), so remember that your minimal viable product doesn’t need a minimally viable listing, per se. 

Some platforms are more intuitive than others, and I personally love Shopify for a more robust shop. But it’s not necessary for everyone, especially if you’re starting out.

Here are some quick tips for any platform:

• Work with the design, including the white space. 
• Don’t make your description into a novel; write for scannability. 
• Set up lots of relevant, eye-catching pictures.
• Don’t forget the SEO!
• If you are preselling your product (which I highly recommend you do), make that super clear in the title by putting [PRESELL] ahead of the main title. 

Step #4: Test your MVP with your target market 

Now, we get to the fun part: setting your product into the world. (Or, at least, the idea of it.) Treat it like a real launch to ensure that your audience is notified wherever they are more likely to hear about it. 

Don’t be afraid to give this some time, either. If you aren’t “sold out” in the first week, that’s okay! See where people are more likely to hear about your product, and which subsections of your audience are ordering more than others. 

Step #5: Tweak as you go!

If there are some things that don’t seem to be working about your digital product or it’s not selling, don’t panic. This is the time to experiment! Adjust as you go with different formats, descriptions, platforms, etc. (If you can, ask for feedback from your leads!)

From MVP to VIP!

You can mess up several times when you are starting your online business; it comes with the territory. Still, the most important thing is to just get STARTED. What better way to just get started with your online shop than to just test out the bare minimum features of your product?

If you are looking for more information, on preselling I strongly encourage you to watch my video on how to presell your digital product in Shopify.