When you create digital products, courses, or pretty much anything these days… you have to contend with the copycats. While I’d love to say that you can sue copycats into oblivion or that you’ll NEVER run into issues with someone stealing your ish, I just can’t.

Sorry. But there’s something you CAN do to knock those copycats off their high horse.

Build a strong brand.

Why a strong brand matters for your online shop

The truth is when you have a brand that has a strong Know, Like, and Trust factor (do they know you? do they LIKE you? do they trust you?), you’ll beat out those copycats every time. After all, people want to buy from people and companies they know and trust.

But a brand isn’t just the pretty visuals that your designer created for you, although that’s definitely part of it. You need to lean in and really focus on creating a brand that doesn’t “just sell your products.” You want a brand that gives people an experience, a transformation and goes above and beyond.

Not sure how to build a brand for your digital product shop or online biz? Here are a few hot tips 🔥 for you.

Presence on social

Be present on social (yes, we’re talking Reels, IGTV, maybe even gasp TikTok). While you don’t necessarily have to be active on all platforms, it’s super helpful to be present when your audience is. Over at The Contract Shop®, we weren’t active on Instagram for over a year and we did just fine. But the second we reinvested in that content strategy, we saw more sales and more growth to our following, email list, and more.

Make connections

Connect with more people in your space, whether that’s through joint venture webinars, summits, podcast guesting, affiliate programs, conferences, etc. While not every connection is going to help you sell a bajillion dollars in product, you’re building your audience, putting a face to the business, and sharing expertise. The time I have spent building these connections has always come back to me tenfold.

Create content that is consistent and valuable

This is usually where people start to panic because they hear “content creation” and think “I don’t have time for that, and I can’t afford to hire someone to write it all!” I totally get it, I didn’t either. I wrote my own blogs, emails, and social for the majority of the 6 years I’ve been in business.

But it doesn’t have to be super overwhelming. You can start with a cornerstone piece of content — maybe you want to create YouTube videos like I have here, or a podcast. You can plan out that content, and then turn it into other content. Blogs, emails, social captions, opt-ins, etc. One piece of content becomes many. You can disperse that content wherever your people show up online — like LinkedIn or Pinterest, etc.

Last tip: Show the heck up

While you may have created a digital product so that you didn’t have to ‘show up’ or ‘be on’ all the time, your brand matters. The more consistent you show up, and the more consistent you are with your expertise, the better.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time or share your brand in a way that sucks your soul out. Hey, not everyone likes TikTok, OK? And that’s cool. But you CAN decide how you want to show up and share the word about your products and business.

Best of all, you can repurpose your ideas and hit on the same points in different mediums. You can share your “best hits” as many times as you want — nobody is going to see everything you’ve ever created at the exact same time. Don’t be afraid to say something again, reshare that 2-year-old email, or talk about something similar to last month’s topic on IGTV. Consistency is key, not necessarily novelty.

The TL;DR version?

The key to creating a strong brand the copycats can’t touch? Consistency — with content and presence. Don’t be afraid to share your expertise and show people how awesome it is to work with and buy from you.

Sorry, it’s not a short hack — and no, it won’t keep the copycats from coming. But they won’t be able to touch you if you focus on building an amazing brand.

Creating a strong brand starts now

I know that content creation and showing up consistently can feel overwhelming. I talk about this in a few other videos, like the one about list-building and the one about affiliate programs. However, if you’re really feeling like you’re not hitting your shop sales goals because you’re not “getting out there enough,” my program, Simple Sustained Shop Sales, can help.

In this dCommerce™ coaching program, we cover 8 sales strategies that helped me reach 7 figures in my own digital product shop. One of those strategies is creating a content machine that doesn’t take over your business. If you want to check that out, you can learn more about it at christinascalera.com/sales.