A guide to marketing creative products

Originally published at: https://community.envato.com/a-guide-to-marketing-creative-products/

Marketing creative products is as vital as creating them, that is, if you want them to sell. Here’s a guide by Envato Author, SnailMusic to help you do it well.


So, you’ve been on Envato for a while. You’ve created the best items you can, developed your creative skills from composing to graphic design, and you continue to refine them each week. You’ve gotten to know the marketplace really well and understand what value to add to it, and what your customers need.

Yet, you still feel you could’ve sold more…

Taking your creative business to the next level

Envato Market offers you the opportunity to reach a lot of people with your music. But, unless you treat your account as an independent business, you’re not going to fulfill your sales potential.

Everyone wants better return on their investment of time. So, here are my tips for taking your AudioJungle business to the next level.

There are three existing pillars that lead to success:

  • Product
  • Accountability
  • Marketing
Today we’re going to talk about that last one: marketing.

Marketing

Now, before starting let’s get one thing straight: you should never prioritize marketing over creating amazing quality items. It’s fundamentally important you remember your main purpose on Envato Market is to create great quality products. No marketing will save a poor quality item.

However, you also shouldn’t underestimate the power of marketing to increase your sales and make you a successful Author. It’s something you’ll have to learn and it’s not going to be easy for everyone. Online marketing is a whole world of its own, but learning this will pay off. That’s for sure.

Okay, enough with the theorizing. Let’s get down to business.

What pragmatic and real actions can you take to improve your marketing knowledge and increase your sales on Envato?

1. Create a BRAND, not just a profile

You need to have an identity. Maybe you picked the first name and image that came to mind when you created your account, which is not always a bad thing. But, it’s often going to be beneficial to dedicate a little time and effort to thinking about the story you want, to connect the right people with your work. Try and create a compelling story for your brand over time and you will eventually build the potential to establish a real, emotional relationship with your clients.

Think about what makes you different. Are you creating the best piano music? The best vocals? The best wedding pictures? The best mobile-first Wordpress themes?

Discover what your difference is and capitalize on it in your branding.

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This is the most effective way to make your business stand out. The image your company has is your main route to emotional engagement with prospective customers, and thus success.

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2. Care about design and presentation

A good brand starts with a good image. When each product you release is accompanied by great images and good presentation, you broaden your opportunity of selling more.

Envato Market encourages this, with HTML profiles allowing for maximum customization. So take advantage of it!

So, what does great presentation look like?

Outstanding cover images and icons

Both ‘X Theme’ and ‘Slider Revolution’ have amazing sales page for their items. They use a lot of visuals along with in deep explanation of the features. You simply cannot go through this pages without feeling the need to buy and try their products!

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Interesting and useful descriptions of each product

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Example 2: http://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/2833226

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A song, a Wordpress theme, a piece of code or even a picture… the buyer always wants to know what they’re buying and, the more information they have, the more compelled they will be to give your product a shot. Take a look at ‘Cool Energy’, for example, or ‘Avada Theme’, do you feel you need more explanation that the ones they had to know what the product is about?

Explanations of the files included in each pack

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Along with the description, it is a basic step to explain in detail all the things included in the product. For example on ‘Inspiring MotivationTunediver tells us that there are four different edits of the song and where to find them in the preview, while on ‘Badge constructor kit’ there is an outstanding image explaining all the different elements that we can find on the kit.

Instruments featured (for Audiojungle) and suggested uses for your products

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Maybe you could help your clients to discover further uses for your product. With music it’s easier, as you can see in those two examples: both tell us where we can use them: romantic videos, business presentations, advertising…

Cross-selling your products, displaying other products that are of a similar type, or complementary to the product currently being viewed by the potential customer

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This is a must when you have more than two products for sale in the marketplace. If someone has put their trust in you and bought your product and they like it, what are the chances they’re going to come back for more? Well they’ll likely be higher if you let them know what else they might like, like what’s been done with ‘Inspiring Ambient Music’ and ‘ Ebay & Aliexpress WooCommerce Importe’ here. Both, at the end of the sales page, walk you through other collections or items they have for sale, so you end up in their loop for more.

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Creating a website explaining who you are and why you do what you do

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Nowadays creating a website with Wordpress is really easy and it will give others the perception that your business is a respectable one and that you are really serious about it.

Perception is everything

As FrontierSoundFX said:

“It doesn’t matter if your epic war drums track got a thumbs up from Hans Zimmer himself– in the stock audio market, your track should look and sound the part if you want to make the greatest impact on a potential buyer. Put effort into the presentation and customers will perceive your product as higher quality than the competition.”

3. Share value on the Community Blog

We have the advantage of Envato being a bit like a social network - like Facebook or Soundcloud - so we can share knowledge and insights among many others that are in the same boat as us.

Building a positive presence within the community is a key component to gaining authority and developing a successful brand. Not only because you are exposed to a lot of other Authors and potential clients, but also you’re reaching the Envato team itself. They are the ones who decide what songs to feature every week and who can share value on this blog for example.

Both of those things can have a positive impact on your marketing efforts.

But remember, there’s a huge difference between ‘being active’ and ‘sharing value’.

While being active can be writing “Good work, keep it up!” or any other standard reply, sharing value requires you to put in some time and effort to give away your knowledge in an area you’re an expert in to help others.

If you do this well, the community will recognize that effort, and it will pay off in the long term in unexpected ways.

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4. SEO should be your friend too

Working this last year as a general manager of the biggest SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company in Spain has taught me that it’s always better to be found by than to search for your clients. If you’re found, it means this customer who has reached you is right at the bottom of the marketing funnel, and therefore probability of conversion is higher.

“...it’s always better to be found than to search for your clients.”

There’s a lot to explain on this point, but thankfully a lot of these SEO tips have been covered in the below posts, which should both be bookmarked for further in-depth study.

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5. Be social

Besides the Envato Community forums being a sort of social network in itself, there are many social channels that can bring you thousands of views and hundreds of sales, like:
  • Facebook
  • Soundcloud
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Spotify
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Behance
  • Dribbble
Even apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Shazam, Vine or Musical.ly can help!

The thing is, nowadays there are so many social media channels that you can easily feel overwhelmed. Just try as many as you can or as little as you feel - depending on the weekly time you can dedicate to them - to see which ones work for you.

In a recent survey of Envato Authors, we discovered each one has their own preferred channels and, for example, while some had Facebook as their main visitor referral, others found it useless. The same happened for Twitter, YouTube and SoundCloud, so there was no real pattern, just different degrees of knowledge, effort and time invested.

There’s also a good takeaway here: make connections, contact people that already have an audience and offer them a deal (that they cannot refuse :wink: ) in exchange for some exposure for your work. Be creative and strategic, just try not to be petty.

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6. Yep, you can also pay

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SMM (Social Media Marketing) exist for a reason. This method can be viewed as a strange way to get visitors and sales on AudioJungle, but of course it can work too. It all depends on your expertise and budget in this area.

Google AdWords, YouTube Video Marketing, Facebook Ads, Reddit Ads, Bing Ads, Twitter Ad, you name it. As long as your money investment is lower than the return in sales or referrals that you get from them, you have a positive ROI.

However, if you’re an Elite Author, it will be difficult to track every aspect of your sales if you do not have the right tools (Google Analytics) to measure the conversion rate, but it can be worth a try, especially if you’re already familiar with paid online marketing.

7. Create marketing side-projects

And lastly, but most importantly to what could potentially be the next big thing in online marketing. Marketing side-projects are an alternative that can gain you some quick traction and astonishing results.

But wait, “What is a side marketing project?” you ask. Let me share this explanation by Ali Mese:

“We had no money. We changed our business model and had 3 months worth of cash left to turn things around. If we didn’t we were toast. Done. We needed to find customers. But no one knew who we were. A marketing budget? Please. We were just trying to keep the lights on,” starts Mikael, founder of Crew, explaining how side projects saved their startup.

They decided to give away all the extra photos they didn’t use that they had shot for their website redesign for free.

A Tumblr theme and three hours later, they launched Unsplash — a side project which not only saved their startup, but turned into a standalone product that generates a mind-blowing 11 million unique visitors each month.”

The idea behind side projects is to give real value to your customers or peers before reaching them with your proposition. Chances are, if they like what you put out there, some of them might want to know more about your core business.

One of the best examples of a side project I’ve seen around here is Envatitor, a tool that helps with the HTML creation of profile and item pages. I’m pretty sure that its creator, Revaxarts, has benefited more in sales terms with this side project - which hundreds of Authors use every day - than any other marketing effort he’s done.

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Conclusion

And that’s it! Every one of the points we’ve covered here is a whole world in and of itself, and we know that for you, the artist, the marketing side of this business can be viewed as a real pain in the butt, or something you don’t have the skills for.

But remember, you are not only an artist, but also an entrepreneur. The simple act of signing up for Envato makes you one, as you’re someone who has made something and wants to share their creations with the world and be paid for it.

So, if you want to reach the top and net a better return on your time and effort, learn as much as you can for as long as you can. Learn about other successful businesses and entrepreneurs, accountability, online and offline marketing, setting KPIs to measure your efforts, and learn how to make the best content out there.

And, if things aren’t going as expected, have confidence in the path you’ve chosen and don’t give up. No successful entrepreneurs have realized their dreams without failure and pain along the way. Those two things are the best learning tools out there.

What you need is patience, and to keep going. That and your talent will be your recipe for success.

Got any other tips? Share them with us in the forums!

Check out SnailMusic on Envato Market

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Nice article :slight_smile:
Thank you!

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Nice post @snailmusic! :sunglasses:

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Hey @SnailMusic

thanks for sharing tips and useful information.

Could you say something about reverbnation for AJ authors?

Cheers

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Nice Guide as i love to say “in depth” thanks @SnailMusic

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Hi @SnailMusic : Thanks for the nice article!
Will try to fulfill all that’s needed :relaxed:

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Amazing article!thanks for sharing :smile:

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Nice!!

BTW about the “Hans Zimmer thumbs up” quote - the fella who said that, probably meant the fact that HZ is actually reachable on a certain musical forum. I have witnessed such “thumbs up” and even endorsement given by him to a starting composer at least once. But as HZ himself admitted, he did`nt see it as any kind of door opener …I guess life is a jungle even outside of AJ :slight_smile:

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Thank you all for your comments!

@InspireMotivate I was not aware of the existence of ReverbNation, for sure we will take a look at all it’s features and check the ones that can help AJ authors!

Thanks! This was a much needed article for us and good inspiration words in the end!

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Thanks for nice and helpful article, @SnailMusic and I really appreciate your works - really good music.

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thanx for nice article :slight_smile:

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Great article :smiley: I love “Hans Zimmer” part :stuck_out_tongue:

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nice article. i have many approved html items. hire me for your psd to html or any kind of front end job. (skype: aftabzaman1 or email: zamanaftab004@gmail.com)

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Fantastic article, @SnailMusic! Some great advice and insights here. Thanks for sharing!

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So nice to see all your responses. Love to help, even if it is with some little insights like this ones! Thank you all very much.

Food for thought!. great article and advices. Thanks for sharing

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Some great points there! Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

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I admire the organization and team Envato!!!:slight_smile:

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Nice article, learn a lot

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