Product launch agency: the first steps to launch successful digital products and boost your earnings

Digital products are a relatively new market in the marketing world.

If you work with digital marketing or have a great deal of knowledge about the subject, learn how you can explore the segment of digital products through a launch agency.

If you already have an agency, this is certainly a great opportunity to innovate and explore means of increasing your business’ profit.

In this post, you will learn about:

• What is a digital agency and how does this model work?
• How to choose experts to launch products
• Key aspects when signing contracts with your specialist partners

What is a digital product agency?

A digital product agency is responsible for guiding and boosting the results of those who are interested in and/or have the potential to launch a digital product.

There are several possibilities for agencies who wish to tackle this market and one of the most interesting ones is when an agency provides its expertise in digital marketing in a partnership with an expert in a given subject.

Thus, both roles have responsibilities to achieve the expected results.

Responsibilities of the agency: video capture, editing, creation of the sales page and sales video, buying traffic, partnerships with Affiliates, partnerships with digital influencers, and after-sales technical support.

Responsibilities of the expert: record classes, create content focused on product advertising, support of class content (at least during the first weeks).

Overall, the agency will be responsible for the production and will be ready to act whenever there is the need to involve the expertise of a specialist.

How does a digital product agency model work?

The most common way of working with digital product launches in partnerships with experts is by means of a set up to kick off the project and the division of royalties.

Let’s understand this concept better:

Set up + royalty: the agency pays an initial amount to the expert so that they can develop a project for the creation of the digital product. In this case, the agency will earn a percentage, or a royalty of the project’s future results.

If the expert that you approached is a well-known authority with a considerable audience, the setup amount will be relatively more expensive compared to an expert who isn’t known.

For experts with a large audience, and authority on their niche, the setup amount could be between 1,500 and 5,000 dollars.

Regarding royalties, it’s important to analyze how strenuous the advertising of the product will be based on the expert’s audience and authority.

For example:

If the expert doesn’t have a lot of traffic, the agency will have to invest a lot in ads and other forms of advertising. If the royalty division is 50% for the agency and the expert, the business becomes unsustainable, since the agency won’t have enough money to pay for all the needed advertising.

An interesting comparison is the model of physical books.

The author’s standard royalties vary between 8% and 10%. And why is it so low? Because all the manufacturing, production, assembly, distribution, and marketing costs are sustained by the publisher.

As a digital product agency, don’t fool yourself into believing that because it is a digital business, the costs will be any different.

An interesting number to determine the expert’s royalties is between 10% and 20%. For widely recognized experts this number can reach up to 25%, but only if they have a high traffic volume!

The most common market value is 15% royalty for the expert and 85% for the agency.

In order to justify this number for the expert, list all the tasks the agency will have to carry out, from which the expert will be spared the extra work.

What are the expert profiles with which to create partnerships?

As an agency, you should know how to choose the experts who will be your partners and within this scenario, there are two main points to consider:

1. Audience; and
2. Authority.

Based on these aspects, let’s understand the three expert profiles that you’ll come across.

Expert with a large audience and great authority

In theory, this is the ideal expert to launch a product with because it is within this profile that major internet celebrities are included.

The set up for these experts will be high, since they usually demand risk-free deals in order to guarantee gains, but the royalties won’t be necessarily high.

Expert with great authority and low (or no) audience

It is very likely that the set up will be low and royalties for the expert will be around 10% to 15%.

Since your agency will have to build an audience to advertise your product, with paid content advertising, publishing and transforming the expert into an authority, a lot of upfront investment will be necessary to boost the product.

Expert with a large audience and low authority

It’s quite common to find this scenario on major YouTube channels, whose focus is on screencasts or tutorials in which there is no need for a live host. When this occurs, Affiliation is a good option.

As an agency, you can help the creators of major channels to find good opportunities to advertise products related to their niches. That way, your agency would earn a share of the commissions.

There is also the possibility of developing a creator’s image, transforming them into authorities and creating a product based on their specialty.

Choosing experts to launch digital products

The choice of expert is very specific because it will depend on your investment capability and your skills of working with both aforementioned aspects (audience and authority).

If you are starting out in this market, you’ll have easier access to experts that don’t have an audience and it will be up to you to do the work that, if done properly, will boost your business.

Regardless of the scenario in which you’ll be working, analyze the expert’s numbers (followers, time on the market, follower engagement, network reach), the operating niche and the potential of the said market.

Also, consider the work you’ll have in order to launch the product.

Once you have decided which experts you’ll approach, it is necessary to establish a contract between the parties involved to ensure that everyone will fulfill their roles.

What should be included in the digital product launch contract?

As an agency, you’ll be working with email marketing, paid campaigns, and the production of material and editing, but you will still need the expert.

When you draft the contract, list all items that will be within the expert’s responsibility.

Make sure that they will devote time to the creation of content in order to advertise the product, the recording of videos (for advertising and sales videos, for example), as well as webinars/live streams.

If the product is for recurring sales (perpetual product), make an agreement in which the product is mentioned with a certain frequency on the expert’s channels. Preferably, in a casual manner and not in a direct product advertising format.

In addition, experts must agree that your agency will send emails on their behalf so that communication with the end consumer is practical and assertive. After all, it is unlikely that the expert has specific knowledge about email marketing campaigns.

They may even review the emails in order to ensure that their tone is relevant to the way they communicate, but ideally, your agency should develop the entire strategy.

Remember: your agency needs autonomy to orchestrate the entire flow of marketing strategies.

A good way of making sure that you’ll communicate in the same tone as the experts’ is to study how they behave. This role will belong to the person responsible for writing the emails.

Another interesting strategy is asking the expert to write articles about various subjects.

Another important topic to be considered in the contract is content support. These questions can only be answered by the expert. One tip is to register the frequently asked questions so that over time, the agency can answer all types of questions.

Make sure that the expert will devote approximately 20 hours a month to answering all questions regarding the content.

And finally, but equally important, is to agree on at least two products for sale: the main offer and an upsell.

Upselling is an extremely powerful tool considering that it’s easier to make a new sale to someone who has already made a purchase from you, than to acquire new customers.

Some people are able to increase their business’ profitability by 90%, 100% and even 130% with upsells alone.

Conclusion

If you already have a digital agency, this is a great opportunity to diversify your operation and earnings.

If you plan to start a business, we recommend that you start with a smaller launch to observe which challenges you’ll have to face, before taking on even greater responsibility.

Comment below about the scenario in which you’re at and what your plans are for your digital product launch agency!