How To Sell Digital Products Online
A guide for course creators, coaches, and information brands
The digital product sales industry has experienced explosive growth over the past few years.
At our agency, we’ve helped clients generate millions in revenue selling courses, coaching, and consulting services.
Here’s a case study where we generated over £10MM in revenue for one of our education clients.
This guide will help you market your online course or digital product more effectively to get more sales each month using paid advertising, funnels, and automation.
Choose Your Sales Journey
There are two main customer journeys when selling online education:
- No sales team - you sell directly to your customers from your website or landing page.
- With a sales team - you use advertising to book more calls for your sales team to close.
If you already have one of these two in place, skip to the next section.
If you’re unsure which model suits your business best, here’s what to consider:
Pricing
For cheaper products, sell directly from the page. The main reason is there’s less margin available to support a sales team.
For high-ticket offers, it’s more effective to have a human touch point via a sales call.
The cut off point from our experience is around around £1,000 ($1,300). Once your digital product goes over this point, it becomes a lot harder to sell without a sales call.
Niche
If you’re in a small niche, you can charge a higher price which makes sales calls more important.
Whichever route you choose, your aim is to show value in your product, and build trust before asking for a purchase.
Sales teams help bridge this trust gap more easily than relying solely on video sales letters (VSLs), landing page copy, or email.
The Components of A Successful Digital Product Marketing Strategy
- Traffic: Paid adverts on Meta and Google.
- Funnel: Where we send the traffic to convert.
- Email automation: Follow-up sequences that nurture leads and build the relationship.
The 2 Main Blueprints for Digital Product Sales
We’ve split these out based on your product price.
Low-Mid Ticket Digital Products
If you’re selling a low-ticket product, you can sell directly from the page using a direct response approach. Since the price point is lower, there’s less resistance so a long funnel isn’t necessary.
This approach works well for acquiring customers and upselling them into higher-ticket offers later.
High-Ticket Digital Products
If you’re selling a high-ticket course or coaching program, sending cold traffic directly to a checkout page won’t work. People need more trust before making a high-value decision. Instead, send them into the top of a funnel where they can engage with your brand before you ask for a sale. This is where a call booking funnel will work very well.
Building Your Traffic Engine (Meta and Google ads)
We’ve had the most success using Meta Ads and Google Ads for digital product campaigns.
Meta Ads: Top Tips
- Creative is everything. Video ads typically outperform images, especially for high-ticket offers because they build trust and authority.
- Leverage personal branding. If you’re the face of the brand, use video ads to connect with your audience and share your story.
- Use broad/automated targeting. Let Meta’s AI do the heavy lifting.
- Optimise for lead quality, not just volume. Don’t chase the cheapest leads. Here’s a video on lead cost VS lead quality.
Google Ads: Top Tips
- Focus on Creative. As with Meta, your creatives are going to be the most important area to put your focus.
- Focus on YouTube. Search placements can work, but YouTube has driven the best results for our info product clients.
- Test both broad and custom segments. Start with both, but aim to scale using broad segments for consistency and scalability.
Funnels
Here are the most effective funnel types we’ve used to sell digital products:
Funnel #1: Video Sales Letter (VSL)
A VSL funnel builds trust through an educational video that teaches something valuable, then transitions into your offer.
Typical structure:
Page 1 - Opt-in form
Page 2 - VSL video + call-to-action
Funnel #2: Book A Call
A simple funnel with minimal elements that reduces friction and gets leads booked into your sales team calendars.
Typical structure:
1 page (direct booking, no opt-in) normally with a VSL at the top of the page.
Pro Tip 1: If your VSL is long and valuable, add an opt-in page to capture emails for follow-up.
Pro Tip 2: For B2B offers, it’s often better to skip the opt-in and send people straight to the booking page.
Funnel #3: Lead Magnet
Similar to the VSL funnel, but offers a downloadable resource instead of a video.
Typical structure:
Page 1 - Opt-in for the lead magnet
Page 2 - Encourage them to book a call or watch a video
Email Marketing & Automation
In the digital product space, the biggest profit opportunities lies in follow-up. When someone opts in through one of your funnels, drop them into an automated email sequence that tells your story, builds trust, and positions your offer as the solution.
Email Tips
- Keep it simple: Plain-text emails often work best. They feel more personal, especially if you’re the face of the brand.
- Nurture, don’t pitch. Provide genuine value and lead them toward the next step naturally.
- Don’t rely only on automation. Send real-time emails alongside your automated sequences.
Go Beyond Email
Email is powerful - but don’t stop there.
- Use WhatsApp and SMS for follow-up (especially if you’re using a “book a call” funnel).
- Collect phone numbers wisely. If you're going to ask for them, make sure you’re using them, as it can increase your front-end cost per lead.
Putting It All Together
These are the exact strategies we’ve used to generate millions in online course and coaching revenue.
If you’d like help putting it all together for your business, book a discovery call with us.