In the ever-evolving world of online learning and content creation, Thinkific has consistently been at the forefront of innovation, empowering entrepreneurs, educators, and experts to share their knowledge with a global audience.
And they’ve now added a new feature, Thinkific Digital Downloads, a game-changer that expands the possibilities for course creators and learners alike.
With Thinkific Digital Downloads, you can now offer a wide range of digital products alongside your online courses or communities, unlocking new revenue streams, and providing your audience with more diverse and valuable content.
In case you aren’t familiar with all that Thinkific can do to supercharge your online business, make sure to read our full Thinkific review here.
What is a Digital Download?
Digital downloads are electronic files that can be downloaded from the Internet. On Thinkific, digital downloads are a product type that you can use to provide learners with useful, easy-to-access resources.
They are the perfect way to quickly get started using Thinkific to grow your online education business.
You can charge for your digital download or offer it for free. All you have to do is upload a file and customers can securely download it after paying for it, or providing their contact information if you prefer to make it free.
Digital downloads get their own pre-configured checkout and landing page on Thinkific and they can also be included in product bundles alongside courses and/or online communities.
How Digital Downloads Work
Getting started with Thinkific Digital Downloads is easy. One of the platform’s main highlights is the user-friendly interface, easy digital downloads themes, and simple customization options.
The setup steps for creating a new digital download are straightforward and Thinkific provides in-depth guides every step of the way.
Here’s a brief overview of the steps to create and offer a digital download on Thinkific:
- Step #1: Upload your digital file. Find the file you want to use, upload it to Thinkific, and follow the prompts to adjust the settings.
- Step #2: Price your product. Next, choose whether you want to make the downloadable content free or if you want to sell it.
- Step #3: Review and customize your landing page. Finally, use Thinkific’s AI capabilities to quickly generate a stunning and optimized landing page for your product (or you can build it from scratch if you prefer).
- Step #4: Publish your new digital download! Once you’ve published your digital download, you can now share it on your blog, social media, and anywhere else your audience hangs out.
That’s pretty much it when it comes to the technical steps to creating your first digital download on Thinkific.
When a potential or current customer visits the product landing page, they’ll get access to the digital download by purchasing it using the checkout or by submitting their contact info on the landing page.
Thinkific also makes it possible for you to create digital product funnels using Thinkific Funnels that are tailor-made to attract, nurture, convert, and retain your audience.
You can also use the new Cart Recovery Feature to help you recoup lost sales automatically.
Thinkific’s TCommerce revolutionizes cart recovery for online course creators by addressing a critical sales challenge. With 70% of potential purchases abandoned at checkout, this innovative remarketing tool automatically converts missed opportunities into completed transactions.
The system streamlines the sales process by automatically sending strategically timed follow-up emails when learners abandon their cart. Course creators can personalize these communications to align with their brand voice, leveraging Thinkific’s email marketing platform to test and optimize messaging.
Beyond automation, TCommerce provides deep insights into learner behavior. The integrated checkout consent system helps expand your marketing database while the analytics dashboard delivers crucial performance metrics like click-through and click-to-open rates. These real-time analytics enable creators to continuously refine their cart recovery strategy, maximizing sales potential and improving overall conversion rates.
What Types of Digital Downloads Can You Create on Thinkific?
Thinkific Digital Downloads empower you to create digital downloads to sell and monetize your expertise and expand your online presence in several ways, allowing you to reach a wider audience and provide them with valuable resources that complement your course offerings.
Types of downloads include:
- Templates
- Trackers
- Checklists
- eBooks
- Workbooks/Worksheets
- Calendars
- Graphic design elements
- Stock photos
- Illustrations
- Guides
- Artwork/Digital prints
The possibilities are truly endless regarding the types of digital downloads you can offer on Thinkific. Thinkific’s digital downloads are incredibly versatile and can include a broad range of formats.
Whether you’re crafting brand-new content or repurposing your existing materials, you’ll be able to seamlessly launch your digital downloads with ease and unlock the potential for new leads and revenue.
Benefits of Thinkific Digital Downloads for Your Business
If you haven’t created digital downloads before, you might be wondering where exactly in the grand scheme of your business digital downloads come into play, and how they can help your business generate new leads and boost sales.
To answer that question, let’s take a look at how successful creators use Thinkific downloads in their businesses.
Most successful businesses on Thinkific follow the same pattern in terms of their business model, and the premise is simple – Selling education is all about building trust.
Ultimately, the higher the price of a product, the more trust is required from that prospect before they buy.
To build trust quickly and consistently, successful creator educators focus on four main areas:
- Getting Discovered: For this, they use free (but valuable) content such as blog articles, YouTube videos, and social media posts to get in front of their target audiences. Ultimately, the goal at this stage is to get the reader or viewer to start liking you and trusting your authority in the subject.
- Capturing Leads: At this stage, the reader or viewer trusts you enough to give you more than just their time for the content they consume, and successful creators use gated content such as digital downloads and funnels to capture names, emails, and other details from prospective customers.
- Creating and Selling: With the contact information in hand, you can now promote your products to these new, warmer leads through their inboxes. This area focuses on offering entry products like online courses, live lessons, and communities.
- Growing Revenue: The final step is to offer premium products, such as full-on memberships and branded mobile apps to increase customer lifetime value.
There are many other ways you can incorporate digital downloads into your business.
In addition to offering them as standalone products, you can also position them alongside any existing offers during the checkout experience using order bumps.
This means you can offer extra learning products to your learners at checkout and increase order value without slowing down the checkout process.
So there you have it, the measurements of success in such a business: traffic, leads, conversions, and customer lifetime value.
Thinkific Digital Downloads: User Experience
As one of the best online course platforms (and consistently one of our top overall picks), Thinkific offers a seamless and user-friendly experience for both course creators and students.
Digital Downloads are no different.
The Creator Experience
As a course creator, you can effortlessly package and sell various digital products alongside your online courses, from e-books and workbooks to templates and software tools.
The intuitive platform streamlines the creation and management of digital downloads, allowing for customization and bundling options.
The Learner Experience
For visitors and learners, accessing digital downloads is a breeze. They can conveniently purchase and instantly download the desired resources directly from the course dashboard.
The integration of downloads enhances the overall learning journey, providing valuable supplementary materials that complement the course content.
With Thinkific Digital Downloads, the user experience prioritizes simplicity, convenience, and added value for an enriched educational experience.
Here’s how it works:
Upon publishing your digital download, its automatically generated landing page becomes visible to leads and potential students, with the experience differing based on whether you offer it as a free or paid product.
If Offering a Paid Product:
For digital downloads with one-time or monthly payment, visitors can access the product landing page via a direct URL or by browsing your “collections” page. There they can initiate the built-in checkout process to purchase the download.
Post-purchase, learners are redirected to the page containing the requested file for immediate download. They also receive an email with the download link, ensuring convenient access.
This seamless integration allows you to monetize your digital offerings effectively while providing a smooth experience for your audience.
Whether you want to supplement courses or sell digital downloads online as standalone products, Thinkific’s digital downloads streamline the sales and delivery process, enhancing your online business’s potential.
If Offering a Free Product:
If you opt for the Free Lead Magnet option, Thinkific automatically generates a landing page layout optimized for capturing visitor information.
Instead of a checkout page, visitors provide their contact details on the landing page to access the digital download.
Once they’ve submitted their information, they gain instant access to the download. In the meantime, their details are seamlessly added to the Leads Table, making it easier for you to manage your leads from your Admin dashboard.
This streamlined process ensures efficient lead generation and content delivery without additional setup required.
Now that you have the answers to all the pressing questions, such as “How do I sell digital downloads”, and “How to make digital downloads”, let’s move on to the pricing for Thinkific Digital Downloads.
Pricing: How Much Do Thinkific Digital Downloads Cost?
Thinkific Digital Downloads are available on all plans. However, there are limits to the number of download products you can create on each plan.
Check out Thinkific’s Pricing Plans to see what you get with each one:
- Basic Plan: $36/Month: 5 Digital Downloads
- Start Plan: $74/Month: Unlimited Digital Downloads
- Grow Plan: $149/Month: Unlimited Digital Downloads
You can sign up for a free 14-day trial to test all the platform’s core features on any of Thinkific’s easy digital downloads pricing plans (which include courses and communities) to help you build and launch your online learning business.
Conclusion
The introduction of Thinkific Digital Downloads marks a significant milestone in the journey of online learning and content creation.
This innovative feature empowers course creators to diversify their offerings, providing learners with valuable supplementary resources that enhance their educational experience. By seamlessly integrating digital products with online courses and communities, Thinkific continues to revolutionize the e-learning space.
You, too, can embrace this powerful tool to unlock new revenue streams and elevate your content’s value through selling digital downloads or offering them for free as lead magnets.
Ready to take your online course business to new heights? Sign up for a free 14-day trial of Thinkific Digital Downloads today and experience the power of offering high-value digital downloads alongside your courses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of digital products can I sell using Thinkific Digital Downloads?
You can offer a wide range of digital products, including e-books, workbooks, templates, checklists, software tools, audio files, video tutorials, and more. Thinkific Digital Downloads provides flexibility to monetize various forms of digital content.
Can I sell digital downloads on my website?
Wondering how to sell digital downloads on your site? You can sell digital downloads on your website through Thinkific. Simply create and upload your digital products, then share the secure download links or embed the download options directly on your website pages.
How do Thinkific Digital Downloads integrate with my online courses?
Thinkific Digital Downloads seamlessly integrates with your existing online courses. You can offer digital products as bonus materials, supplementary resources, or standalone products. Learners can access these downloads directly from their course dashboard, enhancing their overall learning experience.
Can I bundle multiple digital products together?
Absolutely! Thinkific Digital Downloads allows you to create product bundles, enabling you to package and sell multiple digital resources together at a discounted price. This feature provides added value to your audience and can boost your revenue.
How do I deliver the digital downloads to my customers?
Once a customer purchases a digital download, they will receive a secure download link or access instructions to retrieve the product. Thinkific’s user-friendly platform ensures a smooth delivery process, making it easy for your customers to access their purchased content.
Can I track sales and analytics for my digital downloads?
Yes, Thinkific provides detailed sales and analytics reports for your digital downloads. You can monitor sales performance, track revenue, and gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. This data can help you make informed decisions and optimize your product offerings.
Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution
Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.
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