64. Mid-Year Review: What’s Working for Digital Product Sales in 2025

Summary

Episode 64 Summary: Mid-Year Review – What’s Working for Digital Product Sales in 2025

In Episode 64 of The Abigail Peugh Podcast, host Abigail Peugh conducts an insightful mid-year review, dissecting effective strategies for digital product sales in 2025. Drawing from her personal experiences and observations from her burgeoning community of nearly 14,000 students, Abigail provides actionable advice for entrepreneurs aiming to build profitable online businesses. This summary encapsulates the key discussions, strategies, and personal reflections shared during the episode.

1. Introduction to the Mid-Year Review

Abigail kicks off the episode by acknowledging the halfway mark of the year and expressing excitement about sharing what’s been working in digital product sales. She emphasizes the importance of sticking to a predefined marketing plan while allowing room for creativity and spontaneity.

“One agreement that I made with myself at the beginning of this year was that I wasn't going to launch any new digital products or new offers, only offers that basically already existed.”
[02:50]

2. Effective Freebies: Building Trust and Providing Value

Abigail challenges the notion that freebies are obsolete, arguing that while some may lack substance, well-crafted freebies remain powerful tools for building trust and driving sales. She highlights the importance of creating freebies that offer quick wins and a genuine taste of the paid offerings.

“Freebies are still an incredible way to make sales, to build trust, to let people get a taste of what it is that you do and how.”
[03:00]

She shares her success with a seven-day prompt freebie for her Rich Girl Community, which has consistently attracted new members even amidst a long launch cycle for her bootcamp program.

3. Priming and Building Trust Before Launches

Abigail underscores the necessity of an extended priming period before launching a new product. She advocates for at least 30 days of warming up the audience, fostering excitement, and establishing trust to ensure a successful launch.

“People need that priming and trust building period before you sell that digital product.”
[05:20]

Using her recent bootcamp launch as an example, Abigail explains how prolonged priming led to a receptive and ready audience, enhancing the overall effectiveness of her sales efforts.

4. Leveraging Trial Reels on Instagram for Growth

The conversation shifts to Instagram’s trial reels, a trending topic among social media educators. Abigail praises the utility of trial reels for audience growth rather than immediate sales, emphasizing their role in introducing new audiences to her brand.

“Using trial reels for growing, not necessarily selling right away, but I'm obsessed with them.”
[09:15]

She provides practical tips, such as consistency in posting trial reels to train the Instagram algorithm and linking to additional resources in show notes for deeper engagement.

5. Embracing Email Marketing: Overcoming Reluctance

Acknowledging her initial hesitation with email marketing, Abigail reveals how increasing her email frequency has significantly boosted her sales, particularly for her bootcamp program. She advocates for sending multiple emails per week, mixing sales, connection, and market research content.

“I've been emailing multiple times a week. And it's crazy. So many of my bootcamp sales... came from email.”
[11:30]

Abigail encourages listeners to overcome the fear of annoying their audience and to view email as a critical touchpoint for maintaining visibility and nurturing relationships.

6. Collaboration Posts: Expanding Reach Through Partnerships

Highlighting the power of collaboration posts, Abigail illustrates how partnering with complementary niches can exponentially increase reach and engagement. She shares a successful example from her community where a relationship anxiety coach and an affordable wedding planner collaborated, resulting in remarkable audience growth for both parties.

“Collaboration posts are genius... it was so genius.”
[13:10]

She advises identifying collaborators in related but distinct niches to ensure mutual benefit and provides resources in her show notes for further inspiration.

7. Personal Goals and Revenue Status

Abigail provides a candid update on her personal and business goals, revealing that she is on track to achieve her “good” revenue goal of $500,000 in 2025 despite unforeseen personal challenges. She emphasizes the importance of setting tiered goals (good, better, best) to maintain motivation and avoid feelings of defeat when circumstances change.

“I am on track to hit my good revenue goal of over 500,000 in 2025.”
[14:30]

Abigail acknowledges the difficulties of balancing a personal brand with personal struggles, choosing to keep certain aspects private while continuing to support her community.

8. The Importance of Recurring Revenue

Concluding the episode, Abigail stresses the significance of establishing recurring revenue streams to ensure financial stability and reduce monthly income volatility. She challenges entrepreneurs to integrate recurring revenue models into their digital product businesses to enhance mental well-being and business resilience.

“Add something recurring to your digital product business so you aren't starting every month off at zero.”
[15:00]

She invites listeners struggling with this aspect to join her Rich Girl Community for support and collaborative problem-solving.

9. Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Content

Abigail wraps up the episode by teasing next week’s content, which will delve into a comprehensive review of her digital product bootcamp launch, sharing successes and lessons learned to help listeners refine their own launches.

“I'll be back next week with a full recap of my digital product bootcamp launch. What worked, what I failed miserably at, and how you can take what I learned and pour it into your next digital product launch.”
[15:50]

She encourages listeners to engage with the episode by sharing their learnings on Instagram and tagging her, fostering a sense of community and shared growth.

---

Key Takeaways:

1. Freebies Matter: Create valuable, result-oriented freebies that align closely with your paid products to build trust and drive sales.
2. Extended Priming Periods: Invest time in priming your audience well before a product launch to ensure higher conversion rates.
3. Utilize Trial Reels: Use Instagram trial reels primarily for audience growth and brand awareness before pushing sales.
4. Embrace Email Marketing: Consistent and varied email communication can significantly enhance sales and audience engagement.
5. Collaborate Strategically: Partner with complementary niches to expand your reach and build mutual trust with new audiences.
6. Set Tiered Goals: Establish good, better, and best goals to stay motivated and adaptable amidst changing circumstances.
7. Establish Recurring Revenue: Incorporate recurring revenue streams to stabilize income and support mental health.

Abigail’s mid-year review offers a comprehensive roadmap for online entrepreneurs striving to enhance their digital product sales through proven strategies and personal resilience.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

You're listening to an episode of the Abigail Pugh podcast with, you guessed it, Abigail Pugh. I'm an introverted mama who took my online business from zero to seven figures in 15 months, selling my own digital products on social media. And guess what? I did it all with my 3.

[A]

Year old daughter no less than 3ft away from me at all times.

[B]

Now I'm bringing you everything I've learned about building a wildly profitable online business that supports your life while allowing you.

[A]

To truly live it.

[B]

Get ready for raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs making thousands per month selling their own digital products and people just like you who ditch self doubt to create the life they've always wanted. If you're ready to make more money, have more impact, and still have time for the things that matter most, you're in the right place. Grab your sneakers, head out on your hot girl walk and let's dive in.

[A]

Okay y' all, we are halfway through the year so. So I thought it would be really fun to do a mid year review to talk about what's working so far in 2025 for digital product sales, selling, growing on Instagram, all the things and of course everything I share will be from my experiences as well as what I am seeing with my students, which I just went and looked it up and I am about to hit 14,000 students, which is so wild and insane and I'm so grateful and I love each and every one of you and I'm so glad that you're here now. Okay, before we get into this, one thing I will say is that at the beginning of every year I sit down and basically map out my entire year's worth of marketing. So sales that I want to have launches when I'm talking about certain products because I have multiple products now. And while I do stick pretty closely to that schedule, I am very much a type B girly who often gets inspired in the middle of the night to try something new. But one, I guess you could call it, one agreement that I made with myself at the beginning of this year was that I wasn't going to launch any new digital products or new offers, only offers that basically already existed. And that was really hard for my brain at first. But now six months in, I am so grateful that I've stuck to it because it's been really peaceful for me and truly has forced me to lean into relaxing and enjoying everything I've built, which is really, really hard for me. I love to go, go, go. My brain like loves to be challenged. I love the creative Process of a. I love it all, but the entire reason I became an entrepreneur was literally for the time and financial freedom, right? Like, I wanted to be in charge of my own schedule. I love helping people, I love impacting people. But, like, I want it to be on my time. So I'm leaning into, I guess you could call it my soft girl relaxed era. And I'm truly, I'm truly loving it. So let's dive into what is working so far for this year and where I am with my goals. First and foremost, something that I think is working is freebies that get quick wins and give your audience a taste of what they will get inside your paid digital product. So I've heard so many people trying to say that freebies are dead. Stop using them, they don't work anymore. And I think that certain freebies don't work anymore. Like the ones that are full of fluff don't actually get results. Like, yes, please don't make those anymore. But freebies are still an incredible way to make sales, to build trust, to let people get a taste of what it is that you do and how. How it is to work with you. So what I did actually for my rich girl community, the freebie that I created for that is a seven day. It's seven days worth of prompts. And they are similar prompts to what you get inside my community. Because I was getting a lot of questions of people saying, what are the prompts like?

[B]

So.

[A]

So I was like, oh, I need to give them a taste of what it's like to get inside my community and get those prompts. And it's been. It's been doing really well. I mean, I've been in priming and launch mode for my bootcamp, a completely separate offer than my community for over a month now. And my community still, new people are still signing up because of that freebie. So make sure that you are using a freebie that gives them a quick win and more importantly, gives them a taste of what it's going to be like in your paid digital product. Like, those two things, they need to be connected. And that's what I see the most with freebies that aren't working, is that there's no connection for the freebie and the paid digital products. So people are like, why are they not buying? And in my head I'm thinking, well, because your paid offer and your freebie, like, they have nothing to do with each other, so those need to be connected. Next, something that is working really well in 2025 is priming and building trust for longer than you think before launching. Now, I still think it's 100% possible to launch and start from scratch in six weeks. But during those six weeks, you need to be very, very adamant about priming and building trust for your audience. So, again, using my bootcamp launch as an example, because I just finished it the day before I recorded this, and something that I did, this round was prime for a lot longer than usual. So I primed, which priming just means basically warming them up to the offer. You're letting them know it's coming, you're getting them excited, you're letting them feel part of it. You're listening to them, you're answering questions, all those things. I did that for at least 30 days before my doors even opened, right? So when I did open the doors, people were primed and ready. They trusted me. They knew what the price was, they knew what they were going to get. They knew if they wanted to sign up or not. And I think that right now, people need need that timeframe more than ever to know if they want to buy something from you. So if you have a digital product and you haven't talked about it, do not just put it up in your sand store or where it is that you're going to launch it and say, hey, it's here today. Like, no, people need that priming and trust building period before you sell that digital product. Okay, next up. And I know everybody has been talking about this, and it's like a huge thing for a lot of Instagram mentors and educators right now, and that is trial reels. And I'm still obsessed with them. I think they are amazing. And now there's actually a way, there is some blog on Instagram where a lot of people are finding success if they don't have trial reels yet. There's this link in a blog that shows you how to basically, I don't want to say cheat the system, but basically you can post a trial reel without having trial reels. So I will link that blog in the show notes for you guys. So if you don't have trial reels yet, see if that works. But something that I have said from the beginning is using trial reels for growth, not using them to sell your digital product. Right? Because people don't know who you are. They literally don't even know that you exist. And if you try to sell to them right away, it might not perform as well. So using trial reels for growing your audience as well as building trust with people, I'VE seen some take off that are, you know, offering a freebie. Just make sure that that freebie, like, gets them onto an email list where they learn who you are and they figure out who you are. Because remember, people, if they find you from a trial reel, like, if they comment on that trial reel but they don't follow you, they might never see see you again. I really think it's important that trial reels are used for growing, not necessarily selling right away, but I'm obsessed with them. The two episodes I did on them on my podcast are still live, but I will link those down below for you guys. Please watch those. Use trial reels if you don't have them yet. They are great for testing and just kind of like seeing what's working or not working. One thing I will say with trial reels is that the more consistent you are with them, the better they perform, in my opinion. Because the more you're posting them, the more that algorithm is learning who you are and who to push your content out to. Okay, the next one has nothing to do with social media. And I've always said this, like, I am not an email marketing expert. It is hard for me. I don't know why. Like, I can sell all day long on Instagram stories, Instagram reels, like, all the things. And then if you ask me to sell an email, I'm like, oh, I don't want to annoy people. I don't want to bug people. But I have been emailing, especially during my launch, more than once a week and not being afraid to email more often because people don't see every email, right? Like, just like with social media, people don't see every post you do. People don't see every email. And they need to be reminded that you exist, that your offer exists, on how you can help them, how you can connect with them. So I've been emailing multiple times a week. And it's crazy. So many of my bootcamp sales, I keep referencing the bootcamp because that was the last offer I launched. But so many of my bootcamp sales came from email, which is wild. Like, when I first started, I started more so on social. That's like where I built my platform, where I sold. And kind of that's my strong suit, right? Like, that's what I teach, that's what I love. It's what I'm passionate about. But I've been really leaning into email more and it's just so crazy to see. To see it working. It's crazy when you put Time and effort into something and see it work. No, I'm just kidding. But for reals, it's been. It's been amazing to see my confidence with emailing kind of go up too, and just sending, like, short and sweet reminder emails. Not feeling guilty if somebody, you know, unsubscribes, great, maybe they didn't need my help and just kind of letting go of that. So email marketing, if you're not sending multiple emails a week, please try it. Mix it up. Do a sales one, do a connection one, do a market research one, but don't be afraid to send an email more than once a week. Okay? Okay. Last but not least, something that is working really great this year is collaboration post to build trust and get your face in front of somebody else's audience. Now, this is something that I have talked about for a while now. I have done a few. I love them. I think collaboration posts are genius. And these can be reels. These can be carousels. This can be a single image post. Like, don't. Don't think that a collaboration post has to just be a reel. I think a lot of people just assume it's a real. And they're like, oh, I don't live near this person. I can do it. But I have a really great example of this, and I will link this again in the show notes for you guys. Two of my students, they are in my rich girl community. They did a collaboration post and their niches are, like, just different enough that I was so impressed on how they kind of collaborated together and really were able to get incredible reach with each other's audiences, but it was, like, mutually beneficial. So one of them, Sarah, she is a relationship anxiety coach. And then Emily is an affordable wedding planner content creator, right? And they both sell digital products around these topics. And they did a collaboration together and it was so genius. The reach and follows and all the things that they got from this were insane. They were sending me some screenshots like, I'm obsessed with it. So I really want you to dig deep into who can you collaborate with, who is someone that is in a niche that is just different enough from yours but also mutually beneficial for both of you that you can do a fun post together. And like I said, I will drop that into the. That post for you guys in the show notes for you to get a little bit inspiration. And also these girls, they found each other in a collaboration post inside of my community because I want people inside my community to work together and be able to collaborate together. So that's something that's actually pinned at the top of my community. So that's something you've been looking for. The community would probably be a great place for you. Now, where am I at with my goals? So, like I said, I set my goals in the beginning of the year, and I always set good, better, and best goals, which I think is really important to do. So you can work really hard towards that best goal, but if you don't hit it, you don't feel defeated. So, as of June 30, I am on track to hit my good revenue goal of over 500,000 in 2025, which, just a reminder, revenue is before taxes, before, you know, payroll that I pay me and my husband, before what I pay my contractors, like, those types of things. So this is money coming into my business. Just little friendly reminder to let you know, which it feels crazy to say that I'm on track to hit my 500,000, half a million in 2025 in revenue, because two months ago, I was not on track to hit that goal. There have been a lot of things happening in our life behind the scenes that have really forced me to slow down a bit this year, which was not the plan. But I'm really proud of myself that even with these circumstances, I'm still able to hit my goals. And maybe eventually I will share everything that's been going on, but I think for now, I just need to keep it private and process it all. It's so wild when you have a personal brand and you have a business that you show up on daily. Um, it's really hard in these moments where, like, there's so much going on behind the scenes, and I want to share, but I also. I need time to process what's going on. And I always tell my students, like, never share from an open wound. Um, you always want to make sure that if you do share something, you have kind of gotten through that moment, gotten through everything that's going on, and then you can share from a place of, okay, I got through it, and here's what's been going on. So maybe eventually I will share. I am not trying to, like, be cheeky here. I'm just. I'm not ready to share about what's been going on. But it kind of wasn't the year that we were planning, so it's been hard. Now, all that to say, a lot can happen in six months. I very well could still hit my best revenue goal for the year. But this is why I think it's so important to set those good, better and best goals so that you don't feel defeated when life happens. And you might not hit your better or best goals. Like reach for the DM stars. Yes, but don't let it defeat you if you don't hit them. Now, before I end this podcast and go spend some time with my daughter outside, it's literally the perfect day and my husband and daughter are about to get back from Costco any minute. I want to talk about what has helped me the most in the past few months to hit these goals, and that is reoccurring revenue from my community as well as companies that I'm an affiliate for. This is something I focused on since day one of my business so that I could eventually work way less and still hit my goals. So if you don't have any type of reoccurring revenue, I want to challenge you today to start digging a little deeper and figure out how you can add something reoccurring to your digital product business so you aren't starting every month off at zero. That that's so hard for my brain. Like, that's how I used to be in, like, obviously when you first start, you're going to start every month at zero. That's totally normal. But adding in these reoccurring revenue things so that you aren't starting as zero just helps so much for mental health as well. And if this is something like if reoccurring revenue and figuring out what to have in your business as reoccurring revenue is something you struggle with, get your butt inside my rich girl community, come to our weekly calls and let's figure it out together. I am always here for you guys to support and share anything and everything that I have learned these past few crazy years as an entrepreneur, I'm an open book. I love, love sharing what's learning for me in the moment. And speaking of sharing what's happening in the moment, I'll be back next week with a full recap of my digital product bootcamp launch. What worked, what I failed miserably at, and how you can take what I learned and pour it into your next digital product launch. Love you, mean it. And I'll see you next week.

[B]

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. If you learned anything from this episode, I would love it if you could share it over on your Instagram stories and tag me Abigail Pugh until next time. Love you, Mean it.