Is making digital content the easy bit?

There are many great digital products out there.  However, there are many more potentially better products that have been created that have not made it commercially.   This is the perennial Betamax versus VHS debate – products that are not necessarily better win out because of a variety of factors – and it seems that digital publishing is no different.

I have personally been involved in the development of many digital products.  Some have been commercially successful, but have not been innovative or provided clear advantages to their users over traditional media, whilst others which have had the potential to make significant changes to the way a customer segment operates have struggled.  The objective “quality” of a product does not necessarily correlate with its commercial success.  Why is this?

Firstly the value proposition of the product needs to be clear and simple.  The more a product does, the harder it is to communicate to customers why they should be interested.  This is why many simple, derivative products are successful.  They may be “dull” – but customers get them.  But even a product with a strong value proposition can fail.

Potentially more importantly there needs to be a way of communicating this value proposition to the market.  This is made up of a combination of strong sales and marketing input throughout the product design and development process, and ensuring that your sales channel, or channel partners, are capable of selling the product – they may have excelled in traditional media but may not have the expertise to deal with the new product.  And finally, customer expectation must be considered – is this what they expect from you?  And if not, are you in a position to re-educate them with the risks that this may hold for your brand?

In many ways developing the product and the value proposition are the easy bit – they remain entirely within the control of the publisher.  Once a product is released into the market it becomes the to some extent the property of customers – and they are not in your control.  Sales and marketing is the increasingly sophisticated but still blunt weapon at your disposal to influence them.