In our experience, there is no magical formula on whether a product (in our case a template) is going to be a success or a dud. 🔮 Once you create a product, your job isn’t done. While yes – digital products can be some pretty crazy passive income, you will need to revisit your products for updates, repurposing or retirement. We are digging into 5 signs that it might be time to retire your product(s).

So how do you know? 🤔

5 signs it’s time to retire your product

1. Nobody is buying it!

Use hard numbers to take emotional decisions out of your business.

I can’t tell you how many times we have hung on to designs because we were emotionally attached. We *thought* the design was great and in our minds it was selling, but when we looked at the hard numbers, it only had a handful of sales and dwindling every month.

If you’ve had the design for over a year with unusually slow sales, it might be time to retire it.

2. It needs updating

If you’ve been around the Showit block, you know that we are always getting spoiled with new features and tools to make designing easier and more efficient.

Sometimes these are easy to implement, and sometimes they just start piling up and before we know it, there is just too much to update.

If your product has been left behind by technology, it might be time to retire it.

3. The market has changed

Once upon a time I was in Fashion Design school and my least favorite class was “Trend Forcasting.” It’s HARD ya’ll. Especially for us creatives that just “march to our own beat.”

We’ve been designing templates for OVER 10 YEARS and I can’t tell you much design trends have changed over that time.

If you’re product is starting to feel like it belongs on a TJ Maxx clearance rack, it might be time to retire it.

4. User needs have changed

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people expect a whole lot MORE these days.

The features that people needed in a website 5 years ago, have drastically changed with their needs today.

If you have a product that is no longer meeting or exceeding your users expectations, it might be time to retire it.

5. YOUR focus and desires have changed

Maybe this has nothing to do with the product itself, and more to do with the fact that you just “don’t want to” keep the product going.

You could have changed your direction or your strategy, niched down or pivoted another direction.

OR, you could be wanting to create new and better products to replace it….

If you just have a gut feeling, it might be time to retire it.

Retiring old or under-performing products is kind of like purging your email list. Just like making sure you’re serving the RIGHT people, retiring old products helps to ensure that you’re giving those people your absolute BEST.

When you retire old products:

• Your customer is less likely to get analysis paralysis with too many options (some not as great as others)

• You can more easily guide your customer to the better product

• You can focus on making your good products BETTER and marketing those products

• You have room to create NEW products

If  you have decided that it’s time to retire your product, you might be thinking, now what? Well, wonder no longer, let us give you some suggestions 👇

Create your retirement roadmap

Make your retirement just as important as your launch. 

Put in the extra effort to get your community excited and continue giving them that quality experience. 

We want them to feel like they’re snagging up Prada at Target prices.

Price your products so it’s a no-brainer

This is the ONLY time we ever discount our products significantly. As hard as it is to practically “give them away,” keep in mind that this is the LAST CHANCE for this product to make you money. This needs to be a no-brainer for your audience.

We’re talking 50-60% off!! Or more if you feel inclined.

Tell your audience

One of the most important parts of communicating your retirement sale to your audience is that your products aren’t “less,” just because of the sale. We want to continue communicating VALUE.

Where will the traffic for this product go once it’s retired?

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our recent post over on Instagram about URL’s, you should check it out HERE. 

When you’re retiring a product, one of the MOST important things to consider is where you will send that traffic once this product is gone.

Will you be directing them to a replacement? A similar product? 

You’ll want to have this mapped out so that once your product is officially retired, you’re still serving the traffic coming in from your previous product.

How will you use your extra capacity to promote newer, more successful products?

Once your product is retired, how will you re-allocate your time and energy to update, improve and market your existing products?

Chances are you either have less products now or new products that will need to get some initial traction. 

The great part of retiring products that are no longer relevant, is that you can get hyper focused on the products that are.

Fact is, retiring products that you spent your time and energy creating is emotional, and hard. Take your time and don’t jump into anything against your gut, you can always retire them later.

Resources:

• Learn more: northfolk.co
• Instagram: @northfolkco
• Program: Revolving Revenue

Links:

• Join the convo: 5 signs it might be time to retire your product
• Get teary eyed with us while we say goodbye to our babies: watch me

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