How to Expand into New Markets
Are you thinking of selling new types of Blender-related products—products that you, personally, have not sold before? That's exciting! Before you dive into this new endeavor, though, first it's important to survey the customers and competing products, and determine where your products will fit in.
Who are the customers?
Who is the ideal customer for your new products? You have an existing customer base, but are these new products something that they will be interested in, or will you need to start reaching out to a different subsection of the Blender community?
Look at who is commenting and reviewing products that are similar to yours to get a sense of what those customers do (developers, animators, texture artists, sculptors, etc.) and how products like yours fit into their workflow. What words do they use to describe themselves and what types of Blender-related work do they share online? You can take it a step further to see what sorts of hashtags they use on social media to learn what communities or activities they identify with and are interested in.
What similar products are for sale?
What is currently on the market that is similar to what you plan to sell? How are these products priced and what do they offer? How does their documentation look?
You can use your research on other similar products to identify what the presentation standard is for products like yours. If your intended pricing and presentation strike you as competitive or ahead of the curve, you're in good shape. If, however, your ideas about pricing and presentation are way off in comparison to existing products, it may be time to reevaluate how you want to offer your new products to the public.
Why do customers buy existing products?
In order to highlight the most important parts of your new products, you will want to learn what draws customers to products like yours and what features or aspects of the existing products they like. Remember: what you think is the most important part of your product may not be what customers are focusing on when they are looking for products like yours.
How to figure out what customers like about products like yours? Comb the reviews. Do they often mention ease-of-use, time savings, or exceptional ability to perform specific tasks? Make a list of the things that come up most often in product praise and complaints, and highlight those aspects of your new product (but only if they're true!).
How will you distinguish your products from others?
Now that you've made sure that your product fits in well with other products, it's time to make clear how your product stands out from other products on Blender Market. That is, why, when given a number of options, should a customer choose your product over something similar? What is special or unique about it? What makes it better, stronger, or faster than others on the market?