2D Animation Side Hustle - Deciding What to Sell in the Reallusion 2D Marketplace, Your USP, and Keeping Customers Coming Back

In part three of my 2D Animation Side Hustle series on selling in the Reallusion 2D Marketplace I look at deciding what to sell, your unique selling proposition (USP), and look at a key strategy to keep people coming back to your store.

If you missed part one on Starting Your Side Hustle and whether you can earn real money, or part two on Niches and how to find ones in demand, I highly recommend you read them for a more complete picture of selling in the Reallusion 2D Marketplace.

Deciding What To Sell

The Reallusion 2D Marketplace is divided into four broad categories; Actors, Scenes, Motions, and Special FX. Each of these are also divided into further sub categories. Interestingly in the Marketplace Menu it lists how many items are available for each category, making it easy to see which may be under served and could present an opportunity.

Reallusion 2D Marketplace Category Menu shows how many items are available in
each category and could be a clue to what is being under served.

While you could make content for all four categories, most developers tend to sell within either the Actor or Scene categories. Unless you have a specific interest in designing motion files or creating animated special effects, it's easier to start with either characters or scenes to begin with. Go with what you like creating the most.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Search Results for 'Giraffe' in the 2D Marketplace.

If you're in need of a Giraffe from the marketplace this is
your top choices. Each one has a unique art style from
realistic to cartoony, and even anthropomorphic.

If you've never heard of the concept of a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) it's a sales term that identifies what makes your product stand out from everyone else? Unique suggests it's something that only you can offer.

In the marketplace everyone is selling the same set of products e.g. characters, scene files etc. but what you have that no one else has is your unique creativity and art style. That means some part of a customer's decision to buy will come down to whether they like your art style.

Second to that is the niche you've chosen to create content around. The more competition you have in your niche the more a customer's decision will come down to what art style they like. (Though other factors may also come in to play like where your content shows up in search results).

Keep Customers Coming Back, Create a Series of Products

Characters created by Content Developer Azbuss.

Content Developer, Azbuss, creates
characters all in the same art style giving
customers a reason to stay and select all
their characters for a single production.

One of the key strategies to keep customers coming back to your store is to design characters and scenes so they all look like they belong in the same world. Generally that comes down to your art style and keeping that style consistent across all your content in a series.

Which doesn't mean you're going to be stuck creating one style of characters and scenes forever. You can design a whole new style of characters and scenes if you wish.

However you want to give your customers enough of each style to keep the artwork on their productions consistent. Nothing says amateur production more than a clash of art styles, where characters and backgrounds don't look like they belong together.

Despite that, don't think you have to start designing a series right away. Test the waters with one or two characters or scenes in the same art style and see if they sell. If you've found a high demand niche that is underserved then you should see sales. That's a great indicator to go ahead and make more in that style.

If you're not getting sales, you may need to get out into the Cartoon Animator Community and let people know you have these items for sale. You can even ask if people would be interested in seeing more in the series? If you're still not getting sales, it's possible your niche isn't in demand and it may be time to explore other niches.

Don't waste time and effort on a series that isn't selling.

In the next (and final) article on your 2D Animation Side Hustle I'll give an overview of how to upload, price, and package your content. As well I'll look at how to promote your content through SEO (Search Engine Optimization), offering Freebies, and outside the marketplace.

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