contentI run a monthly online publication with almost 100k customers that are music producers. That’s 100k actual customers that pay - not just casual visitors.
I would like to expand the company into becoming a record label but I am not sure the best way to leverage the customer base to make it successful. It is already a highly targeted audience of music fans and producers. I would like to use the company’s reputation and existing customer base as a springboard into this other endeavor - just not sure the relight steps to take. What would you do?
See that even though you have potential clients you are “migrating”. I would recommend that you first provide yourself with the most accurate information. Enjoy your base of 100k and raise information like:
Take advantage of your know-how and raise the current record label market. From this, define if it is really worth it. If the answer is positive, raise the implementation costs of one (financial costs, and time)
I think that would be the first steps.
If you like Seth Godin's way of seeing the world, you could do worse than listen to his take on why and how you should look for more products for your customer, not more customers for your product.
The sense I have is that you'd love to run a record label, and you want to get there in one step from your publication.
But what I'd be asking is, what does my audience trust me enough to buy next? Because you have a channel, you're in the perfect place to run tests, and you have many ways to do that, from creating an MVP that's just an anonymous domain, a web page and an advert and testing response, to asking direct questions in the publication or via your lists. And I'd be looking to explore a number of possible products, not just (and maybe not first) the complex proposition that is a record label, with all the expectations that brings.
So start with ideas, as many as you can. Filter, refine and develop down to a short list, and test those out. With nearly 100,000 paying customers, you can conduct a lot of meaningful tests to subsets of your base before committing.
A word of warning. It's so tempting to make your first measure of an idea, How far does this move me towards my dream? Don't. At this stage you probably want to optimise for low risk, low complexity and meaningful additional income.
Good luck! Let us know what you did, and how it went!
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