How to Market Your Side Hustle
You’ve settled on a side hustle and poured everything you have into setting it up. You’re excited, you’re pumped and you’re ready to beat the business world like it took your lunch money. And then the sales just don’t come in as you expected.
Sound familiar?
Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you suck and it doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Nine times out of 10, it means you’re just not marketing your side hustle well enough.
We’re here to help with that. Here are the key things a lot of new side hustlers fail to do.
Use Social Media
You’re running a side hustle; not a multi-billion dollar corporation. You likely don’t have the funds to put billboards and TV commercials out there. You need cheap, reliable and highly-effective marketing avenues.
Social media fits the bill perfectly.
The vast majority of the population is on at least one of the main, easily integrated, social media platforms. You can make the most out of the opportunity without needing to manually post to, or manage, each and every one.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and a few others are the core platforms to work with right now. We recommend getting an account with each platform for which you feel you can generate adequate, theme-matching content.
Provide Real Value
You can’t just make your social media accounts and occasionally say “Hey guys, I’m selling this now!”
You need to provide content that offers real value to your audience. Be informational and entertain your audience. Give them a reason to want to see your posts and always be appropriate! Doing this consistently is one of the best ways to see natural growth on any platform.
Take Advantage of Marketing Tools
Have you ever seen the little "Boost" button next to a post on your personal Facebook page? Well, it's not as useful for a personal account where you just post memes for your friends, but it's invaluable for businesses.
Once you have some high-quality posts generated, choose the best ones and boost them. It costs a small fee, and each platform handles the “boosting” process a bit differently, but this essentially gives you the marketing power of a big brand without the high costs.
Try to balance your boosts between sales-oriented and information-oriented materials to ensure you build your following as you market the service or product itself.
You can also use payment tools such as AtomPay to spread the word about your side hustle and show you have a smooth transaction experience available.
Network
Never underestimate the value of a good friend. Even if your side hustle is a solo endeavor, having a solid network of other professionals can drum up business.
Think about it. If you’re a graphic designer who knows a few writers and you put in the effort to nurture those relationships, those same writers know where to send their clients for more visual work.
But remember it goes both ways. If you’re blessed enough to have a profitable relationship, be sure to return the favor whenever possible.
Engage Your Audience
Finally, nothing helps market a side hustle like an enthusiastic audience. If you can be more than just someone peddling products or services, you can get your fanbase to do a lot of the work for you.
For example, let's take a look at YouTubers. At some point during their videos, they always stop to ask you to like and share the content. If you like that YouTuber and support what they're doing, you probably will take the brief second to honor their request and support their content.
This isn’t as effective when you have a handful of followers, but as you build yourself up, you can have thousands of followers sharing your content. This will organically promote your side hustle out there without requiring you to take many (or any) additional steps.