More people than ever are trying to earn some extra cash on the side of their full-time job. This is no surprise considering wage increases have been on hold as well as businesses trying to get back on their feet. More people are now struggling to pay their bills due to increases in almost every sector. The problem with this is many believe they can set up a side hustle, and then just wait for the money to go into their bank. Well, how will you make any money if nobody knows about you?
Marketing is the one thing that you need to get your business out there along with some sleek branding. It’s surprising how many people don’t know how to market their side hustle, especially if they have made the business plan. In this article, we will go through some simple tips on how to market your side hustle.
Create a website
The first thing you need to do before anything else is to create a website. Whether you are providing a service or selling a product, your customers will want to go on your website before they buy from you. Your website is like your shop front so it needs to be informative and enticing. There are many platforms out there where you can create a website easily. WordPress is the best for lead generation whereas Shopify is best for eCommerce websites. Whilst designing a website, remember it needs to be user-friendly and optimised for Google. SEO is not as difficult as you may first think. Nonetheless, having a professional look at this will save a lot of time.
Organic social media
Next, you will need to create some hype about your new business, especially if it is for something new and exciting. The more hype you create before your launch, the better response you will have from your audiences.
For this to work well, ensure your branding is consistent on all social media profiles. It is important to determine what types of social media profiles you need as not all will fit your business. If you were a clothing brand such as Gods Gift, then Facebook, Instagram and possibly Snapchat will work great.
Being visible on social media is not something that will get you sales. It will build your brand awareness which is extremely important when starting a new business. Once you have built a reputable following, this is when you can launch your side hustle. Social media is also great for reaching audiences you never thought be interested in by creating paid ads. It can be pricey, so it is best to wait until you have a following.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of those strategies that are often overlooked. Many believe email marketing is a waste of time as it doesn’t bring many sales through the door. The thing is when creating a side hustle, you need to be patient with your growth. Email marketing is not going to get you lots of business, but it will remind people that you are still there. It is also a great way to keep customers coming back with new updates and discount offers for people who have signed up for the emails. There are many email marketing strategies, but take one and learn whilst you go.
Word of Mouth (Referrals)
It is one of the easiest ways to get your business out there. If you do great, there is no reason why your customers won’t tell people about your business. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to grow a business as people trust what their friends and family say rather than what they see in articles. To promote your business further, offer an incentive or referral scheme that encourages people to refer people.
Give Something Away For Free
When a new business is starting up, it can be difficult for people to trust you. Can be pretty hesitant in giving you their business. If you offer something for free, people will be less hesitant in trying you. It completely depends on the type of business you are offering. For example, if you worked in marketing, you could offer a free consultation. If you sold clothing, offer a free style guide.
By offering something for free, you are showing what you are made of, what your style of work is and the quality.
There are many methods for marketing your side hustle, but if you don’t have a budget to work with, then these solutions could be the answer.
Search Engine Optimisation
We recently touched on this before in the website section. SEO is something that many fashion brands are getting on board with but don’t understand the method. SEO is a digital marketing method to help reach new audiences. For your company to grow, you need to ensure you are reaching new audiences as well as retaining your existing customers.
Search engine optimisation is there to reach new customers and increase traffic to your website. Optimising your website with relevant keywords will reach a qualified audience and get the relevant traffic. When starting your fashion brand, you need to optimise for keywords that don’t get a lot of searches. The reason for this is that the higher the searches, the more competitive the keyword will be. At the early stages of your SEO campaign, your website won’t have authority. Building authority through guest posts and directories is how Google starts to trust your website. However, building authority takes time and cannot be rushed. That is why you must target lower keywords.
Keyword research is essential for your main category pages, including your homepage. It is a common mistake for digital marketers to optimise a website with a highly competitive keyword, therefore, will not receive any qualified traffic.
One thing that must be mentioned with SEO is that it is a slow process. It is a digital marketing method that cannot guarantee results in the early stages but is something you will need in the long run as it will attract more traffic to your website. If SEO is accomplished correctly, it will be able to generate revenue for your business as well.
Summary
Many fashion brands completely neglect digital marketing. Those fashion brands will usually depend on social media which is ok however, this isn’t a bad thing. Additionally, social media needs to be done correctly to get traffic and generate revenue.
There are two types of social media marketing that a fashion company needs to utilise which are called organic and paid social. Organic social media is managing an account for free, the standard tools and features that Facebook, Instagram etc. These are what you will use on your social media.
There are several different marketing methods and it is down to you to decide the best strategy. Additionally, it can vary with the price ranges of your brand. A cheaper brand may benefit more from SEO whereas a more expensive brand will need to focus on influencers and brand awareness.