Entering the New Year, there are tons of questions in the minds of most of us. If you are a small business owner or doing a side hustle venture from the comfort of your home, one of the questions you will probably have in your mind is what are some effective marketing ideas you can leverage in the New Year?
Of course, marketing is very important to the growth and success of any business, regardless of its size and form. So if you are concerned about it, you are definitely worried about the right stuff. You will need a smart, modern marketing strategy that will help you convert prospects while also building loyal returning customers.
We are here to help you. In this post, we will be taking a look at 6 marketing ideas you can consider this year for your small business.
6 Effective Marketing Ideas for your side hustle
#1: Leverage free Google marketing tools for your side hustle venture
Ranking high on search engines like Google has proved to be an effective way to market any business. But getting one’s business high up there on the search result is not always as easy. Lots of businesses are also fighting for that space. However, to make it easier for you, Google has provided great tools to help small business owners.
For instance, you can easily see and interact with your website visitors using the Google Analytics tool. The tool can also help you see where such visitors are coming from. In other words, the tool can help you come up with great content directed to such a group of people.
Also check some other free Google tools like Google Trends and Google My Business to see how you can take advantage of them. They can help increase the visibility of your businessand also show you what conversation people are having. That way, you can join such conversations while drawing attention to your business.
#2: Determine your brand’s identity
This is another important thing to take care of when looking to market your side hustle. You need to make sure you have a consistent brand identity that will help you promote your side hustle or small business. Building a good brand helps to attract loyal customers.
Talking about your brand, it is what other people say about you when you are not around. That means it is what comes to the mind of your customers whenever your company name is mentioned. Your brand is a combination of your business name, symbol, aesthetic, and the design of all your asset.
If you don’t have a logo for your side hustle or small business already, you will need to create one. Any 21st-century business looking to grow should have a brand presence that speaks. That, of course, starts from how your brand looks like.
If you don’t have huge cash to slash around for a logo, you can create your brand using the free logo maker online website. It is a free to try platform that allows you to make a professional logo without stress. Even with zero knowledge of graphic designs. You will only have to choose the template you like from the 1,000’s professional templates. Customize it instantly with your name, fonts and colors. And you are done, it is ready to download and you can use it for all your advertising needs.
#3: Take advantage of social media marketing
Social media marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective forms of marketing today. That makes it a perfect option for small business owners. However, only a few of them are taking advantage of this.
If you are ready to invest a small time and effort into it, it is guaranteed to bring great results for your business. It is something you can do right from the comfort of your home. And as your business grows, you can then start making use of different social media marketing tools to help automate the process.
Here are some tips to get you started with social media marketing:
- Identify the platforms where your target customers are active
- Create a brand and have a voice for it
- Regularly post unique content on the platform
- Use quality and attractive visuals to gain more attention
- Use relevant hashtags to reach more people
- Add your website link to your bios to gain traffic to your website
These are just some tips to get you started. As you progress and master these, you will be able to dig deeper and try more advanced social media marketing strategies.
#4: Contribute an article to an industry website or magazine
That you spend a huge amount of money advertising your company in mainstream media doesn’t guarantee you will get any results from it. So as a side hustle venturejust gaining its feet, or If you starting a home based business, you don’t have to spend lots of money trying to get your name out there. There are cheap alternatives you can take.
Yes, contributing a relevant, informative article to an industry-leading magazine is a cheap and effective method to market your business. The truth is that virtually all websites and magazines accept guest contributions and most of them will even give you the chance to advertise your business in the author’s bio.
Why not take advantage of that and let more people know about your business without spending a fortune on ads?
#5: Launch an affiliate program
With the way affiliate program is increasing in our world today, it will only make sense for small business owners to join the bandwagon. Let other people do your marketing for you while you only pay them a fraction of the sales made.
This will take the burden of having to look for people to buy your products or services. Affiliate marketers will be willing to promote and sell your products for a percentage of the sales made. Without any doubt, an affiliate program is a win-win scenario for both the affiliate marketers and your company.
#6: Establish your expertise in your niche
Looking for a marketing idea that will help set your business out from others in your niche? What you need to do is to establish yourself as an expert in the niche. Remember that everyone else in the niche is marketing their brand. Therefore, you need to find a way to put your company at the forefront. Focusing on establishing yourself as an expert in the industry is one easy way to make that happen.
Consider some of these tips to gain expertise in your niche:
- Start a blog and regularly publish informative content on it
- Engage in discussions on social media that talks about relevant topics within your niche
- Sign up for the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) program and give quality answers to questions asked by journalists.
- Join communities like Quora and respond to some questions there
- Host webinars and podcasts on useful and relevant topics
When you start doing this, you will begin to get noticed and increase in reputation. That, of course, will also be good news for your side hustle venture or small business.
