Level Up: How To Optimize Your Side Hustle

Do you already have a passion project outside of your 9-to-5, but want to take it to the next level? Digital marketing is the answer.

Digital marketing is critical to getting any type of business on the radar of consumers around the world. Here’s how you can leverage some key digital marketing skills to grow your side gig:

Finding Your Audience

You already have a great idea, but now you need to reach the right people. Creating a few different buyer personas allows you to visualize your ideal customers, in order to create a customized strategy for each segment. Understanding the behaviour of your target customers will help shape your brand, content strategy, which platforms you should be focusing your marketing efforts on, and drive your business on the whole.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO can help you get your website to the top of the search results page and being number one on Google can mean plenty of traffic to your side hustle’s website! Knowing good SEO practices can also help you create a faster, smoother, and more user-friendly website for your business and customers. SEO is a relatively inexpensive way to build a strong web presence and gain qualified customers. Use SEO tactics, such as A/B testing your landing pages, backlinking, and creating high-quality content to beat out your competitors and get your site in front of more eyeballs.

Content Strategy and Planning

Having high-quality content on your website goes hand in hand with SEO and is another cost-effective way of growing web traffic and gaining leads. Position yourself as an expert in your field by writing content catered to your audience’s needs, answering questions that they’re likely to search, and explaining how your side hustle solves all their problems! Social media is also a powerful tool to engage with your potential customers and build a community. Using a social media scheduling tool, such as Hootsuite, and building a content calendar will allow you to maintain your content with ease.

Paid Advertising

If you have some extra marketing dollars, try your hand at Google Ads and Social Media Advertising to drive brand awareness or purchases for your side business. Even with a small budget, paid advertising can offer great returns and attract new customers.

Measuring Success

If you’re running a lean business, you need to make every dollar count. Learning how to implement Google Analytics or other web analytics platforms and understanding key metrics to measure your side business’ success are crucial in planning where you want to focus your efforts, whether it be your website, social media presence, email marketing, or paid advertising.

Want to dive deeper into these concepts and apply them to your side business? RED Academy, a design & technology school with campuses in Vancouver and Toronto, focuses on developing practical skills necessary to create comprehensive digital marketing strategies, leveraging the most up-to-date tools, tactics, and techniques used in the industry.

Former student Abby Wiseman used the skills she learned in the course to start Small Batch Vancouver, an online magazine focusing local food in BC. She says, “The course allowed me to experiment and gave me a framework around how digital marketing works. I don’t know if I would have started my side business if I didn’t have this background or I would have started it, but just treated it as a blog.”

Learn more about RED Academy’s part-time Digital Marketing Foundation Course and start optimizing your side gig today!