This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's caller is on a mission to find cost-effective marketing strategies for their side hustle, which is convenient because that's what we're all about here. This is Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau. Starting a business or a side hustle, of course, can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. And I always hear questions like, I've got $5,000 to spend on my side hustle.
Is that enough? And I'm always like, it may actually be way too much. There's all kinds of side hustles we have featured that start for $100 or less, or $1,000. Sometimes no money whatsoever. It depends on the kind of project.
Then they go on to be very profitable. Again, it really depends on the specific business. So you want to be mindful of expenses that come with marketing and promotion. And if you're in that situation of looking for cost-effective strategies, how do you get the word out about your new project without spending much money? A caller from Vero Beach is going to set this up for us.
His name is John. His question coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hello, my name's John. I'm calling from Vero Beach, Florida. I've been listening to your podcast for a while and I've learned so much about this world.
I recently started my own side hustle and I'm looking for cost-effective marketing strategies to promote it. Can you share some practical tips and cost-effective marketing strategies that I can use to grow my business without breaking the bank? [Music]
Hey John, thanks so much man. I'm glad you're out there and I do want to help. I'm gonna do my best to help John and other listeners here.
I would just note from the beginning here that the question is a bit generic. Like it's always helpful to know, like if you call in and leave a question, more about the type of side hustle you're starting or your different ideas or some background and such. That way I can just give more specific recommendations. Nevertheless, I thought I could use this question to, well, I guess broadly share some cost-effective marketing strategies since that's the question that could be applied to most businesses. But maybe more broadly just to look at the overall strategies that anyone can use.
And like when you're trying to decide, okay, how do I market my business? What are the broad templates or buckets that I choose from? And so just to take a few of them here, number one, content marketing. So content marketing can be lots of things. You can start a blog, you can make videos, you can make a podcast, whatever it is.
Like you're creating high quality, informative, hopefully engaging content that is going to build your authority and hopefully drive traffic. That's the whole point. Number two is email marketing. So these two can work hand in hand. Ultimately building an email list is still one of the most cost-effective and most effective in general ways to communicate with potential customers.
So think about some kind of free guide or discount or coupon or some kind of special course to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. And then once you got that list, you can send updates, promotions, and so on. If your business is local, meaning that you're trying to generate local traffic or interest, then local SEO is important. So this is the third tip. Optimize your website for local search to increase visibility to potential customers in your area.
Make sure your website's mobile friendly. That matters a lot. It matters for everything actually, but for local in particular, right? 'Cause people are searching with their phones all the time. And then last but not least, no matter what you're doing, don't forget the people you already know.
Everybody always wants to reach new folks, but reach out to your friends, family, your professional network, anybody you know on LinkedIn, anybody you know on any other social network or platform, any other group. Personal recommendations just go so far with marketing these days. They always have, they always will. So don't forget to leverage those existing networks. John, good luck.
Feel free to reach out again when you got some more details about your business and hopefully that can give some more tailored advice. But I do wish you well. In the meantime, good luck. And listeners, if you've got a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Remember to include some details.
We will continue to feature them every week in a new episode every single day, in fact. You can find the podcast wherever you like to listen. It's all free and that's all for today. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
