How to start a digital marketing side hustle from scratch?

Many people are uncertain about whether they should view their marketing expertise as a side hustle. It might not be a bad idea to use your marketing skills to earn some extra money if you have them.

Digital marketing is experiencing unprecedented growth. The reason for this is that there is a growing demand for marketers as the internet becomes more and more popular. You will discover that digital marketing skills are in high demand if you are looking for a new career and want to earn money online.

It might be worthwhile to think about launching a side business in digital marketing. There are many ways to use digital marketing to start a side hustle, whether you’re brand new to it or have been using it for some time. 

This article will go over seven different types of digital marketing that can work for you as a side hustle. We’ll also provide tips on how to get started! 

What is Digital Marketing?

The process of promoting a good or service using digital tools is known as digital marketing. Digital marketing can reach a consumer using social media, websites, email, apps, and much more. It’s crucial to understand that “online marketing” is not the same as “digital marketing.” The phrase “online marketing” refers to the practice of advertising on websites, blogs, and social media. The phrase “digital marketing” is more precise and refers to all forms of marketing carried out via digital channels.

It combines new media technologies with conventional marketing strategies. Digital marketing has many advantages, some of which include:

• It is incredibly economical. 
• It is a quick and efficient way to communicate with a large audience. 
• a lot simpler to monitor and gauge 
• It is a method of reaching clients in various ways.

Can Digital Marketing Be a Side Hustle?

Yes. Digital marketing can be a side hustle. Since social media and the internet have grown in popularity, more and more people are starting to realize the advantages of digital marketing as a side business. 

If you are thinking about starting a side hustle, it is important to know what digital marketing can offer you. You can work from home and have a flexible work schedule with digital marketing, which also enables you to make money on your own terms. It’s important to take into account digital marketing as a possibility if you’re considering starting a side business.

Digital marketing can be an interesting and lucrative side hustle for people with a good amount of knowledge about the industry. It doesn’t require you to be a technical expert, like with coding or graphic design, but it does require you to have an understanding of the industry as a whole.

9 Digital Marketing Side Hustles to Consider 

You can find clients on the side and charge them monthly fees to manage paid social media campaigns on networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter if you have the ability to create distinctive targeted audiences and a knack for social media marketing.

The majority of small businesses lack the funding necessary to maintain consistent and active social media content. Someone has to post content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. This is where you come in handy. 

You must consider how much control a company gives you over its social media content. It would be extremely advantageous to also provide the actual social media ad creation using their pre-existing branding assets, or to collaborate with a graphic designer and split the profits. 

Added to that, some companies ask you to produce “viral” content. You might even have to deal with responses, direct messages, comments, and PR gaffes that gain widespread attention on these social media sites. 

Many companies hire freelancers and marketing agencies to complete the time-consuming work. For businesses, social media advertising can be incredibly profitable, but they may not always know how to use it efficiently without wasting money on marketing. So, starting to make some extra money this way is a good idea.

Companies all over the world are in need of individuals with marketing campaign expertise who can help them gather email addresses, create email lists from scratch, and then follow up with those lists to generate more paying customers.

If you are skilled at gathering email addresses, designing emails, and sending them, this can be a side hustle that pays well.

Among digital marketing techniques, email marketing is very popular. The best way to maintain contact with customers is through it. Email marketing can be used to advertise products, provide product updates, and foster a relationship of trust between a business and its customers. Additionally, it is more affordable than other digital platforms’ advertising. It will be helpful to add eye-catching writing, graphics, and links to capture the customer’s attention.

Online advertising is a type of marketing campaign that makes use of the Internet as a tool to drive traffic to websites and target and communicate with potential customers. Any marketing message that appears online is referred to as “online advertising.” This means that it might show up in a web browser, a search engine, on social media, on mobile devices, and even in email.

You might see a banner ad for your preferred clothing retailer when you open your web browser to read a news story. When you visit Google to look for a new TV, an advertisement for items that can be paired with the TV also appears. When you sign into a social media platform, you see advertisements for both a brand-new restaurant in your vicinity and a pair of shoes you’ve had your eye on.

Online advertisements are pervasive, showing up in all areas of our Internet, social media, and mobile experiences.

Fortunately, optimizing paid ad campaigns is a lucrative marketing skill you can use to assist other businesses if you need some extra cash. For starters, you can use your AdWords expertise from your day job to support local small businesses by using Google searches to help them appear on the first page of results. It’s as easy as telling a business owner that you can list them first in search results and that they only have to pay when a customer clicks their advertisement.

Online advertising has many benefits, including the quick dissemination of product information without regard to location restrictions. The dynamic industry of interactive advertising, which continually presents new difficulties for online advertisers, is a significant challenge. Here are some of the most popular types.

Display Ads

Pop-Up Ads

Pay-Per-Click Ads

Email Ads

Social Media Ads

Rich Media Ads

Native Ads

Retargeted Ads

According to Google research, 27% of people use voice search on their mobile devices. Consumer behavior on mobile devices is growing exponentially. Smartphones are one of the most immediate problem-solving partners anywhere, anytime, and digital marketing requires immediacy as much as loyalty.

A very old form of digital marketing is text messaging. It still exists today, in some form or another. Nowadays, customers spend more time on their smartphones than on their desktops or laptops. Mobile marketing thus aids in reaching consumers where they spend the majority of their time. 

With this kind of marketing, you can ask for customer feedback, inform customers about changes in product delivery, and provide links to your website. It is one of the quick, simple, and safe digital marketing strategies.

For brands that want to constantly be in contact with their customers, mobile marketing is essential. Everything a marketer does on a desktop computer needs to be converted to a mobile version. You also need to be adept at mobile-specific tasks like texting, using social messaging apps, and in-app advertising.

More than 2 billion people use YouTube each month to search for various things. Many businesses use video marketing due to its potential to bring in new customers and the fact that video marketing strategies are effective at all stages of the sales process.

Videos that are brief and snappy can draw viewers more quickly than texts in the fast-paced world of today. Live or pre-recorded video content is a solid digital marketing strategy, whether it is educational or entertaining. A whopping 80% of consumers use search engines and videos to research products and watch reviews. 55% of consumers do it before making a purchase.

You can combine your marketing knowledge with your video editing expertise to produce videos that can effectively communicate a client’s message to the general public. Compared to text or images, they are more memorable. All three social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn—push video content to increase visibility and engagement and boost search rankings.

It can be difficult to hold viewers’ attention for more than a few seconds. Users scroll through their feeds quickly, and producing high-quality video content requires time, resources, and expertise. However, you don’t initially demand excellence or top-notch quality. To make your videos clear and professional, pay attention to the lighting and audio.

Did you know that podcast listening has increased by 42% worldwide since the pandemic?

The term “audio marketing” is straightforward. It refers to marketing initiatives where the final product uses an audio marketing strategy right away while the competition is still underusing it.

Audio is how people consume media on the go. Some people might be jogging to an upbeat playlist or chilling out with a podcast during a commute; either way, they are fully immersed.

Many businesses are starting to use audio marketing to support their content marketing campaigns in the following ways:

• enabling simultaneous content consumption and other activities, such as driving and working;
• attracting those who lack the time to read;
• helping those who struggle with reading;
• extending user engagement and enhancing SEO 
• bringing the audience and the brand closer together;
• making new leads.

The delivery of advertisements in audio format via online streaming services like podcasts or music streaming apps is known as “audio marketing.” Examples of audio ad channels include:

Spotify

YouTube Music

Sound Cloud

Amazon Music

Apple Music

Deezer

iHeartRadio

Pandora

Podcast Ad Networks

SiriusXM

Sonos Advertising

Stitcher (Podcasts)

TuneIn

Knowing your target audience’s habits is essential for success with audio marketing. Consider the things they might do as they listen to your audio. By doing this, you can turn audio marketing into a significant sales opportunity for your client’s company.

This side hustle is based on your marketing abilities to produce and disseminate typically written content in order to establish your client as an authority in a particular field or elevate them in search engine results.

Use your marketing expertise to your advantage and pitch businesses on the advantages of maintaining a niche blog that is relevant to their audience, whether you use WordPress or a different CMS. Additionally, you’ll be able to provide updates and new features continuously, ideally through a retainer agreement with a specific number of hours each month devoted to blogging maintenance.

The goal of content marketing is to turn the target audience into devoted customers. In essence, the goal is to engage users while imparting information about a product. When a company is looking to gain loyal customers, personalized marketing is more effective at turning leads into sales. 

For content marketers, research and content creation take up the majority of their time. Understanding your audience will help you to better serve them by anticipating their needs and analyzing trends and hot topics. You can build trust between a brand and a user by giving people the information they require about particular goods or services, which is what digital marketing as a whole aims to achieve.

According to payscale.com, a content marketer makes an average of $55,543 per year in the United States.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a fantastic additional source of income. Businesses can benefit from SEO by appearing higher in search results for keywords related to their industry. 

SEO has a wide range of potential revenue-generating applications. For instance, SEO can assist companies with their content marketing or link-building initiatives. Alternatively, you could use SEO to promote your website or blog through natural search results. Whatever path you choose, SEO can be a fantastic way to earn extra cash.

The position of an SEO specialist is becoming more and more valuable as Google’s algorithm picks up on search patterns and crawls websites for relevant content and search terms. Knowing what keywords and links to use, how to structure a website’s content to increase ranking, and other such skills are required. If you can develop this skill, there are many opportunities to work with marketing firms and companies to improve their online presence.

If you can consistently deliver results and generate referrals as a result of your excellent work, SEO freelancers who are successful can quickly transition their side hustle ideas into full-time careers.

Do you enjoy using social media and collaborating with influencers? You can work as an influencer manager as a side gig, creating and implementing creative campaigns and influencer marketing strategies for businesses or marketing agencies using your marketing expertise. Controlling the implementation of influencer marketing initiatives is your primary objective, and you also want to help the business succeed.

Influencers are employed by brands to market their goods and services through paid advertisements, gratis giveaways, and endorsements. Additionally, they can increase a lot of brand loyalty and awareness through paid or unpaid posts. The objective is to persuade them to impart insightful knowledge and generate interest in a specific subject, good, or service. The main advantage for brands is that they can reach more people for less money.

Some of the duties you’ll have to perform include;

• Think of fresh, original ideas for influencer campaign strategies.
• Become knowledgeable about new trends, technologies, and influencers.
• Create and implement creative campaigns and influencer marketing strategies.
• Write, edit, and curate content while coming up with ideas for it.
• Find and establish connections with influential thought leaders and influencers
• coordinating with the marketing team to develop and implement multichannel marketing strategies
• Study the relevant industry experts, rivals, target market, and users.

Despite the fact that there are only a few open positions in the market, there are already more than 4,000 open positions in the US. It means that influencer managers are in high demand right now, but because this field is relatively new, many people are skeptical about their ability to handle the responsibilities placed upon them.

Influencer marketing (IM) can only be successful if a brand finds a reliable influencer and creates an effective marketing strategy. The ability to identify the influencers who connect with a brand’s community the most is a sign of a good influencer manager. Try to collaborate with someone who is well-known and respected in your industry for an influencer relationship that will be successful. 

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are many ways to use your marketing skills in the digital world, and with the right amount of initiative and creativity, you can make pretty much any marketing skill into a side hustle. 

Every business, regardless of sector, needs a digital marketing strategy to succeed in the hypercompetitive, always-on world of today. The need for highly qualified professionals in this field is therefore extremely high. 

There is undoubtedly someone who needs your marketing expertise. Choose a niche you want to concentrate on, become an expert in it, create a small portfolio, and produce excellent work to gain recommendations and extra money.

So what are you waiting for? Get started today and try these side hustle ideas! Happy hustling!