Having a side hustle can be extremely rewardingâŚ
It gives you extra money. You get to meet awesome people, too. Best of all, you get to do your thing without a boss breathing down your neck.
However, it comes with its challenges too!
Is your side hustle something you see yourself doing long-term? And if you decide to do it full-time, is it possible to turn it into a business?
Taking a side hustle to the next level is not easy, especially if you donât have the budget to turn it into a legitimate business. But you can explore various growth hacks that will not cost you an arm and a leg.
Side hustle growth hacks can range from easy (DIY-level) to tricky (need-more-study-and-practice-level), but all of them are worth at least exploring. While some âgrowth hacksâ may be doable or even easy to accomplish, it still requires focus and dedication to truly grow your side hustle.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, what do we mean by âGrowth Hacking?â
According to Optimizely, âgrowth hacking is the use of resource-light and cost-effective digital marketing tactics to help grow and retain an active user base, sell products, and gain exposure. Think âhackingâ in terms of life hacks â those little shortcuts that make your life easier.â
Sound complicated? It can be, but once you grasp the general concept of testing and optimizing your marketing using data, it makes a lot of sense.
Keep reading to discover the latest side hustle growth hacks, trends, and tools.
What you can expect this week
- Trends: Weâve done the research, so you donât have to. Dive deep into the stats that power growth hacking, from big data to automation and artificial intelligence.
- Strategies: Learn a series of tried-and-tested growth hacks. Each tactic comes with real-life examples. Get inspired by success stories and turn your side hustle into a legitimate business.
- Tool of the Week: Know more about our featured referral marketing tool that helps you level up your side hustle growth.
- Trends
- Strategies
- Get More Money With Freelance Work
- Grow Revenue By Increasing Your Rates
- Set Up Your Own Website
- Shift From One-Customer-at-a-Time to Several-at-a-Time
- Leverage Your Existing Network
- Improve an Existing Product or Service
- Follow the 80-20 Rule
- Use the Right Tools
- Donât Be Afraid to Venture Into the Unknown
- Tool of the Week
Trends
To analyze the benefits of growth hacking, we unpacked the available research on Data-Driven Marketing, Agile Marketing, Artificial Intelligence, and Marketing Automation – four key topics in the growth hacking sphere of influence.
Data-Driven Marketing
Data-driven marketing is just as it sounds – the optimization of marketing activity based on real customer information and primary data collected during campaigns.
When lead generation campaigns are fueled by high-quality data, they are proven to produce a number of benefits.
For example, over half (52%) of marketers report experiencing better quality leads. A large portion of those surveyed also found that these campaigns improved customer experience and collected a greater quantity of leads.
All-in-all, over 90% of those surveyed experienced success with data-driven marketing.
Top Uses of Data-Driven Marketing
Paid advertising has grown in usefulness for 37% of marketers reporting it a top area to direct data-driven marketing efforts, up from 29% last year. Email marketing has moved up in importance as well, with 47% of marketers reporting it a most useful area for data-driven marketing, making it the most commonly reported challenge this year, even above customer experience which was the number one in 2022.
Agile Marketing
According to Mckinsey, agile marketing means using data and analytics to continuously source promising opportunities or solutions to problems in real time, deploying tests quickly, evaluating the results, and rapidly iterating.
Itâs essentially growth hacking framed differently.
Over half (54%) of marketing professionals feel that a top benefit of adopting an agile marketing approach is that it allows for more flexibility and adaptability when new challenges arise. Other top benefits are improving efficiency and increasing the speed of getting marketing tasks accomplished (41%), and establishing more effective prioritization of work (39%).
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is a critical cog in the growth hacking process. Without automation, itâs impossible to run the number of tests required to determine a tactic or channelâs efficacy.
Not surprisingly, 88% of marketers report success with automation, and it has a range of applications to help grow your side hustle.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
While marketing automation streamlines and lessens the burden of manual work, adding artificial intelligence (AI) to automation can help to further improve the customer experience (and your growth hacking efforts).
Nearly one-third (32%) of those surveyed reported that they currently use AI in combination with marketing automation for paid advertising and personalizing email messages and offers.
Thatâs pretty compelling data, right? Now letâs take a look at the growth hacking tactics working for side hustlers like you right now.
Strategies
Your side hustle could be a product of pure, instantaneous inspiration. Or you could have come up with the idea from something you routinely do, like a job or a hobby. No matter where the inspiration came from, Iâm sure you want it to grow!
Try exploring various growth hacks to expand your side hustle. Weâve listed some down below.
Get More Money With Freelance Work
You may not know it, but many entrepreneurs started as freelancers. Over time, they earned enough revenue to quit their job and focus on their side hustle, which naturally became more than just a side hustle.
One of the many advantages of freelancing is that you earn money immediately after completing each job. If you’re unsure where to start, check out freelancing sites like iFreelance, PeoplePerHour, Simply Hired, Toptal, and Upwork.
Once you have a decent nest egg, you can turn your gig into a legitimate business. That is how Vikramsinh Parmar went about adopting the freelancer-to-business approach.
Parmar started by completing web development jobs posted on Freelancer.com. Over time, he expanded his repertoire to include digital marketing. After sharpening his skills, he established an SEO consultancy firm, a real estate company, and most recently, LawTally, an online legal directory that connects lawyers to potential clients.
Image Source: LawTally
If possible, continue freelancing even after launching your company to have financial flexibility.
Further Reading:
- 4 Steps to Go from Freelancer to Full-Time Entrepreneur: Read this short step-by-step guide from StartupNation to gain insights on freelancing to running a business.
Grow Revenue By Increasing Your Rates
Before reacting, hear me out.
When you first ventured into side hustling, you may have kept your rates low to get customers. This probably worked for you initially, but once you get better at your side hustle, itâs time to re-evaluate your pricing strategy.
Not everyone will be happy about your decision – you could upset your current clientele and alienate potential customers.
But the fact is: If you strategically raise your rates, you will increase your revenue too.
So how do you go about strategically increasing your rates? A good rule to follow is to raise prices for existing clients by five to ten percent. As for new customers, you can start charging 15 or 20 percent more than usual. You can also consider keeping rates “negotiable” for new customers.
To gain insights regarding pricing strategy, take a page from Netflix. Back in 2020, the streaming giant increased the prices of its standard plan and premium tier in the United States.
But Netflix won its customersâ loyalty by reminding them that it was still charging less every month than its competitors, particularly HBO Max. The company also told its customers that the price hike was to keep the âcycle of investment and value creation going,â a fancy way of saying they are continuously trying to improve the quality of their streaming service and content offerings.
Image Source: Netflix
Tell your customers why they are paying more. Be as specific as possible. Convince them they are getting better products or services, faster delivery, more efficient customer service, or value additions. Make sure to back up your claims, though, or the tactic wonât work.
Further Reading:
- 6 Ways to Raise Prices without Freaking Out Your Customers: Discover six ways to raise rates without rousing your customersâ ire.
Set Up Your Own Website
There is nothing wrong with getting your business idea off the ground through online marketplaces like Etsy, Craigslist, or Amazon. In fact, many entrepreneurs started out on these platforms.
But running a business through popular online marketplaces means paying commissions, adhering to restrictive terms and conditions, and even limiting your branding strategies, hindering your businessâs growth.
Consider creating your own website as well.
Going the DIY route can give you complete freedom and eliminate intermediaries, thus lowering operational costs. Running your own website also allows you access to analytics data – crucial information on buyer demographics, behaviors, and preferences. All great data for running growth hack tests.
That is how Kristin Berry, the owner of Miss Design Berry, went about growing her company. Berry launched her custom art business on Etsy back in 2011. The experience allowed her to fine-tune her selling strategy and cater to the right customers. Once armed with a branding identity, she launched MissDesignBerry.com in 2015.
Image Source: Miss Design Berry
Further Reading:
- How to set up an e-commerce website in 9 steps: Know the steps you need to take to create your own e-commerce site from this comprehensive guide from Fresh Egg.
Shift From One-Customer-at-a-Time to Several-at-a-Time
It is natural to find your groove with side hustling by taking a one-customer-at-a-time approach, which is, by no means, a bad model. It lets you focus on providing a high-quality product and excellent customer service while ensuring you are not spread too thin.
But as your experience grows, it is important to get out of your comfort zone. Over time, you might consider catering to more than one customer at a time. You can shift to the one-to-many business model, which is actually a good strategy for service providers like life coaches or consultants. Webinars are one way to go about it.
Mike Cooch is an example of an entrepreneur who grew his business via webinars. Starting out, his IT management consultancy firm provided services through one-on-one, face-to-face meetings. But as he and his team gained more experience, they shifted to webinars to cater to several clients in one go, even those located remotely – a strategy that enabled his company to gain customers outside the U.S.
Cooch eventually founded LVRG, an information marketing business that offers training programs, lead generation seminars, and webinars.
Image Source: LVRG
Create a landing page for your webinars and include an online registration form so you can provide updates for attendees before and after the event. This is also a great way to start building an email database.
Further Reading:
- Webinar Strategy 101: Everything You Need to Run a Successful Webinar: Uncover best practices for creating webinars that generate leads and convert sales using this comprehensive guide.
Leverage Your Existing Network
While growing a business network can take time, building on an already-existing one, even if it is not necessarily related to your side hustle, is something you should consider.
Take business owner Brandon Pearce, for instance. Before becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Pearce worked as a computer programmer. Apart from programming, he was also passionate about music and offered piano lessons in his free time.
Pearceâs software development expertise and love for music enabled him to found Music Teacherâs Helper, which later evolved into Duet. This software helps music teachers and studio owners manage the business side of teaching.
Music Teacherâs Helper, a software that tracks music studentsâ schedules and payments, was Pearceâs first business venture. He began by telling musician friends about the program. Buoyed by word of mouth and efforts to keep improving the prototype, he eventually launched Duet.
Image Source: Duet
Yes, Brandon Pearce had a killer idea. But it only took off when he told his musician friends about it. It’s not enough to just belong to a network. Be proactive in keeping connections alive.
It may not be the sexiest growth hack in the world, but your network is the best place to grow your side hustle because people already trust you.
Further Reading:
- 8 Tips to Better Leverage Your Network: Get expert tips on leveraging your network to boost your career, side hustle, or full-time business from this 4Degrees blog post.
Improve an Existing Product or Service
Outperforming your competitors is one of the best ways to grow your side hustle. And you can do that by improving your existing products or services.
We all know that selling products and services online is tough. More often than not, other sellers already offer what you plan on selling. But you can always choose to compete with them through lower prices or a better brand identity.
That is exactly what Melanie Lewis did. She started out as just another pet sitter on Rover.com. Lewis quickly learned she needed an edge to stand out. While most sitters took care of clientsâ dogs in their homes, she did the job at her home, where customersâ pets got to socialize with her own dogs.
The result? Lewis became known for providing clientsâ pets a âhome away from home,â enabling her to gain enough loyal customers to launch a full-time pet sitting and boarding business.
Image Source: Rover
As soon as Melanie found her brand’s unique selling point (USP) as a pet sitter that provides a “home away from home” for pets, she focused on it and was able to boost her business. Find your USP, refine it, stick to it, and watch your business grow.
Further Reading:
- How to Handle Competition in Business: 10 Tips to Beat Competition: Get tips on outwitting competitors through product or service improvement.
Follow the 80-20 Rule
In the world of side hustling, the 80-20 Rule, or Pareto Principle, means focusing on the small fraction of your clients who contribute most to your revenue. It has a lot to do with managing your time, specifically prioritizing work for loyal and high-paying customers. It is only logical, right? But it is not always easy to do.
The Pareto Principle is, however, achievable. In fact, former side hustler Eric Rosenberg did just that in 2016 when he quit his day job and became a full-time writer and WordPress website developer.
You can become the next Rosenberg by following his example. A few months into freelancing, he went over his books to determine how much he made from each endeavor – WordPress site development, writing, and website advertising. He discovered that writing accounted for almost 80% of his income while requiring the least amount of effort (20% of his time) – a perfect 80-20 Rule scenario.
Image Source: Personal Profitability
Since then, Rosenberg decided to take up writing full-time, and guess what? His monthly income tripled in just three months.
A priority planner app like Trello, Week Plan, Dewo, or Time Doctor can help you organize your tasks better.
Further Reading:
- How the 80/20 Rule Helped Me 3x My Revenue in Less Than a Year: Read this Rosenberg post to learn how you can use the 80-20 Rule to turn your side hustle into a business.
Use the Right Tools
A huge part of making a side hustle work relies on great time management skills. Sometimes, that means automating certain aspects of the job, like scheduling tasks.
Author, CEO and founder, speaker, and podcast host Emelie Aries did just that, allowing her to launch Bossed Up in 2013 after years of working as a grassroots organizer and digital strategist.
Image Source: Bossed Up
Aries used to rely on readily available tools like Google Calendar and Calendly to keep track of her business meetings, tasks, and appointments. While these proved handy for day-to-day needs, they werenât enough for big-picture planning and long-term goal setting. That gave her the idea to develop LifeTracker Planner – an offshoot of her company.
Apart from knowing the right tools, you should also examine your processes carefully and identify areas you can automate to make your side hustle more efficient.
Further Reading:
- Clever Girl Finance: The Side Hustle Guide: Build a Successful Side Hustle and Increase Your Income: Interested in learning all you need to know about building a business out of your side hustle? This book gives insights into the effective strategies and even the automation tools to use.
Donât Be Afraid to Venture Into the Unknown
If the examples above have taught me one thing, itâs that many people who turn their side hustles into full-blown businesses were not always experts at what they did.
Parmar, Pearce, and Rosenbergâs current careers are not necessarily the same as the day jobs they left. The same is true for Amani Roberts, who turned his passion for DJing into a full-time job after spending years in corporate America.
Today, Roberts is known for The Amani Experience, a company specializing in providing luxury entertainment to users. They cater to corporate events, private parties, and other special occasions worldwide.
Image Source: The Amani Experience
Amani Experience has diversified its offerings since 2012 to include creating original music for ads, videos, and DJing lessons.
Venturing into the unknown is not always easy. But it helps to have a mentor who can guide you and preferably one who is also a side hustler themselves.
Further Reading:
- 5 Steps To Turn Passion Into Profit: Loving what you do is critical if you want what used to be a side hustle to become your full-time job. Learn how to do that here.
Tool of the Week
Genius Referrals is a referral marketing software that lets you automate your referral program. It transforms happy customers into brand advocates who can help you generate new clients.
Image Source: Genius Referrals
With Genius Referrals, you can create referral programs with built-in mechanics to reward exceptional advocates. You can share the rewards, ranging from Shopify discounts, gift cards, or account credits to various vouchers, on various platforms.
You can also automate your referral program, so you can easily track campaigns and related activities (e.g., referrals, social media shares, etc.) and get notifications in real-time.
Itâs like a growth hack for word-of-mouth marketing!
Learn more about Genius Referrals by exploring its blog, where you can find loads of helpful information to grow your business via referral programs. Or sign up today for a free 30-day trial.