How to start a Side Hustle Business for Beginners: Promotion Strategies to reach your Validation Goal

Now that you have identified your target audience and got some initial feedback about your side hustle business idea, what's the best way to start promoting your business to the masses?

How do you identify a promotion strategy for your side hustle business?

This post will help you to:

1. Choose the right promotion strategy to test your validation goal; and
2. Identify online and offline places where you can consider promoting your side hustle business.

I've also put together a free guide to help you stay focused and on track as you go through the process of setting up your own side hustle business.

In the previous posts of this Side Hustle Series, you were able to:

1. Identify a winning idea for your side hustle business
2. Set a validation goal for the idea - whether that’s a certain number of subscribers, viewers or preorders.
3. Choose a business format for that idea - a blog, podcast or an online store; and
4. Create an adaptable action plan with week-by-week steps to help you achieve the goals you’ve set for your side hustle business.
5. Find your target audience and organize a feedback group to test your side hustle business idea.

If you prefer watching the videos that accompany this Side Hustle Series, I’ve to the playlist on my YouTube channel as well!

Choosing the right promotion strategy for your validation

As you're considering which promotion strategy will work for your side hustle business, you need to ask yourself two questions:

1. Where is your potential audience already spending time online?

You should be aware of the locations at this stage because you’ve already gone out and got some feedback from this potential audience, as explained in the last video.

2. Do you have any unique skills, strengths or relationships that you can use to accelerate the progress towards validation?

You will have considered these at the very beginning of this process when you were deciding on a winning side hustle business idea, which was covered in the first video of this side hustle series.

Where to promote your work

Some online and offline places where you can consider promoting your work include:

• Facebook + LinkedIn Groups
• Instagram - followers of influencers, hashtags, and comment sections of popular posts
• Twitter via followers of popular accounts, public lists, and hashtags
• Guest posting on blogs in your niche
• In-person networking events, clubs, or promotions

For a full list of options, don’t forget to download a free copy of the guide that accompanies this post.

Doubling Down on your Promotion Channels

You should have determined which promotion strategy will work the best for your side hustle business when you were laying the groundwork when you were getting feedback on that business.

At this stage, it’s about doubling down on that promotion strategy. All you’re doing now is putting in some consolidated effort to use that strategy to help spread the word about your side hustle business.

How do you do this?

Example

In the previous posts, I’ve used an example of setting up a blog in the context of setting validation goals and getting feedback.

I’ve determined that guest posting on other blogs is a viable promotion strategy for my own blog and have already researched blogs and industry publications in my niche.

Ideally, I’m looking for blogs and publications that are at least 5-10X bigger than my own blog and they accept guest post articles with links back to the authors' blog.

Now I need to find the right point of contact.

Sometimes the blog owners' contact details are on the blog, other times you’ll need to do a little digging.

You can use tools like hunter.io to find email addresses for business contacts. Alternatively, if the blog already has a guest post process, just follow those steps.

Once you know who to get in touch with, it’s time to write your email. Make your ask clear and include some bullet points with your ideas.

I’ve included some email outreach templates as part of the free guide, so make sure you grab a copy via the link in the description.

These templates were inspired by Ryan Robinson, a renowned blogger, and freelancer, and you can adapt them as required for your side hustle business.

You can use a similar process for other promotional channels.

• With Facebook and LinkedIn Groups - reach out to the group admin and ask them if you can promote your side hustle business a group that contains your ideal clients.
• With Instagram, you can reach out to the Influencer and ask them about collaborating or promoting your side hustle business idea in return for a cut of the profits or a fixed upfront fee.
• With Twitter, you can get in touch with individuals and build a relationship before recommending your side hustle business idea to them because it solves a problem or provides a benefit for them
• With in-person events, it’s all about building connections, getting contact details, and following up with people who you feel would benefit from your side hustle business idea.

Next Steps

Now that you have a clearer idea about which promotion strategy will work for your side hustle business ideas, you’re ready to validate that idea.

Keep in mind that validation is an experiment and the action plan that you’ve created will need to be revised and adapted based on the feedback you receive on your side hustle business idea as you go through the validation process.

At this stage, you might be asking yourself, "What happens if I can't validate my side hustle business idea? What are my options?"

That’s something I cover in the next post of this Side Hustle Series, which is all about Achieving Validation and Learning from your outcomes.