Creating Compelling Marketing Content for Your Side Hustle

The gig economy is an expanding industry that was fueled by the pandemic. People turn to it to improve their income and cushion savings. However, many spend less time on content marketing because they use their limited time off work to focus on operations and product development.

Building a brand through content is the basis of any business, even for side hustles. Marketers are accountable for polishing the uniqueness of a brand through content storytelling to create a memorable identity.

The Emotional Power of Storytelling

Storytelling plays a significant part in conveying a message. However, this goes beyond presenting a fact or promoting a product. It gives depth and relevance to the product and allows the audience to relate to the business.

For example, selling acne cream because it heals the skin may receive little attention because the market is saturated with similar items. Now, imagine the cream in question is a product of love by a mother with a teenage daughter with severe acne. The mom, despite her busy schedule and full-time job, puts her time and money into researching something that works for her child and decides to help others, too.

Telling that particular story gives the product a purpose, helping it stand out and attract the audience. In this example, it also provides a testimonial.

The stories do not have to be made up or personal. Instead, they could be anecdotes related to the products and can be humorous, too. However, more than simply telling a story is required to ensure sales. Marketing content must balance emotions and efficacy to build a long-lasting connection with the audience.

Nike is a famous example of a brand that constantly leverages the power of storytelling. Rather than simply promoting footwear, the brand uses its tagline “Just Do It” to empower its audience to never give up by showcasing many motivational stories.

Why Is It Essential to Understand the Target Audience?

The most important but underrated question that every side business owner should ask is who they are selling to. Marketing experts are responsible for ensuring side hustlers clearly know their target audience.

The target audience guides every business decision, especially for side hustlers, who usually start small and have less room for trial and error. It allows tailored content — personalized marketing strategies become seamless and more successful when a business captures the right group. In 2022, 95% of senior marketers said their personalization strategies were very effective.

Personalized strategies could make or break a company’s marketing efforts. Using Nike's example, the company changed its personalization from sports-based to men's, women's and kids' wear. Unfortunately, this backfired because the brand’s product understanding went from premium professional sportswear to everyday use, compromising its exclusivity among its audience.

Understanding the target audience means knowing their needs, wants, pain points, triggers and fears and using these to craft the content. This helps build customer trust and loyalty and improves the content’s adaptability to the ever-changing consumer landscape. It also allows side hustles to vary their operation methods to enhance their sales because knowing the audience gives a better picture of ideal business progression.

Segmentation is essential, but so is inclusivity. Business owners must understand the need to cater to specific audience segments and ensure they reach everyone. Marketers must guarantee comprehensive and relevant content to all parts of the target audience.

Leveraging on Different Content Types

Content marketing isn’t limited to one medium — in today’s world, there are website landing pages, blog posts, social media posts, white papers, emails and podcasts. Even memes have become effective content these days.

For a side hustler, having active footprints in multiple mediums is crucial to enabling brand awareness. No matter the niche, every business has competitors. Building a presence on various platforms helps a brand stand out and allows customers to learn more about the product and the values it stands for.

Leveraging various content also positions a business as credible and a thought leader in the niche. This information could be presented as short, compelling videos or comprehensive blog posts. It must cater to what the audience would like to know, not only about the product but also the problems it is trying to solve.

Different types of content make lead generation and nurturing easier because reaching the target audience with multiple platforms takes longer. About 37% of marketers say email newsletters are among the best distribution channels, although other methods, such as blog posts and social media posts, are also effective. In addition, different platforms capture different segments of the audience, further contributing to more customized content creation.

How Can Marketers Curate Effective Content Specifically for Side Businesses?

Content creation is a complex task, especially for a side business which may have time constraints. The key is consistency. Here are some strategies to curate compelling content for side gigs:

Research the Target Audience

This is vital because it influences the business’s growth. Use multiple sources to collect data, such as surveys, tools and interactive features of social media accounts. Identify people’s interests and purchase intent and create viable personas for a more targeted content creation process.

It is also important to weed out those who aren’t the target audience by being specific. For example, the acne cream’s target audience may be women, but a more specific approach might be those aged 12 to 35, which removes older people from the quotient.

In addition, assess the competitors to see their marketing approaches, intent and audience persona. Competitor analysis can also show their weaknesses and strengths, which can further help a side hustle to identify opportunities and untapped target audiences in the market.

Create Effective Content

Though the term “effective content” may be general, it has nuances. It must be informational but not always promotional. Inject it with feelings, such as emotional, funny or thought-provoking.

Remember, good content promotes itself. Prioritizing every part of SEO — title tags, meta descriptions, keywords and URL optimization — plays a crucial part in increasing a post’s visibility and reach.

Social media has many features to help businesses, including variety in content, like polls, Q&A and short videos. In 2012, people’s attention span on screens was 75 seconds, dwindling to an average of 47 seconds in the last five or six years. This gives marketers the upper hand to utilize short video features like stories on Facebook, Reels on Instagram and Shorts on YouTube to create attentive content.

Employ Technology

Efficiency is key to curating captivating content for side hustles. Professionals use 17% of their time analyzing and converting data into research. Tools can help automate these tasks and save time.

Take advantage of available tools to optimize content. For example, marketing analytics tools give insights into target audience behavior and market trends. Social listening tools generate input on the conversations surrounding a brand and how they impact purchase patterns. Some products also use AI and large language models to provide predictive analytics for hyper-personalization in content.

A side business may not be able to afford many tools, so look for versatility. In addition, there are free products like Google Analytics for campaign analysis, Facebook Manager for posts and ads scheduling, Canva for content editing and WordPress for website hosting.

However, subscribing to these tools is impractical if they’re not used wisely. A marketer should know which key performance indicators to focus on for every type of content. Choosing the right metrics allows efficient data conversion into actionable insights.

Choose Quality Over Quantity

Many think a fast way to gain traction is to post as frequently as possible. This is incorrect — brands that post a few times a day may not guarantee engagement if the content is not good. Also, for side businesses, posting frequently may not be an option due to the lack of time.

Quality is paramount in these instances. Effective content must be authentic and focus on addressing a problem rather than promoting the features of a product — this helps people see the item as a solution. Note the various audience sets and curate specific content when using different platforms.

Also, focus on customers' buyer journeys for better content creation. For example, use social media and streaming platforms to create awareness and emails, websites or blogs to push leads to purchase.

Compelling Content Is the Cornerstone of a Successful Side Hustle

A side gig grows when content captivates the audience and converts them into customers. Marketers play a vital role in enabling conversion by ensuring information reaches the right market across various platforms, enabling success.