17 Marketing Strategies from Side Hustle Show Listeners: What’s Effective Today? - Side Hustle Nation

      Side Hustle Nation focuses on enhancing your personal profitability. To achieve this, we frequently collaborate with companies that share our goals. If you register or make a purchase through our partners’ links, we may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. Learn more. Marketing can sometimes feel like shouting into the void, particularly when you’re just beginning your side hustle.

      To find out what’s genuinely effective across various industries today, I gathered insights from listeners of the Side Hustle Show. A recurring theme over the last few years has been the strategy of leveraging social media content to engage with algorithms on your chosen platform, ultimately encouraging viewers or readers to follow you or subscribe to your email list. I requested listeners to share a marketing tactic that is currently yielding good results for them, and I received numerous valuable insights.

      Here are 17 of the top marketing suggestions that were provided, many of which you can implement in your business today.

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      1. **Threads → Email List**

      Deacon Hayes from Well Kept Wallet found an overlooked opportunity on Threads about a year ago. After analyzing what causes content to become viral on the platform, Deacon noticed that his posts were receiving far more views than he had followers. Despite having only 1,500 followers, his posts were reaching over 100,000 views, sometimes millions. To make the most of this traffic, Deacon developed a call-to-action strategy but soon became overwhelmed by replies. Unable to find an app like ManyChat for Threads, he decided to create his own called RadReply. Now, Deacon sets up automated responses asking people to comment a specific word, which directs them to a landing page to join his email list and receive their desired lead magnet. “This has been a game changer for me because, with my organic traffic significantly down, I now have a new way to grow my audience,” Deacon shared. The additional takeaway? If you're facing a challenge in your business, you might be able to create a solution using AI.

      2. **Subsidized Newsletter Growth**

      Nate McAllister shared an intriguing email growth strategy, where he has found a clever way to lower his marketing expenses or effectively subsidize his subscriber acquisition costs. Nate employs various tactics to expand his audience at Entreresource.com. SEO has been his primary focus for the past 12 years, but the SEO landscape has changed dramatically. AI responses, AI-generated content, and changes to Google’s algorithms have made it harder to predict outcomes. As a result, Nate has heavily invested in paid ads to grow his email list, as that’s the one asset he truly owns. One unique method he uses for email list growth, which few are discussing, is SparkLoop. He utilizes it in two ways: incentivizing others to promote his newsletter by compensating them for new email subscribers and promoting other newsletters for payment. When someone subscribes through one of his forms, they receive a pop-up suggesting about five other newsletters. If they subscribe and engage by opening emails, Nate earns money. “If you can get below 50 cents, you’re essentially growing your list for free and can scale it as much as you wish,” Nate explained. Be sure to subscribe to his newsletter for free to support him! You can even set up a free SparkLoop plan to implement this co-registration strategy.

      3. **Newsletter Discovery Networks**

      Lewis Waldron from Anywhere Income introduced a lesser-known newsletter growth strategy involving discovery networks like Refind and Meco. These platforms can be budget-friendly, with engaged subscribers costing approximately 50 cents to a dollar each. “You do need to establish list cleaning automations,” Lewis noted, “but I believe that no matter what kind of business you operate, a newsletter is an incredibly powerful way to cultivate and engage your audience.” It appears newsletter discovery networks remain underutilized while everyone focuses heavily on Meta ads or social media, which can be effective but often takes much longer.

      4. **Quiz Funnels to Affiliate Offers**

      Robert Brandl from EmailToolTester utilizes quizzes to help individuals find the best product on his site. “We review email marketing services. We’re an affiliate site that allows people to answer a few questions, leading them to their ideal email marketing service,” Robert explained. This works exceptionally well for affiliate websites or e-commerce stores offering multiple options, helping consumers select the best choice. Robert uses quiz platforms like InvolveMe and Interact, both of which integrate seamlessly with email services for automated follow-up communication. When executed correctly