How to Fix Your (Failing) Side Hustle Marketing
The longer I work in Marketing, the more I am convinced that having a killer product is one of the most vital (and, surprisingly, easily overlooked) steps of building a side hustle. All of your Marketing and Salesmanship depends on your product or service and what you do that none of your competitors do.
(If the payoff of my headline here of “offer a really great product” seemed too simple, you’re right: it is simple. Simple, but not easy. Don’t conflate the two.)
🦄 Can You Identify Your Unique Selling Feature?
That last part is pretty important: you need to be able to identify and articulate what you do differently, better than, or in addition to that which your competitors do. If you cannot articulate a strong, compelling answer to this question that even a random person could understand your value proposition, I fear your business is doomed to any natural, long term success.
This is not all to say that you need to absolutely have every component of your product figured out before you begin. Part of the reason you work with free or ultra-low budget clients in the beginning is because you are figuring out your business just as much as anyone else is. That’s okay.
Sometimes, what you do differently won’t really come to you until you’ve actually done your thing a few times. That’s when you might start to receive organic feedback from your customers about why they really chose you (and not necessarily why you wanted to be chosen).
☠️ What Makes a Killer Product?
Everyone’s answer is going to vary, but here’s mine:
A killer product is one that combines components of, approaches unconventionally, and/or objectively takes to the next level what an average customer would expect to receive from your product to such a degree that it far exceeds their expectations, delighting them, and causing them to believe they have received an ROI of 3x their investment.
Admittedly a bit of a wordy definition but there are a number of important aspects that I think we should remember when building out our side hustles:
Killer product - The goal isn’t just “good product” or “great product” but one that is absolutely, unbelievably amazing. We might not succeed at building a killer product for a number of years, but that is still the goal.
Combines components of, approaches unconventionally, and/or objectively takes to the next level - We should be able to really clearly articulate exactly how we’re combining services, approaching them in a completely unique way, or improving upon them to such an extent that an objective third party would classify it as such.
That it far exceeds their expectations - If your service, after all of that, still only sort of just meets the requirements of what price you charge for your service, you’re missing the mark and either should lower your price or improve your service. Doing either of those things and retaining your profitability is tough—but we didn’t choose a side hustle because it was easy.
Delighting them - The goal is to exceed those expectations so much that the customer is delighted, meaning they are absolutely over the moon with the quality of product they received from you. This is the key to having your customers spread the word about your awesome business without your intervention.
An ROI of 3x their investment - The differentiating factor between a killer product and a really great one. Getting someone to believe they would have willingly paid 3x the amount for the same product and still have been relatively satisfied (maybe not delighted, but that’s fine) is incredibly hard to do. But that’s why it is a component of a killer product.
If you can nail all the aspects of this definition of a killer product, you are well on your way to generating six figures of income with your side hustle.
🏴☠️ What is the Measure of a Killer Product?
Want a quick litmus test to know if you’ve successfully created a killer product? (Other than just making tons of money, obviously.)
If, after your sales pitch, your customer can accurately repeat back to you what the main benefits are to choosing you over the competition, you’ve passed the test.
It benefits you, in more ways than one, to make your pitch and killer product as simple and straight forward to understand as possible (yes—don’t believe that the long definition of a killer product means your service needs to be overcomplicated). You have to remember that, in a really perfect world, your customer is going to pitch your services to their colleagues and inadvertently drum up more business for you. If they struggle to articulate what you do differently and why, you might still have a killer product but your ability to communicate it is better.
🐠 Selling a Fish a Glass of Water
Now, contrary to the first sentence of this article, I don’t believe having a killer product is the only thing you need to succeed in business. All the incredible product in the world doesn’t matter if your audience doesn’t know it exists (or you’re selling it to the wrong audience, like trying to sell a fish a glass of water).
That’s why Marketing & Sales exist: to get the word out about what you offer. The idea here is just that, when you finally get someone’s attention, you should have something very compelling to offer them if you hope to actually be successful.
📝 In Summary
Your marketing will become considerably easier if your product is killer. Take the heavy load off that side of your business by first making sure that your customers are going to be absolutely blown away when they receive your service. Growth (and success) will become inevitable.
