It is now 2024, and the digital economy is expanding beyond what we could have imagined. Digital marketing has shown promising growth for both job seekers and businesses. In 2022, the global digital marketing industry was valued at $321 billion. According to Expert Market Research, the future value of the digital marketing industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1%. Due to the increasing population of people consuming and creating online content, experts project the market value of the digital marketing industry to reach $671.86 billion.

The question is, how can you benefit from this booming industry without quitting your current job? Let’s find out.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a modern way of promoting your services or products on the internet with the help of marketing campaigns. It simply connects brands with their potential customers on a scale that wouldn’t have been possible with traditional marketing.

According to a report by winterberry group, in 2023, the advertising spend in the US will be approximately $500 billion. Online marketing spending has grown by 60.3% since last year and reached a value of $307.3 billion. Whereas offline marketing spend for 2023 is estimated to be $201.9 billion.

What is a Side Hustle?

A side hustle is simply the work you do to make some extra money while keeping your main job. Many part-time jobs can also be considered as side hustles. For example, working at a cafe or restaurant and getting paid on an hourly basis.

People now daycare, taking full advantage of the digital era by working on their side hustles. Every individual starts a side hustle for their own personal reasons. It can be to earn some extra while keeping their main job or to quit their job by building a digital marketing side hustle.

According to a survey in 2022, 41% of US adults are working on their side hustles. Most of them say side hustles are now mandatory to afford basic living expenses. The rising inflation in 2022 was a major reason for people to start their personal side hustles.

How much can you make in digital marketing side hustle?

According to a report by Digital Marketing Institute, the range of pay that a freelance digital marketer earns in the USA can range from $80k to $104k. Digital marketing is a wide niche and there are many sub-niches under this category, such as social media managers, affiliate marketing managers, influencer marketers, etc.

According to Glassdoor, the average annual base pay for a:

Social media manager is $47.7k
Affiliate marketing manager is $67.7k
Influencer marketing manager is $69.5k
Email marketing manager is $75.7k

Even though digital marketing is not an easy industry to crack, you can still make a good amount of money by becoming an expert in the services you wish to offer.

If we consider starting a digital marketing company, then there’s no limit to your earnings. You can scale your digital marketing company by hiring good people and through this, you can possibly earn millions too.

How to Start Digital Marketing as a Side Hustle?

Before diving into the vast field of digital marketing, it’s important to have some knowledge about it. Digital marketing consists of various niches, such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, content marketing, video marketing, affiliate marketing, and influencer marketing.

To make your digital marketing side hustle work, you can offer one of these services as a freelancer or start your own digital marketing company to offer multiple services at the same time. You can learn these services on your own by taking good online courses or watching YouTube tutorials. Here’s a list of courses offered by Udemy for learning digital marketing.

It’s wise to keep your main job while building your digital marketing side hustle. This way, you can take your time to figure out how digital marketing works and work without too much pressure. You’ll be able to pay your bills with your main job’s salary and have peace of mind that you won’t end up broke while working on your side hustle.

Here’s a step-by-step process for getting started with digital marketing:

Identify your niche and target audience: Think about what services you want to offer and who your ideal customer would be. Focusing on a specific area can help you stand out and be more effective in your marketing efforts.
Build your skills: There are plenty of resources available online, such as courses and tutorials, that can help you learn new digital marketing skills. Some popular platforms include Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, and HubSpot Academy.
Create an online presence: Establish a website, social media accounts, and business profiles on platforms like LinkedIn and Google My Business. Make sure your online presence reflects your brand and the services you offer.
Network and find clients: Connect with potential clients by joining digital marketing groups, attending webinars, and participating in online forums. Reach out to your network, promote your services through social media, and consider paid advertising.
Deliver results and grow your business: Focus on providing high-quality work and excellent customer service to build a positive reputation. As your business grows, you may want to consider hiring additional team members or outsourcing work to scale your operations. Stay up-to-date on the latest digital marketing trends and technologies to continuously improve your skills and services.

Important tips for getting started with Digital Marketing:

Choosing the right platform that goes with your expertise. So many people and businesses screw up their digital marketing game because they simply never chose the right platform to get started with.
Try to work with long-term clients who are ready to offer you work & payments on a monthly basis.
Spend some time researching the ongoing trends. Digital marketing is a competitive space, and in order to excel at this game, you need to keep up with the current trends in social media.
While focusing on the results, try to build a trustworthy relationship with your client. You’ll thank me later for this.

Conclusion:

In today’s world, businesses can’t survive without digital marketing. To attract customers, it is essential for businesses to hire good marketers. Without digital marketing, a business simply cannot scale to a global level and it’s just a matter of time when digital marketing takes over traditional marketing. There’s no doubt about the amount of growth you can achieve with digital marketing. Opportunities are endless once you get started in this field. It doesn’t matter if you work as an independent freelancer or build a digital marketing company; this industry will not let you down.

Just polish your marketing skills and get ready to offer services on the internet; digital marketing will lead you to glory.