Website Marketing While You Cook: 3 Recipes for Success

We decided to combine the idea of cooking and marketing together because it’s fun and frankly two surprisingly similar concepts. Wouldn’t you want potential customers craving your next blog post like it was the best bite of digital food they’d ever had?

Additionally, my resolution for 2018 is to simplify and see the bigger picture. I hope through this brief article that I can pass a bit of that onto you to complement your own goals.  Oftentimes between my roles as a marketer and a mother it can be difficult to find time to do the day-to-day tasks. One thing I always do is cook, and I love doing it. So it got me thinking…what if I can finish up some quick tasks while I wait for dinner?

If you’re a foodie even in the slightest, please enjoy a mini-collection of our favorite recipes along with quick marketing tips and solutions to whip up while you’re waiting for that delicious food to cook. Mangia!

1. Sweet Rewards

First is dessert. Obviously. This Banana bread from The Baker Chick is too good to be true, and it happens to be Heylen’s (Smack Happy) favorite recipe.

Heylen love’s this recipe because:

• It’s yummy
• Super easy to make
• You don’t have to feel too guilty eating it
• You have around 1 hour before it’s ready to come out of the oven

WHOO HOO! This means you have one hour to do something really sweet while you wait, like plan one week’s worth of social media posts or write a post on your Google My Business listing. Don’t think, just do. Share things you like, write a tidbit about your business, and throw in a couple of hashtags. #HakunkaMatata

1. Here’s a handy social media planner.
2. Add a post to your Google My Business listing to increase engagement. It’s super quick.

2. Rich Collaboration

This rich dish from Oh She Glows requires a bit more patience and collaboration when it comes to the ingredients. Whether you are vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free, or none of the above this Golden Red Lentil Dal with Cilantro Speckled Basmati is sure to comfort you. Smack Happy’s Marianne mentions, “Red lentil dahl is my go-to because it takes little prep, it is warming, tasty and a good excuse to eat white rice!”

 

• It’s a (healthier) comfort food
• It’s pretty simple to make
• It can be done with just lentils, onion, garlic, turmeric and garam masala

If you read through the Oh She Glows article, Angela (the author) explains how she’d finally had the time to do the things she loves to do (writing and recipe creation) after she had hired someone to help her and her husband manage other areas of the business. She goes on to mention,

“Our working relationship has really opened my eyes to what I could achieve if I just asked for a bit more help. It has been a total lightbulb moment. You know what else I realized? Collaboration is so darn fun. So much more fun than trying to do it on my own!”

In the 25 minutes this dish takes to render all its delicious flavors, you can begin digging into some time-saver (website marketing) planning for yourself or your business. If you’re a very independent worker, it may not come as easy letting some things roll off of your plate and onto another’s. The article, How to Organize & Prioritize the Time You Need to Work on Your Website and/or Marketing Plan is a great place to start. We share some techniques for finding the time to organize and execute your website marketing plans. You’ll also walk away with eight action items to help keep you moving forward.

3. Comforting Your Thirst

For a great sip that will warm your soul, John from Smack Happy recommends Red Hots Hot (or cold) Apple Cider. John says,

Slowly warm 2 gallons of unfiltered apple juice in a pot, add in a few cinnamon sticks, and a box of cinnamon imperial candies (red hots.) Stir occasionally, keep on low heat for a few hours and sprinkle in a few spices of your choice (cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin spice) to taste. After it has simmered for a few hours, take off heat and pour yourself a cup! Works well chilled or hot. Make it a cocktail with your favorite spiced rum!

This recipe reminds me of transforming some really important ingredients, mixing it up a bit, and really making it your own. From throwing in spices, a bit of rum, or even drinking it cold—you’ve got a lot of options.

There are a variety of ways you can translate this concept into marketing. At any given time you’ve got about a million things you’d like to be doing with your website. With several places to start, the options may seem overwhelming. It’s ok! Tackle the different areas of your website you’d like to improve or update day by day and take the time to really make it shine.

With this drink, you have a few hours to let the drink simmer. While those flavors are infusing, here are some resources to inspire your next steps with your website.

1. Discover Your Audience
2. Get a Free On-Page SEO Audit
3. Begin a Website Redesign
4. Define Your Vision
5. Make Your Website User-Friendly

Well, that’s it! Looking forward, 2018 (for me) is about simplifying and seeing more of the “big picture”. The way I look at this is that tackling the smaller, simpler things along the way is the only way to arrive there. My team and I hope to have brought you a few quick and easy ways to begin that journey to a successful website and creative marketing. We also hope you make some of these recipes, cause they’re really frickin’ tasty.

xo

Danielle

Bonus Recipes

After I started writing this, I realized that we probably love food a little too much and had a ton more favorite recipes to share. Below you’ll find a handful of those recipes close to our team member’s hearts (and mouths). Enjoy!

Anna
This isn’t beer, unfortunately, but it’s an easy one I love: Peanut Sauce Vegetable Stir Fry with Tofu. Note that I always use 1.5-2x the peanut butter, hot water, vinegar, and soy sauce they recommend because it’s a little dry. It’s full of peanut-buttery goodness – sweet and savory in one. The tofu is a good source of protein, and it’s really an easy recipe to make in a pinch. It also uses ingredients that a lot of people already have in the house, and will likely use again for other recipes, so no waste.

Danielle
I have to go with my Pasta sauce. This is my super random recipe:

• 1 LG sweet OR spanish onion chopped (spanish gives it a little bite, sweet is more mellow)
• 6-8 cloves fresh garlic chopped
• 1 carrot finely grated
• 2 TBS Italian Seasoning
• 1 TSP garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste
• 1 small zucchini cubed
• 1 package of vegan “meat” crumbles – tastes bomb
• 1-2 TBS Butter
• 1.5 TBS tomato paste
• 1 cup parmesan cheese (if you get fresh save the rind)
• 1 TBS of brown sugar
• 1 large can of tomato sauce (no salt)
• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes

Putting it together:

• Olive oil in a big pot first, then throw in onion- allow them to cook down a little until translucent.
• Then, put in carrot and garlic for about one minute.
• Next, add spices, stir and cook for one minute.
• Add tomato paste, stir until integrated.
• Add about 1/2 of tomato sauce, brown sugar, and the all of crushed tomatoes, stir. (You can add more sauce if you want).
• Place the zucchini cubes and vegan meat. If you save the parmesan rind, throw that in too (take out before serving).
• Allow to took low heat for 3 or more hours, covered. Stir occasionally.
• Shortly before you are ready to serve, add the butter and cheese to mount the sauce.

This sauce goes really well with a Penne or Farfalle pasta, topped with fresh parm, salt/pepper, and freshly chopped parsley. Grab a nice Cab or Chianti. Bada bing, bada boom.

Nicole
This is my go-to: Ginger Spice Cookies Recipe. Its easy and everyone loves them. It has an hour of refrigeration in the middle— the perfect time to work on other little things.