Whenever you purchase a small kitchen appliance, it’s likely to come with a cookbook. I’ve always found it funny that Cuisinart slow cookers come with Cuisinart cookbooks and Crock Pots come with Crock Pot cookbooks, even though the cookbooks tend to have the same recipes in them.
It turns out, though, that those recipes are important, because the cooking controls are different on those appliances. While you could probably make the same pot of chili in either cooker, you’ll need to follow the cooking directions specific to your appliance.
Not surprisingly, the need to follow specific directions doesn’t stop with cooking. Directions are also required for hooking up a television, changing a tire, or making money online. The key to being successful at any of these tasks, though, is keeping your recipe book handy.
1. Recipe for a Healthy Subscriber List
You’ve heard it a hundred times, but I’m going to say it again; the money’s in the list. If you don’t know how many people subscribed to your list this week, or if you do and it’s not a larger number than last week, then you need another marketing plan. If you aren’t sure what your marketing plan is, you can fix that, as well.
If you’re more of a merchant than a marketer, then hiring a marketer to help you out would be a good idea. He could help you develop a convincing op-tin for subscribers, which would be a great investment. AWeber software is also a good idea, as it can help you manage your email more efficiently.
2. Recipe For A Well-Built Page
Beginning cooks and beginning marketers have a lot in common, and one commonality is that each group has a collection of mistakes that everyone seems to make. Marketers, for instance, seem to crank out pages at top speed without considering their purpose.
Whether you’re a new marketer or a veteran, you should figure out the purpose of each page before you start constructing it. When they are looking at your page, do you want your website visitors to;
- listen to your podcast?
- subscribe to your list?
- leave a comment?
- purchase something?
Once you have the purpose of the page settled on, you can begin constructing the page to meet that purpose.
Of course, there are certain not-so-secret ingredients you should have on all of your pages. Great copy, sub-headlines and bullet points will make the page readable and keep your visitors interested. A clear and compelling call to action is also a standard ingredient for an effective page.
Most importantly, you don’t want to crowd your page with unnecessary clutter. If your page is focused on a task, your visitors will be also.
3. The Case for Taste Testing
One interesting recipe that comes with a Cuisinart food processors is for tomato salsa. Because there is such a range of opinions as to what constitutes “hot” salsa, this is a recipe which should be tested frequently. It’s easier to add more heat than try to take it out!
Testing is also important in internet marketing, and for much the same reason. It’s easier to correct your course slightly than to completely turn your marketing plan around. Measuring, tracking and testing are about as important as list building, but these tasks are not nearly as fun.
If you avoid this essential marketing tool because it is too complicated or too time consuming, there is help available; and it’s free. Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer are my favorite tools, because they speed up the job so I can get back to the fun stuff.
Keep Your Recipe Book Handy
Even when you’ve made a particular meatloaf a few dozen times, you still keep the recipe card, right? That’s because every now and then you need to double check the ingredients.
It’s a good idea to review your ingredient list for online marketing, as well. If you can remember to build your lists, focus your pages and measure, track and test, you’ll be able to put together a great return on your investment, every time.
Please feel free to share your thoughts.
Photo by xJasonRogersx
About James Martell
