What’s cooking?
Did you ever think that cooking is such a complicated task that you simply tried to disassociate yourself from it completely? You have to think about the ingredients, the recipes to follow, the cooking tools, and everything in between. So, one day, you just told yourself that you’ll stick with the end process — eating food cooked by others.
Well, it’s the same with Digital Marketing; at first, you’ll get intimidated by a lot of technicalities or formal concepts that it makes you want to veer away from the entire idea.
But why exactly is Digital Marketing like cooking a Filipino staple dish? Before you understand the steps in creating digital marketing strategies, check out this link to understand why Digital Marketing matters.
Determine the dish you want to cook.
Before cooking, you need to identify the dish you want to cook and why you want to cook it. What is your goal? Is it to satisfy your or other people’s hunger? Is it to impress someone? Or is it your way of engaging with people? Whatever it is, you need to ground your entire cooking process on this objective.
Let’s take the case of adobo as an example. It’s a Filipino staple, and ideally, everyone likes it. But in reality, the adobo cannot please everyone. Some people don’t like it because they prefer another dish, or simply because they tried a version of adobo that did not match their expectations. This brings us to our next point.
Remember who you are cooking for.
You may be a renowned chef with high-quality ingredients, but what difference does that make when you are cooking adobo for someone that wants sinigang instead? What if they are allergic or they just dislike a specific ingredient you will be using for your dish? So, before you even prep your ingredients and begin pre-heating your cooking ware, always remind yourself who you are cooking for.
What are your ingredients?
When you think of adobo, the first thing you may think of is chicken adobo. But in reality, there are other types such as pork adobo, adobong sitaw, and even adobo sa gata. Damn, these options are making me hungry. But since these varieties entail different ingredients, they may appeal to a certain group of people. That being said, similar to our previous point, know the preferences of the people you are going to cook for!
What is your budget?
How much does it cost to make one portion of adobo? But what if you want to cook more portions of adobo? You would have to plan and allocate a specific budget depending on the number of people you want to serve. But before doing this, you must learn or come up with the basic recipe for your dish. This way, you will be able to determine how much money (and time) you should allocate. You might also want to check other alternatives if your ingredients or what you are planning are too expensive.
Cooking with a team is better than cooking alone.
You may think cooking can be a one-man job, but you may consider needing some help when cooking for an entire village. In order to speed up things in the kitchen, it would be beneficial to have specific people assigned to prep the ingredients, marinate the chicken, cook the actual meal, etc. You get the idea! Similar to digital marketing, it takes a team to create and publish content, while implementing and monitoring the company’s strategies simultaneously. Role allocations play an important role in digital marketing. Find out who these essential people are and the specific functions they perform here.
Experiment.
Now, you know who you’re cooking for. You have your ingredients. You have your team. Now what? There is a basic recipe to follow. But it’s also time to try all the possible combinations for your ingredients to achieve your desired dish, in this case, adobo. But there are many types of adobo and several ways to cook it. What does your customer want? Mix and match your ingredients to determine what they want. Because similar to cooking adobo, there is no specific recipe in digital marketing. You must always be willing to try new ingredients to get a different taste or result. Once you find the right taste, then it’s up to you to retain it or create many variations of that flavor.
Don’t forget to "taste" your content from time to time.
Let’s face it — cooking is a trial-and-error process. But don’t let the fear of mistakes prevent you from serving good food! Just like cooking, the content you create and post might need to be re-adjusted according to the preferences and behavioral characteristics of your target demographic. Furthermore, you don’t want your adobo to be overly salty or bland. You don’t want to oversaturate your feed with posts, which may overwhelm your followers and make them less engaged with your succeeding posts. At the same time, you do not want to post too rarely as well, which could potentially leave them disinterested towards your page over time.
Why not add some “magic sarap” to spice things up? You may want to consider adding all-in-one seasoning (a.k.a. paid advertisements) in your adobo to enhance its overall flavor. By doing so, you get to elevate your dish (or your brand) and have a bigger reach of people that will consume the food you will be serving.
Presentation is key.
A good plating or presentation will attract your target audience, but quality-food will retain loyal customers. Before acquiring devoted customers, you would need to actually make them see what you want to cook and offer. Does it look messy? Is it too formal? Does it fit their aesthetics? Just like in cooking, you want your content to be eye-catching and enticing for whoever you are targeting.
Evaluate and ask for feedback.
You got their attention. Now, it’s time to make them stay and take more servings of your dish. Ask your audience. Did they enjoy their meal or do they want to scrap the entire thing and try food from another brand? Do they want more or did they just want to taste it with one bite? Furthermore, as the cook, you should also provide self-evaluation. Did you achieve your desired result? Did the recipe you created turn out good and effective? Remember, the process does not end once you have finished cooking adobo. Knowing what else can be improved upon can definitely help you once you prepare for the next time you will be cooking.
Final Thoughts
Digital marketing, like cooking adobo, should be simple. Yes, there are a lot of factors to consider and several things can make or break your content. But you don’t immediately get the hang of it. Similar to chefs, you have to practice and understand what you’re doing in order to get the results you want. There may be similar recipes and techniques, but at the end of the day, you will be able to come up with your own identity and recipe.
Written by Poch Querijero and Alexa Aguilon