Mojito Recipe
EDIT: I have been getting a ton visitors looking for a great Mojito recipe. I always measure my Mojitos in “parts” since I’m frequently making them for 5+ people at once.
What you need:
Mint, Bacardi Rum, Soda Water, Lime, Simple Syrup
Simple Syrup Recipe – Boil 1 cup of water and stir in 1 cup of sugar. You can also use other sweeteners like splenda.
Start with mint leaves (roughly one leaf per 3 oz, use more if you love mint).
Add a splash of simple syrup and muddle mint leaves (if you have a pack of sugar, add this too. It will help get the flavor out of the mint and into the simple syrup).
Add 1 part Bacardi Rum, 0.5 part simple Syrup, 2 parts soda, a squeeze of lime, and fill with ice.
Stir, don’t shake (you don’t want to get the muddled mint all mixed up in your drink, the splash of simple syrup will have all the mint flavor).
Mojitos are amazing because they are so flexible. You can always add more/less mint, rum, simple syrup, and soda to fit your flavor preference. The key to a truly amazing mojito is using the simple syrup to muddle the mint and extract the flavor before mixing the drink. Enjoy!
What Mojito Sampling Taught Me About Online Marketing
For the last couple of months I have been doing liquor tastings and demos at stores all over the DFW metroplex. I’ve also done promotions for some other companies like I.O. Metro handing out flyers and waving people in and even for Frito Lays handing out Sunchips. (yummy!)
This got me thinking about what really works for marketing both online and offline.
From what I have seen, interaction has a much greater impact on people than putting a sign in front of someone. Much like those 125×125 ads most of us have on our blogs, the majority of people never even notice a sign for flyer (or notice it, but don’t respond).
Teaching someone to make a drink while they are shopping for liquor is powerful. The conversion rate for people who take the time to let me teach them to make a Cubra Libre or a Mojito is amazingly high because the people sampling and learning have a time investment, and I have built personal trust for the brand.
You’ve probably been at a bar or club where shot girls were handing out samples, but how often do you buy more? The demos we run have a 30-50% conversion rate (some higher). That’s better spent money in my book.
The liquor store demos target the consumer in a place where they can take action right away, and they are in an environment where they are likely to remember rather than being drunk.
We as bloggers can learn from this. People “driving by” and people not look buy aren’t likely to convert. People who have already taken action (signing up for a newsletter) or someone coming to a page for information about a product are ready to buy at some level.
The biggest mistake I’ve made for making money blogging is hoping ads will convert. For huge sites they might some, but reviews and recommendations work infinitely better.
John Chow makes $40,000+/month basically reviewing products and building hype via newsletter. He doesn’t even try to hide that’s what he does. There is balance though. Not every post is a call to action. Many are tips or industry news, and that’s what builds the following of people who trust him and are ready to take action.
If you get nothing else from this, take this: build trust via interaction and free assistance then make a clear call to action when your audience can act.
Image Credit: Image taken from Tinypic Free Image Hosting
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by money4blogs: Sampling Mojitos Can Teach You About Marketing Online: handing out Sunchips. (yummy!) This got me thinking about … http://bit.ly/chVjDY…
JC can do anything he wants now and the money will still stroll in. His earlier days were a bit different though. He used to have a lot more quality content and much fewer promotional posts.