Lemon salmon and quinoa pasta with a side of blog inspo

Welcome back to Macaroni & Marketing— where you’ll find delish recipes and marketing tips all in one place.

As a copywriter and social media strategist who also loves cooking and baking, I thought I’d bring the two together. IMO, foodies make the best marketers 😉

Today we’ll be sharing:

• Marketing tip— how to use blogs to get more customers for your product

• Recipe— healthy lemon herb salmon and quinoa pasta

Let’s go!

Why you should be blogging for your business

Blogs are a popular tactic used by startups to build their audience. Why are blogs so effective? A few reasons:

• Brand-building: Blogs provide more space to share your mission, vision and values. They help you develop your brand voice for customers to connect further.

• Search boost: Blogs help your startup or business become more discoverable online. Especially if you have a strong SEO strategy, you’ll get much more website traffic (leading to conversions!).

• Content strategy: Blogs can be a great starting point for your entire content strategy. Each blog post can be divided into several posts for TikTok, Instagram, X, Threads, LinkedIn etc. Repurpose your content = save time.

3 blogs that helped businesses get more customers

Posting blogs on your website without a strategy won’t get you very far. Blog writing involves a deep understanding of your target audience, goals and SEO. You can always hire a copywriter to help out, but here’s some inspo from brands to get you started:

Spindrift blog: The Drift

The seltzer drink that quickly filled the shelves over the last few years, Spindrift has a 10/10 media presence across social channels and, you guessed it, their blog. The Drift covers new product launches, community involvement, behind-the-scenes on how flavors were made, and more. If your business sells a physical product, use your blog to develop a connection between that product and your potential customers.

Linktree blog 

Linktree uses their blog to teach their customers how to make the most of the product. This makes their blog useful to both potential and current customers. Linktree also features creators and influencers in their community, adding a personal flare and offering inspo to aspiring creators. Their tips extend beyond Linktree— sharing general tips for creators, like how to start a podcast or batch your content. On your blog, feature stories and case studies from your community, as well as tips that your audience would find helpful.

Canal blog

Canal is a drop shipping marketplace platform that lets businesses and people curate e-commerce shops from a number of unique products and collections. Their blog does a great job featuring the latest products via fun, clever copy. Take a look at this header and subcopy:

Now imagine if this read instead: “6 products for people who love coffee and tea”. Doesn’t quite have the same effect. Remember to explore your brand voice in your own blog, seeing what might make your potential customers smile, laugh and want to know more. Canal also uses their blog to share helpful drop shipping and e-commerce tips— a trend we’ve been seeing on other blogs too!

Now it’s time to get writing 🙂 If you’re looking for tips on getting your blogs discovered in Google searches, check out our post on SEO tips!

Healthy lemon herb salmon and quinoa pasta recipe

On that health kick and looking for low-calorie, high-protein meals? Try this delish lemon herb salmon with quinoa pasta and broccoli.

Whenever I looked up lemon pasta online, I always saw creamy recipes loaded with carbs and fat. So I decided to just make my own recipe— no heavy cream, no butter. Just heavy on fresh lemon juice, garlic and herbs!

A little trick for cooking fish, it should always have 4 things: sweet, spice, savory and citrus. Sweet is often honey, spice could be pepper or chile powder (anything with a kick), savory could be salt or garlic, and citrus is often lime or lemon.

Now, let’s get cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 filet of salmon

• 1 cup organic brown rice/quinoa pasta from Trader Joe’s

• 1 lemon

• Chopped parsley

• Salt, pepper

• 1 tsp honey

• 5 cloves garlic

• Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and line a baking sheet with foil. Spray with non-stick.

2. Drizzle olive oil over salmon filet. Squeeze ~1 teaspoon lemon juice over the salmon and a quick honey drizzle. Then season with a dash of salt, pepper and garlic. You can also place a slice or two of lemon on top of the salmon, but I forgot to do that this time. Place in the oven and bake for ~20-25 minutes.

3. Bring water to a boil, sprinkle a dash of salt and toss in your quinoa pasta. Boil for ~8-10 minutes, then drain water. Save a bit of the pasta water (1-2 tablespoons) on the side.

4. Heat olive oil and chopped garlic cloves in the same pot you cooked the pasta in. Saute garlic, then pour in the pasta water and lemon juice (squeeze an entire ½ lemon). Stir until mixed together.

5. Heat ~2 tablespoons of water in a separate pan, and toss in your broccoli. Cover, and cook until you can put a fork through the broccoli (~7 minutes).

6. Toss your quinoa pasta into the pot, and sprinkle a dash of salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Stir until evenly mixed. Then combine the broccoli into the pasta.

7. Plate your salmon filet on top of the pasta, and garnish with fresh parsley and parmesan cheese. Serve and enjoy!

See u next time for more recipes & marketing tips 👋 ✨

-Mia