This series of posts were created when I worked at a Marketing Automation company called “Loopfuse” in the early 2010’s. I was the Senior Manager of Technical Support and I posted blog content on the merits of Marketing Automation in general, as well as some of the technical aspects specific to that platform. I recently rescued these posts from the Wayback Machine for posterity and to remind myself of what I have written in the past. The images are missing, but you’ll get the idea.

I make a killer fresh salsa. Over the years I have developed my technical skills to the point that my salsa is a popular request at all sorts of social gatherings. Sure I may be bragging a bit, but when you can bring in $65 per quart in a charity auction, you know you have something special.

Just like a well-proven recipe, Marketing Automation programs (like LoopFuse) can generate success such as a 178% increase in deals if you start with the right software and get your processes in place to take advantage of it.

Start with a good recipe

This may take some trial and error to find something that suits your tastes, but there are plenty of recipes out there that can be used as a starting point for your next masterpiece. The salsa recipe I use came from my dad. He found it at a county fair about 15 years ago when he bought an “all-in-one” salsa maker. The source didn’t matter as much as the end results. I liked the combination of ingredients and the overall flavor, but there was room for me to interpret it the way I wanted to.

There are all sorts of good examples on the web on how to build lead flows, set up scoring, and build email templates for your marketing automation campaigns. Find the resources that match your needs and then build from there. We have some great Tips & Tricks in our customer database, but you can use email templates from other vendors, lead flow structures and logic from competitors, or scoring rules based on your own experience.

Tweak the recipe

With a good base, I was able to experiment with the recipe a bit and make it my own. For example, normally I use Serrano peppers for my heat. It has sort of a delayed heat to it so you get that kick at the end of the bite. Sometimes I’ll use jalapenos if I can’t find the Serrano peppers. They deliver a more immediate kick. For the occasional special knock-out I’ll put in habanero peppers. Although my recipe is fairly well set, now, I do still allow for tweaking during each batch. For example, I’m able to adjust the amount of lime or cilantro if needed. This allows me to zero in on the preferred taste.

Once you have a Marketing Automation mix that looks good, adjust it to your needs. No example flow or email template is going to be an exact fit right out of the box. Own it. Make it work for you. With the right Marketing Automation suite of tools like LoopFuse, you can make those examples fit within your business process and produce the results you’re looking for.

Refine the technique

When I started out making salsa, I used the exact same method as my dad. I bought a salsa maker and dropped in the ingredients to chop them up by hand. I didn’t do that for long because it was too much work… and if I wanted to make a larger batch for a party I had to repeat that process over and over. I quickly moved to using a food processor. I would pulse the individual ingredients to get the right texture and then combine them in a larger bowl to get the right balance of flavors. It was some work at first to get the recipe *I* wanted, but now I can repeat the process in almost no time at all and get consistent results.

It will take a little while to get your Marketing Automation in place because each business case is different. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being honest with you. There are methods you can use to help shorten that implementation time, but there will always be a bit of customization to make it perfect for your needs. Don’t get frustrated with that personalization time. Use it to your advantage and create something you’ll be proud of.

Not all salsa is created equal

I took some salsa to a family event over the holidays. My sister came up to me and asked me what I put in the salsa that made it different (and better 🙂 )than hers. I asked her what recipe she used and it turns out we started with the same basic ingredients that our dad had put together. The difference was in the execution. She was still using a hand-crank salsa maker and dropping everything in together. I had moved on to a more automated, carefully crafted recipe that was now producing much better results.

Marketing Automation can be a success or a failure, depending on who is cooking up the recipe. Given the same basic ingredients, instructions, and techniques, a Marketing Automation plan can still fail if it’s not executed properly. You may get decent results if you just grab a recipe off the shelf and copy what others have done, but you won’t see true success until you take some time to tweak and refine your processes to suit your needs.

The “Oh My Gosh It’s Good” salsa recipe

By now you’re probably hungry for salsa and you want that recipe. I’m happy to share it. Just remember that it won’t turn out exactly the way I make it. 🙂 This is for a decent sized batch of salsa.

15-20 Roma (plum) Tomatoes
1 White Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
2-3 Serrano Peppers
1 bunch of Cilantro
3-4 cloves Garlic
1-2 Limes
1-2 Tbsp. Salt

Chop the tomatoes, onion, cilantro and bell peppers in the food processor. I use a food processor to pulse my ingredients individually to a good texture. I don’t want the pieces too big (crunchy salsa is not good) or too small (we don’t want soup). I do the tomatoes first and set them aside in a strainer over a bowl to catch the extra juice. This helps keep the salsa from getting too runny later because the salt will draw out moisture from the tomatoes.

I usually chop the Serrano peppers and Garlic by hand. My processor is too big to effectively chop them individually and if I mix them with other ingredients I may get the balance wrong. I can also control the heat better by removing some or all the seeds from the Serranos before chopping them up.

Once I have chopped the main ingredients and they are in the bowls I start to mix them together. Cut a lime in half and squeeze the juice over the mixture. Sprinkle salt over the salsa and mix it in. Remember, you can always add salt and lime if there isn’t enough, so make sure you taste the batch after getting it mixed so you find the right balance for your palate.