“If You Build It, They Will Come”—How to Ensure Your Marketing Plan Will Fail

If you’ve ever seen the movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, you will undoubtedly remember the famous line, “If You Build It, They Will Come”.

In the movie, Ray (Costner) hears voices from the cornfields in Iowa, where he was told to build a baseball field so the 1919 Chicago White Sox could play baseball.

He did.

They came.

That seems simple enough, right?  Build a field, and the players will show up.  Better yet, fans will also show up to watch the game.

Unfortunately, while it makes an interesting story line, it doesn’t work well in creating an effective marketing strategy.  Building an effective marketing strategy requires the following to ensure your investment in marketing leads to your end goal:  generating qualified leads for your sales team.

Engage your audience.

When creating a strategy, it is important to create web content through email marketing, blog articles, social media and other methods that educate them on your products or services, and create a call to action.  Focus on creating awareness about the problems you solve and give them reason to contact you.

Equip your readers by teaching them something new.

Most people like to learn new things, especially if it will help them grow their business or professional life.  Tell them something they don’t already know.  Give them tools, knowledge, or an innovative approach to reach their ideal customers. Don’t be afraid to share the knowledge you have.  You will be seen as a subject matter expert–the one they will look to when they are ready to solve their problem.

Encompass your target market.

Your target market should be well-defined, and should be your main focus as you begin telling your story.  Place your message where your target audience most seeks information.  Create digital campaigns through Facebook, LinkedIn, or trade geared toward your target market. Understand  that it takes about seven different touch points to educate them about who you are and how you can help solve their problems.

Encourage your sales team to use marketing strategy to their advantage.

Marketing is designed to tell the story and engage qualified leads for sales professionals.  Sales professionals have the job to work alongside marketing and utilize all the leads and tools marketing creates to help grow their business.  The better and stronger your marketing program, the more likely your sales team will be to close leads faster through warmer lead generation.

Examine your strategy to ensure it is doing its job.

It is critical to your success to regularly review and evaluate your marketing strategy’s effectiveness.  If it is not telling your story accurately, and turning qualified leads into true prospects for your sales team, then it needs to be reviewed and reworked to deliver a dynamic program about who you are and what you want to sell.

Marketing is a key component to your overall business success.  It is important to build intriguing campaigns that educate and then tell the story.  Don’t wait for customers to come out of the fields….er…woodwork to play ball.  Give them incentive to do so.

MEMO Marketing Group specializes in helping companies plan, create, execute, and train using innovative marketing strategies. Contact us today for more information:  julie@memomarketinggroup.com or visit our website:  www.memomarketinggroup.com.

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