Even If You Build It, They Won't Come -- Unless You Tell Them!

“Shoeless Joe,” and the movie from that book have both been misleading people for years. “If you build it, he will come.” That’s the biggest load of malarkey. That doesn’t work for “Field of Dreams” in the real world. No one comes to a concert, book launch, website, or restaurant unless they know about it. They only know your product or service exists because you tell them. Which means -- you need to market the thing. 

(00:03):
Welcome to the launch with words podcast, with your host, Bridget Willard. We're going to talk about all things. Content, blogging, articles, videos, whatever has words and it goes on your website.

(00:21):
Hey, welcome to episode six. "If you build it, he will come." Famous quote from the book, "Shoeless Joe" and the movie about the same thing, "Field of Dreams." The field of dreams is simply that. It's just a dream. Because guess what?

(00:40):
You can't build anything -- a stadium, a team, a restaurant, a product, a service -- without telling people. There's no way. It's insanity for us to think that just because we have a website, that people will know about it for one thing. And or that they will magically happen upon a website. It's not something in the mall that we walked by. But even, even a store in the mall, isn't magic. It happens to be next to other stores and they market together. Whether it's Norton Simon, or, you know, some kind of outlet mall, that it's not by chance. All of that is intentional marketing.

(01:28):
So if you think that writing a book will automatically get you book sales, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's not going to happen. If you think that producing a CD and selling them and you know, making your dreams come true. And just thinking that people will happen to do it. This is not going to happen.

(01:52):
Um, some of these things sounds so obvious. It sounds like I'm patronizing you. I'm not trying to patronize you. I have been consulting with high-end C-suite and entrepreneur clients for over 15 years. Or yeah, basically. So guess what? You have to tell people about it. You have to tell people. It's really not that difficult.

(02:25):
It takes work. It takes work to tell people that you have a thing.

(02:29):
It takes some humility and mixed with bravery to tell them that you built a thing. You know? You have to care. You have to care about your business more than your employees. You have to care about your business more than the marketer that you hire. You really do, because you're going to be part of it. But you also have to dedicate the time and the budget. So many of the customers that I've talked to, of the people that I've consulted with say, well, I don't really have marketing budget. Oh okay. But do you have money? Like, do you want your business to succeed? Or do you want to be just another cliche restaurant that closes because nobody knew it existed. I mean, this is the reality. This is absolutely the reality.

(03:22):
And I love that I have this five to seven minutes with y'all and I could just say stop being so bleeping stupid. Stop being naive. Stop being lazy. Really. Because you're not foolish. You're not stupid. And surely you're not naive. You're an industry expert. That's why you started your business. You know how to get clients. That's why you're still in business. But that half-life of referral by referral, by referral that just, uh, just, you know, magically happen. I mean, whether you bought your dad's company, inherited your mom's company, bought a business that was existing. You think you're going to keep those customers just because they were already there?

(04:15):
No. Loyalty has to be both created and maintained. And you maintain customer loyalty -- one of the reasons, one of the ways -- is by having good marketing. You have to tell people what's going on. You have to let them in. You have to let them to what you're doing. And this goes back to the previous episode about showing some vulnerability and writing about who you are and why you're in business.

(04:43):
Everybody wants to make money. Of course, we're making money. I've bills; you have bills. You know, and I don't. I'm not ashamed to be a capitalist. I'm not ashamed to have income goals, you know? But at the same time, no, it's not just about money.

(05:01):
I do what I do because I'm good at it, because people value it, because people are willing to pay money for it, and because people need it. And at the intersection of those four things is your purpose and your why.

(05:20):
You have to tell people what is the worst thing that could happen? You know, you, you really, you really don't want to be a boarded-up business -- online or in reality. And when you don't use social channels, you know, it just looks like you're not in business. And when you're not active online, people aren't don't remember you because you're not top of mind. And they forget who you are. You know, they forget who you are.

(05:56):
It's not out of malice. It's just that we can only remember so much at a time. Who's that one guy that does that one thing? Oh man, I forgot his name. Oh, I can't find him on Twitter. I don't even know how to search. Right? You know. Is so-and-so still in business. You don't even know how many times that's asked.

(06:23):
You have to tell people and you have to keep telling people. And that's where your blog comes into play, too. You use your blog to talk about your customers, to talk about your solutions, to talk about your products and to talk about your team.

(06:39):
And then as you publish that cadence, that metronome helps your SEO efforts because -- Why? You're telling Google that you're alive, you're showing a pulse. And that's what matters. Not just to the algorithms, not just a Google, but to people who are trying to remember you. Somebody asks them who the best British 4x4 mechanic is in Orange County. What's that guy's name again? You forget because they're not doing this [snapping]. And when you stop doing this [stopps snapping], you're dead.

(07:25):
Thanks for listening to Launch With Words, a podcast by BridgetWillard.dot com. If you like this podcast, why I go ahead and share it with your friends, small business owners, peers, your brother. Oh, I really appreciate your attention. If you have any ideas, contact me on my website. Follow me at @BridgetMWillard on Twitter. And I hope to see on the next episode or the next season.

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