“If You Build It They Will Come”. This line has become a favourite quote for entrepreneurs and marketers.
But how did it all start?
Well you may already know it is a famous movie quote.
The correct quote was in fact, “If you build it; he will come.
It is a line from Kevin Costner in the classic 1989 movie, Field Of Dreams.
An Iowa corn farmer, Ray Kinsella, hears an unseen voice telling him, “If you build it; he will come.
The voice was telling him to demolish his cornfield and build a baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere.
This was to let Shoeless Joe Jackson and other dead baseball players to appear and play baseball again.
Fascinating indeed!.
The movie is great but how does this quote apply to marketers?
If You Build It They Will Come For Entrepreneurs
For the business owner, entrepreneur and marketer the quote definitely sends the wrong message.
You have built the most beautiful website and funnel.
Or you have built the best product or service, written the best course or book and created the best mastermind.
Do you then sit back and hope the world will find you?
That people will just show up to buy from you?
No!
The reality is you have to find your Shoeless Joe Jackson.
You have to actively find your dream customers!
And when you find them, you have to lure them to your funnel or website… and get them to buy from you.
How will you attract your dream customers to your website and funnel?
How do you grow a tribe of raving fans?
If you build it and do nothing, your website and funnel will starve and wither away.
How do you build it and get them to come?
You need a strategy.
A strategy that will fill your website and funnel with a tribe of your raving fans and dream customers.
If You Build It They Will Come With Traffic
The line, “If you build it, they will come”, came back to my thoughts recently.
Russell Brunson used the quote in his marketing for his latest book, Traffic Secrets.
Dean Graziosi also mentioned it in his foreword to the Traffic Secrets book.
That piqued my interest.
It got me looking at the meaning of this venerable quote for entrepreneurs.
It may have been great for Kevin Costner…
…and yes it has grown into an often quoted internet meme.
For the entrepreneur or marketer however, it sends the wrong signals.
If you create the best product or service and then wait for your future dream customers…they will not come.
You need to identify your dream customers, find where they are congregated online and then have a strategy to get them to fill up your website and funnel.
If you build it they will come – yes but with a traffic strategy!
Quoting Russell Brunson, “Waiting for people to come to you is not a strategy”.
Traffic Strategy - Your Dream Customers
In DotCom Secrets, a book that teaches the concept of sales funnels, Russell Brunson shared some core marketing concepts.
One of them was on how to attract your dream customers.
This concept was taken much further in Traffic Secrets.
Traffic comes down to two simple questions:
Question #1: Who is your dream customer?
Question #2: Where are they congregating?
Who Is Your Dream Customer?
A business might have the best product or service in the world but if they don’t identify who your dream customer is, they will fail.
If you build it they will come… no they wouldn’t.
First you need to know who your dream customer is.
You have to be obsessive about knowing who your specific dream customers are.
To do this requires developing the attributes of your dream customer – their avatar.
This is a full bio of your dream customers – who are they? Where do they live? How many children do they have? How wealthy are they? What type of home do they live in?
By being obsessive, you gain full understanding of who your dream customer is.
You may be your own dream customer!.
If your product or service is to solve a problem you have encontered yourself…
… look back in time to find how you were feeling when you were struggling with the same problem your dream customer has now.
That will help you to understand the core pains they are trying to move away from…
…and the core desires and passions they are trying to move toward.
If you build it, nerds will come is another memorable 2006 movie quote from the The Benchwarmers.
With the correct strategy you will find not nerds, but your dream customers.
Where Are Your Dream Customers Congregating?
Having identified your dream customer, where do you find them?
The internet has made it easy to locate your dream customers.
You will find them in Facebook groups, internet forums or message boards.
Another way to find your dream customer is through their interests.
What top websites they visit, podcasts they listen to, blogs they read or YouTube channels they follow will help your search.
What keywords are they searching for in Google, Pinterest or other search engines to find information?
Who are the influencers they follow on Facebook and Instagram?
All the above will help you identify where your dream customers are hiding.
If you are your dream customer it becomes much easier to know where to find them.
To draw them to your funnel or website…
…you have to put your message or your hooks in front of them.
Hook, Story, Offer Triad
The fundamental strategy to attract your dream customers is the hook, story, offer triad.
It is the core foundation to sell anything online.
Having located your dream customer, how do you draw them to your funnel or website.
Firstly you need a hook.
Hook
The hook is what grabs someone’s attention.
This could be your email subject line, blog headline, YouTube video thumbnail, Facebook or Instagram picture.
By grabbing attention, you can then tell your story.
The hook takes them to your story.
Story
Your story is aimed at building a relationship and connection with your lead.
As Russell rightly says, this connection is very critical for your business success.
Once someone connects with you, they will become your follower even if they don’t buy immediately.
They are likely to become a buying customer and eventually a raving fan.
Done effectively, your story should increase the value of your offer.
Offer
The offer could be a product or service you are selling.
It could also be asking people to subscribe to your podcast or YouTube channel, join your email list, comment on your video or join your list.
The better the offer, the more likely it is to be taken up.
You can make the offer more attractive by increasing its value or by adding bonuses to it.
Does Your Campaign Suck?
The hook, story, offer combination is the very foundation of your marketing strategy.
If your ad, landing page conversion, webinar attendance, email open rate or sales are flagging, the problem is always with the hook, story or offer.
It could be one or more of the triad.
Solving them requires creating better hooks, telling better stories and making better offers.
Expert Secrets is the definitive guide if you want to learn more about the Hook, Story and Offer framework.
Russell however takes the Story and Offer aspects in relation to ads and traffic much further in Traffic Secrets.
Final Thoughts
If you build it they will come may have been a memorable line by the Kevin Coster character, Ray Kinsella, in the Field of Dreams.
It is not applicable for entrepreneurs.
For them, the quote sends the wrong message.
Every business needs leads and sales to be successful.
For this you need to actively define your dream customers.
Then devise a strategy to fill your website or funnel with a tribe of your raving fans.
If you build it they will come … YES, but with a traffic strategy!
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