Field of Dreams: Picture from IMDB.com

The ability to suspend disbelief as a child (when watching a TV show or movie) doesn’t seem to come naturally in my family. When my mother was a kid, for example, she never understood how Batman (the Adam West version, not the hilariously husky-voiced Christian Bale version) could keep his bat cave location a secret. Surely, she thought, someone from the phone company had to come by to hook up that special red phone he had that gave him a direct connection to Commissioner Gordon. Did Bruce Wayne have to kill the technician from Bell after the phone was installed? Wouldn’t someone notice that?

Like my mother, I also didn’t nod along to the explanations (or lack there of) given by Hollywood as they attempted to move the story along. One stand-out was The Field of Dreams. As my family left the theater on a cloud of warm fuzzies, I pretty much had to go and ruin the experience for everyone. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So, where did all those cars come from? (I was alluding to the last scene of a snaking line of car headlights arriving to see the ballgame and, in essence, save the farm.)

My dad: They came from all over. Maybe even from all over the country.

Me: How come they all got there at the same time?

My dad: Well, they got there right when they needed to.

Me: How did they even know what was going on?

My dad: If you build it, they will come.

Me: Huh … right … but, really, how did they know?

My mom: Jennifer …

Me: Was the ball game on TV? Did they put posters up?

My dad: Weren’t you paying attention? The voice Ray heard explained – If you build it, they will come.

Me: That doesn’t make sense. How did those people know where to go?

My dad: MAGIC. It was MAGIC. They found out because the field is MAGIC. Maybe it spoke to people in their dreams. It’s a “Field of Dreams” after all. Now, get in the car!

The thing is, this “magic” is fine for a Hollywood movie. What’s not fine is that there are many people who supposedly exist in reality who simply believe that if you build “it” (being a great product, website or service) “they” (being customers) will come.

You need to tap into your inner 10-year old cynic and ask yourself how people are going to find out about you, your product or your service and keep asking those questions until you get all the answers. And sorry to break it to you, but “magic” should never be an answer, or a marketing plan.

That said, there is a certain wizardry to marketing and it’s the type of thing the content marketing experts at ideaLaunch specialize in. Research, goal and audience identification, strategy development, an array of specific web content marketing tactics, and ongoing monitoring (and adaptation based on what’s discovered during monitoring) are all part of any successful online-based marketing plan. If you’re working with a web content marketing company like ideaLaunch, you should expect nothing less.

Dreams can come true – we can help.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.