When you put time or money into any marketing plan, your onlyobjective is to MAKE A SALE. Are you sure your marketing is going toget your customer from their couch to your cash register?

When somebody hears your message or sees your logo from somemedium you have created, what does the path from that first 'touch' toyour cash register look like?

We call this path the yellow brick road. If your yellow brick road is wellbuilt, then your customer will follow a developed path from a recognitionpoint to your cash register. If your road is not well built, there isconfusion in your message and because of others' more developedavenues, this customer will end up at your competitor's cash register. Therefore, your road must stand out, and it must be designed in a waythat will lead the customer through a predetermined path with atransaction being the primary goal.

An example of a marketing plan without any such road is one that putsadvertising out into the community and does not have a clear actionablenext step; or one that has the clear and actionable step, but the step istoo big for the customer who is not ready to make an immediatepurchase. A person who has been casually contemplating the purchaseof your product will not react to a "One Day Sale Next Friday"advertisement. She may consider dropping by your store next Fridayduring your advertised sale, but chances are that will be forgotten afterfive minutes. This customer has no path to follow because the timingand the conditions were not yet right for her.

Your advertising in this case, has been somewhat wasted. A womanwho will make a purchase in the next six months received it, but the onlyoption that you gave her was to buy next Friday. You do not know whoshe is and you have no way of following up with her.

Your own aimless advertising cost yourself a warm lead.

The only way to keep in touch with this person is to continue to runcostly advertising, and maybe, just maybe, when she is ready topurchase, she will receive another one of your mailers or hear yourradio commercial and she will come right in and buy from you. I wouldnot hold my breath if I were you.

Now we'll run the same example with a message that clearly has a roadfor this customer to follow. You run an advertisement in the Sundaypaper. The advertisement is designed in a way that creates a clearpath: a visit to your website. She will visit your website because youhave an offer that both interests and engages her; something thatcaught her eye and sparked her interest. This could be anything from aproduct recommendation tool your website offers, to a free book abouthow to pick the perfect product. You will intrigue her enough that shewill take the first step down this path. This is powerful because whenshe goes to the website or calls you on the phone, you will capture herinformation.

The minute that you capture her information, you have capitalized onyour marketing investment. Information, when it is in the right hands, isas good as cash.

Therefore, instead of positioning your advertising, or any othermarketing program, to go right for the sale, you should instead alsocreate a more comfortable step for people to take that will give themsomething of value in exchange for their information.

When you have their information, this puts them on your road. Oncethey are on your road, you will have everything choreographed so thatyou touch these future customers as often as possible in a systematicway. With these frequent touches you will be keeping that top-of-mindawareness and you will be flying a holding pattern until they are readyto buy.

Each piece that you put out into the community will have a specificobjective about where you want them to go. You will have to choose thedestination (website, phone, or to stop in) based on your chances ofsuccess of actually getting them there. This being said, obviously, youwant them to come into the store, but this is the hardest objective toachieve.

You must understand the proper objective of marketing. This objectivewill be one of three things. It will either lead the future customer to click,call, or stop in. It is important that you understand your own path as todeliver a clear message to the customer.

When your path is well structured, it will lead right from the customer'scouch to your cash register.

Tom Richard is the author of Smart Sales People Don't Advertise: 10Was To Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing To buy thisbook or to subscribe to Tom's weekly ezine, visit http://www.tomrichard.com/