In my last blog post, I introduced the idea that as your business grows, your marketing strategy should grow and change as well. Let’s dive deeper into one area of marketing strategy: identifying and honing your target market. Hopefully you already accomplished this, to some degree when you started your business. Chuck Cohn, a successful entrepreneur and author, contributed this in Forbes, “This process – knowing to whom and when to market your product or service – can result in much higher rates of return, and it involves implementing systems, rather than relying on indiscriminate marketing.”

As we did in the last blog, let’s assume you did this successfully, and have been marketing to your “ideal” customer, but now, you are in your 2nd, 10th, 0r 25th year of business. It is not likely that your ideal customer is going to be the same person as when you started. First of all, you have learned a lot during in that time about what is most profitable for your business, and identified your niche specialty. So why not use this experience and knowledge to adapt your advertising and marketing efforts to reach customers that are seeking these products and services? Second, the world has changed. Never mind the astronomical changes that have taken place over the last 20 years, let’s just consider the last 3 years. Your customers’ wants, needs, and buying/shopping habits have changed, without a doubt, during this time. Lastly, the tools that are available to you to market to your ideal customer are exponentially different and more powerful than when you first started your business; this change in tools allows you to hone in on individuals to a greater degree than in the history of the world.

Many savvy business owners will read that last paragraph, and say, “Yes, I know everything has changed, but how do I know what tools will work best for me? How do I avoid getting ripped off or throwing good money after bad by using the wrong solutions?” This is where a trusted expert becomes invaluable: someone that will come in and listen to your needs, take a look at your business from a new perspective while respecting your expertise and honoring your business’s legacy. This should be someone who doesn’t rely on a static set of tools in their box that they will try to make work for your business, but rather, one who develops custom solutions and recommends multiple paths to reach your goals, depending on your bandwidth, budget, and philosophy.

No matter who you chose to be your trusted adviser, they should assist you in identifying your target market and help you spend your marketing dollars in a wise manner. Everyone talks about Return On Investment, but only you can decide what that means for you and your business. Utilize a consultant that understands your business and will measure success based on your standards, not theirs; or will at least intelligently advise you how you accomplish that.