Have you ever thought about this question? I’ll admit, when I first started my website design business my concern was only the second half of the question – the “where do I find clients?!” part. Many new businesses focus only on trying to find clients or customers and skip the critical step of identifying their “perfect” or “ideal” customer (also known as “niche”).

Focused marketing will bring you better results. Unless you sell a product like toothpaste, “everyone” is not your market.

Even toothpaste can be narrowed down. Is it whitening toothpaste? Toothpaste for sensitive teeth? Kids toothpaste? Flouride free toothpaste? Each of these different types of toothpaste has a different target customer and should be marketed with that in mind.

No matter how great a marketing campaign is or how much time or money is put into it, if it’s aimed at the wrong people it will not succeed. You could market kids toothpaste to my Grandparents all you want, but they probably aren’t going to buy it, so it’d be a waste of marketing energy. But consider also that you don’t want to target the marketing for a kids toothpaste at only kids. Who makes the final buying decision for kids toothpaste? Most likely it’s mom. So the right target marketing for a kids toothpaste would be… moms. But not just any moms. Moms with children under 10 years old, who live in the geographical area where the toothpaste is available. See how we’ve narrowed down the target market? Keep going further. If you’ve got a flouride-free kids toothpaste, then you’re looking for an even more specific ideal customer.

Apply this to your products. Keeping in mind what makes you unique, who is your ideal customer?

Work at home mom extraordinaire Michelle Shaeffer publishes The Muses Brainstorm, a weekly ezine with tips to help you balance, manage, and market your home based business. If you’re ready for inspirational guidance and bright ideas sign up free at www.thesmallbusinessmuse.com