You'll want to select what is called a "target audience." This is an identifiable group of people you believe will be best prospects for your business.

But for many small business owners, narrowing their focus to one primary group of people can be a challenging task. They want to help everyone — and very often their product or service CAN help a variety of people.

It also goes against human nature to narrow your focus in order to grow a business. Common sense seems to tell us if we want to grow our business big, we need to appeal to more people.

Take some time to review all of your marketing activities and try to understand which ones worked best. And when I say “worked best” I mean, which ones resulted in more clients, more customers, more sales, or more growth for your business?

Your goal each year should be to understand which marketing activities bring you more business and which ones do not, so you can concentrate on activities that work, and delete ones that do not. Even if you did not have an organized marketing plan, or marketing activities that you implemented consistently during past year, if you are still in business today, then there must have been some form of marketing going on.

Marketing isn’t only things like running an advertisement, or sending out a direct mail piece. (See “Is That Really Considered Marketing?” below to better understand all different forms that marketing can take. You may be surprised to realize you’ve been marketing more than you know!)

Direct vs. Indirect Tracking

Take a look at what you did do. Can you directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You attended a networking event and someone you gave your business card to, contacted you or made a purchase.

An example of indirect tracking might be: You attended a networking event, and someone you gave your business card to, referred you to a friend, and that friend contacted you or made a purchase. For each marketing activity you did over past year, ask yourself following questions:

1. Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?

2. If answer is yes, quantify result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?