Don't make the mistake of marketing your product or service before you've defined your customer or client. If you do, you're just throwing your marketing money away.

    Marketing isn't just a matter of placing ads. It's a method of attracting new business. Before you can hope to achieve this, you have to know exactly who you want to target with your marketing. You need to know your target market before you can reach them.

    What's the point, for instance, in buying an advertising spot on TV if you're trying to sell whitewater rafting adventures? Are these sorts of people really going to be sitting in front of the tube?

    Define your customer by getting to know everything you possibly can about him or her. Think carefully about your product or service. Exactly who would want to purchase it? How old is this person? What is her marital status? Where does she live? How does she like to spend her spare time? What are her hobbies? What other products does she buy? Where does she go on vacation?

    You need to develop your target market as specifically as possible if you're going to market your product or service effectively. So think of your "ideal" client or customer as a person. Visualize him or her in detail. "See" what he or she does, thinks, and wants.

    If you can't visualize this person clearly and distinctly, then you need to research your potential customer or client until you can. Because until you can define your target market, you won't be able to make the decisions that need to be made about marketing, such as how, where, and when to advertise.

    During my years as a marketing and service consultant, I learned that you have to give before you receive and that's what customized marketing is all about.

    This is a simple rule and you might say, "Why, we are business persons! We are pragmatic and go straight to the point! We mail our price list or our delivery schedule to prospective customers or clients."

    But that's not enough. Instead of just giving the customer the same thing that every other customer is given, why not write a small report describing what you can do for the other company and how you will do it?

    Customized marketing does not mean giving away all your secrets, contacts or giving the solutions for free. It means giving your prospective customers the information they need to do business with you, and will only give you an edge over your competitors. This kind of directed, specific marketing might take a few hours of your time but you will certainly win or keep a new customer.

    Remember the following:

1. 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers;

2. Finding a new customer is harder than keeping the ones you have.

Ginette Provost is a consultant and a marketing teacher at Lasalle College in Montréal.