Small business is about identifying and servicing niche markets. If you know what your niche market is you have a fantastic marketing opportunity already at your doorstep – as long as you know how to reach it.

Knowing where the market is and how to reach it should all be written in your marketing plan. This is where you include all the information about the market in which you operate – what you're selling, where you're selling it and for how much, who else is selling it, who wants to buy it and who your specific target audience is.  

Your marketing plan should also include how you are going to tell people about your products or services. The way you choose to market your business could easily determine how successful you become.

Advertising versus direct marketing

Where general advertising builds awareness and creates a positive image for a new product, direct marketing asks straight up for the order. It's about going straight to your target group, often with a personalised letter, and giving them a direct opportunity to buy.

Direct Marketing is not advertising. It is selling to existing and potential identifiable customers and its result is measurable.

The whole concept of direct marketing is that it is direct communication to a particular target; either a current customer, former customer or someone who you believe fits the characteristics of your current customers. General marketing, on the other hand, is not addressed to any particular customer.

But for direct marketing to be successful, the business must have a database. This is where you collect as much information as possible about your customers – their demographics (contact details, age, occupation), how often they buy, what they buy, how much they spend and so on.

When planning your direct marketing campaign, decide which type of customers you want to approach. Whether it's your top customers, or particular customers you think will genuinely be interested in the product you are promoting, the database should be able to tell you which customers to target.

Direct marketing, which can also use email, telemarketing or personal visit as a means of delivering the message, is a very powerful tool for small businesses because they can:

- concentrate and dominate niche markets
- generate additional sales from existing customers and new customers
- generate sales leads from groups of persons who are very similar to existing customers.