You may have tailored your product to a particular customer type, like high-end buyers or tech-savvy college graduates. You can know that much, but unless you spend the time and energy to research your target customer, there's a very good chance you're making assumptions when you should be running a fact-based marketing strategy. The difference adds up to real dollars.

As it turns out, the largest, most successful companies all started with a small list of defined target customers before expanding into new markets. Amazon started out targeting book buyers who were comfortable shopping online. Facebook targeted Harvard students before expanding to other universities and audiences. As their businesses grew, the profile of their target customer changed. If they had remained focused on exactly the same target customer, their growth would have been significantly impeded.

The strategy around your target customers is an iterative process of adjustment and refinement over the life of your business. In fact, the target customer that you've focused so heavily on for the first few years of business may be entirely different than the target that you focus on now.