There's a commonly held belief that you should expand your business into every potential market as quickly as possible.

The idea is to market as broadly as possible so that we don't limit our growth potential. The most important thing is that our brand is being seen by as many people as possible in as many places as possible.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it scatters our efforts too wide and too thin.

One large rock in a pond is better than a bunch of pebbles in a lake.

Imagine you're standing on the shore of a big lake throwing handfuls of pebbles into the water.

You'll get a bunch of splashes but you're not making any waves. The lake is too big and the pebbles are too small. Instead, we need to find the right pond to drop the biggest rock we can into it.

When you drop a big rock in a pond the ripple effect from your effort becomes very obvious. The concentric circle of waves spread out across the pond until they reach every shoreline.

For my business, our 'large rock in a small pond' marketing plan was to focus specifically in our geographic backyard. We had been focusing our time and money on trying to expand into new territories throughout North America. This seemed like the right plan because our brand was expanding into new markets.

Instead of trying to expand to all corners of the continent, we switched gears and focused on becoming a recognized and well established brand in western Canada. What we found was that we could produce more revenue for less work at lower costs in our local region. The ripple effect expanded and we were able to open new retailers and grow online through brand recognition.

Make your own ripple effect.

Find the right pond. Choose a segment of the market where you can become the go-to brand, service, company, etc. This should be a large enough segment to be a challenge but small enough to be achievable without having to drastically scale up your expenses.

Select the biggest rock. Develop the messaging that specifically targets this market segment. What are the problems they have that your company is uniquely capable to solve for them? How can you speak directly to them in a way that nobody else can?

It's easy to slip into thinking that growth comes through spreading our marketing efforts as widely as possible to expand into every potential market.

But if we're looking to make waves, we'll be better served by focusing our efforts in a smaller segment of the market and benefit from the ripple effect.