Are you doing any kind of target marketing for your small business? More specifically, are you employing any kind of new technologies available on the marketplace that identify specific groups of people who visit, or even shop, on Web sites? Collecting data on these individuals may be a valuable way for you to target your online marketing efforts.

First thing’s first. Have you identified your target or niche customer? For example, maybe you’re a small business that sells ski equipment. But to get more targeted, you sell ski equipment to people that visit Colorado between December and March. Believe it or not there are technologies to help you identify and target people specifically who fall into this identifiable category.

Here’s how it works. Companies track when people go on millions of Web sites to shop for other types of ski accessories or goods, travel accommodations, rental cars, etc, to specific parts of the country. These companies then collect critical marketing data on these individuals and sell the data to businesses looking to market to these people. It can be a very effective form of target marketing.

According to eMarketer, as reported recently in The Wall Street Journal, online marketing via display ads continues to be a hot area of growth for marketers. Online ads will reach $1.1 billion this year, compared to more than $770 million in 2008. Much of this information is being collected from retail, travel and social media Web sites since users of those sites are growing dramatically.

What kind of target marketing are you doing in your small business?