ICP is an ideal customer (or client) profile.
Is your company crystal clear about how your category is organized and who you want to target with your messaging?
By creating an ICP, you are building a clear picture of who is and isn’t the best type of customer for you to work with and approach. With this focused effort, your tactics (marketing materials, keywords for PPC, for example) can help you know where you can find opportunities with the right audience by communicating the right message.
Where to Begin
- START WITH CURRENT AND PAST CUSTOMERS. Interview them first to understand why they are customers (or lapsed customers) and what they value. Build the ICP from that point, knowing that you want to find more customers like them.
- DEMOGRAPHICS DATA: Demographics are a useful start for collecting data. Are 80% of your client’s female, have a particular educational degree, live in a specific region? What data do you have on the current demography of clients?
- MINDSETS? What do you know about their mindset? Are they eager to learn and change – or resistant? Although subjective, do you find your current customer base conservative or progressive – accepting or challenging? These attributes can help with content creation.
- MEDIA CONSUMPTION: Do current customers read a lot of your blogs, open your emails, listen to podcasts, or care more about whitepapers? Do you have any insights into how they learn or their preferred way to buy (on a deal, end of year promos)? Great salespeople take notes about some of these observations, so your CRM may be a gold mine of verbatims.
- WHAT’S THEIR STORY? If most of your current clients worked their way up from the ground up into their management role, your communications might want to highlight this as you prospect for the next client. Knowing your current client’s story will inform how you market yourself to identify the ICP.
- WORK BACKWARDS: The end in mind. I like to ask the question, what is the feeling my ICP wants to have when the ICP works with us? Peace of mind? A sense of calm stability? An ally to partner? What is the ultimate emotional benefit current, satisfied customers experience – this might help you think about your messaging and who those ICP might be.
An Ideal client is happy to pay you because of the value you deliver and the problems you solve.
Keep Digging
- SIZE MATTERS: Small, medium or large businesses may all be targets, but probably one group is ideal. What’s the right size company to focus on for your offering, and why? Just because large companies with 5,000 employees or more could grow your revenue, they might also require needs that you can’t fulfill like levels of service.
- INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT: What industries seem to resonate more with your services? Map it and limit your focus. Most companies can only work in a few segments.
- JOB TITLES: Do you know the titles of the key stakeholders at your ideal client who will be your entry point into the organization? If you always get a strong response from the CFO because your message is about cost savings, think about how to talk their language.
- POINT OF ENTRY: Who uses your services internally may need a different message and forms of content once you get through the gatekeeper (CFO) in this example?
- WHAT’S ON THEIR MIND: How does your client search for similar services? Use your existing clients who you have strong relationships with to help you understand what keywords they use when searching for services? Those words can help you with PPC campaigns to reach your ICP.
With a clear ICP, you’ll begin to map a journey to understand the path they take, what they use for trust/reference checking, sales cycle, etc.
Need help developing an ICP?
I can help. You can set up a time chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com. Let’s explore working together today.
Photo by Houcine Ncib on Unsplash
