As it always should be – Ideal customer profile (ICP) has become the talk of the ‘marketing town’ as almost every business strives to create an ICP for their company. And this comes as no surprise as the first step towards a successful marketing campaign is nailing the ICP; everything else will come later.

Hence, in this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about an ICP, including what it is, its importance, and finally, how to create one.

What Is An ICP

An ICP, is, as the name implies, a profile of your ideal clientele. An ICP is essentially a summary of the kind of customer that best fits the product or services or solutions you offer.

A well-made ICP supports marketers, sales teams in determining which customers are most likely to show interest in, buy from, succeed with, and recommend your offerings to others. This knowledge enables your team to decide who and how to target.

The Importance of a defined ICP

A sucessful business requires long-term customer relationships, which can only be achieved by targeting the right ones. Here are some benefits of creating an ICP for your business:

Save Time and Effort

A strong template for an ideal customer against which to assess incoming leads is a basic but extremely powerful approach to asking a simple question: Is this consumer likely to purchase from us?

If the answer is no, you will save your teams’ time, effort, and resources – for both sales and marketing. And if yes, you’ll be in a better position to communicate with them.

Low CLV and churn rates suggest you’re marketing to possibly not-so-correct accounts. When you have a go-to-market plan that targets the ideal accounts, your customer lifetime value (CLV) will gradually rise.

Improve Lead Qualification

ICP can be used to qualify leads as a baseline. If the lead attributes do not match your ideal consumers, you can remove them from the funnel. This allows you to concentrate your efforts on prospects who have the potential to become your ideal customer and are more likely to convert and stay with your company for a longer duration.

Send The Right Message

You may create a personalized message and express it through marketing collateral if you understand your ideal customer’s pain areas, demands, and interests. An ideal customer profile gives you the direction and angle you need to create relevant content.

Steps To Follow To Create An ICP

It is extremely essential that all right teams – marketing, sales, customer services and leadership come together and do extensive brainstorming.

Step 1: Analyze Your Current Best Customers

Examine your best customers. Consider the customers who pay the most, perform the best, are the most praised, and have been with you the longest. Make a list of the top customers based on this. What do these customers all have in common?

To generate your list of common attributes, consider the following:

• Which of their problems do you have a solution for?
• Where are they based, and to whom do they sell?
• What are their financial constraints?
• What is the size of their company?
• Where are they in terms of their expansion ambitions and company objectives?

This may need collaboration from several departments to develop a list of common characteristics that make each customer extremely beneficial to your company. These attributes can be used to build your ICP.

Step 2: Study Customer Opinion To Determine Your Company’s Key Strength

What do your existing customers like the most about your business? This might include anything from customer service to product quality. Understanding what distinguishes you from your competition is essential for attracting new clients who seek the same attributes.

Use online review data and social media comments to learn how your customers perceive your business. AI technology can assist you in swiftly and efficiently analyzing this data to uncover patterns and trends.

Step 3: Interview Your Current Customers (Research)

You can’t create a valuable ICP until you talk to your consumers. This information is best gathered through one-on-one consumer interviews. If necessary, a survey can be used, especially if you have many clients with a low LTV.

These interviews can provide some consumer data for your profile, so don’t miss them. In addition to conducting interviews, you should undertake your research on these firms to get a better understanding of where they stand and how your services or products have impacted them.

Step 4: Create An ICP For Your Company

With all this essential information available, it’s time to start working on your ICP. It is totally up to you how you format this. You can write it in one line (like a mission or vision) and stick it in front of your sales team, or create an elaborate bifurcation with multiple categories and scenarios in an excel sheet. The ultimate goal is to create something your team understands and can make the most of.

Conclusion

It may take some time and experimentation to develop your ideal consumer profile. Not to mention that your ICP will evolve as your company develops and its objectives shift. If you’ve done some research, you’ll have discovered that even the essential characteristics of each ICP template may differ. Hence, you’re better off selecting a more customizable template to match your organization’s particular demands.