It’s essential to think about your target market before you dive in and start work on marketing. Think about who your ideal customers would be and target them specifically. If you get caught up in thinking that your target market is “anyone,” don’t be fooled; there are always criteria that help you better define who you want to attract.
If you create generalised messages to “anyone,“ you appeal to no one. There are two main things you need to know about your ideal customer:
- Who are they?
- What would interest them about your product or service?
What is an ICP?
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the type of company or customer that is the perfect fit for your product or service. This goes beyond basic demographic information to include behavioural and firmographic details, which help identify the companies or individuals who would benefit most from your offer.
Why is an ICP Important?
An ICP is crucial for several reasons:
- Targeted Marketing: Helps to craft precise marketing messages that resonate with your audience.
- Sales Efficiency: Allows your sales team to focus on leads that are most likely to convert.
- Product Development: Guides the development of features and services that meet the specific needs of your target audience.
- Customer Satisfaction: This ensures that you attract customers who benefit most from your offerings, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.
Who are your target customers?
- Companies or individuals? Determine if you are targeting businesses or individual consumers.
- Company size/income level: Identify the size of the companies (e.g., SMEs, large enterprises) or the income level of individuals.
- Location: Geographical focus can be local, national, or international.
- Market sectors: Identify the industry sectors that are most relevant to your offerings.
- Unique attributes: What makes these customers unique or different from others?
Knowing your target customers will allow you to aim at the right places to reach them. You’ll often have more than one target market or kind of customer, so it’s far better to segment and target them differently.
Start with one, go deep, and move on to a second later.
For example, if you were an accountant who targets sole traders and small businesses, you could see this as a single category and target startups and enterprises with under five employees. However, you can segment that further and target building trades, consultants, veterinary practices or whatever niche you prefer. Pick a category in which you’ve already been successful, and think about how you found existing clients and how you’d find similar ones.
What would interest them?
Thinking specifically about the product or service you offer, what would your ideal customer find really interesting? It’s important to get at emotion – what would they really care about enough to take action and contact you or buy?
- What is the problem you offer to solve or the desire you fulfil? Understand the pain points or desires that drive your ideal customers.
- What would they be seeking to solve their problem? Identify the solutions or features they are looking for.
- What kind of things would they particularly like? Determine the features or benefits that they appreciate the most.
- What kind of things would they dislike? Avoid characteristics that could deter them from engaging with your product or service.
As with the previous point, segment your target markets. Think about existing customer types who love your products or services and who you love dealing with. What exactly do they like about your products or services? When you know that chances are you know that other prospects in the same niche will appreciate the same things, that’s what you must include in your marketing message to them.
It will be pretty generic if you list the features and benefits of what you offer. Some will matter more or less than others to different people, and it’s hard to appeal to people with a mix, including things they don’t really care about. That’s why it’s important to segment and target each niche with just the important points to them, using their language and referring to their particular interests. The response rates to targeted segmented marketing will be much higher than to generic advertising aimed at anyone and everyone. And more of the leads will convert to customers. It costs you less, takes less time to convert to customers, and they’ll stay longer.
It’s incredible how many people need to segment their marketing! By focusing on creating an accurate and detailed ICP, you set your business up for greater efficiency, effectiveness, and long-term success.
