Definition of Ideal Customer Persona (ICP)
An ideal customer persona (ICP) is essentially a profile of a potential customer, typically including demographic information such as age, gender and location, as well as their interests, their job roles and the pain points that they’re facing.
As a general rule, you’ll want your ideal customer persona to be as detailed and in-depth as possible. This then allows you to get the highest possible amount of value out of the ICPs that you create.
Can you have multiple Ideal Customer Personas (ICPs)?
Yes, you can. In fact, it’s a good idea to make sure that you do, because most businesses have multiple different types of people who buy from them. For example, if you provide accountancy services to companies, you might want different ICPs for CEOS, finance directors and other internal decision makers at the companies you sell to.
What is the purpose of an Ideal Customer Persona (ICP)?
The main purpose of having an ideal customer persona is that it allows you to better make sure that your sales and marketing efforts align with the kinds of people that you’re selling and marketing to. They can also be useful for research and product development, because you can crosscheck any ideas with your ICPs to make sure that people will be interested in your new offerings.
How do you create an Ideal Customer Persona (ICP)?
To get started with your first ideal customer persona, you can take a look at your existing customers and try to find some of the commonalities between them. Start with your most popular type of customer and work from there.
You can even consider reaching out to people to ask them for information. You just need to make sure that you ask them the right questions and that you gather their responses. One way to do this is to create a survey, which you can incentivise people to fill out by offering them some sort of freebie, like an Amazon voucher.
What’s the difference between an ideal customer profile (ICP) and a buyer persona?
Ideal customer profiles and buyer personas are similar, but they approach the same problem from different angles. Buyer personas are normally used to improve user experience, while ICPs are about determining who’s most likely to benefit from your product or service.
