Ideal customer profiling – meaning

Customer profiling is like sketching the portrait of your customers who are typical users of your services or products. It is as defined by many a ‘model of customers’, which you, as a marketer, can use to identify your best ones. This includes the categorical description of the customers; providing value to your company. And also, helping you earn better prospects ahead.

You can develop an ICP by analysing and comparing your existing customers, how your services benefit them and add value to their brand. To do that you need to create a structured design and template. You also have to collect the required data and analyse how your clients are succeeding.

Why is it important?

• Connect to a tailored audience

An ideal customer profiling enables you to segment your audience and identify your best set of customers. The importance of customer profiling lies in the fact that it allows you to tailor your clients. It helps you to connect only to those whom you will actually serve a purpose. And hence it also saves you from wasting your valuable time.

Your prospects will always research before they approach you. They only contact you if they feel you are in a position to serve what they need. Hence, it would be best if you can highlight not only what you did for your customers. But also how your service added value to your customers’ experience.

• For account-based marketing

ICP and account-based marketing go hand in hand while designing an effective marketing strategy. Account-based marketing starts with an ideal customer profiling and target account list. You should understand that ICP is not the only and final list of customers for your company. ICP is the most specific set of prospects, which will lead you to your target audience and help you keep them.

Defining ICP helps in identifying the data to align accounts with your criteria. This in turn helps to identify the accounts to which you should dedicate time and resource.

• For more referrals

Your ideal customers are always the one who has acquired real-time value from your service or product. These are your loyal customers and are the one happy to recommend you to the other prospects. As such, the leads acquired through referrals are always of high quality.

Remember that referred customers are always better for your brand. Also they have a higher lifetime value. An ideal customer profiling focuses on churning high-quality leads. This would help you in distinguishing your key customers from all other prospects.

• Helps in retargeting your audience as per the situation

Retargeting is the best way to encourage your audience to join you, who did not consider you in the first place. As per research, 96% of your prospects are not ready to make a purchase right away. ICP helps you in reaching your potential customers, as per the arising needs in the organization.

With a defined ICP, you can track every crucial marketing signals. Using the insights from your existing customers, you can proceed towards a better success story. Remember, it is vital to go with the industry trends, even if you want to break it at some point. Retargeting your prospects would definitely play the game for you.

Thus make sure your ICP is up to date and well evaluated.

• Works as a great marketing tool

The most basic need of an ideal customer profiling is marketing. In a nutshell, you can use ICP as a marketing tool to recognize and understand your customers. The reason behind the failure of many marketing strategies is the lack of focus on the most important and attracting everyone.

As mentioned earlier, customer profiling helps you in identifying your most typical customers. Segregating your customers based on account-based marketing tactics helps you in positioning your product or service to appeal to your ideal customers.

Remember, it’s not very difficult to create an ideal customer profile. But it’s crucial to maintain and change it from time to time to cater to you as per the situation and market demands. As per research updating your ICP in every three months can prove to be helpful.

With a well-developed ICP, you are all set to proceed to the next stage of account-based marketing. After all, no marketing works if you market yourself to the wrong person, does it?