How to Use Your Ideal Customer Profile to Smash Your Business Out of the Park

 
Any and every business large or small needs customers. It is a common saying that “if no one is selling anything then there is no business, period.”

So, knowing your customers well, and having a ‘killer’ ICP, will help you make positive business decisions now and certainly into the future.

The Definition of a Real Ideal Customer Profile

Simply put, your ICP is not a profile of your average customer nor is it a profile of your happy customer. It is a profile of your absolute BEST customer, the one who, throughout all your data analysis, will most probably buy your product and services.

Your ICP leads the way in all your marketing efforts and includes Demographic, Geographic and Psychographic data.

Getting Your Marketing Direction and Message Straight

Your ICP is designed to be the focal point of your marketing message.

Communicating with your target audience is crucial, you need to know what is hurting them, what their wants and needs are and talk to them with a language that they understand.

Your marketing needs to speak directly to your audience and their needs. You have a solution to their problem, and you need to speak to them in their language.

The data your profile yields is essential for understanding how to communicate with your audience. Even if you have a truly wonderful product that perfectly meets their needs, the wrong messaging won’t reach them.

Best Bang for Your Buck

It only makes common sense to try and get the most exposure for your advertising dollar.

However, it is the right type of exposure that will make your ads effective.

You need to use the information in your ICP to design the parameters of your ads.

Use the Demographic data to target where your ad is to be distributed and the Psychographic data to craft your targeted message and target the media to use.

For Now AND For the Future

Another benefit of your Ideal Customer Profile is that it will grow with your business. It is like a living breathing document that never goes out of service if you keep updating it from time to time.

Markets have different trends so when you recognize a new one, make adjustments for it in your ICP.

Your business will grow, and you will add new products and services to your business menu.

An effective ICP will help to identify how your customers are similar, and how you can be different from your competitors.

The most important benefit from this will be that you will be able see just how unique your products and services are in meeting your customers wants and needs.

A business with a well prepared ICP will stand a far GREATER chance for success and a much easier road getting there than a business that does not have one.

Put the ‘peddle to the metal’ so to speak, and make sure you create one for your business.

This is the final article for this month’s ‘Ideal Customer Profile’ focus. If you have not read the other articles, here are the links:

Week 1: Your ‘Ideal Customer Profile’ – What Is It and Why Does Your Business Need One?

Week 2: How to Craft a Killer Ideal Customer Profile

Week 3: 6 Common Mistakes Business Owners Make