How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) [+ Template]

Are your sales and marketing teams on the same page about which customers generate the most value for your business? When you're clear on your best customers, you can prioritize your target audience and maximize the value of your efforts.

In this article, we'll cover how to create an ideal customer profile (ICP) so you can attract more of the right buyers, increase their lifetime value, and run more efficient campaigns. We'll also share how our team uses Livestorm's ICP for lead generation.

What is an ideal customer profile?

An ideal customer profile is a data-driven description of the optimal customer for your business to target. For B2B companies, the ICP is a single business that represents your prime customer.

Think of your ICP as your most valuable customer and the customer that's most likely to benefit from your solution. Businesses that fit this profile tend to provide high return on investment (ROI) because they generate revenue, referrals, and valuable insights.

A typical B2B ICP includes several different types of information:

• Psychographics, which explore attributes, pain points, and aspirations
• Firmographics, which describe the company's industry, size, and revenue
• Technographics, which clarify the technology the company uses

Here's a customer profile example:

ICP vs buyer persona: What's the difference?

It's easy to confuse buyer persona and ICP meanings. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, there are a few important distinctions between the two.

So, what is ICP, and how does it differ from a buyer persona? While ICP generally refers to a company, a buyer persona describes a person—often referring to one or more roles within the company.

While companies have just one ICP, they often have more than one buyer persona. For example, your company may have a buyer persona to represent each member of your ideal customer's buying committee.

Buyer personas often include a completely different set of characteristics. While an ICP focuses on firmographics and technographics, a buyer persona explores demographics and psychographics as well as interests, challenges, and objections.

How to create an ideal customer profile

Follow these steps to collect and analyze the data you need to create your ICP.

Clarify your unique value proposition

First, get clear on what your business does and what sets it apart. What solutions does your company provide, and how do you help your ideal customer? Most importantly, what differentiates it from the competition?

For example, Livestorm is a webinar platform designed for hosting engaging online events. Our engagement tools, user-friendliness, customization options, and commitment to data protection set us apart.

Identify your best customers

Next, consider your current customer base. Which accounts would you consider most successful? Make a list of the customers with the:

• Highest ROI
• Greatest lifetime value
• Most upsells or cross-sells
• Most referrals to other customers
• Longest relationship with your company
• Best net promoter scores (NPS) or customer satisfaction scores (CSAT)

There are a few ways to gather this information. One is to talk with colleagues who work directly with customers. For example, ask your customer experience or sales team for a list of top accounts.

Another option is to use data from your company's customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Filter your customer data using the criteria above to produce a list of your best accounts.

Alternatively, choose a customer profiling tool to automate the process. Many ICP tools have a price tag, but options like Breadcrumbs Reveal or Lemlist Buyer Persona Generator can analyze your data at no cost.

Analyze customer data

Once you've identified your best customers, review the data. Make note of characteristics like:

• Location
• Industry
• Company size
• Years in business
• Business model
• Annual revenue
• Number of customers
• Tech stack

Look for similarities between your top accounts. Aim to identify 10 customers that share most or all of the attributes above. These characteristics form the foundation of your ICP.

Interview your customers

Analyzing existing customer data is just one way to define your ICP. To gather even more in-depth insights into your best customers' goals and pain points, speak with them directly.

Customer interviews allow you to ask questions like:

• How they initially learned about your company
• What prompted them to purchase your product or service in the first place
• How their buying process typically works
• Why they've remained your customer for so long
• How your product or service has benefited them

Connect with the 10 customers you identified above. Request to interview them over the phone, in person, or via video call.

Livestorm makes it easy for marketing teams to manage customer interviews via video conferencing. Just schedule an online meeting with each customer team, and invite everyone on the call to speak.

Set your Livestorm meeting to record automatically. Then, focus on asking compelling questions and interacting with your customers. You won't need to take notes during the call since you can refer to the recording later.

Fill out your ideal customer profile template

By now, you should have data from your CRM, internal teams, and customer feedback calls. Compile it to create an ICP template that your product, customer success, marketing, and sales teams can use again and again.

Modify this ICP template to make it your own:

Revisit and update your ICP

Developing an ICP isn't a one-time exercise. Instead, your ICP is something you should review periodically.

Consider revisiting this process quarterly or biannually to ensure your data is current. After all, any element can change over time. As your product or service develops, your optimal customers may evolve, too.

5 Ways to use your ideal customer profile

Now you're ready to use your ICP. Here are five ideas to help you get started.

1. Simplify lead scoring

When you identify the best customers for your business, you'll know exactly which leads to prioritize. This information helps your sales and marketing teams run more efficient lead generation campaigns.

Lead scoring automatically assigns scores to potential customers based on custom criteria. If you use your ICP to define the criteria, you can easily identify high-priority leads and focus your lead gen efforts.

At Livestorm, we use MadKudu for lead scoring. This AI-powered tool provides firmographic, technographic, and behavioral scores based on more than a dozen data sources, making it easy to find our top leads.

2. Manage account-based marketing (ABM)

A well-researched ICP is essential for running successful ABM campaigns. After all, ABM focuses on creating marketing and sales content for specific accounts that fit your ideal customer.

Once you've defined your ideal customer and mapped out your buyer personas, you can create personalized content for these accounts. For example, you can display custom website content that speaks to the roles and goals of various buyer personas within your target accounts.

3. Improve marketing campaign performance

Even if ABM is a small part of your B2B marketing strategy, you can still use ideal customer research to improve campaign performance. For example, you may learn that your ICP prefers video content. In this case, you could allocate more budget to video marketing or design a webinar funnel.

You can also use your research to inform the kind of marketing assets you prioritize. For example, you may learn that your target customer's buying committee includes a CTO and a CRO. In this case, you could develop lead magnets that speak to these decision makers.

4. Refine your positioning

The more you know about what your ideal customer needs, the better you can position your business, product, or service. Your ICP's goals and pain points can prove particularly helpful here.

For example, you may learn that one of your ICP's most important business objectives is something your solution addresses—but isn't something you mention in your marketing. By featuring it on your website and in your marketing campaigns, you can position your solution as an essential purchase for your ICP.

5. Shorten your sales cycle

When you work to improve your messaging, positioning, and lead scoring, each touchpoint can make a bigger impact. This means you can guide potential customers through your sales funnel more efficiently.

These efforts can speed up your sales cycle. As a result, defining and targeting your ICP can drive more business and lead to a positive effect on your bottom line.

Livestorm for connecting with your ICP

Use Livestorm to connect with your best customers. From demand generation to lead generation, our webinar software makes it easy to:

• Host engaging on-demand webinars and live events for your ICP
• Follow up with qualified leads via email sequences
• Integrate Livestorm with marketing automation and CRM tools

Ready to try it for yourself? Sign up for Livestorm and set up your next online meeting or webinar in minutes.