Find Your Dream Clients Without the Hassle

Most businesses start off too broadly when defining their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Imagine a designer who claims, "My service is for everyone! Any company can use corporate branding!" While this may be technically true, it's also the quickest way to ensure your message becomes just another email in the spam folder.

To cut through the noise, you need to be specific so that when you reach out, your prospect feels like you've read their diary. This level of specificity is crucial because it enables you to craft messaging that resonates deeply with your audience, making them think, "This is exactly what I need!"

Being specific makes your outreach more effective and helps you understand and anticipate your ideal customer's needs, objections, and desires. Let's examine how to define your ICP from three different angles: firmographics, demographics, and psychographics.

Firmographics: Getting the Hard Facts Right

Firmographics cover the hard, objective facts about a company. Think of it as setting the borders of your map before you start exploring.

Here’s what you should define:

• Location and Geography: Where is your ideal customer located? Are you targeting companies in specific countries, states, or cities?

• Industry: Are you focusing on medical technology companies, e-commerce brands, or SaaS startups? Be as specific as possible.

• Company Size: What's the employee count? Are you targeting small businesses or large enterprises?

• Revenue: What's the annual revenue range of your ideal customer?

• Technology Stack: What tools or platforms do they already use? Knowing a company's tool and tech stack can help you tailor your pitch.

• Funding Rounds: Have they recently raised funds? If so, they might be more open to investing in new services.

Example: You're targeting medical companies in Switzerland with fewer than 50 employees and annual revenues of $1–5 million.

Avoid assuming all companies in an industry have the same needs. Dig deeper to uncover the unique challenges faced by different segments.

With the company's foundational details mapped out, let's focus on the individuals who drive decisions within these organizations.

Demographics: Knowing Who You're Talking To

Once you have a clear picture of the company, it's time to zoom in on the individual decision-makers within that organization. Since you can't speak to everyone, you need to identify the key players who will listen to what you have to say.

Here's what to define:

• Job Title: Are you looking to speak with the Head of Marketing, a CMO, or the Founder?

• Seniority Level: Are you targeting senior executives or mid-level managers?

• Department: Which department is most relevant to your offering—Marketing, Sales, IT, or Operations?

• Years in Role: How long have they been in their position? New hires might be more open to change, while veterans might have more decision-making power.

• Education and Language: Do they prefer to communicate in a specific language? Are there educational backgrounds that are more relevant to your offering?

Example: Your target could be CMOs of small SaaS startups who have been in their roles for over two years and have a background in data-driven marketing.

Having identified our ideal audience, it's time to delve deeper. To truly connect, we need to understand what makes them tick. This is where psychographics come into play, revealing the motivations, fears, and values influencing their decisions.

Psychographics: Unlocking the Mindset of Your Ideal Customer

This is where things get interesting. Psychographics digs deep into the emotional and mental traits of your ideal customer. It's about understanding what makes them tick—their goals, fears, values, habits, and motivations. Think of this as your Jedi mind trick.

Key questions to ask:

• What are their goals? What do they want to achieve this quarter or year?

• What are their fears? What keeps them up at night? Are they worried about falling behind competitors, not understanding AI, or losing market share?

• What have they tried before that didn't work? Knowing this can help you present your offer as a fresh solution.

• What alternatives are they considering? Who else are they talking to?

• What results do they expect? Are they looking for cost savings, more leads, and increased efficiency?

• What do they value? What’s important to them and why?

Example: Your ideal customer is a startup founder who is overwhelmed by the complexity of AI but knows it's crucial to stay competitive. They've tried implementing AI tools but found them too time-consuming and confusing.

Pulling It All Together

When you define your ICP using these three dimensions, you create a multi-layered profile that guides every part of your marketing strategy—from messaging to channel selection to offer creation. The goal is to get so specific that your target customer feels like you've tapped into their mind and know exactly what they need.

It's perfectly fine to have a handful of distinct ICPs you target individually; this is still better than merging them into one generic customer profile, making your messaging fall flat.

In the next section, I'll share the exact ICPs I use for my agency and this newsletter to give concrete examples.

My Current ICPs

As you can imagine, the people I interact with on Service Street are quite different from those on Brand Boulevard, as reflected in the profiles I share below.

Look at the description of my newsletter audience and let me know whether it resonates with you because it should. Here we go: