How to define & manage your ICP?
Aleksa Mitrović | Hyperaktiv.ai
6 replies
After going through this topic numerous times myself and also discussing it with other founders/marketers, I've made a summary of how to manage your ICP.
1) For companies with already launched products (relying on 1st + 3rd party data), check:
- The user retention over time, and connecting it with the users' profile
- User engagement, and trying to find patterns within the user profile
- Conversion, and link it to the user profile
If all 3 aspects are pointing toward one specific user archetype, you struck gold :)
For the majority of companies, conversion is the core, however sometimes VC-backed companies choose engagement & retention over conversion.
With paying customers, managing the ICP is an ongoing job, that should be evaluated every 6 months or so.
2) For companies without launched products (mostly relying on 3rd party data), check:
- Which profile is most common among website visitors
- Which profile expressed the most interest on social media/forums
- (If you conduct customer discovery interviews) Which profile is closest to buying or pre-ordering your product
1st party data = user properties, the data you've collected tracking your inside your app
3rd party data = user properties, the data you can check from LinkedIn & co
How do you manage your ICP? Share your experiences in the comments!
Replies
Simona O'Neill@simona_o_neill3
Great insights Aleksa! Understanding who your best customers are is the most important thing for any startup, in my opinion. But it's also the hardest thing to do if you are trying to do it all manually. The likes of Mixpanel and Plausible can only give you a very limited info on who your customers are.
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@simona_o_neill3 Yeah you're 100% right. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of resources & know-how to nail it down. Seems easy at a glance, however difficult to implement.
Nailing down can open so many revenue opportunities.
ICP management is super critical but also super challenging! I recommend checking out tools like Segment and Pocus - they make it way easier to clearly define your ICP and keep that data synced across your CRM, ad platforms, analytics, etc. Game changer for us in really zeroing in on our ideal customers and personalizing the full customer journey for them.
@nancywright 100%. Personalization is the only way forward, to cut through the noise. Check also www.hyperaktiv.ai how it can help you with figuring out your ICP ;)
Totally agree that understanding your ideal customer profile (ICP) is key. Some tips that have worked for me: 1) Analyze your best existing customers to ID common traits, 2) Create a detailed profile of your ideal customer's demographics, needs, behaviors etc, 3) Focus your marketing & sales efforts on channels and messaging that will resonate with this profile. There are some cool AI-powered tools emerging to help automate ICP analysis too, by mining your CRM data to find trends and patterns in your top accounts. Definitely an exciting area to watch!
@nicholasalexandergreen cool stuff, have you seen significant improvement in your results since you nailed down your ICP?