Why ICPs are the absolute blueprint for B2B marketing success

If you’ve spent any time in the marketing sphere, you've probably heard the terms ‘ideal customer profile’ (ICP) and ‘buyer persona’, on repeat.

Having worked with tech-led companies, I’ve found ICPs to be the foundation of every solid strategy – and there’s a good reason for that. To build a strong business, you need to know who you’re targeting, why you’re targeting them, and how you’ll reach them.

But here is the thing: a good ICP runs deeper than a buyer persona.

While buyer personas are promising, using them can feel like casting a wide net and hoping for the best. A well-crafted ICP, on the other hand, gives you the precision you need to target the right customer and approach them with purpose and clarity.

When you’re starting out, attracting any customers at all seems exciting. However, as your business grows and the market saturates, the real goal becomes to attract customers who truly align with your business – and that’s where having an ICP pays off.

So, how do you pull an ICP out of theory and put it into practice?

Let's begin with the basics.

What isn't an ICP?

It might surprise you, but solely relying on a buyer persona isn't the best move when identifying an ideal client. In fact, a buyer persona is just the tip of the iceberg, the start of the outline, but not the complete final picture.

Buyer persona = Think, see, feel, do

Take the most clichéd example below (sometimes returning to the basics is good). Although the personas are defined using the same qualitative measure, they present two vastly different buyer behaviors.

Buyer personas help you understand general behavior. They can help you spot trends and buying habits, and get an overall sketch of the target audience. However, they don't dive deep enough to identify pain points and problems.

An ICP, on the other hand, is where the magic happens. It digs into the nitty-gritty of your customer’s needs. It’s all about carefully analyzing the problem and crafting a highly detailed ‘derived profile.’

That said, it’s important to remember that creating these profiles takes some trial and error. This process helps you uncover what really matters to your customers—their biggest pain points and where your business can add real value.

Done right, it leads to better engagement, higher renewal rates, and strong, trust-based relationships that drive referrals and loyalty.

What an ICP is	What an ICP is not
A highly specific profile of your ideal customer, shaped by clear pain points and needs	A generic buyer persona with broad demographic details like age, gender, or industry.
A customer who is ready to engage with your product and sees its value.	Someone who requires convincing to take action or become a viable lead.
A profile rooted in real data, reflecting precise business needs and challenges.	A speculative profile based on trends or vague potential, with no clear likelihood of conversion.

How to identify useful ICPs

venn diagram to identify useful ICPs — *The sweet spot for good ICPs*

Before we dive into specifics, there are a few principles to remember when defining your ICP:

ICPs are highly subjective and will vary widely according to your product and industry.
A poorly defined ICP will lead to higher customer acquisition costs
The absence of an ICP will lead to ineffective personalization, misaligned brand messaging, and reduced engagement rates.
As your business evolves, so will your ICP.
Keep testing your ICP; the best ICPs often result from constant experimentation, trial, and error.
Your ICP needs to be unique to YOUR service/product, not your competitor or the trends in the market. While you should stay on top of trends, the more unique selling points you offer, the better chance of renewals.

How to identify the right ICP for your business

ICPs aren't just a theory of shoulds and shouldn’ts. Every business has its own way of measuring the right ICP fit. However, the following steps are a good starting point.

1. Collect market data

The first step is to understand your market. This isn’t just about your product; it's more about understanding the behaviors, challenges, hurdles, and needs of your potential clients.

Many companies begin by analyzing their existing data – such as sales leads, conversions, and customer feedback. This information forms the foundation for any business, providing the objective insights needed to pinpoint the specific wants and needs of your ideal customer.

If you’re starting from scratch, here are some tried and tested ways to go about it:

Look at your competition: See which customers they target and why.
Leverage your existing data: Analyse current customer behavior to spot trends.

As you gather more information, you may find the second approach more useful for establishing the basics of your ideal customer.

In case you don't, here are a few questions to start with:

Questions to ask	How to answer them
What is your potential market, and which segment does your business target (e.g., tech, healthcare, education)?	Analyze industry trends, competitor saturation, and market reports.
What percentage of the market have you already captured?	Conduct competitor analysis and review your company’s existing data.
What’s the potential for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones?	Perform customer behavior analysis to identify opportunities and challenges.
How aware are clients of your brand?	Use social media monitoring and brand tracking tools to measure awareness.
How satisfied are your clients?	Collect customer reviews and seek regular feedback to assess satisfaction levels.

This data will allow you to build a rough idea of who your ICPs could be.

Unfortunately, many companies stop at this stage—but this is where the real work begins. Once you’ve gathered enough data, you can start refining it to pinpoint the specific characteristics that truly define your ICP.

2. Narrowing down the ICP basics

Having data at your disposal provides a solid foundation to move forward. It allows you to identify the key characteristics of your existing clients or the types of customers you’d like to work with.

General characteristics of clients you’ve worked with or have the potential to serve	Examples
Industry type	Technology, finance, education
Business model	SaaS, e-Commerce
Market/location	USA, New Jersey, New York’s Upper East Side
Company age	5 years 6 months
Company size	Startup phase, series A funding, fewer than 100 employees
Tech stack	Hubspot, Slack, Zoho

Once you have a broad sense of who fits, the next step is to get specific. The narrower your characteristics become the clearer your ICPs will be.

Here’s how:

Unique characteristics of clients you’ve worked with or have the potential to serve	Examples
Revenue	$10M ARR, $10K MRR
Investments	Yes/No
Workflows or work styles	Operationally heavy
Budget	<20k/month
Interaction medium	LinkedIn, newsletters, email, forums, and communities

Other characteristics	Example
Teams	Marketing, product marketing
Team size	5–10
Job titles	VP of marketing, head of marketing, sales manager
Specific job roles	Campaign runs, outbound sales
Pain points and challenges faced by the team	Low lead scoring, exhaustive workflows, demand generation
Goal	More leads and conversions

By understanding your customers’ pain points and the factors that influence their behavior throughout the customer journey, you can take targeted actions to deliver real value.

This means addressing their challenges directly and providing clear, actionable frameworks to meet their needs.

3. Test out your initial ICPs

Once you’ve defined your ICPs, the next step is to put them to the test. Focus on evaluating their performance using both broad and detailed insights through key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:

Conversion rates
High Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
Product usage metrics
Long-term value (LTV)
Positive customer feedback
Impact on ROI, Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
Effective customer communication

Don’t hesitate to experiment and adjust your ICPs as needed. Building these profiles is an iterative process that requires continuous learning and refining. Even if your initial findings are a little ambiguous, patterns will begin to emerge as you outline their characteristics and value propositions.

Key takeaway: Make your ICPs actionable

The success of your ICPs hinges on how thoughtfully and thoroughly you approach the process. It’s crucial to establish a solid understanding of what makes a strong ICP rather than relying on guesswork or hunches.

A well-defined ICP increases your chances of attracting high-value customers who are more likely to generate referrals and stick with you for the long haul. Think of your ICPs as an investment – one that will pay long-term dividends.

Keep in mind that building an effective ICP is a deliberate, iterative process. You might not get it perfect on the first try, and that’s okay. The key is to continually refine and adapt your profiles to unlock the potential for meaningful growth and success.

Our Marketing Attribution ebook was designed to help you understand which channels truly drive revenue, so you can better attribute your data. Learn from your peers and industry experts, as well as from many actionable insights.