Note: This is part one of a series of short blogs related to our Content Planning Workbook read Part 2 and Part 3.
Let’s say for a moment that you want to go camping this weekend.
Where are you going to go?
Will you just jump in the car, drive into the wilderness and pitch a tent anywhere?
Probably not.
Instead, there are a number of questions you are asking yourself about why, where and how you plan on going camping that will contribute to your final decision.
Why are you going in the first place? Who is coming with you? How will you get there? What are your time constraints? What do you need to take with you? And so on.
Your prospective customers are going through a similar process every time they decide whether or not to buy your product or service.
Much like a camping spot, your business is in amongst the camouflage of trees and hidden in a cluster of other potential camping spots.
If you want someone to pitch a tent on your ground, you need to understand exactly what questions they have on their mind and why they should trust you to answer them.
The Edelman Group surveyed over 11,000 people from 8 different countries who had recently engaged with brands online – of the 51% of people who wanted brands to ask about their needs, only 10% were satisfied that they had.
The punchline? We are failing to understand our customers and what they want.
To be different, you need to document a unique set of attributes about your ideal customer – an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) – and talk to these attributes with everything you do.
What is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a representation of what you believe your ideal customer to be – often called a buyer persona or customer avatar.
You should build this profile using real data about your current customers and hands-on market research.
Having a clearly defined ICP will help you understand your audience’s needs, goals, and interests. In fact, websites that market to customer profiles are 2-5 times more effective than those that have generalist copy.
Use your ICP to create content that helps guide your customers along a journey through awareness, research and finally to purchase.
How do you create an ICP?
Use the ICP Worksheet on Page 4 of our Content Planning Workbook to answer these questions:
- How would you describe your ideal customer in one sentence?
- What is the typical age and sex of your ideal customer?
- Where do they live? (Geography)
- What are their short, medium and long-term goals?
- What are the top problems you solve for them?
- What are their biggest fears/concerns, that relate to working with you?
- What are the most common objections to working with you?
- What are the most important purchase criteria for these customers?
- What are some common questions your customers have at each stage of the buyer’s journey? (Attract, Convert, Close, Delight)
When creating your ICP, be sure to keep it simple and actionable, write in your customer’s language, and look to identify common themes and associated topics for future content creation.
Want us to go through the ICP process with you? Send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “SPIDER”.
