{"id":32097,"date":"2020-07-13T13:05:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T20:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/?p=32097"},"modified":"2020-12-03T05:57:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T12:57:33","slug":"ideal-customer-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On our blog we talk a lot about LinkedIn marketing. We&#8217;ve previously shown you how to generate thousands of leads for your business via the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/b2b-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn Sales Navigator<\/a> in no time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve further discussed how to <a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/how-to-growth-hack-your-product-launch-marketing-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">growth hack your product launch plan<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, your marketing efforts only produce results when a <strong>deliberate<\/strong> plan is laid out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s why we decided to talk a bit more about your Ideal Customer profile, how to create one and how to use it effectively in your business. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-table-of-contents-block ub_table-of-contents\" data-showtext=\"show\" data-hidetext=\"hide\" data-scrolltype=\"auto\" id=\"ub_table-of-contents-80b49a36-9dfc-4787-9d01-cf22d4efb53a\" data-initiallyhideonmobile=\"false\"\n                    data-initiallyshow=\"true\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header\">\n                    <div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-title\">Table of Contents<\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-extra-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-container ub_table-of-contents-1-column \"><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#0-how-to-identify-ideal-customers->How to Identify Ideal Customers<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#1-how-to-create-an-ideal-customer-profile->How To Create An Ideal Customer Profile<\/a><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#2-basic-demographic-targeting->Basic Demographic Targeting<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#3-diving-deeper-into-demographic-targeting->Diving Deeper Into Demographic Targeting<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#4-using-linkedin-profiles-to-inform-your-ideal-customer-profile->Using LinkedIn Profiles to Inform Your Ideal Customer Profile<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#5-analyzing-the-data->Analyzing The Data<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#6-a-sample-ideal-customer-profile-persona->A Sample Ideal Customer Profile Persona<\/a><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#7-naming-amp-defining-your-persona->Naming &amp; Defining Your Persona<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#8-potential-sales-objections-or-obstacles->Potential Sales Objections Or Obstacles<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#9-how-to-approach-or-market-to-your-persona->How To Approach, Or Market, To Your Persona<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/ideal-customer-profile\/#10-when-you%E2%80%99re-done-analyze-what-you-have->When You\u2019re Done, Analyze What You Have<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>For the purpose of this article, we&#8217;ll focus more on the social media side of things (B2B), but the tips below will further help you harness the power a customer profile can have on your business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/TLPYfLYFfEw2T7SQbxayPsV10KtM9QtecF-lxWsv3kSXB_ZFCOf8EveS6VbNtBz7NlYR91Ld7GJtj5s-Hlzs5TVlKfflfF_9l8AIfI80QBtzOd4Tb_CjTkfaVRy0wDlAov8K9qzt\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The trick is to design a plan that keeps customers in mind, so you\u2019re connecting with them at scale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-how-to-identify-ideal-customers-\"><strong>How to Identify Ideal Customers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019ve had your role for a while, you probably know a lot about the business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One look at your client roster and you can probably spot the best ones. You know, the clients who use your offerings frequently, sign the big contracts, and actively get value from what you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same goes with your CRM. If you\u2019ve been using it a while, you can pull data to spot trends around your best customers \u2014 even before they become customers! This way, you\u2019ll be able to spend more time on the prospects who have the highest chance of actually converting.<br><br><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/iiGqWuoxT9rMIIMowGPLKZ0r_qwqzbZWeOBFV6uzGsoSoSOBcXoIH2SCQNJde8dseB4wQsXX8nZF5ib1xQE5Mbs3vJJiUpO5bu7pQnNs_now3nObQnDoiLnx8PRzxRYm8nbSLqNU\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you take a look, ask yourself a few questions:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Who was the<strong> <\/strong><strong>decision-maker<\/strong> you sold to?<\/li><li>Who was your <strong>first point of contact<\/strong> with the organization?<\/li><li>What <strong>titles<\/strong> do these people hold? Am I selling to startup founders, or directors at 1,000+ person companies?<\/li><li>What <strong>department<\/strong> are you typically selling into?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, think about what <strong>industry<\/strong> they&#8217;re in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is important if you happen to serve multiple industries. Some industries will always benefit more than others, making them the ideal prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you can\u2019t figure it out for whatever reason (e.g. haven\u2019t been in business long enough), start with the companies you\u2019d want as customers and work backward.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make a list of your top 10 (or top 100 if you\u2019re feeling ambitious) dream companies that you\u2019d want as your clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See any commonalities? Similar industries or stages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use this as your framework for identifying a company profile that could make good potential targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you figure it out, reach out to them. Ask them about the solution you\u2019re looking to bring to the market&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Is this a real problem for their business?<\/li><li>What solutions are they already aware of?<\/li><li>What do they consider when deciding between potential solutions?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-how-to-create-an-ideal-customer-profile-\"><strong>How To Create An Ideal Customer Profile<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of an ideal customer profile as a representation of the <em>type <\/em>of person who might become a customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s what we do on a daily basis. We think about who these people are, and how they make their buying decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-basic-demographic-targeting-\"><strong>Basic Demographic Targeting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My recommendation is to first nail down the basics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demographics like&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Name<\/li><li>Title<\/li><li>Industry\/Business<\/li><li>Background&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Then think of those companies, the ones they work for. Are they VC-funded, bootstrapped, or established?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What about their personalities? How do they communicate?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer will determine if you should be casual, or formal when speaking to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, if you\u2019re offering a software product, having native integrations with those technologies is optimal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you provide IT services, familiarity with the technologies they already use would be the way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find those commonalities\u2013 <em>between you and your customer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about things like location to narrow down your search, as well as revenue, company size, or the number of years they\u2019ve been in business.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-diving-deeper-into-demographic-targeting-\"><strong>Diving Deeper Into Demographic Targeting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>But let\u2019s go beyond demographics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Who do they report to?<\/li><li>What do they want to accomplish?<\/li><li>What are their key goals?<\/li><li>What KPIs are they being measured against?<\/li><li>What are their primary pain points? What kind of issues are likely to be top-of-mind for them?<\/li><li>Where do they go for information?<\/li><li>Which social media networks are they active on?<\/li><li>Who do they trust?<\/li><li>What publications do they read regularly?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Another important question, which will lead to some very specific side branching ones is:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat obstacles does this customer have to face before purchasing our solution to their problem?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will reveal a few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>It might be that they need to get their boss to sign off on it&#8230;<\/li><li>Or that they don\u2019t fully understand the problem&#8230;<\/li><li>Or that they\u2019re not the right person for you to be talking to.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s just 3 of the many possibilities. It doesn\u2019t even begin to cover marketing preferences, which brings up a good point&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What expectations might they have from a buying experience? How do they like to be marketed to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So yeah, there\u2019s a lot that goes into this, but the good news is that you can determine most of it on your own, without talking to anyone. Going based on your own knowledge, metrics, and any surveys or polls you\u2019ve conducted in the past, you can probably piece most of this together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you\u2019ll gain a deeper understanding if you get your target customers to answer some questions instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sending out emails where you ask them for a few minutes of their time, give them a high-value offer, and then ask some of these questions, is just plain smart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-using-linkedin-profiles-to-inform-your-ideal-customer-profile-\"><strong>Using LinkedIn Profiles to Inform Your Ideal Customer Profile<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now we\u2019re going to use people\u2019s LinkedIn profiles to enhance our ideal customer profiles\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this involves collecting different information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So for example, take Richard Tseng (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.bamf.com\/richard\">https:\/\/x.bamf.com\/richard<\/a>).&nbsp; He\u2019s the vice president of marketing, eCommerce and technology at Monoprice\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Impressive. ????<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He went to Cal Poly, and judging from the fact that he graduated in 2002, he\u2019s probably around 39 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s one down, let\u2019s do another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s Clarence Chia (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.bamf.com\/clarence\">https:\/\/x.bamf.com\/clarence<\/a>), the SVP of marketing, eCommerce, and direct-to-consumer at Fiji Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He went to UCLA Berkeley, and based the year listed on his first position, probably around 40 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-analyzing-the-data-\"><strong>Analyzing The Data<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Alright let\u2019s move onto the trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notice how both of these people are in marketing and eCommerce. Lofty titles, roughly the same age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they\u2019re both male.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we\u2019d taken more details from more people, we probably could have spotted more diversity, gender equality, or a variation of expertise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for the sake of argument, let\u2019s build an ideal customer profile off of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Roughly what age they should be.<\/li><li>Their job titles.<\/li><li>And their gender.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-a-sample-ideal-customer-profile-persona-\"><strong>A Sample Ideal Customer Profile Persona<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s look at a sample ideal customer profile \u2015 Brian, a VP of Marketing at an enterprise software company.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/jRkesNSzRZbPPyVsdZmO8jhH_9YrUhZrmAHhhfrn8QoyRQtRCDJxUo60l9QswEsl_h539vF-30AnNK-LdN50mbm9b9rRHeK-4lJek4L6Cca0YNB6C4fQC1g6ZGL7xeiyO52zOIvx\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re going to use this as a quick reference guide when crafting messaging. It\u2019ll inform other areas of marketing strategy, like the publications we find the most relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-naming-amp-defining-your-persona-\"><strong>Naming &amp; Defining Your Persona<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>First we start by giving our persona a picture and name to make it easier. It helps us imagine they\u2019re a real person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also give him the title of VP of marketing at EnterpriseCorp Solutions, a fake enterprise software company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s 46, and likes larger city living, so we went with Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He went to Virginia Tech, makes around $190,000 a year, and directly reports to the CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His main goal is to increase sales quarter-over-quarter, which means his biggest pain points are having to continuously find new scalable channels that drive results for business.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As advertising and media environments shift, they need to keep the pace and learn how to drive quality leads using channels he might not be comfortable with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, he probably reads a lot of Business Insider, SaaStr, and MIT Tech Review articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There it is, fully fleshed out, the ideal profile persona\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now how can we convince him to work with us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"8-potential-sales-objections-or-obstacles-\"><strong>Potential Sales Objections Or Obstacles<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To answer that question, we first have to consider obstacles. What stands in the way of the prospect, in this case Brian, from seeing the benefits of your offer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some likely obstacles to his purchasing a solution would be the competing priorities of needing to see the potential for scale, and needing to prove ROI for any new channel quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So something we want to tackle in our copy is the balance of those two concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"9-how-to-approach-or-market-to-your-persona-\"><strong>How To Approach, Or Market, To Your Persona<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we handle the approach.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to marketing to people, we\u2019ve found that personal introductions are huge. So is highly-relevant, targeted content, but that\u2019s a no-brainer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means account-based marketing is in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Content tailored to a very small subset of the market \u2015 sometimes even the individual company \u2015 and delivered in a way that&#8217;s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Respectful of their time.<\/li><li>Clearly sets up the value they\u2019ll receive by consuming the content.<\/li><li>And serves as a lead-in to a sales conversation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"10-when-you%E2%80%99re-done-analyze-what-you-have-\"><strong>When You\u2019re Done, Analyze What You Have<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, your ideal customer profile should be pretty rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can imagine what their lifestyle is like and what type of work environment they might be in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the time spent developing this profile should feel like an investment. Your findings will pay for themselves many times over when crafting your messaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On our blog we talk a lot about LinkedIn marketing. We&#8217;ve previously shown you how to generate thousands of leads for your business via the LinkedIn Sales Navigator in no time. We&#8217;ve further discussed how to growth hack your product launch plan. However, your marketing efforts only produce results when a deliberate plan is laid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3254,539,326,136,3380,3252,3253,3257],"tags":[3343,4149,3508,4148,4146,4150,300,4151],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/LinkedIn-Ideal-Customer-Profile-Featured-Image-1.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Houston","author_link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/author\/houston\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}