A practical example of ICP mapping.

Hey founders!

So I recently talked about how to do ICP planning and why it's so important to ge over 1 million in sales if you're a founder.

I thought it would be cool to share a practical example of how to do it.

So, as a quick recap, ICP is your ideal customer profile. It's the dream customer that you know will benefit most from your technology.

I’m going to use an example from email marketing sector as it is what I know best, but this can apply to all sectors.

So for ICP planning, I look at these following areas:

• Size of business
• Size of usage
• Sectors
• Tech
• Job titles
• Other things

You will need certain rules about each of these areas. You need to go though these and define each area and then your ICP needs to fit each one of those points. I do this in Figma, like this:

Size of business

These are the requirements you may need for your ICP in terms of business size.

• Mid + company size
• ￡10M+ annual revenue
• 50+ team total
• ￡ to spend

Usage size

The purpose of these is to determine the potential usage needs for your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) in email marketing. This is based on the volume of emails sent per month.

• a least 1 email per week
• 3 m volume we month
• Marketing team of min 3
• Mid-high level ESP

Sector

Is there a specific sector that is most suitable for your product? For Kickdynamic, e-commerce was ideal. This is because they sold products directly through their emails, allowing us to demonstrate the direct Return on Investment (ROI) from using our technology.

• ecom
• Same as current customer (F&B)
• Travel
• Banking?
• Finance / insurance?
• Real estate?
• Hotels? Airlines?

Tech

This is the tech requirements of your ICP. For email marketing, the customer will need to use an Email Service Provider (ESP). The type of ESP a customer uses can determine if they are a better fit, so we've listed the preferred ones here.

• Emarsys
• Klaviyo
• Ometria
• SalesForce
• Iterable
• Dot Digital

Job titles

It's crucial to understand job title of your customer & audience since you'll be contacting or marketing to them as part of the process.

• CRM Manager
• Email marketing manager
• CMO

NOT LIST

Here's a list of characteristics that, if present in a brand, indicate it's not a good fit and can be disregarded. It's beneficial to have such a list.

• Small senders
• 1 person team
• Small agencies
• Use ESP with it built in

Other things to look out for

Anything else that you know is important:

• Use a competitor and are not happy

Hope this helps as a practical example of hoe to define your ICP. If you’d like to know more, don’;t hesitate to give me a shout.

NQ

Matt