< Back to full glossary

Ideal customer profile (ICP)

Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) are a detailed description of the type of company, and often the individual buyer profile, that would benefit the most from a business’s product or service, and in turn, provide the most value to the business. It’s not just about identifying potential customers, but identifying the best-fit customers—those that are most likely to convert, stay loyal, and generate high lifetime value. An ICP helps companies focus their marketing, sales, and customer success efforts on the most valuable opportunities. Best-in-class ICPs are developed using primary research (qualitative and quantitative) to understand and identify the characteristics of the profiles.

Related terms

Customer segmentation

Market research

Market segmentation

Messaging

Value proposition

Voice of the customer (VoC)

Relevant content

Agency Services

Case Study

Go-to-Market Strategy

Designing competitive, customer-first positioning using direct research

With buyer insights and research-backed messaging, a large software provider shifted to a customer-first pitch—helping them stay competitive, align sales and marketing, and elevate market positioning.

Resource

Go-to-Market Strategy

10 steps for building foolproof customer segmentations

The right customer segmentation can help marketers and business leaders streamline their processes, drive better responses, and higher-quality customers. But “What does a successful segmentation look like?” Here are 10 steps to segmentation that are adopted and actionable.

Resource

Go-to-Market Strategy

Activating a persona-based messaging architecture

CMOs and product marketers face an increasingly high hurdle to engage personally with their prospective buyers. Download the framework for a 10-step checklist to creating actionable personas for incremental revenue growth.