Suppose you’re using a dating app.
You add filters while searching for an Ideal Dating Profile (IDP).
You’ll have your preferences right?
And then you add in details in these filters.
Once you have an ICP, you can target your marketing campaigns and attract more users like these (who are likely to be successful with your product - don’t try this on dating apps by the way)
Account-based marketing (ABM) is similar to online dating (not literally).
Instead of targeting individuals, you're targeting your groups of decision makers in companies.
But the same basic principles apply.
You need to create an ideal customer profile (ICP) that describes the types of companies that are most likely to benefit from your product or service.
Your Ideal Customer Profile might include things like:
Ideally, you should look internally and find the customers that
These could be from a particular industry, size, geographic location or tech stack
Here’s a sample ICP template for a company that sells “cloud-based software” to businesses:
You know what’s the difference between generic marketing and account based marketing?
Demand Gen: “Let’s get SOME LEADS”
ABM: “Let’s get THESE LEADS”
Demand Generation revolves around gathering leads while ABM revolves around gathering specific leads.
By specific leads, I mean your Ideal Customers.
Why waste resources who are not going to benefit from your product.
It’s as good as selling refrigerators in Antarctica.
Listen to what Christina has to say about finding the right ICP:
