How many times have you been looking for something online and clicked onto a page that claimed to have an answer, but didn’t learn anything new?

How many times have you volunteered your information for a resource that you believed would help, only for it not to?

One of the biggest problems with material on the internet at the moment - perhaps largely due to how many businesses are SEO-driven - is how unhelpful it is.

We’ve all experienced material that tries to address too many problems or perspectives; it may appear comprehensive, but lacks meaningful depth.

We’ve also experienced material created for a fictional, idealized audience; it makes assumptions about who is consuming it and why.

These approaches are both flawed from the outset, as they lack the most important thing - an understanding of the actual people in your target market.

Juicero raised $120 million in startup venture capital from investors compelled by their product and technology - but those investors weren’t the company’s customers.

When their juicing press released in March 2016, it was quickly deemed a failure due to its exorbitant price and lack of utility. Despite those millions of dollars raised, the problem it was meant to solve didn’t realistically exist; the company closed by the end of 2017.

The consequences of publishing an unsuccessful piece of material are obviously much lower, but as the above story illustrates, understanding your best-fit market and the pain points your customers are experiencing is vital.

Determining Your Ideal Client Profile (ICP)

Your Ideal Client Profile is your best customer. The more specific you can be about them, and the more information you can collect on them, the more you can tailor your material to them.

You can start to define your ICP by answering the following questions:

  • Which industry are they in?
  • What specific job role or title do they have?
  • What type of business are they?
  • What is the size of their company?
  • When do they have the specific problem you want to address?
  • What is the urgency of that problem?
  • What is the impact of that problem?
  • Where do they go to solve that problem?

Based on your answers, you should have a good understanding of who your target market is. But, how can you ensure there is an appetite for your material in that market?

Customer Research

While understanding your ICP is extremely useful, you’ll still have blind spots - because you’re not your customer.

You can validate your ICP and the market for your material - as well as potential ideas for material - through customer research. Speaking with people who are familiar with, or are currently experiencing, the problem you want to solve will provide invaluable insight into how it impacts their organization.

Some questions you may want to ask your customers include:

  • What changed to make them realize they needed to address this problem?
  • Have they done anything to try to solve that problem already?
  • What are the consequences of not addressing this problem?
  • If they could solve this problem today, what might that solution look like?

If it turns out that there is no market for your material - that the problem you’re trying to solve isn’t real - wouldn’t it be better to know that upfront, before you spend time, energy, or money?

Instead, define a different ICP, and talk to those customers. Do it as many times as it takes.

The goal is to be able to understand your ICP so well you don’t need to make any assumptions.

So, when you’re ready to create, you’ll know exactly what to communicate.

Positioning, is of course, a huge aspect of marketing. To dig into the topic further, I spoke with Joel Kelly, who, as one-half of Kelford Inc., creates value propositions and marketing messages for hands-on entrepreneurs and founders. I asked Joel about refining your position, when to change your position, and how to better differentiate yourself in your niche.