If you haven’t prepared one before, we recommend taking an hour to pull together an Ideal Customer Profile for your business.

A one-page Ideal Customer Profile will help you make decisions about everything from the services and products you offer to the words you use to talk about them.

This saves you time and money! No more arguing about whether to sponsor an event; if it’s not attended by your ideal customers, it’s not a good investment. This document can also be a handy tool for training new team members.

Here are five things you should consider including in your Ideal Customer Profile.

1. Demographics

Pull together the basics first. Is your ideal customer male or female? What age? What income level?

For businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B), consider the size, industry, and location of the company.

💡 WEBSITE INSIGHT: Are you or your SEO professional monitoring your Google Analytics? This is a great place to locate your customer demographic information. You can find out who is accessing your website and spending the most time there.

2. Motivation

Why are they in the market for your offering in the first place? What is triggering their need or desire?

💡 WEBSITE INSIGHT: Knowing your ideal customers’ motivation is key when writing copy for your website. You will want to touch on these pain points and highlight how your product or service can fulfill a need or desire they have.

3. Other products they’re using

Should your service or product work with something else they’re already using? For a software business like ours, for example, we look at the other software our ideal customers use to help us decide if we should build an integration.

4. Stage

Is your ideal customer pregnant? Recently married? Newly retired?

If it’s a business, is it an early-stage business still caught in the throes of survival or an established organization with layers of management?

5. Role

If you offer a service for consumers, you might think of your customer’s role in the family. For example: Are they the primary caregiver?

If you’re selling to businesses, consider the role the company plays in their industry or community. Are they the market leader or a feisty follower? Are they major community benefactors?

💡 WEBSITE INSIGHT: The role of your primary audience will be a factor when you create your website. You will want to research what they value and make that a focus. Your voice, graphics, and keywords should speak to them.