Is Your ICP An Offensive Stereotype?

Let’s do a quick exercise -

You’re looking to target programmers; what’d you pick:

a. Advertise on Stack Overflow
b. Advertise on Reddit/Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn
c. Advertise on Search Engines like Google
d. All of the above

You may want to choose (d), but due to budget constraints, you will ultimately select (b) or (c).

…And how does advertising on social media or search engines work?

That’s right — By Stereotyping.

You take away the drop-downs and radio buttons, and your AD is essentially -

<<Your Company>> looking for an 18-44 first-world male audience that searched for <<insert_keyword>>. If located, please display <<Your_Cyberpunk_themed_AD>>.

Now Compare that to a random Indian Matrimonial AD -

It's not a pretty comparison now, is it?

Building an ICP requires deconstructing multiple data points and using them systematically to drive home brand recall.

Let’s take an example.

Hundreds upon thousands of middle-class suburban minivan-driving moms spend considerable time ferrying their kids to soccer practice and back.

That’s six different data points that Bill Clinton’s marketers used to create the now-infamous intersectional audience—‘Soccer Moms.’

The key takeaway is that you must target your ICP beyond the one touch-point that overlaps your product.

If you’re looking to target programmers, you might want to advertise:

• the brands of clothes they wear
• the causes they support
• the games they play, and even
• the brands of soap they buy.

You’ll unearth marketing opportunities that are as untapped as Business Blogging on HackerNoon.

So, do you know five such data points about your ICP?

Tell us, and we’ll send you a 20% discount code on our Business Blogging plans! Book a meeting with us here.