How to Define Your SaaS Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

要定义您的SaaS理想客户画像 (ICP)，您需要评估的不仅仅是公司规模和行业等人口统计数据。挑战在于通过了解目标受众的特征来理解您的ICP，这些特征可以区分您的ICP。

在本指南中，我们希望研究创建ICP的过程，解释如何识别有价值的因素，并帮助您详细了解这项工作中的一些灰色地带。然后，您将对您的ICP有一个清晰的认识，并了解要针对的目标以及正确的方法。

从已经使用过您的SaaS产品的公司开始，并考虑它们的共同点。

考虑以下几点：

行业： 其独特的 运营所在的领域（例如，医疗保健、金融、电子商务）。

公司规模： 中小企业、中型市场还是大型企业？由收入和员工人数共同决定。典型范围：

• 中小企业：年收入低于5000万美元，员工人数少于500人
• Mid-market: $50 million – $1 billion annual revenue, 500-2000 employees
• Enterprise: >$1 billion annual revenue, 2000+ employees

​​Growth Stage: Are they an established business or a startup?

Revenue: 您的定价是否与特定收入范围的预算相符？查找估算值和公开数据。 

所在地： 您的客户是否位于特定的国家或地区？

技术栈： 您的服务旨在集成、补充还是替换他们已有的其他产品？

Buyer Persona: Who makes purchasing decisions (e.g., Head of Marketing, VP of Sales, CTO)? Do the decision-makers usually come from a specific department?

With the numbers in mind, it’s time to dig into the details behind them.

Why it matters:  While quantitative data reveals who your customers are, qualitative data tells you why they purchased your product. With this data, you will craft your marketing to align with your audience.

Consider a day in the life of your customer. Think about their daily activities, responsibilities, and goals. With this in mind, consider the trouble your ICP faces and the results they hope to achieve. Focus on these key areas:

• Pain Points: Before your customers came to your SaaS, what solutions were they looking for? For example, did they have lack of visibility into progress, difficulty with team collaboration or problems with manual data entry?
• Trigger Events: 是什么原因促使公司使用您的服务？是否有特定的事件促使他们这样做？例如，新的融资轮次、负面评价、因快速增长导致的规模化问题或法规变更。
• 期望的结果： 考虑设定的KPI或目标。他们是否希望提高客户满意度、简化内部流程、降低成本但提高生产力？

• 优势： 自从他们实施您的产品以来，有哪些方面得到了改善？这可能是更高的收入、更高的效率或节省时间。
• 为什么选择您的SaaS？ Why did they choose you over a competitor? Use this information to clarify your benefits when selling to potential customers.

By understanding their motivation, you can customize your marketing messaging to address your ICP’s needs.

After studying your ideal customers, segment the wider market for targeted outreach. The strategy will rely on the nature of your business.

Ask yourself these questions to segment your potential customers:

• What do my best customers have in common?: Is their location and size of their teams similar? Is the value of my product relevant to the same type of leader roles?
• 我的产品是否完美适用于某种类型的业务？：如果行业或公司规模明显相关，请从那里开始。
• 谁是决策者？ 了解谁有最终决定权，无论是首席执行官还是营销总监，都将使您能够有针对性地传递信息。

不要试图一次性细分所有内容！ 通过 2-3 个具有最相关特征的类别，您将找到您的 ICP。请考虑以下常见方法：

• 行业重点： 按客户的行业进行分类（例如，电子商务、营销机构、软件开发公司）。
• 公司规模： 按中小型企业 (SMB)、中端市场企业或大型公司进行划分。
• 基于角色： Prioritize by job title those who are likely to use your product (Marketers, Sales Managers, Developers, etc.).
• Pain-Point Focused: Group by the specific issues you resolved (need more website traffic, struggle to track expenses, have slow customer service, etc.).

要了解超越表现的层面，您需要深入研究原始数据，并在细分市场层面进行分析。

首先，请确保您的分析工具显示了步骤 3 中的细分。

In your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, make tags or fields for each customer segment to track them (like Industry, Size, Role). For instance, tag customers as “Small Business”, “Enterprise”, “Tech” and “Manufacturing”.  If you use other analytics tools, make sure you can filter data based on these same segment criteria.

让我们来看看您的客户成功数据指标，以分析细分市场的健康状况。

• 客户流失率： 计算每个细分市场在设定时间段内（年度、季度）流失的客户数量。（例如，“上个季度，10%的营销机构客户流失了“）。您的目标是使中小型企业的月流失率低于5%，企业级客户的月流失率低于1%。请注意，早期SaaS公司的流失率可能接近10%。
• 客户生命周期价值 (CLV)： 这是计算每个细分市场中的平均客户在整个合作关系中的花费。（有免费的在线计算器可以计算，例如， Upgrowth CLV Calculator). The benchmarks vary by industry, costs and business model type, your goal should be at least three times higher than your CAC (Customer acquisition cost).
• 客户获取成本 (CAC)： The amount you spend on sales and marketing to acquire each customer in a segment. The ideal does vary, but the point is to avoid eating all your profit from CLV. For SaaS businesses, a general rule is that your CAC should be recouped within 12 months of the customer’s lifetime.

Determine the segment that shows a relatively low churn (higher CLV) and acquisition costs that are relatively manageable. These numbers may reveal which customer values your product and is likely to remain loyal, thereby being a cost effective acquisition.

A static ICP will likely need updating. It should evolve as your business, the market, and your customer base change. Regularly reviewing and altering your ICP will help your sales and marketing teams focus on the right prospects.

Track Results 

Monitor your SaaS analytics, sales, and marketing performance and analyze how your target segments are interacting with your product.

Are they utilizing the features that matter most? How engaged are they with the service? Look at churn rates, too – are certain types of customers leaving more quickly?  Understanding why they leave is gold for refining your ICP.

On the sales side, pay attention to conversion rates for each segment. Are some exceling while others struggle? This tells you where your targeting is accurate. Also, keep an eye on how long it takes to close deals. If some segments are dragging their feet, it could mean your ICP isn’t quite lining up with their actual buying process.

营销效果只是拼图中的一块。哪些营销活动吸引了最合格的潜在客户？哪些渠道与您的目标理想客户画像 (ICP) 产生了共鸣？这些信息可能会帮助您调整策略。

收集反馈 

与您的销售团队沟通。他们与潜在客户互动，因此他们对谁购买以及为什么购买拥有宝贵的知识。询问他们观察到的最成功客户的特征、他们遇到的异议以及交易未能完成的原因。

此外，与您的客户成功团队沟通。他们与您的客户建立关系。了解您的客户最喜欢您的产品的哪些方面、它为他们解决了哪些问题以及他们可能仍然存在的任何痛点。如果他们的反馈与您当前的 ICP 不完全匹配，这是一个有价值的线索。

迭代和测试

使用数据和见解来调整您的 ICP。优化这些细分市场，如果发现新的机会，则缩小您的关注范围或扩大范围。调整您的信息传递，以满足您优化后的细分市场的特定需求和痛点。并且不要害怕尝试不同的渠道，看看您的 ICP 在哪里活跃。

Schedule regular evaluations of your ICP （例如，每年或每半年） 

Since your market is dynamic, your ideal customer definition should be too. Schedule check-ins to re-evaluate your ICP, once or twice a year. Look at market trends, competitor activity, and product/service changes to ensure your ICP is accurate.