What Is Your ICP or UCP?

Jargon Defined
Before you do any “Googling,” narrow your search to focusing on marketing. (you'd be surprised what else ICP and UCP stand for!) You’re likely well aware of the concept, just not necessarily the abbreviations.

• ICP = Individual Client Profile
• UCP = Unique Client Profile

You may even have heard of this called your customer’s “avatar.”

This is brainstorming who your target audience is with a focus on creating an image in your mind that reflects all the qualities you believe your customer has. 

There are a number of resources available on the web to help with this. We’ll review a few here with our action oriented summary to get you started today to create this!

Do I Really Need an ICP or UCP?
The short answer is yes. It helps you define your customer in your mind and better share it with others. (remember that elevator pitch we discussed on a prior blog post?) It helps you identify a persona to “talk” to in your head, blog posts, and communications. What would my ICP think about this direction for my business? and How can I solve my customer’s pain point?

How Do I Start?
This can be done on paper or computer, with the assistance of AI, or a recorder/voice message system if you prefer to talk things out.

• Paper/Document: Just start writing or even drawing what you think your ideal client looks like, how they behave, and pain points they have that you can solve. Many literally create an image of a person and name it!
• AI: Create a prompt with a chat service to pull this together.
• Voice: Pick your favorite app and chat as you would a friend.

Resources

• I first heard about the “client profile” concept from Louise Harnby. She offers a number of marketing courses and has a rather comprehensive book on Amazon.

• Andy Crestodina is an amazing resource with a ton of free to low cost content regarding marketing and AI prompting. This blog post shares a basic prompt (and more!) that he regularly shares in interviews and webinars.
• Zendesk offers a fabulous guide with template downloads for you! Head here for the full information and your own copy of their templates.

What Are the Basics?
There are a few general ways to think of this. 

Broad Considerations of Your Customer: these are outlined further on the Zendesk post noted above with many points for each.

• Demographics
• Psychology 
• Behavior
• Geography

Here Are the Basics for Your ICP/UCP

• Pain points
• Interests
• Buying patterns
• Demographics
• Motivation
• Interaction history

 
How About an Example
Let's play with the general concept here. You may have one or multiple ICP/UCPs. I have three clients I serve - small nonprofits, fellow entrepreneurs, and nonfiction authors. They may seem unrelated but have similar needs or concerns that I support, yet I have different personas for each. 

Picking one, let's follow through on fellow entrepreneurs in my market:

• Older solopreneur - 50-60+
• Some tech experience but not a lot - knows the basics but not in depth to build a website, handle social media platforms, and not sure how to send professional emails to customers.
• Long-term employee in a W2 status for decades, now considering a business in retirement or recent job change.
• Little if any marketing experience.
• Family is grown or nearly out of the house - empty or near-empty nester.
• Morning coffee or tea drinker while reviewing news or emails to start the day.

These are just a few characteristics of one of my client profiles that hits the basics.

Do You Have a Client Profile in Mind?
If yes, I'd love to hear how specific you've gotten! Has it adapted with time?

If not, after reviewing this information, do you have enough resources to get started? Happy to chat ideas if you need a thought partner! Contact me by email or on LinkedIn - Let's Chat!

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