📄️ Introduction
Profiling in B2B marketing is the practice of defining and understanding the companies and people that make up your target market. But why bother in the first place? Well, according to research conducted by HubSpot, 94% of marketers say that offering a personalised experience increases sales, yet only 35% deliver on it! So, it simply makes sense.
📄️ Ideal Customer Profile
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) describes the type of company that would be the perfect fit for your product or service. In B2B (especially account-based marketing), an ICP is essentially a fictitious “dream” company with the ideal characteristics for you to sell to. It includes firmographic traits like industry, size, location, budget, and needs that align exactly with what you offer.
📄️ Buying Committee
A buying committee is a collection of individuals within a company who participate in a purchase decision. In complex, high-ticket B2B sales, it’s rare for one person to make the decision alone. Instead, a group of stakeholders (often with different roles and priorities) is involved.
📄️ Persona Development
A buyer persona is a fictional profile that represents a key person in your target audience. In B2B, personas often correspond to roles on the buying committee (for instance ‘Operations Manager Molly’ or ‘CFO Frank’).
📄️ Tools & Software
A variety of tools and software solutions can support the profiling process – from data gathering and analytics platforms to template generators. Below is a table summarising our favourite tools, along with their primary use cases in B2B marketing profiling: