LG: To kick off the interview, could you explain what exactly market profiling is?
Market profiling is identifying, measuring and segmenting your target market. It helps you to better understand your current positioning with your existing customers and their industries as well as serving as a laser point to spot any missing opportunities within your existing target market. It also helps you to build a picture of what markets you can enter, how big each one is and which parts you can target.
LG: Simply put: why should organisations bother with market profiling in 2022? What benefits does it bring?
You don’t know what you don’t know. By sizing current markets and new markets (UK and/or abroad) – it enables you to measure how big your opportunities are. Armed with firmographic and financial data, it enables you to understand the types of business and fit with your value proposition(s). Furthermore, it allows you to prioritise the businesses that you want to target and work with.
LG: What defines ‘good’ market profiling? What measures of success should organisations be on the lookout for?
It depends on what your ideal customer profile (ICP) looks like. Good market profiling is finding lookalike ICP and quantifying how big those opportunities are in terms of your average deal size. There is no point in chasing small and/or cash-strapped businesses if you have an average deal size of £1m.
LG: How can organisations actually ‘do’ market profiling? What are some of the common hurdles to be wary of? How can organisations overcome them?
It’s about data and analysis – looking inwards first to map your ICP, which segments are you the most profitable, understanding what good looks like for your business. Once you have this, you need data to support you in mapping the industries that you are looking for or commission a consultancy to support you to carry out the work.
LG: What about international hurdles? How can organisations approach profiling a market abroad?
Yes, one of the more daunting strategies for any business is how to plan to operate abroad. Even for digital businesses, this means marketing to and communicating with another culture and an alien marketplace. We find that businesses looking to expand abroad face the most difficult task and the highest risk in entering new markets and launching new products and/or services. In these cases, we supplement the insights we provide with expertise in international business (I have a MSc in International Business and was previously in charge of a global demand generation team).
Furthermore, there’s help when it comes to identifying who wants to buy your products or services abroad. Not only does market profiling allow you to identify and prioritise target accounts, but it can overlay who is in-market to buy.
LG: Needless to say, market profiling is not a once and done solution. How can organisations continue to develop this and drive the best results possible?
Once you have the baseline, I would update it at least quarterly, depending on the industries that you are working with. We all know that some industries move faster than others. You can read more about it in this scoping article.
LG: Let’s talk tech: are there any core pieces of tech you need when approaching market profiling?
No tech is needed for market profiling – however, after you have mapped where the opportunity is, I see three options;
- Feed such data into your CRM to facilitate analysis, campaigns and prioritisation.
- Overlay intent-based software to further prioritise in-market accounts that fit your ICP.
- Drive display and social campaign integration with priority and in-market accounts.
LG: What are your key takeaway pieces of advice for marketers who want to approach market profiling?
I have two key takeaways.
First, start with your customers and how best you are serving them and then expand from there. Many businesses don’t understand how and where they make money today, so how can they prioritise?
Second, never underestimate how good quality research enables good business decisions. Being able to identify the size of the market, prioritise the opportunities and then communicate in-market is the holy grail for investors.
