glossary
ICP
Ideal Customer Profile: the description of the account that gets the most value from your product fastest, used to focus targeting, messaging, and qualification.
An ICP describes the company, not the person: size, industry, stack, growth stage, and above all the live problem that makes your product the obvious answer. Personas describe the people inside that account; the ICP decides whether the account is worth pursuing at all.
It is the cheapest lever in demand generation because it multiplies everything else. A sharp ICP makes channel choices obvious, makes copy specific enough to convert, and gives MQL scoring an honest definition of fit. A vague one quietly taxes every campaign that follows.
Write it from evidence, not aspiration: your fastest-closing, best-retaining customers already define it. The strategy guide starts there, and the demand gen planner turns an ICP and a revenue goal into a working plan.