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Target market
The broader section of the market your product or service is designed to serve — for example homeowners, local trades businesses or independent retailers.
Ideal Customer Builder
Find your ideal customer before you spend money trying to reach everyone.
Build a clear ideal customer profile by understanding who is most likely to need what you sell, what problems they are trying to solve, what matters when they buy and where you can realistically reach them.
What is an ideal customer?
Your customer is not “everyone”.
An ideal customer profile describes the type of customer most likely to need, value and buy what your business offers.
For a consumer business, that may mean understanding characteristics such as location, circumstances, behaviours, needs and buying motivations. For a business-to-business company, you might also look at sector, company size, budget, location and decision makers.
The purpose is not to exclude everybody else. It is to stop wasting time and money speaking vaguely to people who were unlikely to buy in the first place.
The clearer you are about who you’re selling to, the easier it becomes to decide what to say, where to market and what to offer.
Customer clarity improves far more than advertising. It influences the whole business.
Target audience, target customer & ICP
Three useful ideas — with slightly different jobs.
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Target audience
A more specific group of people you want a particular message, campaign or offer to reach.
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Ideal customer profile
A clearer picture of the type of customer who is especially well suited to what your business offers and is likely to create value for both sides.
Ideal customer profile template
What should an ideal customer profile include?
The useful information depends on what you sell. The goal is not to create a fictional biography for the sake of it. Capture the details that genuinely affect whether somebody needs, values and buys your offer.
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Who are they?
Individual customer, household, business, organisation or a specific decision maker within a company.
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Where are they?
Location can matter enormously for local services and may also affect delivery, pricing and competition.
3
What problem do they have?
Understand what is happening in their life or business that creates a need for what you sell.
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What do they want?
Customers usually care about an outcome rather than your product features themselves.
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What influences the purchase?
Price, trust, speed, convenience, expertise, reviews, guarantees, location or something else?
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Where do they look for help?
Search engines, recommendations, social media, directories, local networks, marketplaces or other channels.
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What could stop them buying?
Consider objections such as price, trust, timing, risk, complexity or satisfaction with their current solution.
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Why are they a good fit for you?
The ideal relationship works both ways: they value what you do and you can serve them profitably and effectively.
Different businesses need different profiles
Your ideal customer may be a person — or another business.
Consumer customers
If you sell directly to individuals, useful information may include location, age or life stage where relevant, income or budget, circumstances, interests, behaviours, priorities, problems and buying habits.
Do not collect demographic details simply because a template tells you to. Focus on information that genuinely affects the buying decision.
Business customers
For B2B businesses, your ideal customer profile may include industry, organisation size, location, revenue or budget, current systems, business problems and the people involved in deciding whether to buy.
The business itself may be your target account while an owner, manager or other decision maker becomes the person your marketing needs to persuade.
How to identify your target customer
Ask questions that change what you do next.
A customer profile becomes valuable when it helps you make better marketing, sales, pricing and product decisions.
Avoid filling it with details that sound impressive but have no effect on whether the customer buys.
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Who experiences the problem most often?
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Who is most motivated to solve it?
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Who can realistically afford the solution?
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What are they currently doing instead?
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What would make them choose one supplier over another?
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Where do they look when they need help?
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What would make them hesitate or say no?
Understand the problem
The strongest customer profiles go deeper than age and postcode.
Knowing that your customer is 35–55 and lives within 20 miles tells you surprisingly little about why they will buy.
Understand what triggers the search for a solution, what frustration they feel, what outcome they want and what might stop them taking action. Those details are often far more useful when building your offer and marketing.
Customer research
Don’t invent your ideal customer entirely from your imagination.
The strongest customer profiles improve as you gather evidence from actual markets and actual customers.
Talk to potential customers
Ask how they currently solve the problem, what frustrates them and what would make a new solution useful.
Study competitors
Reviews, testimonials, offers and customer comments can reveal what buyers value and what consistently disappoints them.
Learn from early sales
Once you have customers, compare the ones who buy quickly, stay, recommend you and are profitable to serve.
Customer profiling mistakes
Five traps worth avoiding.
Broad targeting usually produces vague marketing that feels relevant to nobody.
Their favourite biscuit probably doesn’t matter unless you’re selling biscuits.
Demographics alone rarely explain what makes somebody buy today.
In B2B sales, the person using your product may not be the person approving the purchase.
Your early assumptions should change as real customer evidence arrives.
The profile should influence your offer, messaging, channels, pricing and sales activity.
Polar Ideal Customer Builder
Turn “people who might buy” into somebody you can actually build for.
Polar guides you through the important questions about your customer and uses what you have already told us about your business idea and offer so you are not starting from a blank page.
The result becomes useful context for later Polar tools including your market research, offer, business plan, marketing plan and sales plan.
Ideal customer profile FAQs
Finding your target customer: common questions.
What is an ideal customer profile?
An ideal customer profile is a description of the type of customer most likely to need, value and buy your product or service. It can include relevant characteristics, problems, goals, buying behaviour, location, budget and other factors that help you identify a strong fit.
How do I identify my target customer?
Start with the problem your business solves and identify who experiences that problem most strongly. Research their circumstances, needs, existing alternatives, buying behaviour and what influences their decision to choose a supplier.
What is the difference between a target market and target audience?
A target market is the broader group your business intends to serve. A target audience is usually a more specific group you want a particular message or marketing activity to reach.
What should be included in an ideal customer profile?
Include information that helps you understand whether a customer is a good fit, such as their problem, goals, location where relevant, budget, buying priorities, objections, current alternatives and where they search for solutions. B2B profiles may also include industry, business size and decision makers.
What is the difference between an ideal customer profile and a buyer persona?
The terms are sometimes used loosely. An ideal customer profile often describes the best-fit type of customer or organisation, while a buyer persona typically goes deeper into the individual person involved in making or influencing a purchase decision.
Why is knowing your target audience important?
Understanding your target audience helps you make clearer decisions about your product, offer, pricing, marketing message and the channels you use to reach customers. It reduces the temptation to try to appeal to everyone.
Can a business have more than one ideal customer?
Yes. Businesses may serve several useful customer segments, particularly when different products or services solve different problems. Start with enough focus to understand each group properly rather than combining everybody into one vague profile.
How do I research my ideal customer before I have customers?
Speak to potential customers, research competitors, study reviews and industry information and test your early offer with people who genuinely represent the market. Replace assumptions with real evidence wherever possible.
Should I update my ideal customer profile?
Yes. Once real sales begin, use evidence from your strongest customers to refine the profile. Look for patterns among customers who buy, stay, recommend you and are worthwhile to serve.
Know who you’re building for
The right customer makes the next business decisions much easier.
Polar Ideal Customer Builder helps you define who needs your business, what they care about and how they buy — then carries that understanding into the rest of your startup journey.