👋 What’s growing: Time spent online. Compared to last year, adults in the UK are clocking up an extra hour a day on their smartphones, tablets and computers. They’re online for an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes daily, with platforms owned by Alphabet and Meta taking up almost half of their time.

🤓

Trivia

How many ads does the average, computer-working person encounter each day?

• 100

• 350

• 4,000

• 10,000

Scroll to the bottom to find out!

TACTICS

🧠 HOW TO BUILD YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE

The following is based off Alex Estner’s framework.

B2B business isn’t all faceless transactions and corporate speak.

You thrive by knowing your customer. By identifying and understanding your customers, you can tailor strategies, improve relationships, and drive better results.

We get the best insights by talking to or analyzing existing ideal customers and companies. That starts with answering some questions.

For your ideal company:

1. How big is it? (e.g. number of employees and revenue)

2. What’s the company stage and type? (think startup→established, and industry)

3. What other criteria matters? (e.g. What language do they use? Do they work remotely? What’s in their tech stack? What products or services do they sell?)

For your ideal persona, we’re going full Sherlock Holmes. You want to dig deep and uncover everything there is to know about them to build out the strongest possible profile. The narrower you can get right now, the better. You can expand later down the line.

Work through these questions to kickstart that ICP:

1. Who are they? (think job role, department, team size, qualifications, and hobbies)

2. What are they trying to achieve? (from their day-to-day roles to KPIs and pain points)

3. What surrounds them? (the software they use, the way they make purchases, and the content they consume)

4. How do you know they’re ready to buy from you?

COLLECTING THE INSIGHTS

Building your ICP is easier when you already have a considerable customer base to call on. If that’s you, jump into your CRM. The data in there can help you spot your ideal customer.

Look for customers with:

• Higher annual contract value (ACV)

• Strongest adoption or engagement

• Shorter sales cycles

• Lower churn rates

• Higher win rates

You’ve probably been told “Know your ICP” so many times it’s burned into your brain. But if you don’t have customers yet, where can you go?

These strategies should help:

• Test the market with outbound campaigns

• Research communities to see who has the problems you can solve (like Facebook groups, Reddit and Quora)

• Use qualitative feedback from sales calls and filter through your leads

• Look at competitor product reviews to glean problems solved and benefits appreciated

• Have conversations with people on social media (and in real life!) and see who gets the most excited about your product 

With the right customers in mind, you can build up your buyer personas. These are profiles that match your vision of both existing and potential customers.

Semrush has a free, nifty tool to build unlimited buyer personas. It’s complete with customizable templates for B2B and user persona templates, and photos to turn your persona into a real person. Having one clear person to market keeps your messaging strong and focused.

HINTS THAT YOU FOUND YOUR ICP

There’s rarely any solid evidence to say when you’ve found your ICP. But there will be signs.

If you’ve found your ICP and your message and product are good fits for them, you might notice:

• Better conversion rates across the board

• A smiling or flattening retention curve

• Improved customer feedback

• An increase in referrals

JOB DONE? NOT QUITE…

Your ICP might be solid for now. But you might have to revisit things as you scale.

As we covered in our last issue, revisit your model-market fit and adjust as you go.

It’s not a quick or easy process, but the companies that paved the way before you can attest that it’s worth it. Learn from their wins and missteps.

A SNAPSHOT OF ESTNER’S ICP FRAMEWORK

DATA POINT

IT’S NOT JUST YOU. CONVERSION RATES DROPPED IN 2024.

Although search ad costs are on the rise, conversion rates have declined again in 2024.

It’s not a pretty picture for advertisers. 

WordStream analyzed over 17,000 campaigns to provide a low-down on the search landscape. Because while Alphabet (Google’s parent company) is getting richer, you might have noticed that its users are getting less for their money.

Here are some key trends the WordStream report uncovered:

• Cost-per-click (CPC) increased for 86% of industries, with an average overall increase of 10%

• Conversion rates decreased for 12 out of 23 industries. The average drop was only around 1%, but some industries, like finance and dental services, saw drops of 32.40% and 19.57% respectively

• Cost-per-lead (CPL) increased for 19 out of 23 industries, but that increase was slightly lower than last year’s

There are a few ways to beat the stats and improve your conversion rates in 2025:

1. Use insights from ICP research and Semrush’s One2Target tool to tailor your landing page copy to resonate with your target buyers.

2. Test your copy. Ask your target customers to review your landing page to flag areas for improvement. Is anything causing confusion or turning them away?

3. Use tools like Convert and VWO to continuously A/B test different versions of your landing page until you find the highest-performing variant.

AD BREAKDOWN

‘YOU MAY GET LOST’, BY PORSCHE

Next up, we’re reflecting on some of the greats. Here’s a breakdown of a classic Porsche print ad for a car built way back in the 60s.

WHY IT WORKS

💡The message

The ad speaks to the reader’s sense of adventure and desire to turn heads.

Porsche’s target market is mostly well-off males (only 15% of buyers are women, on average) who are around 50 years old. Porsche drivers probably have lots of responsibilities, and this ad gives them permission to have a little fun.

💡The headline

Ogilvy says if your headline doesn’t sell the product, you’ve wasted 90% of your money.

Headlines that sell promise a benefit. And this one does exactly that. The benefit: status.

The format of the headline is smart, too. Like a double-whammy, it’s split into two parts, with a comma breaking them up. The first part uses an experience we’ve all been in to draw us in. The second knocks us out with something we don’t expect.

It’s like two headlines for the price of one.

💡The creative

The car is beautiful. Anything missing? No. Aside from eliciting an emotion, which is why there is a headline.

Porsche knowing they could stop there conveys a sense of cool confidence.

The takeaway is, do less.

💡The body copy

The body copy is laid out in columns—great for readability.

Every sentence is written to cause the reader to “slip” to the next. We can’t help but keep reading.

The first sentence (the hook) opens a curiosity loop: What is the “only one car” the writer is talking about?

Then, they use a contradiction: “timeless and ahead of its time”. These, like oxymorons, tend to make readers linger on the thought a little longer.

Next, they expand on the timeless idea, emphasizing the car’s longevity and minimal design evolution since 1963. This positions the car as iconic and trustworthy.

The technical details are kept simple: “6-cylinder engine” and “160mph top speed” provides credibility and technical appeal without overwhelming the reader with jargon.

The pursuit of the impossible, perfection, makes Porsche seem committed and worthy of admiration, while implying that they’ve come as close as you can get to such a goal.

Lastly, the call to action is beautiful: “We challenge you to drive a Porsche 911”. All of a sudden, the ad is experiential. Readers imagine themselves behind the wheel.

PRO TIPS

A lot of fake gurus out there. These people aren’t those. 

• How to navigate the removal of hashtag follows on Instagram, by Sasha Lekach

• Train your brain to work creatively with Gen AI, by Brian Solis

• The most common reasons people don't buy, by Klue

• 34 growth tactics to get your first 1000 customers, by Greg Isenberg

MEME-Y

🤓

Trivia

How many ads does the average, computer-working person encounter each day?

Answer: If you Google it, you’ll find the common yet unsubstantiated answer of “4,000 to 10,000”. This didn’t sit well with Rishi Rawat, who dug and found that the number is closer to 350.

His reasoning was a fun read. Click here to check it out.

FREE RESOURCES

PS: Want to be more visible online? 

• 🌱 Grab this SEO checklist for new websites (PDF)

• 💶 Learn how to launch a money-making content strategy (guide)

• ✍️ Learn how to craft amazing digital advertising campaigns (course)

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