Map
Your ideal customer, your offer, your competitors and your positioning.
What's included
- Ideal customer profile (ICP). The specific customers worth chasing: the jobs, firms or households that are most profitable, easiest to serve and most likely to refer. Built from your own customer data, not guesswork.
- Buyer research. Part of the deep strategic research I do once you're a client: interviews with your best customers and a look at your reviews and lost deals, to learn why people really buy from you.
- Competitive review. Who you actually compete with in search, in referrals and in the buyer's head, and where there's room to stand apart.
- Positioning statement. One clear sentence for who you serve, what you do and why you're the better choice.
- Messaging framework. Your value proposition, three or four key messages and the proof behind each one, written so your team, website, ads and sales conversations all say the same thing.
Why positioning comes before marketing
Every channel works better when the positioning is clear. Search pages rank for the terms your real buyers use. Ads reach the right people and cost less per customer. Your website converts because a buyer knows in seconds they're in the right place. Referral partners know exactly who to send you.
Skip it, and every channel has to work harder to make up for a message that doesn't land.
How it fits the Ronin Method
ICP and positioning are the core of the Map stage:
Build
The brand, website and systems that carry the message. See brand development.
Grow
The channels that reach your ideal customer where they are.
Multiply
Doubling down on the segments and messages that produce the best customers.
Positioning and the value of your business
Buyers pay more for a business with a clear market position and a customer base that fits it. A defined ICP, consistent messaging and proof that the business wins a specific kind of customer make growth look repeatable, not lucky. See pre-exit marketing positioning.
Who it's for
Owner-led businesses doing $1 million to $10 million a year, especially home services businesses, law firms and professional services firms, and owners planning a sale in the next one to five years.
Pricing
ICP and positioning work is part of a fractional CMO engagement, which runs $2,500 to $10,000 a month, priced by scope and outcomes, not hours. It's usually done in the first 30 days.
Who you'll work with
I'm Justin Smith, founder of Ronin Communications. I spent more than 20 years in strategic communications for the federal government, where knowing your audience and writing a message that lands with it was the job, and I hold an M.A. in Strategic Communications from American University. I also run an M&A advisory practice, so I see positioning the way a buyer will. Ronin is based in Woodbridge, Virginia, and works with owners nationwide.
Related: brand development · marketing strategy and roadmap
ICP and positioning FAQ
What is an ideal customer profile?
A clear description of the customers who are most valuable to your business: who they are, what they need, how they buy and why they choose you. It tells you where to spend your marketing money.
What's the difference between positioning and branding?
Positioning is the strategy: who you serve and why you're the better choice. Branding is how that shows up in your name, logo, website and messaging.
Will narrowing my market cost me customers?
Usually the opposite. You can still take work outside your ICP. Positioning just decides where you focus your marketing, so the message lands harder with the customers you want most.
How long does it take?
About 30 days, as part of the Map stage.