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One Quick Partnership Opportunity

(Before jumping into ICPs!)

On October 8th, I’ll be returning to my alma mater, Bowling Green State University, to speak with business and entrepreneurship students about building their professional identity through LinkedIn.

This is going to be a pinch-me moment, considering I did both my undergrad and MBA here.

And I’m looking for a sponsorship partner who would like to be part of it with me.

This could be a great partnership for...

• Staffing & recruiting agencies
• Banking or credit-building apps/Saas products
• Apartment complexes/rental companies
• Insurance companies
• Fitness companies
• Large employers looking for BGSU talent!

Just to name a few:)

The value YOU receive:

• Extend your brand beyond the event itself through authentic LinkedIn content and storytelling that puts your company in front of my 8,200+ professional audience.
• Build visibility and goodwill with the people you want to reach by aligning your brand with professional development, education, and the next generation of talent.
• Turn one event into weeks of brand exposure through strategic content created before, during, and after the speaking engagement.

I have different packages to fit your needs!

(Check out my most recent visit to Transylvania University below! - Your company logo could appear in a video like this.)
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If you're interested, simply hit reply. I’d be happy to chat through the details and make it a win-win for both of us.

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How the heck do you determine your ICP?

Hey, Reader,

When two people ask you the same question in less than a week…it’s usually a hint that plenty of others are struggling with it, too.

And recently, that question has been...

“How do I figure out who I should be talking to with my content?”

In the marketing world, the “who” is your target audience or ICP…your ideal customer profile.

But let’s make that much simpler.

Your ICP is the type of person or organization you most want to work with.

A good place to start is by looking at the clients you’ve already served.

Who was amazing to work with from beginning to end?

Who understood the value of what you offered?

Who had no issue with your rate, trusted your expertise, loved the work, and experienced a real impact from working with you?

That person might give you some of your best clues.

But I also want you to think about the future work you want to attract.

Who is that person or organization?

What are they dealing with?

And what would need to happen for them to start looking for someone like you?

This is where creating a persona can be incredibly helpful.

Meet my ideal client, Sam

“Sam” is the persona I created to represent an ICP I want to attract.

In the visual I created, Sam is a guy. But in reality, I work with plenty of women who fit this profile as well. The name simply helps me picture and understand the person behind the job title.

Through this exercise, you want to get a visual of this person in your head.

Here’s more info on Sam (the same attributes you would want to look at for your ICP):

Title: President, CEO, or Founder. Sometimes Sam is a VP of Sales or Revenue who has also been handed responsibility for marketing.

Company: An established, profitable business…often family-owned or founder-led, with real operating history and a product or service that already works.

This isn’t typically a startup trying to gain its first customers.

It’s a successful business that has outgrown relying on word of mouth and “whoever is around to write a LinkedIn post.”

Marketing team: There is usually no dedicated marketing team, or the team is very small…perhaps one person who is part-time, junior, or stretched across too many responsibilities, so having the time to create intentional content consistently that works on various platforms is a big pain point.

Marketing has become something the CEO, President, or sales leader squeezes in around their actual job...which isn't working.

What content marketing looks like today: Reactive and inconsistent.

The website hasn’t been touched in years. Social media posts happen when someone remembers. There’s no real content strategy or calendar, and no one is evaluating whether the work is contributing to the business.

What Sam wants: Sam wants his online visibility to become a strategic growth engine…with a clearer connection to leads, revenue, hiring, and market position.

He wants to hand off the strategy and execution to someone who understands the bigger business picture, can do the work, and can build a content system that's tied back to analytics and goals.

What’s frustrating Sam: He knows the business needs an increased presence in the digital landscape to keep growing, but the company doesn’t have the time, expertise, or internal leadership to make it happen.

Hiring someone full-time feels expensive and risky.

Trying to handle it internally isn’t working.

Past agency experiences may have created some skepticism.

And all the while, competitors seem to be getting more visible and credible.

Sam’s mindset in one sentence:

“I know we need a strong online presence…but I don’t have the time, expertise, or internal team to build it myself. I need someone who can own the whole thing, become a natural extension of our team, and show me it’s working.”

There’s certainly more I could add to this persona.

I could include Sam’s background and what might make him hesitate during a sales conversation.

But even this amount of information gives me a much stronger picture of who I’m trying to reach.

And now comes the part that really matters…

What do you do with this information?

Your persona should influence your positioning.

Positioning is how your ideal buyer perceives you and the value you provide…especially compared with the other options available to them.

To figure that out, you have to look at your work through your buyer’s eyes.

For example, in very simple terms, you might see me as doing LinkedIn strategy and content creation for businesses and leaders.

But that isn’t really what Sam is buying.

Sam wants outcomes.

If I want to continue to attract more people like Sam, I also need to talk about the larger business problems Sam is experiencing...like...

• Why inconsistent content keeps businesses from building top-of-the-funnel & bottom-of-the-funnel momentum.
• Why assigning content to whoever has time rarely works.
• What it costs when a company’s expertise isn’t visible online.
• Why content needs to connect to business goals instead of simply creating more noise and AI blubbery:)
• What content marketing leadership looks like when a company doesn’t need a full-time department and outsources to a partner they can trust.

That way, when a future Sam reads my content, they don’t just think...

“Allison knows LinkedIn.”

They think:

“Allison understands our online visibility problem…and she can help us in creating what we need in order to see business results.”

That’s the difference.

As much as possible, how I personally market myself through LinkedIn...my website...Youtube...THIS newsletter...and other online channels need to connect my services to the growth my ideal clients want to experience.

And your marketing should do the same for your business.

Now it’s your turn

You don’t need to spend weeks developing an elaborate persona document.

Start here:

1. Think of two or three real people you’d love more clients like.

They could be past clients, current clients, prospects, or even people you’ve had great sales conversations with.

Using real people gives you much better information than inventing a fictional buyer from scratch.

2. Write down what they have in common.

Consider:

• Their role
• The type of company or organization
• Company size
• Industry
• Stage of business
• Who handles the work you help with today

You’re looking for patterns…not trying to make every detail identical.

3. Ask..."What was happening when they needed me?"

Don’t stop at demographics. That's table stakes. Instead, identify the moment that made them realize they needed help.

Had they reached a growth plateau?

Were they launching something new?

Had they become too busy to keep doing the work themselves?

Was an important responsibility falling through the cracks?

Had the way they’d always done things finally stopped working?

This situation is often far more useful for your content than knowing your ideal client’s age, where they live, and how many kids they have.

4. List three to five things they’re actually frustrated by.

Use the language you hear during sales calls and client conversations.

For example:

“I know we should be doing XYZ, but nobody has time.”

That’s much more useful than:

“Needs improved marketing efficiency.”

Recordings and transcripts from meetings come in VERY handy here, and your AI of choice, with the right prompt, can help pull these out for you.

The exact phrases your prospects use can become future hooks, posts, emails, website copy, and sales messaging.

Then keep adding them to a document you constantly revisit.

This can be a Google Doc, in Notion, or an Excel spreadsheet. Pick your preferred document of choice.

Over time, it will become one of the most valuable content resources you can continually revisit as you create your posts, blog articles, website copy, etc.

5. Identify what they ultimately want.

Think past the deliverable itself you're providing.

Write down the outcome your ideal client is hoping to experience as a result of the deliverable.

Do they want:

• More qualified leads?
• Greater credibility?
• More time?
• Better hires?
• Revenue growth?
• A stronger market position?
• A function they can confidently hand off without having to manage it?

Your service/deliverable is the vehicle to make the above potentially happen.

And the outcome is what your ideal client is actually wanting to buy. It's the outcomes you need to be talking about more.

Your persona doesn’t have to be perfect

Build it using the best information you have today. That's really the goal.

Then continue sharpening it as you learn more.

Every sales call, client conversation, objection, lost proposal, and successful engagement gives you additional information about who you serve best…and what matters most to them.

This shouldn’t be something you create once, give a name like “CFO Jerry,” tuck into a folder, and never look at again. 😆

Revisit it periodically throughout the year.

Because the point isn’t simply to say you have an ICP.

The point is to understand that person well enough that when they come across your content, they immediately identify with it.

And that is where more relatable content gets created… and much better business opportunities begin.

P.S. And if, while reading this, Sam sounds like you, send me a reply. I'm looking to work with someone just like you!

Talk soon,

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Allison Ditmer

Find me mostly on LinkedIn​

Watch my YouTube and motivate me to make more videos:)

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Columbus, OH