Create ICPs and Personas

Overview

CntX separates audience context into three layers:

• Audiences — groupings that connect ICPs, personas, and products for planning and generation.
• ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles) — firmographic and segment-level definitions: industry, company size, turnover, and segment description.
• Personas — human-level profiles: job title, pain points, communication preferences, and buying triggers.

Together they answer “who is this content for?” at both company and individual levels. Strategy, calendar generation, briefs, and AI drafts use this context to choose angles, depth, and language.

All three live under Context in the sidebar: Audiences is the hub; ICPs and Personas are nested entries in the same menu. Records are workspace-scoped in multi-brand accounts.

When to use

Use this guide when you:

• Have at least one product defined and need to describe target buyers
• Want AI to propose topics and drafts aligned with specific segments
• Prepare a content strategy and must pick personas and pillars deliberately
• Receive generic briefs that do not reflect your real decision-makers

Build two to four ICPs and one or two personas per priority product before moving to brand and strategy setup.

Before you start

• Company context and at least one product exist for the workspace.
• For AI-assisted generation from Audiences, a completed website crawl must be available. If generation fails, run or verify crawl tasks first, then retry.
• Align with sales or product marketing on segment names and firmographics so ICPs match how your team already talks about accounts.

Steps

1. Open Context → Audiences. Review the Audiences hub for existing groupings, linked products, and AI generation entry points. This page summarizes how ICPs and personas connect to offers.

1. Create an ICP. Go to Context → ICPs and click to add a new ICP. Fill in:

– Name — a recognizable segment label (for example, “Mid-market fintech CTOs”). – Description — why this segment buys and what success looks like for them. – Industry, company size, and turnover — firmographic filters that keep the profile concrete. – Linked products — select one or more products this ICP cares about.

1. Assign workspace scope. On multi-workspace accounts, attach the ICP to the active workspace unless the segment is organization-wide. Use the scope toggle on list pages to verify records appear under This workspace.

1. Create a persona. Open Context → Personas and add a profile representing a key buyer or champion inside the ICP. Complete:

– Name — a memorable persona label (for example, “Operations-led VP Marketing”). – Title / role — their job function. – Description — responsibilities, goals, and context. – Pain points — specific frustrations your content should address. – Buying triggers — events or pressures that push them to evaluate solutions (add at least one). – Communication preferences (optional) — channels or formats they respond to. – Linked products — tie the persona to relevant offers.

1. Use AI suggestions when ready. From Audiences, trigger AI generation if your company crawl is complete and products exist. Review proposals, accept useful ICPs and personas, and edit fields to replace marketing fluff with durable facts.

1. Link audiences to products. Ensure each audience grouping references the correct product so saturation checks and generation limits stay accurate. The Audiences hub shows when a product has enough coverage or needs more personas.

1. Review from the product side. Open a product’s detail or competitor view to confirm ICPs and personas appear where expected. Fix gaps before running strategy or calendar generation.

1. Iterate after customer conversations. When sales shares new objections or wins, update pain points and buying triggers on personas first—those fields have the highest impact on brief quality.

Expected result

The workspace has named ICPs and personas linked to products. Audiences reflects meaningful coverage per offer. Strategy and brief workflows can target specific segments instead of a generic “B2B buyer.”

AI generation and manual records coexist: accepted AI drafts should still be edited for accuracy and longevity.

Tips / common issues

• ICP vs persona. Use ICPs for segment economics and firmographics; use personas for narrative, pain, and triggers. Do not duplicate the same text in both—combine them at planning time.
• Too many personas. Two strong personas per priority product outperform a dozen thin profiles. CntX uses depth, not count.
• Generation errors. Common blockers: no product, crawl not finished, or company context still empty. Resolve those before retrying AI from Audiences.
• Cross-workspace confusion. ICPs created under the wrong workspace will not appear when planning content for another brand. Check the workspace badge in organization view and recreate if needed.
• Campaign slogans in pain points. Write pains as your buyers describe them in calls (“We cannot prove content ROI to the board”), not as your latest ad copy.

Next step

Set Up Your Brand Platform and Guidelines