Accurate audience targeting has become essential in the increasingly competitive fintech sector. The idea of the In-Market ICP (Ideal Customer Profile ) is becoming the cornerstone of contemporary go-to-market (GTM) strategy as businesses strive to scale more quickly and intelligently.
While typical ICPs specify a large target demographic, an In-Market ICP focuses the lens on consumers who are actively researching, interacting, and, most crucially, ready to convert. This post will explain what In-Market ICP is. Also, how fintech companies can use it to speed up pipelines. And why your revenue team should use this targeting strategy immediately.
What is Actually an In-Market ICP?
An In-Market Ideal Customer Profile is a live subset of your larger ICP. Certainly, those lists account for actively exhibiting intent indicators or being poised to purchase. These indicators may be sourced from various data sources, like search activity, third-party behavior, and content consumption habits.
Salesforce has defined ICP as A thorough description of a business. That also would be a perfect fit for your goods or services. An ICP lists the sales prospects who are most likely to become paying customers out of all those in the market for your product or service.
As per Gartner, an in-market ideal customer profile (ICP) is a specific definition of the type of person or company most likely to be a valuable customer to a given company. Indeed, it’s a planning strategy utilized for the identification, understanding, and targeting of prospective customers who are currently looking for or have expressed an interest in the company’s products or services.
Timing is everything in the financial services space. Knowing when a decision-maker at a bank, neobank, or investment firm is in-market for a compliance solution or AI trading platform puts your sales and marketing teams way ahead. Transition: Having established what it is, let’s now look at how an in-market ICP differs from other ICP models and why that difference is revolutionary for fintech marketers.
Major Differences Between In-Market ICP vs. Conventional ICP
Although a typical ICP facilitates identifying good-fit account types, i.e., industry, firmographic size, and technology stack, an in-market ICP incorporates timing and intent into the required consideration. A typical ICP also usually uses static demographics and firmographics to flag potential buyers using specified characteristics. However, this practice tends to result in longer sales cycles because it involves longer discovery and qualification periods.
In-market ICPs are driven by real-time data, applying real-time intent and activation signals to determine those who are actively ready to purchase immediately. This transition speeds up the sales cycle by allowing for faster qualification and more efficient interaction, ultimately maximizing conversion efficiency. For example, while a general ICP may reveal a mid-sized payment processor as a suitable target, an in-market ICP reveals that this company is already evaluating anti-fraud AI solutions. Targeting using this more focused targeting glass, to create an in-market ICP, is to take some major steps toward securing the most suitable, high-intent targets.
How to Construct an In-Market ICP in Fintech:
Certainly, creating an In-Market ICP for Fintech calls for the strategic consolidation of firmographic data, intent data, and behavior analysis. Here is one easy method to create an in-market ICP:
Begin with your normal ICP:
Learn about your target customer through firmographic and technographic data. As an example, target Series B-stage fintech companies on clouds such as AWS and Stripe. That gives context to knowing your target customer and emphasizing company size, funding stage, and tech stack. According to Custom Market Insights (CMI), the Fintech Technologies Market size was estimated at USD 215.3 billion in 2022 and is expected to hit around USD 751.5 billion by 2032, poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.5% from 2023 to 2032.
Add intent signals:
Leverage real-time intent platforms that expose which accounts are actively researching specific fintech topics, such as fintech compliance, embedded finance, or fraud prevention. This enables you to see interested prospects who are showing interest in solutions relevant to them.
Include engagement metrics:
Track key engagement activities such as visits to your pricing page, opens of your nurture emails, or sign-ups for webinars. These are key indicators, as they indicate a higher willingness to consume your product or service.
Employ predictive scoring models:
Utilize AI-driven predictive scoring to review which accounts have a high likelihood of converting within a given timeframe. Later, this data-driven method ensures that effort is being focused on the accounts with the greatest likelihood of progressing in the sales process.
Example: American fintech companies studying “automated risk assessment tools” experienced a 44% boost in conversion rates when named and interacted with throughout their in-market behavior window. This underscores the power of real-time interaction with in-market prospects.
After your in-market ICP is constructed, the next thing to do is to use this framework to maximize your revenue operations. Certainly, by knowing these, you can target high-value prospects, increase sales conversion rates, and power more effective marketing strategies.
How In-Market ICP Impacts Your Revenue Teams
Marketing:
Additionally, marketers can go from mass to intent targeting with in-market ICPs. By using recent activity to serve advertising to high-intent accounts and content offers, real-time buying intent account targeting helps marketing teams make better plans. This increases campaign efficiency and reduces waste expenditure. For instance, marketing can send customized resources, such as fraud detection guides, to risk leaders at fintech companies actively looking for compliance solutions rather than providing generic whitepapers.
Sales:
Sales reps can gain from tighter prioritization. Rather than cold calling, reps can target efforts at accounts that are actively exploring related keywords, like “regtech” or “automated underwriting.”Real-time behavior data also powers contextualized pitch content. If reps understand that a prospect has looked at the pricing page or downloaded a given asset, they can message to match, and connect rates go up and sales cycles come down. Sales teams can also use this information to create compelling account narratives that reflect current needs, not guesses.”.
Revenue Operations (RevOps):
In-market ICPs introduce alignment and operational simplicity. RevOps teams are able to standardize account prioritization from one source of truth using firmographic filters and live intent signals.This brings together sales and marketing efforts and also improves pipeline velocity, timing of engagement, and conversion performance reporting.Intent-based triggers also improve funnel movement tracking and workflow optimization across the revenue engine.
The efficiency gains are apparent, but to win, fintech companies must close and expand on in-market ICP on an ongoing basis.
Scaling Your In-Market ICP Framework
Refine Segmentation:
To keep your in-market ICP up-to-date, update your definitions quarterly using revenue information. Keep up with industry developments, like updates on Fed or crypto regulation, and modify audience criteria accordingly.
Leverage Automation
Construct triggers in your platform to notify sales teams whenever accounts exceed an intent score threshold. Leverage automated sequences to move in-market accounts into segmented nurture streams and activate best-fit leads at the most opportune moment.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Make regular reviews between marketing and sales teams to evaluate the success of your strategy. Eventually, any CRM commentary and pipeline notes must create feedback loops to continue improving account targeting and engagement strategies.
Based on the 2024 LinkedIn B2B Benchmark Report, organizations using buyer intent signals within campaign orchestration achieve 31% higher deal win rates. Also, by having such processes, fintech organizations can utilize the in-market ICP model effectively, with better alignment, enhanced targeted outreach, and greater ROI.
In a timing, regulation, and consumer confidence-driven market, the in-market ICP is not just a tactical win; it’s a strategic imperative. Fintechs that get this model will always remain ahead of the curve, with stronger pipelines, more effective GTM strategies, and higher ROI.
FAQs
1. How is an In-Market ICP different from traditional lead scoring?
Answer:
While traditional lead scoring assigns value based on static attributes and past behavior, an In-Market ICP dynamically focuses on real-time intent signals and buyer readiness. Instead of assuming a lead is valuable based on demographic fit alone, an In-Market ICP identifies accounts already researching and engaging with relevant topics, making them far more likely to convert now.
2. What are the best data sources to identify In-Market ICP signals in fintech?
Answer:
Top data sources include:
- Intent data platforms like Bombora, G2, and Demandbase
- CRM and marketing automation platforms for engagement metrics (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot)
- Third-party content analytics showing topic research trends
- First-party data, such as site visits, email engagement, and webinar registrations
These data points together build a clearer picture of in-market behavior in real time.
3. How often should we update our In-Market ICP definitions?
Answer:
You should refresh your In-Market ICP at least quarterly, based on:
- Revenue feedback loops
- Product updates
- Emerging fintech trends (e.g., crypto policy shifts, Fed regulations)
- Shifts in customer behavior and engagement
Frequent updates ensure your targeting reflects current buyer behavior and priorities.
4. What internal teams should be involved in building and scaling an In-Market ICP?
Answer:
A successful In-Market ICP framework requires collaboration between:
- Sales (for real-time deal insights and customer conversations)
- Marketing (to tailor campaigns and messaging to intent data)
- RevOps (to centralize data and align GTM execution) This cross-functional synergy enables efficient targeting, qualification, and conversion.
5. How can fintech startups with limited budgets implement In-Market ICP strategies?
Answer:
Start small by:
- Defining a baseline ICP with firmographic/technographic data
- Using free or affordable intent tools (like Google Search Console, LinkedIn Campaign Insights)
- Tracking first-party behavioral signals (website visits, email interactions)
- Creating manual engagement workflows (e.g., email triggers when someone downloads a resource). As your operations grow, you can integrate predictive scoring and automation for greater scale.
