When individuals embark on implementing inbound marketing, their initial concern often revolves around ensuring a steady influx of new leads into their sales funnel. However, as the volume of leads grows, the challenge shifts to distinguishing between those genuinely interested in the product and those merely exploring options.
This is where the concept of lead scoring becomes crucial.
What Is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring involves the assignment of values, typically in numerical form, to every generated lead for a business. This scoring is determined by various factors, such as the professional details provided by the lead and their interactions with the brand across the internet and on the company’s website.
The primary purpose of lead scoring is to enable sales and marketing teams to prioritize leads effectively, tailor their responses accordingly, and enhance the likelihood of converting these leads into customers.
Each company adopts a unique approach to assigning points for lead scoring, with one of the commonly used methods involving the utilization of data from past leads to establish a value system.
Here’s how it typically works: Firstly, you analyze the commonalities among your contacts who successfully converted into customers. Subsequently, you examine the attributes of contacts who did not become customers.
By comparing historical data from both perspectives, you can determine which attributes should carry more weight in the scoring system, based on their indicative value for identifying a good fit for your product.
While lead scoring may seem straightforward, it can become intricate depending on your business model and the diversity of leads in your database. To simplify this process, we’ll guide you through the fundamental steps of creating a lead score. This includes identifying relevant data, pinpointing crucial attributes, and outlining the steps for calculating a basic score.
What are Lead Scoring Models?
Lead scoring models play a crucial role in ensuring that the assigned values accurately mirror the compatibility of each lead with your product.
Although many lead scoring systems use a point scale ranging from 0 to 100, each model is tailored to support a specific attribute crucial to your core customer. Here are six diverse lead scoring models, each grounded in the type of data collected from individuals engaging with your business:
Demographic Information
If your target market is specific, such as parents of young children or Chief Information Officers (CIOs), incorporating demographic questions into your landing page forms can be beneficial. The responses from these questions offer insights into how well leads align with your intended audience.
Utilizing this information strategically involves refining your sales team’s focus. By subtracting points for leads falling outside your target demographic—for instance, a specific geographic location—you can streamline your efforts. For optional form fields, like a phone number, providing additional points to leads offering such information voluntarily can also be a valuable practice.
Company Information
For B2B organizations, it’s essential to pinpoint specific criteria that align with your sales goals. Questions about the size, type, or industry of the organizations you’re targeting can be incorporated into your landing page forms. By doing so, you can assign points to leads that closely match your ideal target audience and subtract points from those that don’t meet your criteria.
Tailoring your approach based on whether you are more interested in B2B or B2C organizations, and by gathering relevant information through targeted questions, you ensure that your lead scoring system is finely tuned to prioritize and engage with leads that align most closely with your business objectives.
Online Behavior
Analyzing how leads interact with your website provides valuable insights into their level of interest in making a purchase. Examining the behavior of leads who eventually become customers is particularly insightful. Consider factors such as the offers they downloaded, the quantity of offers downloaded, and the specific pages visited on your site before conversion.
Both the number and nature of forms and pages are significant. Higher lead scores can be assigned to those who visit high-value pages (e.g., pricing pages) or complete high-value forms (e.g., a demo request). Similarly, leads with extensive interactions, such as 30 page views instead of three, might receive elevated scores.
Monitoring changes in lead behavior over time is also crucial. If a lead ceases to visit your website or download offers, their interest may have waned. Deducting points from leads who disengage after a specific timeframe—whether it’s 10 days, 30 days, or 90 days—depends on your typical sales cycle duration.
Email Engagement
For B2B companies, it’s crucial to identify specific criteria that align with your sales objectives. Integrate questions on your landing page forms that inquire about the size, type, or industry of the organizations you aim to target. This enables you to allocate points to leads closely matching your ideal audience and deduct points from those not meeting your predefined criteria.
Adapting your strategy based on whether your focus is on B2B or B2C entities and gathering pertinent information through targeted questions ensures that your lead scoring system is finely calibrated. This refinement allows you to prioritize and engage with leads that align most closely with the specific goals and objectives of your business.
Social Engagement
The level of engagement a lead demonstrates on your brand’s social media platforms provides valuable insights into their interest. Evaluate factors such as the frequency of clicks on your company’s tweets and Facebook posts, as well as the instances of retweets or shares.
If your target audience is active on social networks, it may be worthwhile to assign points to leads based on specific Klout scores or follower counts, recognizing the significance of their social media presence.
Spam Detection
Lastly, consider assigning negative scores to leads whose completion of landing page forms raises suspicions of spam. This could involve assessing whether the first name, last name, or company name was not capitalized, or if the lead filled out form fields by typing four or more letters consecutively on the traditional “QWERTY” keyboard layout.
Additionally, it’s worth examining the types of email addresses used by leads in comparison to those in your customer base. For instance, if your target is businesses, deducting points from leads using Gmail or Yahoo! email addresses might be a consideration. This helps filter out potential spam and ensures a more accurate assessment of lead quality.
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing a robust lead scoring model is essential for businesses looking to navigate the complexities of managing a growing pool of leads in their sales funnel. Lead scoring not only streamlines the prioritization of leads but also empowers sales and marketing teams to tailor their efforts effectively, increasing the likelihood of conversion.