But why are you interested in getting leads and qualifying them? Throughout this article, I will explain the importance of getting leads and why you should do Lead Scoring or, in other words, lead qualification.
First of all, let's start with the basics.
What is a Lead?
Leads are all those consumers accounting directors email lists who have shown interest in your products or services, either by asking for information, browsing your website or opening an email . However, these leads do not necessarily have to have made a purchase.
It is important to keep in mind that not all leads are the same , that is, not all of them like the same things and not all of them are equally interested. This is where lead scoring or lead qualification comes into play.
What is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring can be defined as: “ measuring the temperature of a lead to determine what phase a customer is in within a purchasing process .”
To make it clear, within Inbound Marketing, lead scoring measures the degree of interest of a user within the Lead Nurturing process .
Many companies tend to treat leads equally and perform the same actions to create a sale. Doing this can lead to a huge loss of customers or potential customers. As I mentioned in previous paragraphs, not all leads feel the same level of interest or like the same things, so it is important to qualify these leads to know if they are willing to buy or not .
For example, cold leads are those whose consumers have interacted with the brand in some way, but have not made any purchases and have no intention of doing so.
On the other hand, hot leads are those that the consumer has been interacting with the brand for some time, requesting information, observing... but is still not sure if they want to buy.
It is clear that the actions to "encourage purchase" cannot be the same for both types of leads, but rather depending on their degree of interest and interaction we will have to carry out different strategies .
And you might be wondering, this is all very well, but how can I measure the “temperature” of my lead and know what phase of the purchasing process they are in?
To do this, I recommend that you use automated marketing tools such as Hubspot or Mailchimp . Next, we will see how to carry out lead scoring.
How does lead scoring work?
For lead qualification, it is important that you carry out an Inbound Marketing strategy . That is, that you create marketing strategies that provide value to your clients or potential clients. When we talk about value, we mean that they are of interest to them and that they provide something, such as a solution to a problem they face and that is related to the products or services you offer. For them, you have different options:
Generate content : This can be through the blog, downloads, emails, videos, among other formats.
User experience : Make your client or potential client feel special, unique and identified with the brand. In this way, you will transmit positive feelings to them so that they keep you in mind.
The main purpose of lead scoring is to get visitors to become leads, and this is achieved when a user provides their data to the brand, which can be used by the brand to send them any type of information .
However, you must make a Quid pro Quo, that is, the users are not going to give you their data in exchange for nothing, but you must offer them, for example, an ebook or any type of downloadable product, a discount, an invitation, a free sample... everything will depend on your products or services .
Once you have the leads, the fun part comes, which will help you increase your sales: lead qualification.
How to qualify a lead?
We are going to talk about 3 different types of leads: cold leads, marketing-qualified leads, and hot leads or sales-qualified leads.
Cold or unqualified lead
I mentioned this type of lead in a previous section. This is the one with the least probability of becoming a sale in the short term , since it is at the top of the sales funnel .
This means that they have had some interaction with the brand but are not predisposed to purchasing its products or services.
When we are faced with this type of leads, the ideal thing is to carry out lead nurturing actions or strategies to generate trust in this type of user.
Marketing qualified leads
This, unlike a cold lead, is one that has interacted with the brand several times but has not yet decided to make a purchase .
This is located at an intermediate point in the sales funnel.
To achieve their purchase, it is necessary to create marketing actions that allow determining whether or not they can be a business opportunity for the brand.
Hot lead or sales qualified lead
This is the lead that is most likely to convert into a short-term sale and subsequently into a loyal long-term customer, since it is at the bottom of the funnel .
Now that you know what kind of leads you might encounter, it's time to determine what actions you're going to take to qualify your own leads. I recommend that when you mark these actions, you give each one a different score, for example, from 1 to 5. 1 will be a totally cold lead and 5 a totally hot lead.
Here is an example:
1 point if you open an email.
2 points if you download the downloadable material on the website.
3 points if you enter our blog.
4 points if your stay time is longer than 2 minutes and you visit more than 2 pages per session.
5 points if you fill out the contact form or request more information.
The sum of these scores will give us a value for each type of lead. This value will help you determine whether it is interesting and what type of actions are most appropriate.
Last but not least, you will need to define a score to classify each type of lead. This way, you will be able to stipulate the number of actions or minimum score that a lead must achieve to be qualified as hot.
You can also set intermediate scores to capture their attention, such as automated, personalized emails tailored to each phase the potential customer is in within the sales funnel.
And you, do you have qualified leads? Does it work for you? Tell us about your experience!
