Working with inbound marketing is not just about generating new leads for your sales funnel. It's also about quickly identifying those who are genuinely interested in purchasing your product and those who have the potential to become long-term customers. This is where lead scoring comes into play. In this article, you’ll learn about different lead scoring models, the key data to monitor, and how to effectively implement lead scoring.
What Is lead scoring?
Lead scoring involves assigning a value, often in the form of points, to each lead to evaluate their likelihood of becoming a valuable customer. Points can be allocated based on various attributes, such as the information they've provided and how they’ve interacted with your brand. With lead scoring, sales and marketing teams can prioritize leads, communicate with them appropriately, and ideally increase conversion rates.
Collecting data
Lead scoring models aim to ensure that the values assigned to each lead reflect their actual likelihood of becoming good customers. Many lead scoring systems are based on a point scale from 0 to 100.
There are several lead scoring models based on data you can collect. Here are six common models, often combined to form a comprehensive scoring system:
Demographic information
If your product is targeted at a specific demographic, such as young parents or marketing managers in urban areas, you can incorporate demographic data into your scoring.
Firmographic information
For B2B companies, you might prefer selling to businesses of a certain size, type, or industry. The more relevant the company, the higher the score.
Behavioral data
Points can be assigned based on how potential customers interact with your brand. For instance, you might award points for visiting a specific landing page, opening an email, or downloading a whitepaper from LinkedIn.
Scoring
When leads meet criteria within specific categories, they are awarded points. Negative points can also be assigned, for instance, if an email bounces or if the person provides a non-business email address during registration. The purpose of negative points is to filter out lower-quality leads.
Determining priorities
Initially, it can be challenging to decide which data is most important. Combining feedback from the sales team, insights from customer interviews, and analytics data can help establish a relevant and fair scoring system. The more information you have, the better your leads will be.
Calculating a basic lead score
Start by analyzing historical data to identify common traits among your most successful leads. This may include demographic details like age, occupation, or location, as well as firmographic information such as industry, company size, or job role.
The next step is to evaluate lead engagement by identifying behaviors that indicate interest in your products or services. This could include visiting specific landing pages, downloading content from social media, or clicking links in your emails. This helps you identify actions that frequently lead to conversions.
You can also analyze past sales dialogues to determine what defines a good customer and apply the same analysis to your existing customer base. Look at your best-paying customers over time and compare them to those who are no longer customers. Do you notice any patterns? Use these insights to create your scoring system.
Start optimizing
Most businesses lack sufficient data at the outset to pinpoint the exact activities that lead to conversions. Therefore, it’s necessary to make some assumptions to create an initial version of your lead scoring model. This allows you to quickly test and adjust the scoring system as more data and insights are gathered about behaviors that truly correlate with success. Starting with assumptions creates a flexible model ready for continuous improvement.
Communicating with leads
Lead scoring can also be used to segment and tailor communication. Leads with higher scores can receive more targeted and relevant information, while those with lower scores can be nurtured through automated and more generic workflows until they show greater interest.
In summary
By using lead scoring, you can prioritize and focus on your most valuable leads and gain a clearer understanding of who they are. Keep in mind that lead scoring is a dynamic model that must evolve alongside changes in visitor behavior.
If you’re unsure how, where, or when to begin, contact us, and we’ll help you map out the way forward.
