The whole challenge of a good inbound marketing strategy is based on knowing your prospects and leads . In particular, their positioning in the sales funnel . Are they ready to buy or are they still in the research phase? To find out, one tool is popular: lead scoring .
What is lead scoring? What are the different types of lead scoring? What criteria should be prioritized when building a lead scoring strategy? To find out, read on in this guide dedicated to lead scoring. In order to know the interest of leads and contacts.
Lead scoring definition
Lead scoring literally means ” lead rating “. This method therefore consists of assigning a score (a rating) to each lead in order to assess its interest in the company . And therefore its conversion potential .
This score is obtained by adding points . This scoring system is based on different characteristics. Such as the information provided by prospects (normally recorded in your prospecting file) as well as the interactions or requests made .
Each company has its own method of assigning points . However, companies often rely on data from past leads to develop this scoring system .
To do this, companies need to identify the common elements that prospects who became customers have. Then, they will need to look at the elements that characterize prospects who did not become customers.
With this data, the company will be able to identify the most important elements. That is, those that indicate a better probability of purchase . Depending on the number of prospects in the database and the business model used, this can quickly become complicated.
But lead scoring is one of the most interesting sales prospecting tools . Indeed, it allows marketing and sales teams to define priorities . Thanks to their knowledge of prospect engagement, these teams can respond more appropriately . And therefore improve the conversion rate .
The different types of lead scoring
Lead demographic scoring
Demographic lead scoring is based on a set of data that helps to draw up a portrait of the prospect. Thus, it allows to compare it to the buyer persona . That is to say to your ideal customer profile .
This particularly avoids contacting people who have no commercial potential for the company . For example, if you are a B2B company, but the prospect is B2C, he is not part of your target audience. So there is no point in contacting him.
To collect this data , this is done gradually, as the prospect visits. This is done in particular through intelligent forms requesting increasingly precise information. This information may concern:
- The sector of activity
- The location
- The budget
- The size of the company
- Age/Gender
However, implementing a demographic lead scoring strategy has some limitations. It can be difficult to collect information from prospects. Especially quality information.
Lead scoring comportemental
Another type of lead scoring: behavioral lead scoring . Instead of focusing primarily on the information provided by the lead, we focus instead on their behavior . That is, the actions they perform on the company’s website . This lead scoring strategy allows you to know whether this lead should be moved to the sales force .
Collecting data on the behavior of future new customers involves installing a tracking script . All prospects who have filled out a form will therefore be automatically recognized by the website. And thus, it will be possible to track their interactions with the various contents of the site.
You assign a number of points to various actions (clicking on a link, visiting a web page, etc.). Thanks to the scoring table obtained, you can easily differentiate between prospects . In particular, between a qualified lead and a lead with little potential.
The BANT method
BANT is an acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline . This method therefore relies on 4 important factors to assess whether a lead is qualified or not:
- Budget : Does the prospect have the financial means to purchase the product/service?
- Authority : Does the prospect have decision-making power? Is he able to lead his company to grant funds? This is particularly valid in B2B.
- The need : Does the prospect really need the company’s product or service? What could create this need in him?
- Planning : When will the prospect be ready to buy? Is a trigger event about to happen?
Based on these 4 factors, you can get a basis for assigning a score to your contacts. And evaluate their business potential. However, for this method to be effective, you need to have enough information about your prospects.
Building your lead scoring model
Define your sales cycle map
To have an effective lead scoring strategy , it is important to properly define the sales cycle map . To do this, you must divide this sales cycle into 3 stages: discovery, evaluation and purchase.
#1. First step: discovery
This is the beginning of the sales funnel . These are the very first actions of your potential new customers. The actions to be mapped in this step must therefore be low-commitment:
Actions in this first step should be assigned a low number of points. Usually between 5 and 10 points.
#2. Second step: evaluation
After learning about your brand, this is the stage of the prospect’s engagement with it. So the actions need to be a little more engaging. For example:
- Download an ebook/white paper present on your site
- Participate in a webinar
Actions in this step are worth between 10 and 20 points . They are worth more points because they symbolize engagement, not just interest, from the prospect.
#3. Third step: purchase
This is where your content strategy is important. It should help attract these new customers and help them complete the purchase. Several actions can be awarded points:
- Downloading a customer case
- Visiting your company’s Pricing page
- A request for a demonstration of the product or service
- Filling out a quote form
These different actions are worth at least 30 points. If a prospect performs one of these actions, he is transformed into a qualified lead.
To avoid the risk of losing future new customers, you should not rush the steps. Especially in inbound marketing .
A prospect who is in the discovery phase is not a “mature” prospect. You should therefore give him some more time before offering him a demonstration or an appointment.
Setting up your lead scoring scenarios
Once the various actions to be noted have been identified, lead scoring scenarios must be set up.
To do this, you need to create scenarios for each of the 3 steps we have just seen . For each scenario , you need to determine the starting points . The starting points are the different key actions defined for each step (participate in a webinar, read an article, etc.).
Once this is done, you need to define the step that will update the prospect’s score . Be careful, when you set up the scenarios, make sure to check the right box. That is to say, the box that allows future new customers to perform a scenario several times.
If you do not check this box, points will not be added . If the prospect performs multiple actions in the same step, he will only get points for one action.
For example, reading an article and subscribing to the newsletter should be worth 10 points (5 and 5). But if the box is not checked, it will only be worth 5 points.
However, the prospect has taken several actions, which demonstrates real interest. But on the scoring table this will not be seen.
Developing dynamic segmentation
After establishing your scenarios , you must adopt dynamic segmentation . As a reminder, dynamic segmentation allows you to distribute contacts across lists .
And this, according to pre-established targeting criteria . This allows, among other things, to save time and to create lists of contacts with similar profiles.
This will make it easier to set up a content strategy. To do this, you can, for example, determine value thresholds according to each list. For example:
- Scores below 20 : new lead.
- Scores from 20 to 49 : “lukewarm” lead.
- Scores from 50 to 80 : qualified lead
- Scores above 80 : sales qualified lead
For an even more effective lead scoring strategy , consider providing an “escape route.” A lead’s score resets to zero if they show no interest in the most personalized emails .
Lead scoring: the criteria to prioritize
1. Demographic data
As discussed in demographic lead scoring, demographic data helps ensure that the lead matches the target . This way, you only contact people who have sales potential.
A point deduction system can also be set up . For example, if a product is only available in a certain region. Leads not in that region will have points deducted.
2. Company information
B2B companies can include questions on forms that will help them eliminate certain contacts . These criteria could be company size or industry.
So, prospects who meet the criteria get points. While those who don’t meet the criteria lose them.
3. Online behavior
To understand the purchasing intentions of leads , there is nothing better than analyzing their online behavior.
Depending on the behavior , the number of points can vary . For example, if the prospect visits a page of a website with high added value, he is awarded more points. This could be the case for the pricing page, for example.
If the prospect does not visit the page for a while (to be defined), he loses points.
4. Engagement par email
Subscribing to a company’s email list does not guarantee the prospect’s intention to purchase . On the other hand, email opening rates and click-through rates provide information on the intentions of these leads .
Prospects who click on a link in high-value emails may be assigned a higher score . Similar to demo requests.
5. Social Media Engagement
A good way to gauge a prospect’s engagement is by how much interest they have in a company’s social media . Indicators include the number of times they’ve shared or retweeted posts, for example .
It may be relevant to award more points to prospects who have a certain influence on social networks. Particularly with a view to social selling .
6. Spam Detection
Forms that may be spam may be assigned negative scores. For example, forms on which names/first names are written without capital letters. Or those on which the fields contain a succession of at least 4 letters that follow the order of an AZERTY keyboard.
It may also be interesting to compare the types of email addresses . If the target audience consists of businesses, all non-business addresses (Gmail, Yahoo…) are awarded fewer points.
FAQ – Lead scoring
Can lead scoring be automated?
To facilitate lead generation, many tools have been developed . This is particularly the case with marketing automation. Marketing automation allows, as its name suggests, to automate certain tasks . And this, in order to facilitate the implementation of a CRM campaign .
There are various marketing automation tools that can automate lead scoring. And therefore, save time for marketing and sales teams . Some software is available in free versions . But to benefit from all the features, you often have to subscribe to a paid subscription .
Is one lead scoring system enough?
If your business has only one ideal customer profile, a single lead scoring system may be sufficient . However, as the product or service offering evolves, the ideal customer profile becomes more diverse.
In these cases, it is best to use multiple lead scoring systems . In order to be able to meet the expectations of each target customer profile .
Who should you talk to to properly understand a contact’s lead scoring?
The important thing in lead scoring is not necessarily the quantity of information, but rather its quality . Indeed, it is important to be able to evaluate the relevance of the information collected . For quality lead scoring, you need to communicate with other stakeholders in the company . In particular with the marketing and sales teams.
Salespeople are in contact with prospects who will become new customers. But also with those who will not. They therefore have a fairly precise idea of the type of content that allows prospects to enter the conversion funnel. It is therefore interesting to collect their feelings .
Similarly, talking to customers is a very effective way to find out what works and what doesn’t . After all, they have experienced it themselves. So don’t hesitate to ask them for their opinion.
Finally, you need to use analysis tools . This is still the most objective way to get feedback on what works and what doesn’t for a company. There are many very comprehensive tools.