The final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup is only days away and the entire planet is waiting with baited breath to see who wins. What will the final score be? Who will the goal scorer(s) be? You see, it’s all about that score.
In B2B marketing it’s the same… using a score to identify success. When you generate leads and find they are engaging with your company, your content and your social media presence, what if there was a way to allocate a certain amount of points to each action (thus helping to determine the hottest leads?). Well, there is… it’s called lead scoring.
Points for prospects
Lead scoring is a benefit which comes hand in hand with marketing automation software. The automation tool is required for lead scoring simply because it is capable of tracking the websites your prospects visit (which you may otherwise not be aware of).
Start by taking an overview of your current customers’ journeys when they were in the prospect and lead nurturing stage. What patterns emerge? Did they download ebooks right away, or did they engage on social media first. What was the last piece of content they read prior to converting to a sale?
Once you have this information, you can begin to better understand your customer journey more in-depth, and begin to allocate points…
5, 10, or 20
A website visit is an action that is likely to take place at the very top of the sales funnel, so an act like this can be given just 5 points. If a lead downloads a piece of content such an ebook or white paper then there is real interest in your brand/product/information, so give this action 10 points. If you see a lead download one of your case studies, you’ll know that they are very interested in the work of your company and the results you can generate, so allocate 20 points to this action.
If your current customers typically downloaded three items of content before converting to a sale then you know that your current leads will need to reach a lead score of 30 or above in order to show they are a hot lead.
From points to paying customers
Allocating points to particular actions and deciding on an ideal points total is great, but that’s not the end of the process. Firstly you need to input all of these instructions into your marketing automation tool and then set a notification rule. This will mean that when a lead reaches the preset points criteria, the system will automatically email people within your company (that you choose) and alert them to the hot lead. This one single notification email will mean that your inside sales team can react almost immediately when a lead becomes hot and therefore increases your chances of a conversion to appointment or sale.
To find out more about lead scoring and inbound marketing…
