Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation Can Increase the Value of Your Business

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Marketing Automation Can Increase the Value of Your BusinessExecutives have a lot to do. Plenty of people who are building businesses are grooming them for sale – and who can blame anyone for that? Businesses with tremendous growth potential are true cash cows, ready to make years of steady income for the right buyer.

In selling a small to medium sized business, owners and investors know they need to make the business look as profitable as possible to potential buyers. For businesses who are selling service instead of retail, account managers and the sales team already face difficult divisions. Sales folks who are driven by commission often over-promise, so by the time accounts get to analysts there’s already a problem.

This problem can be exacerbated by executives who are hard-driving their sales staff without follow-up on the quality of work environment and account performance with regard to the account service teams. If this sounds like your situation, watch your cancellation numbers – more often than not, overselling without account teams to handle the load can result in tons of dropped clients and bad reviews.

Enter Marketing Automation…

If you’re grooming your business for sale and you find that in your business, “one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing,” marketing automation could be the key to streamlining communications between different parts of your business – and as an overall result, your customers’ experiences with you.

With a marketing automation system in place – and the support to cover any process questions you need addressed – you can rest assured that the start to finish sales and performance processes for your business are handled.

Marketing automation allows sales people to better quality leads, put a system into place that is hands-off for following up on leads, keep better track of customer communication and offer a more streamlined transition to account management.

Marketing automation allows leads that haven’t converted to stay in your funnel more efficiently. Lead scoring allows you and your sales teams to communicate in the most effective way with clients who haven’t yet made a commitment to you.

Marketing automation makes setting up and performing work on new accounts easier for your account analysts. Email management, reporting and handling overall marketing functions for your business can become a more streamlined process with the right marketing automation tools at hand.

Making the Ultimate Sale

A potential investor or buyer for your business is going to want to see not just increased sales numbers and great profitability/growth potential. They’ll want to know you have a great process in place for ensuring future success and a great investment. Marketing automation tools placed properly and utilized by your team can actually increase the value of your business. When you can demonstrate that the future of determining the value of leads and acting on that value is secure, you’re showing investors they can trust they’re making a good purchase.

Don’t wait until the selling process starts to get marketing automation in place – make sure your employees are able to use this technology now! Lead Liaison is happy to help discuss your marketing and selling needs to address how marketing automation can make your business more valuable.

Lead Liaison

Connect Your B2B Sales and Marketing Teams with Marketing Automation

/0 Comments/in /by

Connect Your B2B Sales and Marketing Teams with Marketing AutomationB2B sales and marketing practices have different objectives but the same goal: revenue generation. While marketing builds awareness and begins the engagement process, sales connects directly with prospects ready to buy. Often the challenge for many companies is aligning sales and marketing to accomplish the goal.

Enter marketing automation. Sales and marketing departments can now be aligned through the use of marketing automation software, such as our Lead Management Automation™ solution. MA improves sales strategies and marketing strategies by providing a conduit that bridges both departments through data sharing. Sales can see current and past automated marketing campaigns while marketing can link campaigns with conversion rates.

A marketing automation solution like our Lead Management Automation software provides sales and marketing alignment in several ways:

  1. Lead Capture – Marketers and sales agents can identify digital leads by lead source, company attributes, geographic region, and other parameters.
  2. Lead Qualification and Scoring – Leads captured through digital marketing campaigns are systematically advanced through a qualification process that segments leads into hot, warm, and cold buckets, which sales and marketing managers can review to determine if the lead scoring model is effectively placing leads in the appropriate buckets.
  3. Lead Intelligence – Both departments can review data gathered through digital marketing campaigns to determine if marketing assets are collecting information effectively and sales is using this lead intelligence effectively to close sales.
  4. Lead Management – Sales and marketing teams can manage leads more effectively by coordinating marketing campaign delivery with sales activities.
  5. Lead Distribution – Tools like our real time alerts and sales activity scheduler allow marketing to distribute leads to sales through CRM integration, providing a seamless connection between both functions.
  6. Marketing Analytics – Our marketing automation software provides detailed performance metrics that allow marketing and sales to evaluate targeting, messaging, and lead generation effectiveness.

With the use of our Lead Management Automation platform, your company can align its sales and marketing practices to provide higher conversion rates. If you are struggling with how to effectively align sales and marketing, contact a knowledgeable Lead Liaison account representative today.

Lead Liaison

Why Do You Need Lead Scoring?

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Why Do You Need Lead ScoringIf salespeople of the world know anything, they know one thing – persistence is key. When you make multiple efforts to contact and follow up with customers, you’re doing a few things in the process.

You’re showing them you want their business. Sales teams who make a few follow ups, then fall off the map lose sales that may have converted over time.

You’re showing them you care. If you care enough to follow up, customers expect the same level of persistence and service when you actually do serve them.

You’re showing them you want the sale. If you develop a rapport with customers, you’re more likely to make the connection that sells.

For many organizations, the problem is not in closing sales for qualified customers – the problem is drawing the fine line between customers who are qualified and those who you could lose if you continue to contact them. Sales tracking and lead scoring helps you make the determination as to who’s qualified and who could convert in the longer term. Let’s answer the question, why do you need lead scoring?

Deploying Lead Scoring

Many companies don’t bother to implement lead scoring because it would take time to actually come up with a system. It’s a catch 22 – you want to get your team scoring leads so you can save time and get better sales coming in, but to actually make the time to develop the system will cost time on the phones and time for you to implement.

This is why marketing automation is changing the game. With a small investment and the help of a qualified marketing automation company, lead scoring and qualification couldn’t be easier. It works like this: You explain your sales process and your thoughts on lead scoring to your marketing automation company. They’ll streamline everything, set it up with your guidance and assistance – then the system does everything for you.

Onboarding Employees

This is typically not a daunting process. With Lead Liaison, employees are typically getting the hang of new processes and managing leads better than ever in under a week. Plus, your marketing department will love the ease of accessing metrics and necessary info all in one place.

Here’s a scenario many companies face: Bob has developed a great rapport with a client, but leaves to go to another sales job. After he leaves, John (a new salesperson) is ready to take on that old client, but has little information that does him any good. The details Bob typed into the CRM are helpful, but aren’t really going to address what John needs to know at the organizational level to approach the client. He loses the sale.

With lead scoring, your sales people don’t just discuss the finer details but have a clear cut process about how likely the client is to purchase and where they’re at in the funnel. This means that regardless of who’s following up, the follow up is solid and conducted under organizational guidelines that meet what can be accurately offered to the client. This is a great way to streamline your sales team’s organizational efforts as well as better appeal to clients.

It’s time to take a look at how marketing automation can streamline your funnel. Take a look at Lead Liaison’s robust offerings today!

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation Leads to Revenue Generation

/0 Comments/in /by

Marketing Automation Revenue Generation“Revenue generation” describes the marketing-to-sales transition process that provides the most efficient and effective means of closing B2B sales. The use of marketing automation in your marketing and sales practices leads to revenue generation more quickly than traditional sales and marketing practices. Through the automated features that nurture leads and score their progress through the buying cycle, the hottest leads are moved to the front of the line for sales calls. This prioritization leads to faster revenue generation – a goal of every B2B sales team.

The primary reason marketing automation has taken off recently is specifically because it helps revenue generation practices for companies of all sizes. After all, B2B companies are in business to generate revenue, right?

Manage Leads

Marketing automation allows you to manage B2B leads gathered through digital channels such as email, social media, and web forms and through traditional channels such as trade shows, direct mail, and cold-calling. Once leads enter your database, they can be segmented and organized by region, channel, size, and other factors. These leads can then be assigned a score based on attributes (company size, revenues, etc.) and behavior (website visits, downloads, etc.). Once leads have been scored , your sales department will have a prioritized list of hot, warm, and cold leads. This increases sales productivity by automatically providing qualified, scored, nurtured, and prioritized selling opportunities.

Marketing-Qualified to Sales-Qualified

Marketing automation digitally advances leads from a status of being a marketing-qualified lead following a sufficient level of digital engagement with marketing assets to a sales-qualified lead, where the most active leads are ready for a sales contact. Sales agents generally appreciate being given quality leads. Through traditional processes up to 80% of leads are discarded, lost, or ignored, often because sales agents don’t trust the quality of the leads being distributed. Marketing automation can help limit the number of poor quality leads that the sales department receives by selecting only leads that pass a scoring threshold for lead distribution. Leads can be handed off to direct or indirect sales channels for action and closure.

Marketing automation streamlines the process of preparing leads for sales contact. Marketers can determine whether certain marketing campaigns have been effective at generating interest in your solutions. And leads can be distributed to the sales department according to lead scoring metrics that put the most likely buyers at the top of contact list.

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales and marketing departments often do not work closely at lead management and demand generation. Marketing automation supports sales and marketing alignment through integration with CRM software. This boosts the productivity from each department by providing a seamless, automated transition from marketing to sales. Marketing can determine if campaigns are driving the best leads from your digital assets and sales can determine if the leads received are of sufficient quality to be contacted quickly.

Sales agents have a clearly defined view of available sales opportunities as marketers generate demand through targeted messaging that can be automatically distributed at scheduled intervals. Marketers can have a clearer picture of which campaigns have provided quality leads based upon close rates.

Research has shown that marketing automation provides a more efficient transition from marketing to sales. This leads to better revenue generation practices. Is that what your company is looking for?

If you’d like to learn how our Lead Management Automation™ software can make your enterprise more effective at revenue generation contact Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237 or sales@leadliaison.com.

Lead Liaison

Magic Quadrant for Lead Management

/0 Comments/in , /by

What is Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Lead Management all about? Some high profile names such as Marketo, Eloqua, Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com were mentioned. Lead Liaison was not in the Magic Quadrant for Lead Management, but that’s easily to explain. We’re still a relatively young company and have yet to clear the $20M revenue threshold that’s required to be part of the report. The future looks incredibly bright though as we’re blazing our own trail of innovation in the marketing automation industry. If you don’t have a copy of the lead management report we can give you a quick summary.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Lead ManagementIn all honesty, 95% of the report is about vendor profiling. 12 companies are placed across four quadrants, called leaders, challengers, niche players and visionaries. I think it’s fair to say if Lead Liaison was added to the report we’d be in the visionaries category. The other 5% of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Lead Management covers a few areas we’re fond of. Namely market definition/description, market overview and primary characteristics of CRM lead management. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of those two segments of the report for those of you who want to skip the vendor spiel:

Market Definition:

  1. Lead management integrates business process and technology to close the loop between marketing and sales and to drive higher-value opportunities through demand creation, execution and opportunity management.

  2. The input to lead management processes is unqualified contacts and opportunities from various marketing sources.

  3. The output to lead management processes is qualified, scored, nurtured, augmented and prioritized selling opportunities handed off to direct or indirect sales channels for action and closure.

Market Overview:

  1. Investments in CRM marketing automation and applications and services (including lead management) grew by more than 20% in 2011 and 2012. Gartner expects investment to continue to rise during the next several years. This means more and more companies recognize the importance of marketing automation and lead management in particular because it does three primary things as described below.

  2. Marketing automation and lead management increases enterprise growth, attracts and retains new customers and maximizes productivity of sales organizations.

  3. Factors driving the growth of marketing automation and lead management are the overall growth and success of the CRM markets and investment in digital marketing.

  4. Recent M&A and IPO activities underscore market interest in this sector (Marketo IPO, Eloqua bought by Oracle, Pardot bought by ExactTarget).

  5. B2B marketers are adopting marketing channels normally used for B2C marketing such as social media.

Three Primary Characteristics Define CRM Lead Management:

  1. Focus on business and marketing processes

  2. Focus on products or services that represent a sizable investment  (also known as “considered purchases”). Businesses selling high-value products or services tend to get a higher return on their investment.

  3. A handoff of qualified leads to a direct salesperson or an indirect sales team (value-added reseller or distributor), an inside sales team, or an automated channel.
Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation, Financial Services, and the 1:1 Relationship

/0 Comments/in /by

Marketing Automation and Financial ServicesThe financial services (FS) industry is one of the most trust-dependent, intimately-related B2B relationships in the world. Because of the sensitive (and heavily regulated) nature of financial services, marketing and sales practices are often geared towards developing a 1:1 connection. Customer acquisition and retention have traditionally been conducted through a process of face-to-face meetings and distributed physical marketing collateral. Even commodity-oriented services like consumer credit card providers attempt to give the appearance of a 1:1 relationship.

There has been a movement by financial services marketers during the past few years toward marketing automation (MA). Marketing automation routinely distributes digital marketing collateral such as email messages and provides performance measurement capabilities that reveal response rates and Internet search activity. A robust marketing automation platform, like our Lead Management Automation™, delivers a number of marketing efficiencies while maintaining a personalized experience for prospects and customers.

Lead Generation

Historically, financial services marketers have relied on print advertising, referrals, and word-of-mouth to generate leads. Although those tactics still work today, the financial services consumer now searches the web for service providers and to compare offers. B2B buyers are using the net daily to shop for third-party vendors. According to the Pew Research Center Internet and American Life Project, 91% of Internet users search online for products and services.

Marketing automation provides lead generation through a process of targeted message delivery and contact data collection. MA reduces the costs of day-to-day market engagements by allowing marketers to stage auto delivery of digital campaigns and automatically collect data about prospects who respond to messaging.

In addition, lead generation through organic search results and paid ad campaigns is seamlessly integrated with outbound activities such as email marketing. When a prospect visits your FS website, information is automatically collected and imported to a database of leads. Leads can still be attracted by a 1:1 connection because marketing messages can be easily customized with fields that address prospects personally and give the appearance of a 1:1 connection.

Lead Nurturing

Customer acquisition in the FS industry entails building a mature relationship with a prospect. The most trusted and recognizable companies typically garner the lion’s share of client accounts. Lead nurturing is one of the primary benefits of marketing automation. Through a serial delivery of valuable information to prospects, FS marketers can not only easily engage with a wider pool of prospects but also create deeper engagement with prospects that indicate interest in your FS solutions.

Through traditional FS marketing strategies, lead nurturing requires contacting individual prospects via phone or email, conversing about prospect needs and company solutions, recording the engagement details, and updating contact information manually. With marketing automation those steps are streamlined while a 1:1 relationship is maintained.

Marketing to Sales

The critical point in FS marketing is where marketing has attracted enough interest and a sales call becomes the next step. Today’s financial services buyers are more proactive, in control, and discerning. Competing for individual accounts requires a strategy of connecting sales agents with prospects in a timely manner. An MA platform provides a structured process of moving leads through the sales pipeline efficiently and effectively while maintaining a 1:1 relationship.

Using marketing automation, progressively engaging messages are delivered so sales agents now connect with better educated prospects. As lead nurturing takes place prospects are moved from a marketing-qualified lead (one that has engaged with digital messaging) to a sales-qualified lead (one that is ready to discuss a purchase). Sales agents can easily identify the hottest leads through a scoring matrix that grades both prospect attributes (such as company size) and online behavior (such as downloading a product brochure). The 1:1 relationship can then be advanced through the sales staff until a deal is made.

Although the use of marketing automation in the financial services industry is in its infancy, the benefits of automating marketing practices is already yielding results, driving down costs, and improving ROI for many notable companies, all while maintaining a 1:1 relationship appearance. Contact Lead Liaison today to find out how to become more efficient and effective at your financial services marketing.

Lead Liaison

5 Steps to Avoid When You Are Lead Nurturing

/0 Comments/in , /by

Lead Nurturing StepsThe lead nurturing process is the disciplined process of engagement with prospects through routine messaging in order to develop a relationship that leads to a purchase. Lead nurturing is more than drip marketing; it’s a process of deepening engagement with your prospects. And it can help more of your sales agents meet their quotas.

But there are some pitfalls to avoid in order to make your lead nurturing practices more effective.

Sending a Single Message to Everyone

One size does not fit all in marketing automation. Often this is the first mistake a new marketing automation user makes. Although the delivery process can be homogenized, your messaging should fit specific market segments. For instance, messaging to realtors may include real estate-specific terms like ‘days on market’ while messages sent to finance-related prospects might include ‘return on investment’. Segmenting your database then sending targeted messages improves the likelihood they will get open.

Not Advancing the Relationship

Broad, generalized messages may be somewhat effective in the early stages of the buying cycle but as B2B leads investigate purchase options they crave more meaningful information. Buyers do not regularly purchase after a single review of their solutions. Rarely does a lead purchase in the early engagement phase. Once a lead has advanced beyond the initial review of available options, they are seeking a deeper connection; therefore, messaging should be progressive.

Not Employing Agile Marketing

Lead nurturing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it practice, it is a fluid process based on market response. Marketing automation software, like our Lead Management Automation™ platform, allows both small and large marketers to adjust strategies as they receive information from digital marketing campaigns. Marketing analytics are provided so that marketers can modify messaging, reorganize campaigns, and customize digital marketing tools for quick response to market conditions.

Scheduling Improperly

Leads do not want to hear from you every day. They probably don’t want to hear from you every other day. Fact is , B2B buying takes time in most industries so immediate repetition will likely harm your chances of landing a sale more than help. Though there is no magic formula for setting message scheduling, and scheduling intervals likely vary from industry to industry, the use of marketing automation (with its reporting capabilities) can help determine the optimal delivery schedule for your digital marketing assets.

Using Stale Messaging

This is similar to ‘not advancing the relationship’. Old school marketing would tell you to repeat your message over and over to gain mindspace. That practice no longer works in the consumer-driven marketing world. Leads receive messages dozens of times each day so filtering becomes commonplace. Once a lead has engaged with your brand initially, the next step is to move her along so messaging should change as engagements are increased.

Don’t forget that most prospects are often aware they have been contacted previously. Sending the same message with the expectation that the prior message may have been missed is risky. Your content should be fresh and provide value in order to be effective.

Lead nurturing has been shown to improve close rates in several categories. According to a recent DemandGen report, nurtured leads lead to a 20% increase in sales opportunities across multiple industries. That might be reason enough for you to drive more revenue through our marketing automation process.

Got questions? Call Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237 or info[at]leadliaison.com and we’ll give you answers.

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation Guides Leads from Generation to Conversion

/0 Comments/in , /by

Marketing Automation Guide LeadsThe marketing automation system is designed to gently guide leads from the initial generation to final conversion. There is a steady stream of potential customers surfing online every day in search of new products and services. Marketing automation software captures, nurtures, qualifies, and converts more online leads than any other automated marketing system.

Automated Lead Generation

Marketing automation software is designed to capture every potential lead that comes in contact with a website. The process is completely automated, so no lead can escape its grasp. Their online profile and behavior is automatically extracted and used for lead profiling and scoring.

Improved SEO Drives Traffic

The content marketing automation produces is successful at nurturing leads, but it also helps drive more traffic to a website. Search engine’s rank websites based on quality content and keywords. Marketing automation assists SEO efforts by using keyword-rich articles to inform and engage visitors.

Better Lead Profiling

It is easier to guide a lead from generation to conversion when a company understands their needs and interests. Marketing automation uses online registrations and surveys, as well as their online activity to develop a comprehensive profile of the lead.

Scores & Prioritizes Leads

By comparing the lead’s profile against the profile of an existing customer, marketers can better evaluate whether the lead is ready for conversion. Every demographic and behavioral characteristic is given a value based on relevancy and then ranked by how closely they match to current customers. The sales team is only given leads that a high chance of conversion, so their valuable time is never wasted.

Segments Leads into Similar Groups

Marketing automation is a craft that balances automated technology with personalized attention. It cannot successfully convert leads by using the same approach on every potential consumer. Unfortunately, it also cannot efficiently address hundreds or thousands of lead’s individual needs. The compromise to this problem is lead segments. By grouping leads together that have similar interests and backgrounds, marketers can offer a more personalized approach without having to customize their efforts for every single lead that is generated.

Nurturing Leads with Customized Content

One of the most effective ways that marketing automation guides leads from generation to conversion is through lead nurturing. By taking the information gathered in profiling, marketers can develop customized content directed at each lead segment. This information is created to build trust and strengthen relationships with potential consumers by offering them value prior to conversion.

Marketing automation guides leads from generation to conversion by first capturing them as they surf online, and then profiling, scoring, segmenting, and prioritizing each lead based on their characteristics and needs. It also uses quality content to both enhance SEO and nurture leads into consumers. Marketing automation covers the complete lead management process from start to finish.

Lead Liaison

QuestSoft Selects Lead Liaison as its Marketing Automation Vendor

/0 Comments/in /by

Allen, TX (PRWEB) May 1, 2013 – Marketing automation innovator Lead Liaison is providing its robust Lead Management Automation™ software to another financial services company, this time to Laguna Hills, CA-based QuestSoft, a leading mortgage compliance software development company serving over 1,700 banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies.

QuestSoft develops software that integrates with Loan Origination System (LOS) platforms. The company was recently recognized as one of the top 50 service providers by Mortgage Technology magazine. QuestSoft products check adherence to over 12,000 pages of mortgage lending laws and regulations.

Some of the company’s success comes from a demand to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Management wanted the same attention provided to QuestSoft from a marketing automation vendor. Lead Liaison was chosen because of its attention to seemingly insignificant details and thorough customer service and technical support.

“Because we are so sensitive about providing great customer support, when we find a vendor that provides similar service, that is a perfect fit”

Several other factors led to the selection of Lead Liaison’s Lead Management Automation platform for QuestSoft’s marketing automation practices. Earlier platforms’ pricing models did not match the company’s usage. According to executives, continued use would have “cost us a small fortune.”

The platform interface is more user-friendly. Creating emails, managing lists, customizing fields, and analyzing results are all performed in a more efficient and effective manner at QuestSoft. The company had been using marketing automation for several years, implementing platforms by more recognized providers. Management saw an opportunity to cut costs yet boost sales productivity in comparison to the platform they were using at the time. “(Lead Liaison) has an attractive pricing model,” said Madsen.

Since integrating the Lead Management Automation platform into QuestSoft’s digital marketing practices, the company has seen several improvements. For example, over 60% of its inside sales staff has improved productivity through more targeted contacts and more timely connections.

“It took us about a day to realize we had a goldmine”

QuestSoft inside sales agents have improved their calls-to-appointment ratio 22% over the last quarter.

According to Madsen, it wasn’t simply a cost issue to migrate to the Lead Management Automation platform. “One of the things that impresses me about Lead Liaison can be summed up in one word: listen. Lead Liaison listens to their clients. Representatives say ‘tell me more’. I feel cared about.”

For more information about Lead Liaison’s marketing automation products or its support services contact Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237 or sales(at)leadliaison(dot)com.

****

Lead Liaison is an application development company that designs, develops, and sells cloud-based marketing and sales automation software. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. Applications cover all phases of lead management automation including sales prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation functions that directly influence revenue generation. It’s innovative and robust lead management platform combines unparalleled sales prospecting, lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing and ROI reporting. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model delivers an effective user experience and integrated cloud computing capabilities.

Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
Phone: +1-888-895-3237
abrown[at]leadliaison[dot]com

Lead Liaison

How to Use Lead Scoring to Land Qualified Leads

/0 Comments/in , , /by

How to Use Lead Scoring to Land Qualified LeadsMarketing automation generates a significant amount of leads, but it is the lead scoring process that filters and prioritizes leads to determine which are most qualified. Not every lead has the same potential. Lead scoring determines who has the highest chance of conversion, so the sales team is only focusing their energy on landing qualified leads. We’ll show you how to use lead scoring to land qualified leads.

Compare Leads against Current Customers

A lead will have a greater chance of conversion if their behavioral and demographic characteristics are similar to existing clientele. This is usually a strong sign they will have the same needs. Marketing automation can land more qualified leads by basing their criteria on their current customers.

Uses the Sales Team to Understand Customer’s Needs

Marketers should always ask the sales team for their opinion when they are developing lead scoring criteria and lead nurturing content. The sales team works directly with the company’s existing clients and they understand what they truly want.

Rank Criteria based on Relevancy

Every characteristic of a potential leads should be weighed based on relevancy. For example, a lead that clicks on a DIY video could imply that they are just using the site as a resource for information versus a lead that clicks on a page that contains product pricing and specifications. Higher value should be put on behavior that demonstrates sincere interest, like if someone volunteers personal information in an online registry to gain access to information.

Test Different Lead Scoring Criteria

There are some criteria that will have obvious relevancy, like whether or not someone clicks on a company’s contact page while other characteristics like a person’s purchasing history may not matter as much as you originally estimated. It is important to test different lead scoring criteria by not only changing the criteria, but by also adjusting the value assigned to the criteria.

For example: Let’s say that right now lead scoring determines that leads between the age of 40 and 50 are less relevant and therefore are assigned one point and leads ranked between the age of 20 and 30 are given four points because the product appeals to a younger demographic. If marketers notice that the business is now attracting an older audience, they can test the lead scoring by boosting the age 40 to 50 criteria up to two or three points. If older clients are truly interested in the product, this change could help the business land more qualified leads.

Include Criteria to Measure Inactivity

If a lead was active for a significant period of time and then they suddenly stop visiting the site, that behavior should also be considered as part of lead scoring. It may be an indicator that the lead nurturing content is not answering their needs or that they have already chosen to go purchase elsewhere.

Marketing automation was created to capture and land more qualified leads. This will be easier to accomplish if marketers use the right lead scoring criteria by involving sales in the process, basing it on relevancy, testing various criteria, and including inactivity. Lead scoring can be a powerful tool for ranking and prioritizing leads, so sales professionals are always focused on the people who have the highest potential for conversion.