How to use lead scoring

When most businesses begin embracing inbound marketing, their main concern often revolves around generating sufficient new leads to fill the pipeline. However, as your lead count grows, you need to work out who holds a genuine interest in your product and who's merely exploring their options.

Enter the world of lead scoring.

What is lead scoring?

According to Hubspot, “Lead scoring is the process of assigning values, often in the form of numerical points, to each lead you generate for the business. You can score your leads based on multiple attributes, including the professional information they've submitted to you and how they've engaged with your website and brand across the internet.”

The process is used to helps sales and marketing teams:

• Prioritize leads
• Respond to leads appropriately
• Increase the rate at which those leads become customers

You’ll find that every business uses a different model for assigning points to score their leads, however the most common approach is to utilize data from past leads to create the value system. This can be achieved by working out what your contacts who become customers all have in common. Follow this by looking at the attributes of your contacts who didn't become customers and soon you’ll be able to decide which attributes should be weighted more heavily—based on how likely they are to indicate that someone is a good fit for your product.

Join us as we guide you through the fundamental steps of creating a lead score.

5 lead scoring models

Each of the following lead scoring models will support a particular attribute of your core customer.

1. Collecting demographic information

Do your customers fit a certain demographic, such as dog owners? If so, be sure to ask demographic questions in the forms on your landing pages, in order to use your leads' answers to see how well they fit in with your target audience

Top tip: remove outliers from your sales team's queue by subtracting points for people who fall into a category you don't sell to. For example, if you only sell to a certain geographic location, you might give a negative score to any lead who falls outside the proper city, state, zip code, country, and so on.

2. Asking for company information

You can ask questions about the type of company you are selling to on your landing page forms, allowing you to  assign points to leads who fit in with your target audience and take points away from leads who don’t. 

For example, if you’re a SaaS company, are you more interested in selling to startups vs larger organizations? Does your software best fit a certain industry?

3. Monitoring behavior online 

A lead's engagement with your website can provide valuable insights into their purchase intent. It's crucial to consider both the quantity and nature of their interactions, such as the forms they fill out and the pages they visit. For instance, leads who explore high-value pages like pricing information or submit high-value forms like demo requests could receive elevated lead scores. Likewise, leads with 30 page views on your site may be prioritized over those with only three views, indicating a deeper interest in your offerings.

4. Tracking email engagement

It’s difficult to tell whether or not someone is interested in buying your products based solely on them opting in to an email subscription popup. Open and clickthrough rates, however, will give you a much better idea of their interest level. 

Your sales team will find it valuable to identify individuals who consistently open every email within your lead nurturing series or those who consistently engage with your offer promotion emails through clicks. This enables them to prioritize their efforts on leads displaying the highest levels of engagement.

5. Utilizing social media engagements 

Knowing just how much a lead engages with your brand on social media can give you more insight into how interested they are:

• How many times did they click through on your company's tweets and Facebook posts?
• How many times did they retweet or share those posts? 
• How many times did they comment on your content?

Calculating a basic lead score

There are MANY different ways to calculate a lead score, however the simplest way is manual lead scoring: 

1. Determine the lead-to-customer conversion rate for your entire lead pool. 

The lead-to-customer conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of new customers acquired by the total number of generated leads. Use this conversion rate as your benchmark.

2. Choose specific characteristics that define customers whom you consider as potentially higher-quality leads.

These attributes could encompass customers who have requested a free trial at any point, those operating in the finance sector, or those belonging to organizations with 10-20 employees. The selection of these attributes involves a certain degree of expertise. Your choices should be influenced by conversations with your sales team, your analytical findings, and other relevant factors. While this process may vary from person to person, it remains acceptable as long as your scoring system is grounded in the previously mentioned data.

3. Calculate the distinct close rates for each of these attributes. 

Determining the close rates associated with various user actions on your website or the characteristics of those users is vital, as it informs the steps you'll take in response. So, work out the number of individuals who evolve into qualified leads and eventually become customers based on their actions or alignment with your ideal customer profile. These close rates will serve as the basis for assigning scores in the following step.

Identify attributes displaying notably higher close rates in comparison to your overall close rate. Next, decide which attributes will receive points and determine the quantity of points assigned to each. Base these point values on the relative magnitude of their individual close rates. While the specific point values may entail some subjectivity, strive for consistency. For instance, if your overall close rate stands at 1%, and the close rate for the "requested demo" attribute is 20%, indicating a 20-fold increase compared to the overall rate, you might opt to assign, for instance, 20 points to leads possessing that attribute.

Conclusion

So, whether you're a seasoned marketer looking to fine-tune your lead management strategy or just starting your journey, implementing lead scoring can significantly boost your efficiency and conversion rates. It's a dynamic approach that empowers you to focus your resources on leads most likely to convert, ultimately driving growth and success for your business.