If you’re a business owner, you probably know how difficult it can be to convert potential customers into paying ones. Both MQLs and SQLs are important for business growth. However, it all comes down to the number of paying customers to keep a company afloat.
Often, companies that have been doing lead generation for a while will give up after multiple attempts at converting MQLs to SQLs. In other cases, companies hire out their own staff just so they don’t have to go through this process themselves. Regardless of whether you are going through this headache or someone else is, one thing’s for sure. This is an arduous task that eats up a lot of valuable time and resources.
So how can companies make this process easier and more effective? The answer is Lead scoring parameters.
What Is a Lead Scoring Parameter?
When we qualify leads, we use variables such as the industry or the job title to determine whether they’re ready to be passed on to sales. These variables are known as lead scoring parameters.
Some examples of lead scoring parameters are data points, such as the number of employees at a company, the job title, the annual revenue, the location, and years in business.
As an example of using these variables effectively, let’s say you work for a B2B company that provides telecom services like voice, video, and internet to other companies. You can use lead scoring parameters such as job title or the size of the company to determine whether a lead is worth pursuing further.
So how do you find out which lead scoring parameters are effective? The best way would be to run tests on them.
What Are Lead Scoring Tests?
When it comes to marketing campaigns, many people think about A/B testing for landing pages. Landing page testing is important because your landing page often has a direct impact on conversions.
However, there are different kinds of tests that marketers and small business owners should run on their campaigns in order to optimize them.
Lead scoring tests allow you to determine which lead scoring parameters are most likely to result in conversions, meaning that they’re the most efficient at turning MQLs into SQLs. And unlike landing page testing, lead scoring tests don’t require marketers and small business owners to change their existing processes or infrastructure.
Instead, they involve changing simple variables like job title and location on a form without disrupting the workflow of sales and marketing teams.
Some of these variables may be more important than others, so it’s best to keep track of which ones are seeing better results by running lead scoring tests.
As mentioned earlier, there are multiple kinds of lead scoring testing. Here’s a breakdown of the most popular:
Top 4 Lead Scoring Tests
1. Location-Based Testing
This test determines which location is the best at generating leads. For example, let’s say you sell your services both in Canada and the U.S. You can use lead scoring parameters such as job title and company size to determine which location has more Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) per MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead).
2. Industry-Based Testing
If your target market changes depending on your industry or vertical, then it would be beneficial for you to run an industry-based test. For instance, if you work in banking, but also have clients in retail, hotels, etc., then running tests with industry-specific variables is recommended.
3. Job-Based Testing
Tracking potential customers by job title helps marketers understand which position is the best at generating leads.
4. Title-Based Testing
This test helps you track which titles are most likely to generate leads. For example, let’s say you have a list of 10,000 potential customers. Some of them have the word CEO in their title as opposed to CFO or COO. It’s better to determine which ones are more likely to convert. This way, your sales team doesn’t spend their time chasing CEOs who probably won’t buy from your company.
Inbound vs. Outbound Lead Scoring
You can run your lead scoring tests either manually or automatically. Manual lead scoring is when a person analyzes each lead’s profile and decides whether the lead is worth pursuing. On the contrary, if you go with an automated system, then your leads are instantly generated once you enter specific criteria.
Making this decision depends on several factors, such as how much information you have about your customers and the resources that your team has available. If it’s possible to collect a lot of detailed information about your customer base through different means (e.g., social media sites like LinkedIn), then manual lead scoring may be a good option for you because it can provide more accurate results than an automated one would.
However, there are cases where automatic lead scoring is ideal. For instance, if your company doesn’t have the time or resources to go through every lead one by one, then automation is a good way to ensure that you’re making the most of your MQLs.
Takeaway
Converting MQLs into SQLs is essential to any business’ success. By understanding how to convert leads effectively, you can focus your time and energy on nurturing those that are most likely to become paying customers.
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