Contents
Introduction to Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is an innovative system for evaluating potential clients, helping to determine how close a client is to making a purchase decision. This term comes from English and combines two key concepts: lead (potential client) and scoring (assessment and ranking of the client according to certain criteria).
In the lead scoring process, potential clients are classified into groups based on their current position in the sales funnel. Leads can be cold, warm, and hot: cold clients are unfamiliar with the brand or have minimal awareness of it, while hot clients are ready to make a purchase immediately. This process not only increases the number of deals but also facilitates more effective interaction between the marketing and sales departments.
Importance of Lead Scoring
Lead scoring becomes especially important for companies facing certain challenges, such as:
- Long purchasing cycles and complex customer interaction processes;
- A large number of incoming requests, making it difficult for managers to work;
- The presence of well-developed sales funnels.
Implementing a lead scoring system helps save company resources, both human and financial. The main advantages provided by lead scoring include:
- Optimization of advertising expenses: For instance, advertising can be targeted only at hot leads, reducing costs.
- Analysis of communication channels: The system allows identifying where clients come from, whether they are ready to buy or not.
- Relieving the sales department: Managers can focus on leads that are ready to purchase.
- Filtering out unsuitable requests: This allows excluding users who do not intend to make a purchase.
Additionally, lead scoring reduces the burden on the call center, as the company can qualify leads and not pass them to the next stage, and it also allows analyzing the percentage of repeat purchases and customer lifetime value (LTV).
Types of Lead Scoring
There are two main types of lead scoring:
Explicit Lead Scoring
Explicit lead scoring is based on information that clients provide to the company themselves. This data can be collected through registration forms on the website, subscriptions to newsletters, lead magnets, chatbots, and quizzes. Information can range from contact details to customer preferences, such as favorite brands. Quizzes, in particular, are an excellent tool for obtaining information about user preferences. For example, a coffee shop might ask what type of coffee visitors prefer and how they prepare it, which helps create more relevant offers.
Implicit Lead Scoring
Implicit lead scoring relies on information that marketers gather by observing user behavior. This can include:
- Visiting pages on the website;
- Adding products to favorites;
- Products that were added to the cart but not purchased;
- Clicks on advertisements;
- Click-throughs on links in email campaigns;
- Likes on social media.
Implicit analysis often utilizes data stored in CRM systems. The choice of scoring method depends on the resources and capabilities of the company. The best results are achieved by using both methods simultaneously.
Conclusion
Lead scoring is an important strategy for companies seeking to optimize their sales processes and customer interactions. By correctly assessing leads, it is possible not only to increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns but also to significantly improve collaboration between departments, which in turn leads to increased sales and customer satisfaction.