If you have been following my blog regularly, you will have seen quite a few references to ‘lead engagement scoring’. I wanted to take this opportunity to expand on that this week.
Our new lead generation managed service enables us to score prospects based on their engagement, and then nurture them from first interest through to sale.
Marketing automation software generates a lead engagement score for each contact determining how the contact is managed and how ‘hot’ the lead is. The score is based on their responses and engagement to our communication. For example, when a prospect clicks on a specific link, a sales rep logs a call, or a lead score goes above a certain threshold, you can score this engagement automatically send the right follow on message at the right time. We know now that personalised emails based on real-time behavioural data can increase open rates by 50% and conversion rates by 350%, that’s amazing!
Lead engagement scoring is used to rank prospects against a scale that represents the perceived value each lead represents to the organisation. The resulting score is used to determine how leads are allocated (e.g. sales, telemarketing) and the best way to engage with them in the immediate future.
We combine two types of scores when monitoring our prospects –
- Explicit scores are based on information provided by or about the prospect; for example, profile information, such as company size, industry segment, job title or geographic location.
- Implicit scores are derived from monitoring prospect behaviour, which include website visits, whitepaper downloads, or email opens and clicks etc.
Here are some examples of how we score our own prospects activity in our marketing automation software
Explicit scores
| Activity | Score |
| Active 2012 Clients | 30 |
| Active 2013 Prospects | 30 |
| Consultation Request | 310 |
Implicit scores
| Activity | Score |
| Clicked on a message | 10 |
| Submitted a form | 25 |
| Downloaded media | 25 |
Lead scoring focuses sales attention on leads that the organisation deems most valuable, ensuring that leads that are unqualified or have low perceived value are not sent to sales for engagement. The hotter the lead, the faster they move up the lead score queue, the sooner that sales person will engage with that prospect.
