Today, a majority of companies opt for an Inbound Marketing strategy, a strategy recognized for promoting lead acquisition. But then, what do you do with these new prospects? You need to be able to distinguish those who are genuinely interested in your product from those who are just starting to look around and learn about your business. That is when your scoring method comes into play!
Definition of the scoring method
The scoring method is a rating system that allows you to measure the level of qualification and maturity of each prospect you generate for the company. This method consists of assigning a score to your prospects according to a multitude of criteria, for example based on what a prospect has viewed on your website. The scoring method helps your sales and marketing teams prioritize potential customers and respond to them appropriately. The scoring method therefore optimizes the speed at which these prospects become customers.
Why use the scoring method?
Using a scoring method is essential to maximize the efficiency of your sales and marketing teams. By assigning scores to prospects, you can quickly identify those who are ready to buy and those who still require nurturing. This approach not only saves time but also makes it possible to personalize the sales approach for each prospect. A well-implemented scoring method improves the quality of interactions with your prospects and increases your chances of conversion.
Segmentation criteria for the scoring method
For an effective scoring method, it is crucial to establish precise segmentation criteria. Customer segmentation allows you to group your prospects according to their behavior, demographic data and engagement with your brand.
Prospect behavior
Analyzing prospect behavior is essential to understand their level of interest and purchase intent. This includes the pages they visit on your website, the time spent on each page, the resources they download, and the forms they fill out. For example, a prospect who regularly views specific product pages or downloads white papers is more interested in your offers than an occasional visitor.
Demographic data
Demographic data provides key information about the characteristics of your prospects. This includes
- age
- gender
- place of residence
- income level
- …
By targeting a specific demographic group, such as parents of young children or senior executives, you can refine your scoring method to better reflect the relevance of your prospects in relation to your target market.
Engagement with your brand
Prospects’ engagement with your brand across different channels is also an excellent key indicator. Engagement can include
- interactions on social media
- open and click-through rates on your email campaigns,
- responses to satisfaction surveys.
A prospect who mentions your company on Twitter, shares your posts or frequently clicks on your promotional emails shows a high level of engagement that must be taken into account in your scoring method.
The different rating systems to use
There are many models for assigning rating points to your prospects. Nevertheless, the most common way is to analyze the data from your past prospects. And yes, there is nothing better than your existing customers to understand your sales funnel.
Historical data analysis
How should you proceed? First, you will observe the behavior of the contacts who became your customers in order to see the elements they have in common. Then, you will examine the characteristics of your contacts who did not become customers. Once you have examined the historical data on both sides, you should be able to identify which elements should be heavily weighted.
Scoring criteria
To help you in your quest for the Holy Grail, here are some elements that should provide you with answers in your rating system.
Demographic data
The ABCs of criteria. There are bound to be data points of this type. It can be age, gender, socio-professional category or other criteria specific to you. A 20-year-old without children will not have the same desires as a 45-year-old with two children. As a bonus, if some fields in your forms are optional (a phone number, for example), you can also assign additional points to prospects who provide this information.
Company information
Specific to the B2B sector, information about the company your prospect works for can guide you regarding the real expectations of your prospects. The more precise you are, the more effective you will be.
Online behavior
The way a prospect interacts with your website can tell you a lot about the interest they have in your product or products. For example, in the SaaS (software as a service) field, observe the behavior of prospects who became customers or those who are about to become customers: What resources did they download? How many resources did they download? Which pages and how many pages did they visit? The number as well as the type of forms and pages are important. It is certain that you do not qualify in the same way a prospect who visited a demo request page and one who visited your home page.
As a bonus: give more points and value to prospects who have visited the most important pages of your site several times.
Email engagement
When a prospect subscribes to your newsletter, you are never certain that this person has a genuine interest in buying from you. On the other hand, open and click-through rates will give you a much better idea of their level of interest. By observing who opened all the emails in your nurturing campaign or who clicked on the promotional emails for your offer, sales teams will be able to focus on those who seem the most engaged.
As a bonus: in the same way that you can give more points to prospects who visited the most important pages of your site several times, it can be very interesting to give more points to prospects who open and download your resources from your emails.
Marketing automation and scoring methods
In order to bring together all your information, it is necessary to equip yourself with marketing automation software that can automatically collect all the behavioral information described above.
Advantages of marketing automation
The main advantage of marketing automation is the automation of marketing tasks. Does a prospect reach a sufficient number of points? Send them a commercial offer automatically. Does a prospect click several times on a product page? Send them an email presenting all the benefits of your product. In short, use behavioral and demographic data to make an impact!
Integrating the scoring method with marketing automation
Thanks to automated workflows, adapt marketing actions according to prospects’ scores. Everything happens on a single marketing platform. You integrate your scoring method on the platform, the software does the rest for you, saving time and boosting productivity!
Discover our support articles Automation about lead scoring here
