by In Inbound Marketing, we focus on attracting customers through relevant and informative content that creates value through the customer journey. But how do we know where our leads are in the customer journey? And how do we know when a specific lead is ready to buy? For this we must make use of lead scoring.
In our review of lead scoring, we review the following:
- What is lead scoring?
- Why is lead scoring important?
- Lead scoring in HubSpot
What is lead scoring?
Lead scoring is about giving points to your leads based on who they are and what actions they take.
In your company, it will probably give more points if the lead is a purchasing manager than if the lead is an intern. And when a lead books a meeting with a consultant, it gives a lot of points, while it detracts if she unsubscribes from your marketing e-mails.
The process helps sales and marketing prioritize leads and offer them the content most relevant to them.
HubSpot has created an explainer (it’s only 1 min. 33 sec., so you can easily watch it!) that explains to you how lead scoring works. The video is based on an old-fashioned slot machine – so what’s not to like! Watch it and get a handle on the principles of lead scoring:
How many points, the various actions etc. must give depends to a large extent on your company. But for many companies it will be fine with a points system that involves points from 0-100 (and some minus points).
How many points do you need to get to a new lifecycle stage? We have given our take in our blog post on Lifecycle stages.
Which parameters are included in lead scoring?
Which actions and demographic information should be included in your lead scoring framework largely depends on your target group and your buyer personas (your ideal customers).
Contact information
The contact information is based on who the lead is. If, for example, you only operate on the USA market, it is important that the lead is located here.
If you sell marketing services, for example, it is important to look at what decision-making level a lead has. Is it a marketing manager who is interested in your e-book or is it a student who has downloaded it for use in an assignment? The contact information is what relates to a lead’s persona.
You collect this information by asking about it in your lead forms, e.g., on a landing page where the person can download a content offer.
Company information
Do you sell planning software for companies with +100 employees? Then it is relevant to find out how big your lead’s company is. Do you sell steel to industry? It is then important to get information about the industry the lead works within.
Find out which companies your target group works in, and give extra points to employees in these companies.
If you ONLY apply to USA companies, it should, on the other hand, give minus points if a company has its headquarters in the Norway or Germany.
Interaction with your company
This is the most important part of your lead scoring framework (especially when we are talking about Inbound Marketing). This is where you can find out how ready to buy a lead is. How interested is she in your company and your services?
Every time a lead performs an action relevant to your business, your lead’s lead score increases or decreases. For example, it can be things like:
- Number of pages visited on your website
- Read blogs
- Interaction with your email marketing
- Videos seen on your website
- Participation in webinars
- Interaction with your social media
- Download of content offers (e-books, whitepapers, templates etc.)
- Booking of meeting
If you’re not ready yet, we’d better dive even deeper into why you should use lead scoring.
Why is lead scoring important?
Lead scoring helps your sales team spend their time on the leads that are most relevant. Are you tired of cold canvas? With lead scoring you find the leads who know you and have shown great interest in your products and services.
Do you want to make the most of the sellers’ time? Make sure they use it properly.
Lead scoring in HubSpot
When you have selected which parameters you must include in your lead scoring framework, you are ready to set it up in HubSpot (Professional or Enterprise). For this, you must use properties, workflows and lifecycle stages.
Under settings, select ‘Properties’. Below you will find the HubSpot Score, where you set up your lead scoring.
The property ‘HubSpot Score’ allows you to choose which actions should give points and which actions should give minus points. HubSpot lead score in properties.
HubSpot has created a small, detailed guide that shows you how to find your way around and set up the HubSpot Score:
When you have added all the parts that will give points and minus points, you are ready to set up workflows (Remember to save!).
In workflows, you must set up the automation that ensures that your leads automatically change Lifecycle stage when they get the right lead score.
If, for example, a score of 80 is required to become an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), your workflow must ensure that your contact changes the lifecycle stage to SQL when she reaches a score of 80.
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