How to Score Leads for Nurturing?

[Shaha Noor]

How to Score Leads for Nurturing?

Marketing and sales need to get together to develop a lead scoring strategy, to pinpoint where a particular lead is within the brand's buying model. It is the backbone of a strong lead nurturing system, because it identifies when and how to address each buyer with the most timely and relevant communications.

The details of any lead scoring system will be specific to every brand, based on your industry, niche, and unique audience. There are, however, four dimensions of lead scoring that should be evaluated as you develop your strategy.
1 - Lead Fit
Lead fit describes how well a particular buyer matches the brand's ideal prospect, or usual buyer. This introductory-level data will tell you if a lead is worth pursuing at all, and breaks down into three categories:

Demographics—The buyer's job title, company size, location, years of experience, etc.
Firmographics—The company's name, size, location, annual revenue, etc.
Budget, Authority, Need, Time (BANT)—Can the lead afford you? Do they have the authority to purchase? Is there a need you can answer? What is his timeline?
Most of this information is easily collected with forms in front of gated content, email subscriptions, and/or a quick Google search.

2 - Lead Interest
Tracking online behavior to determine how attractive your brand is to a buyer is the next stage of lead scoring. Is the lead spending a lot of time on your site? Engaging with social networks? Assign numerical values to some of those behaviors.

3 - Lead Behavior
More closely monitoring lead behavior will indicate if a lead is serious about buying, or just grabbing info. Assign lower values to introductory behaviors like clicking through blog posts, and higher values to actions like downloading gated content or registering for a webinar.

4 - Buying Stage and Timing
Scoring for buying stage helps determine where a buyer is within the brand's sales model. One way to score buying stage is to align behaviors with the top, middle, or bottom of your sales funnel. Attach higher scores to clicks on pricing sheets and product demos.

Source: Marketo