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Marketo Lead Scoring: How to Prioritize and Convert High-Quality Leads?

Effective lead management is the heart of a business, and lead scoring is the currency. In that respect, Marketo is one of the leading marketing automation platforms, with robust lead-scoring capabilities. Known for its effectiveness, Marketo lead scoring empowers businesses to prioritize leads and prepare their sales teams for high-quality prospects likely to convert.

What is Lead Scoring in Marketo?

Lead scoring is a ranking mechanism for prospects based on how likely they can turn into customers. It helps businesses determine where a prospect falls within the marketing “funnel”, making it easier for sales to ascertain “hot” leads, ”cold” leads, and leads that need nurturing.

Why Is Marketo Lead Scoring Important?

Lead scoring holds significant importance for several reasons:

  • Efficiency: It helps sales teams focus on those leads most likely to convert.
  • Alignment: It creates better alignment between marketing and sales. The sales teams only receive qualified leads.
  • Optimization: Scoring enables the marketing teams to refine their strategies based on lead behavior and engagement.

How Are Marketo Lead Scores Calculated?

Marketo lead  scoring happens based on a numerical value system. Points are assigned to a lead for certain criteria based on their chances of conversion. In general, this will be composed of two kinds of scoring.

Demographic Scoring

This scoring considers a lead’s fit based on static information such as job title, company size, industry, and location.

Example: A lead with a senior title, such as VP of Marketing, from a large company with more than 1,000 employees could score higher-20 points for title and 15 points for company size.

Behavioral Scoring

This scoring is about the behavior and level of interest a lead has shown in your brand by interacting with them. Examples include opening emails, downloading content, visiting the website, or attending webinars.

Example: A lead who downloaded a whitepaper could get 20 points, while one who visited a pricing page several times got 30 points.

Total Calculation of Lead Score

The total lead score is the sum of all points. If, for instance, a lead has 50 points based on demographics and 40 for behaviors, then that lead would have a total lead score of 90. That would determine their priority and readiness for sales follow-up. Regular adjustments make sure the scoring reflects current lead engagement and fit.

Steps to Set Up Marketo Lead Scoring

A well-thought-out lead-scoring strategy will enable Marketo to align marketing and sales. Most importantly, drive revenue growth by focusing the resources on leads likely to close. Follow the sequence of steps for a seamless experience:

Step 1: Assign Point Values

Once you’ve identified the scoring criteria, you can assign point values. The point value should show the importance of each action or attribute like:

  • Job Title: VP level or above = 10 points; Manager level = 5 points.

  • Content Engagement: Whitepaper download = 20 points; Email open = 5 points.

  • Website Visits: Multiple visits to the pricing page = 30 points; Blog visit = 10 points.

Step 2: Set up Scoring Models in Marketo

The types of scoring models you can have in Marketo are:

  • Explicit Scoring Based on Demographic Data – the quality of the lead. For instance, job title, and company size.

  • Implicit Scoring Based on Behavioral Data – the level of engagement and interest of the lead regarding your offerings.

Take both scoring models together to get a complete understanding of each lead. Explicit scoring gives you an idea about fit, while implicit scoring gives you an idea about interest.

How To Optimize Marketo Lead Scoring Model?

Remember to revisit your scoring models regularly and refine them as the market and customers’ behavior change. Here’s how to optimize Marketo lead scoring:

Step 3: Set Lead Handoff Thresholds

Establish a threshold score above which the sales team will take over. It sets the bar beyond which lies only the sales-ready leads. For example, anything above 80 may be considered sales-ready, and below it may require further nurturing.

Marketing and sales teams should mutually agree to these thresholds. Thresholds should be revisited and altered based on conversion data and inputs coming in from sales.

Step 4: Lead Decay

Decaying leads involves gradually reducing a lead’s score on a week-to-week basis if they have lower engagement. This will help your sales team pay more attention to leads actively showing interest. For instance, if a lead has not been in touch with your content in over 30 days, you might reduce 10 points from their grade. Such dynamic scoring captures lead databases that keep updating and are always relevant.

Step 5: Periodic Revisions of Scoring Models

Scoring is not a set-it-and-forget procedure. Periodically assess the efficiency of your scoring models by analyzing conversion rates and feedback from sales. This may call for point value adjustments if certain scored actions are not indicative of sales-readiness.

Step 6: Monitoring Lead Scoring Effectiveness

monitoring your lead scoring effectiveness looks at the strategy’s overall success based on key performance indicators such as:

  • Conversion Rate: Number of scored leads converted to opportunities or customers.

  • Sales Cycle Length: The time it takes for a lead to go from scoring to close.

  • Lead Quality: The quality and relevance of the scored leads according to the sales team.

Use all the above metrics to upgrade your Marketo scoring models daily.

Step 7: A/B Testing and Continuous Improvement

A/B Test your criteria for scoring and assigning points. One such test could be to see the effect of giving higher scores to webinar attendees versus whitepaper downloaders. See the outcome of each to determine which of the actions is most indicative of conversion.

Expand your lead scoring model constantly to accommodate more data points, including social media activity or product usage data.

Summing It Up

Marketo lead scoring provides strong prioritization and conversion to quality leads. In return, a business is capable of building a robust scoring model, continuing to refine the criteria over regular intervals, and measuring that success with metrics driven by data that will ensure increasing the conversion rates of leads and improving the efficiency of sales teams.

What’s Next?

Would you like to know more about Marketo Lead Scoring? Then reach out to us at info@marrinadecisions.com or visit Marrina Decisions.

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