What Defines a Lead?
As most of you probably know, a lead is an individual that you’ve collected some type of contact info from but hasn’t purchased from you yet.
This could be via referral, email signup, or through various other direct or indirect marketing methods That also means it could be someone right at the beginning of the customer journey or someone who’s all the way on the other side of it and ready to make a purchase. The distinction is an important one. A lead that’s almost ready to buy should be handled completely differently from one that doesn’t know who you or your company are yet.
Cold leads may be people you contacted via cold calls or emails. They may also have initially expressed interest in your business perhaps by signing up for your email list but have not answered your messages or engaged with you since.
Warm leads reveal themselves by engaging with your business in some way. They may have signed up for your free webinar, shared your Facebook business posts, or visited your company website after reading a positive testimonial. However, it may take several attempts to turn their interest into a sale.
Hot leads are the qualified leads every business wants in their sales funnel. These leads want your product or service now and are willing and able to buy from you.
Whether your leads are cold, warm, or hot, the first step to qualifying them is to manage all your leads. These leads want your product or service now and are willing to buy from you. If you provide them with the information they need, a hot lead will almost certainly result in a sale.
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a lead who has indicated an interest in what a brand has to offer based on marketing efforts or is otherwise more likely to become a customer than other leads. Often an MQL is a lead who has intentionally engaged with your brand by performing actions like voluntarily submitting contact information, opting into a program, adding e-commerce items to a shopping cart, downloading materials, or repeatedly visiting a website. These are promising leads who are curious and considering you, but they haven’t quite made the step into a sales conversation yet.
The main difference between a Marketing Qualified Lead and a Sales Qualified Lead is the lead’s perceived willingness to make a purchase. Marketing Qualified Leads are very curious, while Sales Qualified Leads are types of leads handed off to Sales because they are considering a purchase. SQLs been vetted for intent and are highly interested in making a purchase. These are usually those leads who are requesting quotes, requesting purchase information, or requesting a live demo session.
Best Practices for lead generation
- Build Relationships on Social Media
- Create a Video
- Create a Free Tool
- Case Studies
- Customer Success Testimonials
- Product Update Emails
- Product Demos/Webinars
- Podcasts
- Content marketing
- Product and support documentation
- Tips, guides, tutorials, quizzes, and more
- Develop a Personal Relationship
The main purpose of MQL and SQL systems is to make your marketing strategy and sales processes more efficient. Lead generation and nurturing require a lot of time, money and effort – so you want to make sure you’re bringing in high-quality leads that are likely to buy from you. By qualifying your leads and automating your follow-ups, you can guide users along your sales funnel. This enables you to actively increase the quality of your leads, turn more MQLs into SQLs and, ultimately, convert more prospects into potential customers.
Why Choose Us?
We’re performance experts and we take pride in delivering outstanding customer experience and user experience, too. We believe in building long-term relationships with clients because happy customers mean repeat business. Our marketing team works hard to understand your needs and implement strategies that will grow your online presence.
Feel free to email or call us and find out what we can do for you. We are motivated to offer a consultation for your requirements. Let’s work together on AMAZING content.