What are the best practices for using marketing automation to streamline lead qualification?

Personally I don’t like automation in the marketing space. It’s about opening doors to conversations and that rarely starts well automated. That said, you can use scheduling for posting content or sending emails.

First, we used a propensity-to-buy model to classify leads into the segments in the order of likelihood to respond and potential purchase amount. Second, we devised a communication strategy for each segment to maximize response rate and profitability. Third, we ran a bunch of A/B campaigns to identify optimal communication strategies for each segment. And we repeat these steps over and over. This is called experimentation. Of course, its actual implementation varies, depending on business model, rules/regulations, systems/processes, data quality, knowhow.

To optimize lead qualification through marketing automation, I think one should start by defining clear criteria for qualified leads. Utilize scoring systems to prioritize prospects based on engagement and behavior. Implement dynamic content and personalized messaging to nurture leads effectively. Regularly analyze and refine automated workflows for better efficiency. Integrate CRM systems to ensure seamless data flow. Lastly, continuously monitor and adjust strategies to align with evolving customer behaviors for sustained lead qualification success.

The easiest way to streamline lead qualification with marketing automation is to use lead scoring. If your campaigns contain well-defined calls to action, use those as triggers to generate a lead score. (x points for downloading a paper, x points for signing up for a webcast, x points for clicking on a link, etc.) Even if you don't have alerts set-up yet.....just create a Smart List (Marketo language for a custom report) for members of your campaign with a lead score of 1 to 100 (or whatever range you need to capture everyone). Dump it in excel and sort by the lead score column from highest to lowest. If Sales says the leads are not qualified "enough" you need more engagement and more/different content.

One thing I've found helpful for lead segmentation is grouping users by activity-based tags. Taking your master email list, and segmenting it out, allows you to customize offers, messaging, and even specific landing pages for that core group of people. You can segment by the actions a user took on your website, their interests, or product categories they use on a regular basis. It's just another way to add increased value, and build relationships with your marketing contacts.

To save time, especially with limited resources, Email can be automatically triggered at every stage of the buyer’s journey to help drive desired action. For example, email can be triggered after a segmented list of prospects has been identified (nurture drip campaign). Or after a web visitor submits a form (confirmation or qualification campaign). Or after a demo meeting is held (credibility or pricing campaign). Be sure to chart out the cadence with rev gen partners to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Marketing Automation needs to have Marketing Operations and Revenue Automation fully integrated. It needs to have one funnel integrating processes, stages, scoring and people working together. The definition of what a lead is from a visitor to a Marketing Qualified Contact to a Sales Qualified Contact to a Customer or Repeating Customer needs to be agreed by all. Define a good data model for the whole integrated funnel. Start with this basic understanding.