Qualifying new leads in Pardot
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:38 am
When somebody enters Pardot, you may automatically classify them as a lead but the question you need to ask is, are they really?
How does this new person compare to your ideal buyer or your buyer personas?
Is this person likely to actually buy from you now or in the future?
This is where lead scoring and grading is essential.
Lead grading uses a letter grade from A-F to rank how well a lead matches your criteria for your business’ ideal customer profile. This is based on the demographic information the lead gives you when they submit a form i.e. location, job function, job title, industry, and so on.
Lead scoring, on the other hand, takes into how many digits in uae mobile number account the behaviour of the lead and whether their interactions with your business indicate an interest or intent in buying from you.
For example, leads may accrue a score based on whether they open or click an email, or visit a particular page on your website, such as the pricing page.
Your lead plan should include your lead grading and scoring model, which I’ve written in more detail about in this post about lead scoring best practices.
Lead assignment
The most obvious use case for assigning a lead is when they reach the lead score you’ve preset to indicate that they are ready for sales contact.
Assigning leads is useful in more ways than this though. For example, you may have more than one team who market to and monitor leads, so lead assignment can help you to notify a particular group when a new lead enters the system or has fulfilled some other criteria, such as completing an automation.
Take the free Pardot health check by clicking here
To assign leads to users in Pardot, you have the option of doing this manually or automating based on rules that you enter. Naturally, I recommend the latter as the most efficient process!
Pardot has a more detailed article about lead assignment on their blog.
Lead nurture
You might be wondering why lead nurture is part of your lead management plan, considering the nature of marketing automation software is to automate lead nurturing. Why would you invest in Pardot and not have a plan for using it to nurture your leads? One might ask.
Well, lead nurture is about more than setting up a series of emails for your leads.
To consider lead nurture within your lead management plan is to ask the questions:
How should I segment my leads so I can create the most relevant communication content for each?
What are the criteria for a lead entering an automation?
How do I avoid overlap and over-saturation for leads within multiple automations?
When should a lead be excluded or removed from an automation?
Whilst your lead nurture strategy might cover some of this, your lead management plan is your opportunity to really consider the potential journey of your leads and how these can be safeguarded to avoid any negative experience.
How does this new person compare to your ideal buyer or your buyer personas?
Is this person likely to actually buy from you now or in the future?
This is where lead scoring and grading is essential.
Lead grading uses a letter grade from A-F to rank how well a lead matches your criteria for your business’ ideal customer profile. This is based on the demographic information the lead gives you when they submit a form i.e. location, job function, job title, industry, and so on.
Lead scoring, on the other hand, takes into how many digits in uae mobile number account the behaviour of the lead and whether their interactions with your business indicate an interest or intent in buying from you.
For example, leads may accrue a score based on whether they open or click an email, or visit a particular page on your website, such as the pricing page.
Your lead plan should include your lead grading and scoring model, which I’ve written in more detail about in this post about lead scoring best practices.
Lead assignment
The most obvious use case for assigning a lead is when they reach the lead score you’ve preset to indicate that they are ready for sales contact.
Assigning leads is useful in more ways than this though. For example, you may have more than one team who market to and monitor leads, so lead assignment can help you to notify a particular group when a new lead enters the system or has fulfilled some other criteria, such as completing an automation.
Take the free Pardot health check by clicking here
To assign leads to users in Pardot, you have the option of doing this manually or automating based on rules that you enter. Naturally, I recommend the latter as the most efficient process!
Pardot has a more detailed article about lead assignment on their blog.
Lead nurture
You might be wondering why lead nurture is part of your lead management plan, considering the nature of marketing automation software is to automate lead nurturing. Why would you invest in Pardot and not have a plan for using it to nurture your leads? One might ask.
Well, lead nurture is about more than setting up a series of emails for your leads.
To consider lead nurture within your lead management plan is to ask the questions:
How should I segment my leads so I can create the most relevant communication content for each?
What are the criteria for a lead entering an automation?
How do I avoid overlap and over-saturation for leads within multiple automations?
When should a lead be excluded or removed from an automation?
Whilst your lead nurture strategy might cover some of this, your lead management plan is your opportunity to really consider the potential journey of your leads and how these can be safeguarded to avoid any negative experience.