Probably you will ask yourself if there is a need for another of these blog-posts?
It’s as simple as that:
It has happened to me again and again, that I had to recognize in discussions that many people are still not sufficiently informed about their leads.
Generally speaking, a lead describes a potential customer who is interested in your product, company or content and is willing to leave his or her contact details for the possibility of a later contact.
In general, you can differentiate between the leads as follows:
- Subscribers – Potential customers who are interested in your content. In most cases, these leads are not willing to buy your product as they are only interested in your content or expertise.
- Marketing Qualified Leads ( MQL ) – Thanks to modern CRM systems and intelligent automation software, today’s marketers can easily qualify leads. For instance, targeted lead-nurturing via e-mails or by content can encourage potential customers to make purchases.
- Sales Qualified Leads ( SQL ) / Sales Accepted Lead ( SAL ) – As soon as these pre-qualified leads have signalled an interest to buy, they are taken over by the sales department.
- Opportunitys – Leads that have already participated in a sales meeting and received an initial offer.
- Evangelists – According to Neil Patel (Marketing Consultant, USA) an evangelist is the person who believes as much in your product or service that they aggressively recommend it to others. These leads are every marketer’s dream and are the best PR you can get.
Are you aware of your leads?
It is crucial to know which phase your lead currently goes through to provide your potential customers with the adequate content.
Let’s have a quick look at the different phases of your leads:
If you take e.g. a subscriber that you have just generated through your exciting blog content, he or she will rarely be ready for a sales pitch.
Who can blame him? He just wanted to kill his time with some blog articles.
However, the situation is quite different when it comest to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), that have already went through these early stages. They are usually prequalified by your marketing team and can be passed on to your sales force.
What does a qualified lead look like?
Nowadays there is more required to qualify a lead than just completing its contact details.
You have to capture social signals and track contents and behaviors on the website or landing page.
All these inputs inform you about your lead and whether it is ready to buy your product or not.
