In marketing, not all leads are created equal. Some are willing to purchase and those who are only browsing. Lead scoring provided by HubSpot allows companies to easily understand which contacts are most likely to become a conversion, to ensure that sales teams are carrying out their time and efforts on the contacts that will generate the best result. It will turn a jumble of contact data into a beautiful image of sales preparedness so that you may smartly prioritize leads.
HubSpot Lead Scoring eliminates the guesswork by assigning numerical values to contact behaviors and attributes. It will inform your team who is interested in listening to sales and who requires further nurturing.
What is HubSpot Lead Scoring?
HubSpot Lead Scoring is a prioritization process of contacts depending on their likeness to turn into a customer. It employs a point system to deduce the fit between a lead and your ideal customer profile, as well as their interest in your brand.
This mechanism is developed within the CRM of HubSpot and uses two score types:
Positive scores, which reward desirable behavior or attribute (e.g. visiting a pricing page or being employed in a related industry),
Negative scores, which punish disqualifying characteristics (e.g., unsubscribing to emails or not being in your target area).
Individual leads are then given an overall score which is a combination of their fit and intent, and this assists your sales and marketing teams in determining the next step; follow up, send additional content, or abandon.
Behavioral vs. Demographic Scoring
HubSpot gives the option of assigning points on the basis of two important categories- behavior and demographics.
Behavioral scoring focuses on actions the lead has taken. As an illustration, an individual who opens all your emails downloads a whitepaper, and accesses your pricing page several times would score higher. These are signs of a strong interest and purchase intent.
Demographic scoring relies on unchanging variables like job title, and firmographics like company size, location, or industry. These assist in determining whether the lead suits your ideal buyer persona. A student at a university may get fewer points than a marketing director of a SaaS company, no matter how they behave.
Combining both scoring types gives a fuller picture. It prevents you and your team from wasting time following up with leads that appear interested, but are not a good prospect—and the other way around.
How to Set Up Lead Scoring in HubSpot
The scoring system in HubSpot can be tailored, though, you should have a vision in mind when you start allocating points. Step one is outlining what constitutes a qualified lead to your business.
Start by analyzing your current customers. What behaviors did they exhibit before converting? What demographics do they share? Use this data to identify common conversion signals.
After you have modeled your scoring, log into HubSpot and navigate to the Properties section where you will edit the default property called HubSpot Score. There may be as many scoring criteria as you wish, with individual point values. It has a stackable logic and filter option on the platform, meaning that the system will automatically add or subtract points based on how contacts engage with your brand.
It’s important to keep the scoring model dynamic. When your business changes or when new trends appear, revise the scoring logic to incorporate the most current buying behaviors.
Common Mistakes in Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is one of the many aspects that most businesses get wrong by either making the model too complex or by giving random numbers of points without testing. It would be reasonable to assign 10 points to a blog visit and 50 to a pricing page view–but only when that action is consistently indicative of sales. However, in the absence of testing and revision, the scores may mislead rather than assist.
The other error is overscoring on one data type. Models that use behavior only may place too much emphasis on inquisitive, non-qualified users, and models that use demographics only discount real-time interest. Balance is key.
Also, keep an eye on score inflation. The scores of the leads will increase with time, simply by viewing more content, even when they are not planning to make a purchase. To prevent this, incorporate time decay or negative scoring into the model, such that failure to engage or stalling actions causes the score to decrease.
Conclusion
Lead Scoring is more than a CRM tool at HubSpot Lead Scoring is a strategic platform that allows you to work smarter. When properly done, it transforms a chaotic list of contacts into a prioritized sales-machine. It assists you in following up on hot leads promptly, developing the cold ones, and managing resources more effectively.
In order to get the best out of it, create a scoring model that is based on actual customer behavior, balance intent and fit, and align your teams. As it gets polished, HubSpot Lead Scoring will prove to be one of the most useful levers in your sales and marketing toolbox.
