In this competitive world, generating potential marketing qualified leads (MQL) and converting them into customers is a challenging job. In this process, analysis of customer behavior and reaction to your marketing strategies is crucial as they show how customers are interacting with your goods or services.
A Marketing Qualified Lead is a potential customer who has shown interest in your offerings, and the probability of conversion of these leads into customers is higher. This article will take you on the journey of MQL marketing strategy that will help you grow your business effectively by attracting potential buyers.
What Are Marketing Qualified Leads and Why Do They Matter?
While promoting your products or services, you might often try multiple marketing strategies intending to attract customers, and this is the first step towards building a relationship with customers. This approach will help you generate leads as customers may visit your website and look for your products or services precisely, so these customers are said to be Marketing Qualified Leads.
How Are MQL Different from Other Leads?
In the marketing field, there are several types of leads in the sales funnel based on the user’s behavior on your product or services. Some of them are Cold Leads, Warm Leads, MQL, SQL, IQLS, Qualified Leads, and more. Based on these leads, the marketing team works to convert them into potential customers.
However, in the sales funnel, MQL and SQL play a crucial role, as the former represents the leads that have an initial level of interaction with your company, whereas the latter shows a clear picture of the leads that are going to convert into potential customers. In addition, the lead behavior in MQL marketing is different compared to SQL as in MQL, leads tend to know about your business, but in SQL, they are familiar with that and want to buy products or take the respective services that you are offering.
Importance of MQLs
As stated earlier, marketing qualified leads is the initial stage of the sales funnel, but properly nurturing them with effective marketing strategies will convert MQL in sales. It simply means that MQL plays a crucial role in any business as they are not ordinary leads; the chances of converting them into customers are higher, which means it is responsible for a higher conversion rate. Moreover, you can target potential leads based on the MQL and send customized emails based on their requirements.
MQLs Real-life examples
If you are wondering about the ways to identify MQL, then it is very easy; you just need to understand the lead behavior. Just focus on the activities performed by the leads on your website, social media posts, or ad campaigns, such as subscribing to the newsletter, clicking on ads, requesting a demo service, and more.
The Role of Marketing Qualified Leads in the Marketing and Sales Funnel
MQL Placement in the Funnel
Marketing & Sales Funnel has three orders, i.e., Top, Middle, and Bottom. The visitors come into the top of the funnel, and when they get attracted by lucrative marketing strategies, then they convert into leads. In the middle of the funnel, MQL in marketing and SQL come into play, where both the marketing and sales teams work together to convert MQL in sales.
A Bridge Between Marketing and Sales
Marketing qualified leads are potential leads that are generated through the rigorous efforts of the marketing team, and thereafter, these leads are handed over to the sales team. Now, the sales team will work with MQL and will apply every possible strategy to convert MQL in sales. In this entire scenario, it’s the MQL marketing that brings both the marketing and sales team into a platform.
Customer Journey Relevancy
Now, at one point, you may find how a visitor gets converted into customers; well, it sounds easy, but there is a team effort. Initially, the marketing team will promote the business on an online platform through social media posts, content marketing, PPC, Meta Ads, and many more. Once the visitor is attracted to the products or services, they will visit your website and look further to satisfy themselves. In this entire process, several factors come into play, but the prime one is engagement.
How to Identify Marketing Qualified Leads for Your Business?
1] Key Characteristics of MQLs
There are several ways to identify quality leads, and it depends on the visitor’s behavior on your website. Marketing qualified leads are not general leads, as they spend time on your website to collect useful resources favorable to them, and during this tenure, they will go through the content deeply, download marketing resources, subscribe to a newsletter, and follow you on social media. These engaging activities will help you to identify MQL marketing for your business.
2] Behavioral and Demographic Signals
Once you identify such visitors, then your marketing team can start building a relationship with them by performing multiple activities. You can invite them to webinars or at the launch of a new product and also focus on content marketing to give them valuable information about your products or services.
Moreover, consider opting for the demographic section as it will help you target the right audience in that region, and for that, ensure to provide all relevant details of your business in the desired sections, such as GMB, Website, Social Media, and more.
In addition, you have the details of the leads, so you can send them customized emails based on their needs. These marketing activities will keep the leads engaging, and this is a fruitful way to turn marketing qualified leads into sales qualified leads.
3] Tools and Systems
Additionally, there are some important tools that will help you identify MQL in marketing, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Lead Score, and many more. CRM helps you to understand the visitor’s behavior, and after analyzing their behavior, you can offer the services to increase sales. Now comes the lead score, which gives results based on multiple factors, such as demographics, interaction with your website, and more. Based on the activities of leads, they are scored, and the high lead score is favorable for your business.
Best Practices for Nurturing Marketing Qualified Leads
Nurturing marketing qualified leads is very important as it can turn them into SQL and enhance the sales of a business. Many practices are applied in MQL marketing, such as communication, follow-ups, multi-touch campaigns, content marketing, and many more. So, let’s see each of them in a detailed manner.
1] Personalized Communication
You have the data, and based on that, you can communicate with the leads and ensure that you pitch them in a customized manner. Every person has different needs, so if you approach them in the right way with the right product/service, then it is highly possible to convert MQL in sales. Now, the question arises as to which medium to follow. Well, there are a plethora of options in an online platform, and the best ones to nurture marketing qualified leads are email campaigns, social media, the creation of personalized landing pages on your website, and many more.
2] Timely Follow-up
In marketing, consistency plays a critical role, and follow-up is a part of it where you need to maintain communication with the leads either through emails or other text messaging sources. In MQL marketing, you can send them promotional offers to keep them engaged, as your sole objective is to take the lead to another funnel.
3] Multi-channel Approach
A multi-channel approach is the most efficient way to nurture marketing qualified leads as you get multiple ways to re-approach your leads. You can re-target leads through ad campaigns, social media posts, webinars, and more. So, a multi-channel approach won’t let your leads forget about your business.
4] Content-driven Nurturing
Content is yet another effective way to nurture MQL, as it will help you address the key points of marketing qualified leads in an appropriate manner. You can present the content in the form of blogs, whitepapers, and others. The more they learn about your products or services, the more they will be inclined towards your product/service, so curate beautiful and useful content for MQL in marketing.
Common Challenges When Working with MQLs (And How to Overcome Them)
Challenges are quite common in any method, and the same case applies to marketing qualified leads, but if you follow the right solutions, then you can easily convert MQLs in sales. Now, let’s look at the potential challenges and solutions for MQLs in marketing.
1] Poor Marketing-sales Alignment
Leads are very important for any business, and nobody wants to waste them. Sales and marketing teams are responsible for generating leads, and if there is any misalignment between them, then your marketing qualified leads will be wasted, which will ultimately hamper the business. Moreover, every lead has different requirements and needs to be addressed accordingly, but if there is a communication gap between two teams, then handling such leads will become a complex task and will affect the sales of a business.
Marketing qualified leads bring marketing and sales teams into a single platform, and if your business nature is B2B, then you should focus on the coordination between these two teams. In this process, you can conduct regular meetings, share feedback, keep transparency, and maintain smooth communication between two teams to convert MQL in sales.
2] Defining MQL Criteria
MQL criteria is a set of parameters consisting of demographics, visitor behavior, engagement level, and more. It also determines whether the lead will go further to conversion or not, and that’s why it becomes very important. If the engagement level is poor or there is a lack of demographic information, then it will affect marketing qualified leads and overall your business.
So, the best solution for MQL in sales is to engage leads using strong sales & marketing strategies and ensure you provide demographic information on possible sections. In addition, you should have the interaction history so that you can filter the leads and re-approach them with the pain points.
3] Inadequate nurturing strategies
If you fail to provide proper nurturing to marketing qualified leads, then you will lose your potential leads. You know that for the conversion of MQL to SQL, some specific factors play a crucial role, and if these factors are disturbed, then MQLs will vanish. For instance, if you fail to engage MQL in marketing through content, ad campaigns, execution of pain points, and other factors, then they won’t interact with your business. So, you need to nurture MQL effectively and keep them engaged by providing customized emails, covering pain points, and re-approaching them with ad campaigns.
How to Get Started with Marketing Qualified Leads Today
1] Define Your MQL Criteria
To start with marketing qualified leads, you need to perform some actions based on the demographics and lead behavior. First, start with working on demographics, as you don’t want to lose your local audiences. So start interacting with them, but ensure you have provided all the relevant details about your company, including business nature, location, and more, as these factors will build trust among the leads. Next, you need to analyze MQL marketing behavior patterns, such as who is subscribing to the newsletter, attending webinars, or requesting a demo.
2] Implement Lead Scoring
Once you are done with the preliminary stage, move to the lead score section, where you will know about the leads that are useful for you through the score. This is a process where leads are given scores based on multiple factors, so consider high-scoring leads as their potential in conversion to SQL is higher.
3] Build a Nurturing Plan
The next thing that you need to do to utilize marketing qualified leads is to build a nurturing plan, and here, a strong collaboration between the sales and marketing teams is crucial. Together, they will define a lead, such as the type of content marketing beneficial for lead engagement, define traits, and consider pain points. The lead definition will give you more qualified leads.
In addition, you can use content in the form of blogs, guest posts, or other forms to engage users. The content you offer will give them information about your product or service, and they will get more engaged. Also, you can use social media to engage MQL in marketing by creating beautiful lines about your business and how they are relevant to it.
4] Monitor and Optimize
The final step in this process is the monitoring and optimization of the said tasks, so here, you can use advanced tools, such as CRM or others, to organize and track the data. Also, use other tools where you can get real-time engagement features, as it will help you convert MQL in sales effectively.
Over To You -
Marketing qualified leads play an important role in your business growth, so you need to utilize this part of the sales funnel effectively. Nurturing MQL marketing is very important, and if there is proper coordination between the marketing & sales teams, and you provide engaging content and run user-oriented ad campaigns, then you can utilize those leads effectively.
However, if you sense difficulty in this entire process but want to take your brand to new heights, then a B2B appointment setting is a must. Through this, you can close the deal in a faster manner within your budget and also send customized messages to convert MQL in sales.
Don’t overlook the power of MQL! Leverage its full potential now with Pixelo Digital to pipeline your marketing leads funnel.
