Lead qualification steps you need to understand before investing in marketing

Do you know any “digital marketing gurus” who keep repeating the same tips without going into more depth? Obviously every professional has come across one of these on social media, but we soon realized what it was about. It turns out that there are tips that you won't find with these people, after all, it would affect their work.

The lead qualification steps, for example, as well as lead retention, are always shallow topics that you can delve deeper into through a “complete course on lead qualification!”. We created this article to change that, and today I bring you all the details you need to know about retaining and qualifying leads. All this, before even thinking about investing in a digital marketing strategy.

There is no doubt about the complexity of the marketing strategies that arise with new technologies. Are you prepared to know everything about these changes?

If the answer to this question is “yes”, then we created this content with you in mind. And today, we're going to show you everything about the subject. Let's go?

What does lead qualification mean for your company?

Before proceeding with the main subject of this text, we need to clarify something. Is qualifying leads a problem for your company?

This is a very important question. For those of you who don't know yet, qualified leads are those that turn into opportunities for your business. That is, are engaged with the content and show recurring interest in your solution.

In this way, they become fundamental pieces for the success of your marketing strategy and, consequently, for the sales success that your company can have.

So we start with this question. After all, can your company transform visitors into qualified leads and, in the same way, transform them into potential buyers of your product?

Although there are numerous purposes for a marketing strategy, sales are always the final result to be analyzed. After all, efforts are aimed at ensuring that your brand is recognized and more buyers reach you.

Thus, Lead qualification and the interest generated by your brand are significant results of a good marketing strategy. Therefore, if you are not yet converting leads and qualifying them, let's understand how your company can change this scenario. Continue reading!

What types of qualified leads can your company have?

Yes, there are different types of lead qualification! But there's no need to worry, because you can find all the details about both types here in this article.

The first of them is the MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), which represents leads that have had contact with your marketing team, materials or offers from your company, but have not yet entered your sales funnel.

In fact, this is another very important step: define the right sales funnel for your company. But we will explain more about this later in this text. Before that, let's understand what the second classification of qualified leads is.

The second group that we will use to divide lead qualification is the SQL (Lead Qualified Sale), that is, the people marked by your sales team. Thus, presenting greater potential to close a deal with your company.

To facilitate understanding: we can understand how MQL the visitor who is accessing your content for the first time. Already the SQL, is a repeat visitor to your website.

So, knowing this, we can come to the conclusion that lead qualification is the process of understanding the stage at which it is inserted in your sales funnel. As well as analysis and planning of what to do so that they move forward and become a customer of your brand.

How to increase the retention of MQLs and transform them into SQLs?

If you follow the Beatz's blog You already know that, with the correct marketing planning, this will not be a difficult task. Therefore, we have separated the main steps so that you can excel in qualifying leads and deliver more and more opportunities to your sales team.

Ideal marketing planning offers the right scenario for your company to gain more visits and convert more sales. To start putting your strategy into practice, there are some steps that will require your attention.

The first one is knowing who you should talk to to achieve your goals, in other words, we need to determine a persona. Only after target audience research will you start to relate to these people through relevant and optimized content.

Before creating your persona, check out the tips that Juliana, customer success here at Beatz, put together especially for you!

But even so, there are some steps that can optimize this process and make it clear which path your company should follow so that you can further increase the qualification of leads for your business.

To do this, you need to ask yourself a few questions before proceeding. Check out what they are!

Questions to improve your strategy’s lead qualification

As we mentioned above, some questions can help you understand the best way to qualify your leads and put together strategies that will bring extremely satisfactory results for your company. Let's get to the questions!

1 – Is your product suited to your lead’s needs?

If you are attracting leads, but are unable to transform them into SQLs, it is possible that your retention strategy is attracting people who do not necessarily demand your product, but see a need in your content.

Therefore, you need to adapt your attraction content so that it is aimed at people who may develop an interest in your solution. For this, the best option is to review your target audience, as well as your persona.

Furthermore, re-selecting keywords for your content strategy can help improve retention of leads that are truly aligned with your solution. In fact, you can do this with the help of one of our contents, the Beatz Keyword Guide. Download now and see how to select the best terms for your strategy.

2 – Is your persona the decision maker?

This is a very important question for your strategy, after all, it is what determines whether you are communicating with the right person within the companies you target as clients. That way, know who you should talk to!

In other words, understand the hierarchy of the companies you serve and identify, among the stages, which one is fundamental in the process of purchasing your product or contracting your service.

It is important to highlight that these people do not necessarily have a high position. After all, operational level employees are essential for your solution to be seen in the professional environment.

Therefore, it is necessary to always be alert to opportunities that may arise suddenly.

3 – Are you listening to your customers?

This is perhaps the most important question. Do you know what your lead’s real problems are?

Listen carefully to all their pain points and know how to use them to win them over and propose your product/service as the best possible solution. It is from this that you should guide your strategy and qualify your leads.

After all, marketing is about understanding people and knowing how to convince them. And you will only be able to do this by knowing how they think and what their demands are, in other words, by listening to them.

This is a very important step in a series of steps that you will go through during this contact. Creating a connection and identifying how your lead feels about your solution is essential, but you need to have a plan in place to qualify leads.

Hey, this article has come to an end, but the content is still there Beatz Podcast. Every Tuesday, starting at 18:30 pm, our editorial director, Adriano Klumpp, and another guest, chat about the best marketing strategies for your business. Come by and check it out, how about that?