In this article, we explain what a contact or lead score is and how you can use it in MailBlue.
In this article, you will learn more about:
What is contact / lead scoring?
Contact scoring, also known as lead scoring, is a way to determine the quality of your leads. With this feature, you assign a numerical value to your contacts. The higher the score, the better the lead.
Contacts are often awarded points based on who they are (how suitable they are for the product or service you offer) and how engaged they are (the interaction they have with your messages).
Scores are formed by adding up points awarded based on rules (or conditions that must be met) and automations. Once a contact meets a rule, points are assigned to the contact. The points awarded through individual rules are combined into one score. For example, if you create a rule that assigns 10 points when a contact lives in the city and a rule that assigns 10 points when a contact has viewed your pricing overview, then the contact that meets both conditions has a contact score of 20 points.
What contact scoring can be used for
With scoring, you can optimise your sales process and ensure that your team is always focused on high-quality leads. Scores can be used to:
- Identifying contacts suitable for your product or service, but not very engaged. You can then place them in an automation specifically designed to generate interest and strengthen the relationship. This way, the score is a useful criterion for determining the likelihood of a contact making a purchase, which you can then adjust your marketing strategy to.
- Discovering the interests of your contacts. You can create rules and automations that assign points when contacts view product pages on your website and click on product links in your emails. Once they reach a certain score, you can start an automation that sends targeted emails with content and offers related to that product.
- Measuring the interaction of your new customers. This is particularly useful in the SaaS industry. If new users do not respond to your emails or visit your website, it may indicate that additional contact is needed to prevent them from cancelling their subscription. When a new customer has a low interaction score, you can place them in an automation that provides tips and information to help them with using the service.
- Predicting the profit that can be gained from the leads in your funnel.
- Responding to contacts with a high score, suitable for your product or service and highly engaged. These contacts are likely on the verge of making a purchase, so you can send more messages to give them that extra push.
Creating a Contact Score
There are two ways to assign points to a score. Fixed scores are assigned through rules and dynamic scores through an automation. Rules assign points once, while automations do so repeatedly. For example, you can use fixed rules to assign points based on contact information, and automations are suitable for assigning points based on behaviour.
Fixed Score
- Click on 'contacts' in the menu and then on 'score management'.
- Click on 'add new score' in the top right corner of the screen and select 'contact score'.
A contact score adds points to a contact, the deal score to an open deal. You can use the contact score to identify your best leads and then create a deal. From that moment on, you can use a deal score to evaluate the deal's status.
Give your score a descriptive name. For example, 'engagement', and then add a description stating the purpose of the score. For example, 'this score measures how engaged contacts are with the emails'. - Click on 'add new rule'.
- You can now create a segment. For example, if you want to create a rule that gives contacts living in the Netherlands 20 points, you would enter 'Country > is > Netherlands' in the segment builder.
- Click on 'save'. You will then see a column stating 'add 10 points'. By clicking here, you can change the number of points awarded.
Remember that you can create rules that add or subtract points. For example, you can deduct points when a contact has properties that do not match your target audience. If your company does not deliver products to certain countries, you can deduct points from contacts living in these countries.
With the 'points expire' option, you can deduct points from the score after a certain period. This is particularly useful if you want to measure engagement because a contact that was very engaged three years ago is no longer seen as engaged now. When you add scores based on the properties of your target audience, you can set the status to 'never'. The likelihood of this changing is much smaller.
- Once you have entered all the data, set the rule to 'active'. You can then start creating dynamic scores.
Dynamic score
You can change the contact score every time a specific action is performed. You can do this by creating an automation with multiple runs.
- Click on 'automations' in the menu and then on 'new automation'. Choose 'start from scratch'.
- You can now select a start trigger. Each trigger represents the action you can use to add points to the contact scores.
For example:
- Deduct points when someone unsubscribes from a list.
- Add points every time someone opens an email.
- Add points when a specific page on your site is visited.
- Add points when an event occurs.
- Add points when a link is clicked.
In this example, we create a rule that adds 5 points to the score every time contacts open an email.
- Select the 'opens/reads an email' start trigger. You will then be asked if you want to measure opens from campaigns or personal emails. In this example, we choose 'when a contact opens a campaign'.
- You can choose a specific campaign to trigger the automation, or all of them. We choose 'every email' in 'every list'. Set the runs to multiple times, so that points can be added to the score each time someone opens an email. Click on 'add start'.
- Next, you need to add an action that changes the score. Click on the plus sign and choose the 'adjust score' action under the 'contacts' tab.
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Select the score you want to change and indicate whether points should be added or subtracted. Also, specify the amount.
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With the 'expires' function, you can specify when the points should expire. If you use the scores to measure engagement, it is useful to let the points expire after one or two months, so that the score only measures recent engaged contacts.
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Click 'save' and activate the automation.
You can also start an automation based on the score. For example, you can start an automation that creates a deal once a contact reaches a score of 75 or more. You can do this with the 'score changes' start trigger.