Conversion encompasses more than just the leads who purchase from your brand. Another key conversion rate is leads who move from new leads to marketing-qualified leads (MQL).
Your lead-to-MQL conversion rate ensures your marketing budget pays off while identifying missed conversion opportunities.
Hushly can help you boost that rate so every cent you invest in your marketing campaigns goes toward generating a return.
Learn ten tips to improve your MQL conversion rate.
What Is Your Lead to MQL Conversion Rate?
Half of marketers say lead generation is their top priority. However, having a large number of leads is useless unless those leads convert into customers.
Your lead to MQL conversion rate measures the percentage of leads that meet your predefined criteria for becoming MQLs. MQLs are leads who demonstrate a higher interest level and engagement with your business, making them more likely to convert into paying customers.
For example, predefined criteria for B2B businesses might be specific decision-makers, firmographic information like budget size and location, and a niche industry. It may also be a lead’s actions, like downloading content or opening a set number of emails.
SQL vs. MQL
MQLs are different from sales-qualified leads (SQL) as MQLs are leads who match the ideal buyer, while SQLs show signs of being ready to purchase. The MQL vs. SQL funnel conversion uses similar strategies: lead scoring, personalized content, and testing. However, MQLs also require a process to vet and filter leads who may not be valid leads or potential customers.
How to Measure Your Lead to MQL Conversion Rate
Calculating your lead to MQL conversion rate is as simple as dividing your qualified leads by the total number of leads to receive a percentage. So, if 10 out of 100 leads become marketing-qualified leads, your lead-to-MQL conversion rate is 10%.
Why Should You Track Your Lead to MQL Conversion Rate?
A high MQL conversion rate indicates that your marketing and lead generation efforts effectively attract the right audience and nurture them through the sales funnel.
On the other hand, a low conversion rate suggests that there is room for improvement in your lead qualification and nurturing processes.
10 Ways to Increase Your Lead to MQL Conversion Rate
If you noticed your MQL conversion rate is smaller than you would like, there are ways to improve your rate.
Here are ten tips to get you started with lead generation and conversion.
1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile
To convert leads into MQLs effectively, you need to know your ideal customers. Start by creating a comprehensive Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) that outlines your most valuable B2B clients’ characteristics.
This profile should include demographics, firmographics, pain points, and behaviors. Having a clear ICP allows you to target your marketing efforts more precisely, ensuring that you generate leads who are more likely to become MQLs.
Image from The Smarketers
2. Implement Lead Scoring
Lead scoring identifies leads that are most likely to convert into MQLs. Hushly’s tools automatically assign a value to each lead based on their behaviors and characteristics.
Leads with higher scores are more likely to convert to MQLs.
To implement lead scoring effectively, consider factors such as:
- Engagement with your content
- Website visits
- Email interactions
Hushly offers a powerful lead-scoring system that uses artificial intelligence to analyze and score leads based on their behavior. By implementing Hushly’s lead scoring system, you can automatically identify and prioritize high-quality leads, improving the accuracy and efficiency of your MQL conversion process.
3. Create Highly Personalized Content
Content marketing is a cornerstone of lead generation, as content attracts new leads. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s also vital to nurturing and converting leads into MQLs.
You can establish your expertise and build trust by producing valuable, informative, and engaging content that addresses your audience’s pain points. High-quality content can help leads move through the funnel faster, making them more likely to become MQLs.
You will also want to personalize your content so it resonates with your leads. Personalized content is more likely to attract your ideal customer with a higher chance of conversion.
4. Segment Your Leads
Segmentation categorizes leads based on their characteristics and behaviors.
You can tailor your marketing efforts to each group’s specific needs and preferences by segmenting your leads.
For example, you can send separate emails to specific lead groups, increasing the open rate because those emails match that group’s needs and interests.
This personalization increases the chances of turning leads into MQLs, as they receive content and offers that resonate with them.
5. Leverage Email Marketing
Email marketing is a powerful tool for lead nurturing because it brings your content directly to the customer rather than relying on them returning to you.
Craft targeted email campaigns that deliver relevant content to your leads at various sales funnel stages. This keeps your leads engaged and helps identify MQLs based on their interactions with your emails.
6. Use Hushly Smart Forms
Hushly’s smart forms are a game-changer for increasing your lead to MQL conversion rate.
Our forms only request basic information, then fill in the rest of a lead’s data by tracking their behavior across the site. This improves the user’s experience as they won’t have to fill out lengthy forms, increasing the number of leads you acquire.
In addition, our smart form solution qualifies leads right at the source: during lead generation. That way, all the leads in your funnel already passed a basic quality test.
7. Implement Marketing Automation
Marketing automation platforms allow you to streamline lead nurturing and scoring processes.
With marketing automation, you can set up automated workflows that send the right content and messages to leads based on their behaviors. This timely correspondence ensures that they are consistently moving towards becoming MQLs.
It also helps you reach them at the best time (when their needs and interest is greatest) to convert them into MQLs.
8. Employ A/B Testing
A/B testing compares two webpage versions or an email to determine which performs better for lead conversion.
By continuously testing and optimizing your content, landing pages, and forms, you can enhance the user experience and increase the likelihood of turning leads into MQLs.
9. Align Your Marketing and Sales Team
A surprising 79% of MQL leads never convert. This points to a misalignment between sales and marketing. Marketing is moving leads who are not ready to buy over to the sales team. Team alignment improves your targeting and qualification processes from the first touchpoint to conversion.
Your sales and marketing teams should remain aligned throughout the lead conversion process. By keeping communication open between your teams, you can stay on the same page about crucial information, such as what leads you’re targeting and what efforts work best.
10. Continuously Analyze and Refine
Data-driven decision-making takes the guesswork out of the conversion process, making you more likely to hit your target every time.
Regularly analyze your marketing data and gather insights on what’s working and needs improvement. Use this information to refine your strategies and optimize your processes for better results.
Use funnel metrics such as:
- Leads generated
- Content impressions
- Email open rate
- Content engagement
Turn Lost Leads into Customers with Hushly’s Conversion Platform
Using Hushly’s all-in-one conversion cloud, you filter out unqualified leads and ensure that the leads you generate will likely become MQLs. Remember that a successful lead to MQL conversion is an ongoing process that requires continuous refinement and adaptation to your audience’s evolving needs and behaviors.
You don’t have to tackle that process by yourself.
Allow our advanced AI technology and leading marketing tools to automate your process.
Schedule a demo to see Hushly’s all-in-one conversion cloud in action.
