What is lead scoring?
Leads are the lifeline for any business. Having leads shows that there is interest in the business and represent a potential sale.
Not every lead is going to be a customer and you only have finite resources that you can allocate to converting leads.
One of the ways businesses ensure that they concentrate on the right leads is by Lead scoring. Lead scoring is a methodology that is used to rank the likelihood a lead will turn into a customer.
“By scoring leads, the sales team can get more efficient as the sales funnel is improved. More effort is placed on the prospects that show a higher chance of turning into a customer.”
The attributes that you use determine how strong your lead scoring model is going to be. There are many attributes that can be utilized, but we’re going to place most of our efforts on video. The reason, we feel that video lead scoring offers more insights and allows for better lead scoring.
Here’s why we suggest video over other attributes.
Why use video for lead scoring?
Video for us is the medium that offers the most engagement, especially for businesses.
Research shows that people find it easier to relate to a video and can offer more impact compared to other mediums. In fact, video testimonials are better than text testimonials.
“As a business, you can leverage different types of video content to keep your viewers engaged. Product demos, customer testimonials, and webinars are just a few examples of video content a business can produce.”
Another reason we suggest video in lead scoring is because of the insights that you can get about your prospects. This is more so the case if you pair it with a powerful video hosting platform.
As an attribute, you can improve your lead scoring mechanism. For instance, if you use an e-book as an attribute, you can’t truly track whether the lead is engaged with your content or not.
They might download an eBook and delete it afterward. There is no way for us to know this. A prospect of this nature would score high on the model, but wouldn’t be the right fit. Video offers a better way to score leads.
You can score leads based on the number of videos watched, how many videos watched, which videos were watched and more to gauge the interest level of the prospect.
Let’s have a look at the methodologies you can use to score leads using video.
Methodology for lead scoring using video
With videos, you can score your leads by using three methodologies: based on the videos watched, based on the percentage of the video watched and based on the volume of videos watched.
Let’s have a look at each one:
- Based on the percentage of video watched
In this method, you score the leads based on how much of the video they watched. Of course, the higher the percentage, the higher the score.
“A lead watching 90% of your videos shows a high level of interest in your product or service.”
For instance, in this method, you can provide one point for starting the video and 5 points for watching 50% or over and more points for watching over 90% of the video.
- Based on the topic of the video watched
With this methodology, you rank a prospect based on the topic of the video watched.
Our opinion is that this method is best for companies that already use video marketing as part of their overall strategy. The reason for this is because it requires that you have already mapped your videos based on the buyer funnel.
Let’s be honest, not every video is equal. A video of a product demo shows that the user is further in the buyer’s funnel than say a testimonial video.
In this scenario, a prospect that watches a product demo video will be scored higher than a lead that only watches a testimonial. Of course, if another prospect were to watch both, then they’d be scored even higher than the previous two.
- Based on the volume of videos watched
This last one is quite self-explanatory.
“You rank prospects based on the volume of videos watched or the total number of videos watched. The more videos or the more minutes a prospect has the higher their score.”
With this method, leads that have spent more of their time consuming your content are favored and considered to be more likely to purchase.
We advise employing a mix of all three methodologies when scoring your leads. It’ll provide you with a better view of which leads are deeper in the funnel.
If we were to choose a methodology that we think is best, it’d have to be the second one. Assuming the videos are mapped correctly, it’ll be easier to identify the best leads for the sales department to target.
How video lead scoring will transform your sales cycle
Now that we have established what lead scoring is and the best methodologies for video lead scoring
Let’s have a quick look at how video lead scoring will transform your sales cycle.
- More accurate leads
With video lead scoring, you can expect better leads. The prospects sent to sales will be the ones most likely to turn into customers.
“Using video lead scoring in combination with a powerful video hosting platform will allow you to map your prospects and get better insights on them.”
This will allow the marketing team to pinpoint prospects that are further down the sales funnel.
- Quicker & Shorter Sales Cycles
The sales cycle for your business will be shortened with the use of video lead scoring.
As stated earlier, gaining better insights will ensure that you send accurate leads to the sales team. These prospects will most likely be further down the funnel, so less time will be used to convince them to purchase the product/service.
The sales team won’t have to waste time pursuing unproductive leads. This allows your sales team to operate quickly and more efficiently.
- Detailed & more accurate persona
A persona is a profile of a business’s ideal customer. It’s crucial for any business to build a detailed and accurate customer persona.
A persona allows the marketing department to strategize and make campaigns around the target customer.
“With video lead scoring in combination with marketing automation platforms, a business can get answers to questions such as What does my ideal customer(s) like? What are their habits? And what are their pain points?”
Video hosting platforms also provide useful and insightful data that can be used to get an accurate picture of who the ideal customer is. Video lead scoring can help a business understand their ideal customer.
Conclusion
Video lead scoring can greatly improve the performance of your sales department. It ensures more accurate leads and shortens the sales cycle.
With that said, you should always take a step back to evaluate your lead scoring model. Markets constantly change in this digital era and so you might need to adjust it from time to time. Remember the quality of your prospects depends on how good your lead scoring model is.
To ensure the best impact on customer acquisition and revenue, always take a step back to evaluate the lead scoring model that you use.
