Leadgenerering
24. november 2021
What does MQL mean?
MQL is an abbreviation for Marketing Qualified Lead and refers to a type of lead that must be nurtured through marketing activities before it is ready to buy.
MQL strategies are particularly popular among B2B companies, as the volume of sales-ready leads (Sales Qualified Leads = SQL) is very small, meaning you need to capture potential customers much earlier in their decision-making process.
The advantage of generating MQLs is that you get to follow your potential customers throughout their entire decision-making process, educating them and influencing their decision.
What is a marketing qualified lead?
Most often, an MQL will be a person who has shown some peripheral interest in your product, service, or company. They may have done so by downloading a white paper, watching x% of a video, and much more. In other words, the visitor may have taken a very soft conversion action on the website.
Downloading a white paper does not mean you are ready for a salesperson to give you a call. Most likely, several touchpoints are needed before the person is clear enough to be ready to speak with a salesperson.
So what should you do with an MQL? Funny you should ask—it is in the word: MARKETING qualified lead. In other words, you need to qualify the lead further by targeting your MQL with marketing material.
You can do this by:
- Sending them different email content
- Targeting them with retargeting campaigns
- Offering them more free material
- Offering them special benefits
- Or something entirely different.
However, your salesperson should not be at the keyboard yet. Put that phone down, super seller, and let the marketing manager take over. MQLs should be handled through marketing efforts until they are qualified enough for a sales call (SQL).
Yes please—could you simplify that explanation a bit?
To understand what an MQL is, I will set up a case: You need to buy a bed.
- You go to drømmeland.dk
- Here, you choose to put an item in the cart, but then you leave the website because you just need to discuss the purchase with your spouse/partner/cohabitant/cousin—whatever. You are now an MQL
- You are by no means ready for a salesperson to call you and try to sell you a bed yet.
- Instead, drømmeland.dk should target you with ads that tell you about the benefits of buying the product you looked at, or the benefits of buying from them, and why you should buy now. They are now trying to qualify you through marketing.
- You go back to the website, but you still cannot make head or tail of what you should buy, so you choose to fill out a chat.
- You chat with a friendly customer service representative, but as the chat drags on a bit, you agree that Drømmeland should call you back. You are now an SQL (sales-ready lead).
In the above case, weeks may pass from converting to an MQL until you are ready for a sales call. In the B2B industry, it may instead be a matter of months.
In the interim period, you should use the time to qualify your leads by helping them through their decision. You do this with various content, guides, good advice, and much more—while also ensuring you remain top of mind with the customer.
How MQLs are generated
MQLs are generated by offering your target audience something of value for free, in exchange for the “payment” of them giving you some information about themselves so you can target your marketing to them afterwards.
Common methods for generating MQLs:
- Download of white papers (email permissions)
- Download of brochure (email permissions)
- Visit to a specific landing page (cookie data for a retargeting campaign)
- Sign-up for the newsletter or another type of email list (email permissions)
- Views of x% of a video (cookie data for a retargeting campaign)
- Demo bookings (email permissions)
- Added item to cart (cookie data…)
- Webinar participation (email permissions)
- Download of an e-book (email permission)
- Visitors who have spent a lot of time on your website (cookie data…)
- Returning visitors (cookie data…)
Push marketing channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube can generate MQLs directly from the ad that the target audience is exposed to through so-called “lead ads”. Pull channels such as Google advertising and search engine optimisation require soft conversion actions on the website in order to generate MQLs.
You can find inspiration in the list above for which calls to action you want to implement on your website.
When is an MQL nurtured and sales-ready?
An MQL is converted into an SQL the moment the person provides contact information for the purpose of being contacted.
If you contact a person who has provided their email address to receive an e-book, you have just reached out to an MQL. That is a no-no and extremely ineffective.
Let your salespeople spend their time talking to people who are clear in their intent and want help making a purchasing decision.
If you use MQLs wisely, you can prepare and nurture your future sales opportunities and increase your conversion rate on sales-ready leads.
