Customer Journey and Marketing Funnel

What is a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel is a model that represents the different stages a prospect goes through before conversion. It is often depicted as a funnel because it starts with many potential prospects at the top and narrows down to the more interested prospects at the bottom. As prospects travel further down the funnel, a conversion will likely happen.

What does our marketing funnel look like?

Our marketing funnel consists of 4 different lifecycle statuses. They are set according to our scoring model.

The earlier the stage, the less likely someone will convert. Someone who is in MCL has interacted with very little of our marketing materials and is, therefore, unlikely to be ready to speak to sales. Whereas someone in the MEL stage is on their way to readiness. When they reach the MQL stage, they are deemed suitable to hand over to sales.

What is an MQL?

An MQL stands for Marketing Qualified Lead. It is a lead that has been deemed more likely to become a customer based on established criteria, such as their engagement in marketing materials, the title they possess, and other qualifying factors.

What happens when someone MQLs?

Once someone meets our criteria to become a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), they enter the Lead Ops MQL Queues for assessment by our team. An opportunity is created and assigned to the appropriate sales team if they are deemed suitable. However, if they do not meet the criteria, Lead Ops will either recycle them, refer them to retail, or discard them if they are associated with a disqualified account. The decision to pass them to sales is based on factors like job title, email address type, and other relevant considerations.

How does someone MQL?

There are two ways a person can become an MQL – Demo Request and Content Score Up

1. Demo Requests
   Demo requests generally happen through a demo form fill or as a hot lead from a tradeshow. When something is designated as a demo request, automations on the backend kick in to ensure the person flows into the MQL view a demo request date so that Lead Ops can process it.

2. Content Score Ups
   When people interact with different marketing content, they will accumulate points for each engagement. For example, a form fill is worth 20 points, an email click is worth 2 points, and attending a webinar is worth 15 points. Once a person reaches a specific threshold (100 points for prospects and 200 points for customers), they become an MQL.