In the world of sales and marketing, knowing the answer of some fundamental questions is crucial for the improvement of sales teams. One of the common questions that may arise in the mind of many marketers and sales reps is, “What is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?“
Knowing the definition of Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is essential as this concept is important in various stages of the sales funnel. It helps businesses to improve their lead generation and enhance their buyer’s journey.
Are you curious to know what Marketing Qualified Leads are and how to identify and qualify them? Look no further. This inclusive article provides the essential data and details all marketing teams need to know about MQL.
So stay with us!
What Is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a potential customer who has shown some level of interest in a product or service offered by a business. In other words, MQLs are the individuals or companies with a higher likelihood of converting into paying customers.
As they are more likely to become a paying client or buyer compared to other leads, sales specialists and marketers should focus more on them.
Isn’t it meaningful to focus more on an MQL who has shown his interest in our products by visiting our website several times rather than focusing on a lead that showed no sign of interest?
A survey published by HubSpot showed that organizations generate 1,877 leads monthly on average, and 4 out of 5 of these leads are considered as MQLs.
6 Examples of Marketing Qualified Leads
Six different examples are mentioned in the image below to fully understand the meaning of Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) definition.
Now that you have become familiar with Marketing Qualified Lead definition and examples, I recommend you to read this article: “Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmarks by Industry & Channel” to learn what lead to MQL conversion rate is and how it is affected by industry and channels.
After reading this article, it’s time to explore lead qualification. In the next parts, we will clarify lead qualification and the ways to qualify leads in order to identify MQLs.
What Is Lead Qualification in Marketing?
Lead qualification is the process of evaluating leads to find out whether they are interested in our products/services or not.
When a marketer assesses leads to find their level of interest, needs, preferences, and their readiness for purchase, the process of lead qualification is in action.
Read the cases below to fully understand the importance of lead qualification:
- The lead that has visited your website 5 times seems more interested in your brand than a lead that visited your website only one time.
- The lead that clicks on a link in your email seems more interested in your offer than the one didn’t.
- The leads that like and comment on your posts on social media seem more interested in your company.
How to Identify Marketing Qualified Leads? The Steps for Identifying & Qualifying an MQL
Identifying and qualifying Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) involves various tactics to ensure that the leads you’re working on and nurturing are genuinely interested in your product or service.
If you identify MQLs, prioritize, and focus on them, you can save more time, resources, and money.
The key strategies that help you in this process are stated below.
1. Track Behavioral Engagement
First of all, you need to track and monitor the behavior and engagement level of leads entering your website or social media channels.
Are they exploring your product pages, downloading resources, or subscribing to your newsletter? Are they liking your posts frequently, sometimes, or never?
These actions are indicators of their interest in your offerings.
This interest of MQLs is typically expressed through various actions, such as:
- Visiting your company’s website or repeating their visits
- Downloading a whitepaper, e-book, etc. from your company’s website
- Subscribing to your newsletter, webinars, etc.
- Opening or clicking links with your marketing emails
- Liking, sharing, or commenting on your social media posts
- Requesting a live demo or trial of your product/service
- Asking questions via chat on your website or social media
- Filling out online forms on your website
- Adding items to a wishlist on your website
- Clicking on an ad to find your site
2. Check Leads’ Firmographic and Demographic Data
Another way to find out whether leads are interested in your offers or not is to find their firmographic and demographic details.
For instance, if you know the company revenue of the lead visiting your product page on your website, you can find out whether their organization has the financial capacity to buy from you or not.
Other examples include:
- Is the lead’s company located in a region where you operate or want to expand?
- Does the lead’s job title align with the decision-makers you usually target?
- Is the organization within the size range that typically benefits from your offerings?
Now, an important question arises: How to find the demographic and firmographic data of prospects?
We recommend you to use CUFinder data enrichment and lead generation tools through which you can find the detailed insights of companies and individuals.
CUFinder provides the companies’ industries, sizes, employee counts, emails, phone numbers, domains, social media URLs, locations, addresses, logos, revenues, employee data, etc.
Moreover, it provides information about individuals’ interests, skills, salaries, job titles, emails, phone numbers, locations, and more.
Sign up for free in CUFinder to see how easily you can collect the information and contacts of thousands of leads in no time!
3. Lead Scoring
In the next step, you should assign scores to different actions of leads based on their significance to prioritize MQLs. Typically, leads are scored on a scale of 100, and when they reach a score of 80, they are classified as MQLs.
The below examples help you understand lead scoring more:
- Downloading a product brochure might carry more weight than simply visiting the homepage of your website.
- A person asking the details of your product via a comment on social media seems more interested than a person who just liked your post.
- A visitor who has remained on your website for a long time is more likely to be converted than one who quits the website quickly.
4. Use Automated Tools for Qualification and Scoring
Use marketing automation tools to track and score the activities of your leads is recommended. This allows you to gain deeper insights into their preferences and behavior over time.
Two of the tools you can use for these purposes are:
- HubSpot: It offers lead scoring, behavioral tracking, and detailed analytics.
- Salesforce Pardot: It has tools for lead scoring, tracking engagement, and analyzing lead behavior.
It is worth mentioning that according to Annuitas Group, businesses that use marketing automation to nurture leads experience a 451% boost in qualified leads!
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) Vs. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
Now that we have a clear understanding of Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), let’s compare it to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL).
Both types of leads are essential to the sales pipeline stages, but they serve different purposes and have varying levels of engagement.
MQL
- Definition: MQLs show some level of interest in your product/service.
- Engagement Level: Engagement is moderate.
- Readiness for Sales: MQLs are not immediately sales-ready but have potential.
- Focus: MQLs are primarily nurtured through marketing efforts.
- Handoff Timing: Typically, it enters the pipeline at an earlier stage.
- Conversion Rate: MQL conversion rate tends to be lower than SQL.
SQL
- Definition: SQLs indicate strong buying intent.
- Engagement Level: Engagement is high.
- Readiness for Sales: SQLs are likely ready for a direct sales pitch.
- Focus: SQLs are the primary focus of sales efforts.
- Handoff Timing: Typically enters the pipeline closer to the bottom, indicating high readiness.
- Conversion Rate: SQL conversion rate tends to be higher for SQLs.
What Is MQL to SQL Conversion Rate?
The MQL to SQL conversion rate shows the percentage of MQLs that are converted into SQLs.
The average MQL to SQL conversion rate is around 13%. It means that if a business gets an MQL to SQL conversion rate of 25, their efforts in converting MQLs to SQLs were successful compared to the average benchmark.
And if it is any number less than 13%, they need to work harder to improve it.
The quality and relevancy of the leads as well as the sales and marketing team collaboration and efforts are the most important factors affecting the MQL to SQL conversion rate.
If you select targeted and relevant leads and use the latest lead nurturing techniques, your MQL to SQL conversion rate will be boosted.
Which One Is Better for Generating MQL: Inbound or Outbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing attract leads by providing and sharing valuable content in websites or social media. While in outbound marketing, leads are generated through outbound methods like cold calls, direct mail, or traditional advertising.
Inbound marketing is more efficient in generating MQLs than outbound marketing. Some of the reasons are:
- In inbound marketing, we attract leads who are actively searching for solutions. It means they are more likely to be interested.
- Inbound marketing is more cost-effective. HubSpot reported that inbound-driven MQLs cost 61% less than outbound-generated MQLs.
- Content created for inbound marketing can continue to generate leads over time.
Are There Any Disadvantages to Marketing Qualified Leads?
Identifying Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is essential for any sales team for the various reasons mentioned in previous sections. However, there are some disadvantages that we should be aware of.
We may identify a lead as an MQL because they visited our website but their visit may be because of other reasons rather than purchasing our products. They may visit our website to find information or even visit it mistakenly! All visitors are not necessarily buyers!
Remember that if you rely too much on Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), you may focus on a certain type of leads unwantedly and lose other opportunities.
Explore More Qualified Leads with CUFinder
Are you looking for more quality leads? Consider using a sales automation tool like CUFinder.
CUFinder is the best platform for identifying MQLs. This is designed to help you pinpoint and nurture MQLs more efficiently.
By using CUFinder’s features and search engines, you can streamline your B2B lead generation and convert more targeted leads into loyal customers.
CUFinder’s Prospect Engine has an advanced filtering system via which the users can select their preferred search parameters such as location, industry, job title, etc. Then, based on the chosen filters, CUFinder finds relevant and targeted qualified leads in bulk and immediately.
Now, sign up for a free trial!
CUFinder is the best way of generating qualified leads as:
- CUFinder finds targeted leads in bulk via a professional filtering system.
- CUFinder verifies the collected data and guarantees over 98% accuracy.
- CUFinder updates its data every month to delete outdated details.
- CUFinder offers flexible pricing plans with no hidden costs.
- CUFinder has data on +269M companies and +419M individuals.
- CUFinder provides reliable APIs and free Chrome Extension.
Final Thoughts
Return to the first question: What is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)? It represents potential customers who have demonstrated some level of interest in your products or services through various activities, such as visiting your website, liking your posts on social media, or downloading an e-book from your blog.
By carefully identifying marketing qualified lead (MQL), you can ensure that your sales team focuses its efforts on leads with a higher likelihood of conversion.
MQLs are the result of effective lead generation, engagement, and nurturing efforts. They can significantly impact your revenue growth.
So, with solutions like CUFinder, start identifying, nurturing, and converting the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) to push your business forward.
FAQs
1. What does MQL stand for?
MQL stands for Marketing Qualified Lead. It shows leads that are interested in our products or services.
2. What is a B2B marketing qualified lead?
A B2B marketing qualified lead is a lead in the business-to-business space who has shown some level of interest in a company’s products or services.
3. How do you generate a qualified lead in marketing?
You can generate qualified leads by using lead generation tools like CUFinder, which provides targeted and relevant leads based on the user’s selected filters.