Marketing Insights - The Art and Science of Creating Demand

“I Was Told There Would Be No Math” – Part 2

Question: if a lead inquires on a campaign in Q1 2010 and counts towards your marketing metrics for conversion; when is that prospect eligible to be counted again as another inquiry?

The Miriam-Webster definition for inquiry is as follows:
Main Entry: in·qui·ry; date: 15th century
1 : examination into facts or principles : research
2 : a request for information
3 : a systematic investigation often of a matter of public interest

The marketing definition of an inquiry is still not as well defined as it needs to be.  Some say it is when a prospect “raises their hand” as a point of interest, and many marketers define that action as a campaign form submission in a given period of time. However as long as you stay consistent with how you define an inquiry, ongoing analysis should provide actionable  insight.  One question that is unclear as you look across longer periods of time, is when can you count that inquiry again?

Multiple Funnel Theory

A funnel represents a buying process that is initiated by a lead.  As that lead expresses more and more interest it will move further down the funnel, eventually being passed to sales and if all goes well turn into a customer.  I would say it is best practice to measure multiple funnels with a time frame that is easily aligned to marketing activities or campaigns (i.e. months, quarters).  The reason is if you are performing analysis on a funnel, you can better correlate the conversion and results to what you did from a marketing perspective.

Your “Dead Pool of Leads”

But what if the interest of that lead goes completely away to zero?  Does the lead really stay part of that Q1 2010 funnel…FOREVER?  I believe the answer is no.  Because on top of all of your quarterly funnels is a “Dead Pool of Leads” that have zero interest, and don’t belong to any “buying process at all” (another interesting article on inactive leads).

Codynamic^TM Lead Scoring Again?

So if you have multiple funnels, and a dead pool of leads on top of these funnels – how can you accurately determine when a lead is back in the deal pool and available to inquire on a future funnel?  The answer is Codynamic^TM Lead Scoring.  If you recall Codynamic^TM Lead Scoring tracks both the profile fit (company and contact data) and level of engagement (online activity and interest) of a lead.  It is best practice today to have your lead scoring program decay the level of engagement over time when there is no activity.  So if a lead inquires in Q1 2010, but then has no activity over a period of time, that lead will eventually fall to “zero interest” and should be  in your “dead pool of leads”.  So if at some point in the future you were to target them with a campaign, and the lead inquires on that campaign – they should count in a new funnel (Q3 2010).

How Do You Get to Zero Interest?

A common thought is that the rate of decay should be related to the length of your sales cycle, however I would disagree as sales cycle is much deeper in the funnel, where a lead has more commitment to the buying process. To find out more, check out Part 3 on lead scoring decay coming soon.

For more on how to target leads in your dead pool – check out this post by Steve Woods on how VFA re-engaged their dead leads.

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