Get Started with Lead Scoring

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Define lead scoring and common terminology.
  
• Customize and apply scores.
  
• Customize and apply score categories.
  

Lead Scoring: What Is It?

Every business needs to generate new leads in order to expand its client base and grow its business. But how can businesses do this effectively? Account Engagement and its lead scoring and lead grading features is one option.

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is the Salesforce B2B Marketing suite of tools and strategies. It exists within the Marketing Cloud platform. It’s designed to create meaningful interactions through personalized communications like email campaigns or social media interactions. Using the automation capabilities and data-driven insights, companies can tailor their marketing efforts to individual preferences and behaviors. Thus building lasting relationships and driving customer loyalty in an increasingly dynamic and competitive digital landscape.

But what exactly is lead scoring? In short, it’s a methodology used by sales and marketing departments to help measure the interest of the lead so you can spend your time nurturing the leads that are most likely to convert.

Let’s look at some common terminology when it comes to scoring in Account Engagement.

• Score: A numerical value is assigned based on a prospect taking action.
  
• Scoring system: The base scoring system Account Engagement provides for you that is customizable.
  
• Scoring categories: Categories used to score prospects on more than one product or business unit.
  
• Scoring rules: The default value already set up in your account for an action taken that receives a score.
  

In Account Engagement, a score measures implicit interest in your product by assigning a point value to activities, such as opening an email, attending a webinar, or submitting a form. A default value is then assigned to prospect-initiated activities. These values are already set up in your account as the baseline scoring rules. For some users, the baseline scoring rules are enough.

However since the baseline scoring rules apply the same amount of points per action account-wide, consider adjusting the allotted points in your baseline scoring rules to score on custom activities. Defaults are always great, but many companies—yours included—may want to adjust these defaults.

Here’s how you can customize your baseline scoring rules in Account Engagement.

1. From Account Engagement, navigate to Account Engagement Settings | Automation Settings | Scoring.
   
2. Click Edit Scoring Rules. After you adjust a rule, Account Engagement displays the number of prospects whose score may adjust due to this scoring rule change. The number sometimes changes if prospects complete activities while you’re still setting rules.
   
3. Click Save changes.
   

You can only modify the scoring rules. There are no options to add or modify the rules outside of the point values. You cannot change the name or the criteria.

Modify Scores

In addition to your baseline scoring rules, you can use a blend of automation tools to adjust prospects scores in your account. For example, you can use a completion action to increase a prospect’s score when they submit a form. If you want to check for several form submissions from the same prospect and score based on that, you can build an automation rule with multiple criteria. Any score applied via an automation tool is also added to the amount applied with the baseline scoring rules. Here are some automation tools you can use to adjust scores.

Modify Scores via Automation Rules

Scores can be modified automatically with automation rules. For example, an automation rule can add 50 points to a prospect’s score if they’ve requested a demo or a specific white paper. Automation rules can both increase and decrease prospect scores, or even reset scores to zero.

Let’s look at the scoring criteria that Get Cloudy setup. If you recall, Get Cloudy is a high-tech consulting firm specializing in CRM implementations. They’ve built a successful business as a Salesforce SI partner and an ISV partner. Their implementation experience includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Communities.

Cindy, the marketing manager at Get Cloudy wants to increase a prospect’s score if they submit any form on the website and download a white paper. Let’s create an automation rule that checks to see if a prospect has taken both of these actions and then increases their score accordingly.

1. Navigate to Automations | Automation Rules.
   
2. Select +Add Automation Rules.
   
3. Enter Scoring - Form Submission and White Paper.
   
4. Under Rules, select Match all.
   
5. Select +Add new rule.
   
6. Enter Prospect form :: ANY :: was completed successfully.
   
7. Select +Add new rule.
   
8. Enter Prospect file :: White Paper PDF:: was accessed.
   
9. Select +Add new action.
   
10. Enter Adjust Prospect Score :: by :: 50.
    
11. Select Create automation rules.
    

Modify Scores via Completion Actions

Scores can also be customized at the form and form handler level by designating an Adjust score Completion Action on Step 4 of the Form Wizard.

Completion actions automate basic marketing tasks allowing marketers time to do other tasks. In this case, if a prospect fills out a form in order to download a white paper, Account Engagement automatically adjusts the prospect’s score when the form is submitted.

You can also adjust a prospect’s score via a completion action on marketing assets such as forms, form handlers, and emails. Remember to set the completion action on the asset itself, since the action is based on a prospect’s interaction with one discrete object.

Modify Scores During Imports

You can also add to a prospect’s score through an import by including a column with the desired bonus points and then mapping that column to Add To Score. This is a great option if you’re importing a list of attendees from a recent trade show or conference.

You can modify scores for an individual prospect by navigating to their record, clicking the Edit prospect link at the top, and then entering the new score you’d like them to receive.

You cannot manually edit scoring category scores; we talk about those in just a minute.

Reset Your Prospects’ Scores to Zero

Adjusting for score decay is just as important as earning points. Score decay refers to reducing a prospect’s score for inactivity. This is often used to reset unqualified prospects as well as employees, competitors, and other noncustomers (analysts, job searchers, and so forth). You can either reset all prospects’ scores in your account back to zero, or just a selected few. Create an automation rule with the desired criteria the prospect should meet to have their score reset and add the rule action to “Adjust Prospect score: To: 0.”

We suggest using these sparingly since they can be made irrelevant if you go back to edit baseline scoring rules.

Get Specific with Scoring Categories

Scoring categories let you score prospects on more than one product or line of business. You still have an overall prospect score, but scoring categories offer additional scores based on which assets your prospects are engaging with. You use scoring categories in tandem with folders—all content you’d like to score a specific way is placed in a folder and then the scoring category is applied. You must organize your content into folders in order to use scoring categories.

Get Cloudy serves clients that are using Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Communities. Leung wants to build a scoring category for Marketing Cloud so prospects interested in specific content earn a higher score in the Marketing Cloud category relative to their score for other products.

Let’s look at how they can set that up. First, they need to create a folder to house all of their content related to Marketing Cloud.

1. Navigate to Content | Folders.
   
2. Click +Add Folder.
   
3. Enter a New Folder Name: Marketing Cloud.
   
4. Click Save.
   

Next, they need to assign the folder to a Scoring Category.

1. Navigate to Account Engagement Settings | Automation Settings | Scoring.
   
2. Click +Add Scoring Category.
   
3. Enter a name: Marketing Cloud
   
4. Check Include all historical activity.
   
5. Choose the Marketing Cloud folder.
   
6. Click Choose Selected.
   
7. Click Create Scoring Category.
   

Good work! You learned that lead scoring is a way for sales and marketing departments to prioritize leads. This is important because you want only the most qualified leads to be passed on to your sales team. You learned how to modify scores and how to set up a scoring category. In the next unit, you learn how the power of AI and Einstein can take your scoring to the next level.

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Default Scoring System
  
• Salesforce Help: Customize Scoring Rules
  
• Salesforce Help: Scoring Categories