Table of Contents
Businesses today often overlook the fact that they are sitting on a goldmine of data. With data coming in from various platforms, touchpoints, and online analytics tools, it’s easy for businesses to end up with disparate data silos. This lack of connectivity makes it challenging for brands to recognize and leverage the true potential of their data, especially when it comes to converting leads. Consequently, this issue is costing businesses money.
The good news is that it is possible to obtain a complete 360-degree view of prospects, leads, and customers throughout the buyer and customer journeys. By understanding which behaviors lead to conversions and optimizing for them, businesses can capture significant revenue that is currently being left on the table.
One way to achieve this is through unified contact records. These records can fuel lead scoring tools with high-quality, comprehensive, and actionable data, enabling businesses to optimize their funnels effectively. In this post, we will show you how to unlock the full potential of your data.
Why Funnel Optimization is Vital for Your Business
Funnel optimization is crucial for business growth and maximizing sales opportunities. By improving every step of the customer journey and the digital sales funnel, businesses can minimize potential drop-off points that may lead to customer disengagement.
Even minor improvements in conversion rates at each stage of the funnel can have a significant positive impact on revenue. For example, making a few changes to the email campaign users receive during a free trial can result in a 15% increase in conversions.
Unified data and lead scoring provide actionable insights that enable businesses to optimize their funnels, increase sales, and drive lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) and higher lifetime value (LTV) over time.
What is Unified Data?
Unified data refers to the process of consolidating data from various sources into a single location. Instead of having data scattered across different platforms such as email marketing software, sales software, social media, and product-tracking software, businesses can sync all the data in one place.
Unified data provides a holistic view of contacts across all touchpoints and technologies, leaving no data overlooked. Third-party tools and customer relationship management (CRM) systems with unified data features can make this process easier and more efficient.
What is Lead Scoring?
Lead scoring is the process of ranking contacts or customers based on first-party and third-party data to identify revenue opportunities. It involves assigning a single alphanumeric score to each contact, which can be used by the sales team to prioritize and target leads effectively.
A comprehensive lead scoring tool should consider the following factors:
- Fit: This includes the demographics of a brand, such as annual revenue and industry.
- Behavior: This includes actions like opening emails or filing support tickets.
- Recency and frequency of specific behaviors.
How Unified Data & Lead Scoring Can Improve Funnel Performance
Unified data and lead scoring can significantly improve funnel performance by providing valuable insights and enabling businesses to take targeted actions. Here’s how they work together:
-
Actionable Understanding: Unified data and lead scoring provide a coherent understanding of users throughout the entire customer journey. This includes identifying the ideal customer profile (ICP) and optimizing conversions for high-value users at each stage of the funnel.
-
Informed Lead Scoring Models: Unified data ensures that lead scoring models are fully informed and, therefore, higher-performing. By combining data from various sources, businesses can avoid missing any crucial information and focus on higher-intent actions that indicate stronger purchasing intent.
-
Increased Relevance and Faster Response: With unified data and lead scoring, businesses can deliver more relevant sales messages and respond to leads faster. This can directly lead to increased conversions and a better customer experience.
-
Lower Customer Acquisition Costs and Increased Lifetime Value: By converting leads faster and with fewer campaigns, businesses can reduce customer acquisition costs. Additionally, unified data and lead scoring help identify, convert, and retain high-value audiences more effectively, resulting in higher lifetime value.
-
Accelerated Business Growth: By leveraging unified data and lead scoring, businesses can experience faster growth and increased profitability.
How to Leverage Lead Scoring & Unified Data for Funnel Optimization
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to leverage lead scoring and unified data for funnel optimization:
-
Integrate Your Data: Choose a CRM system that offers extensive integration options, such as Salesforce or HubSpot. These platforms can act as a central hub for consolidating data from various sources. Tools like Syncari can provide a true 360-degree view of customers within a single unified record.
-
Choose a Lead Scoring Tool: Look for a specialized lead scoring tool that focuses exclusively on lead scoring. Ensure that the tool offers diverse templates for existing customers and prospects, allowing you to optimize your funnel beyond the initial purchase. Consider tools like Breadcrumbs, which account for fit and activity in their lead scoring models.
-
Connect the Data: Use in-tool or third-party integrations to connect your unified data with your lead scoring tool. This will enable you to create and test customized lead scoring models based on the data points collected. Split test your lead scoring models to identify the most impactful ones, and share the findings with marketing, product, and customer service teams.
Wrapping Up: Improve Funnel Conversions With Unified Data + Lead Scoring
Lead scoring, when fueled by unified data, is a powerful tool for increasing sales and revenue. Unified data provides businesses with high-quality, up-to-date information about prospects and customers, enabling them to identify leads with strong purchasing intent. By leveraging lead scoring and unified data, businesses can optimize their funnels, convert leads more effectively, and accelerate revenue growth.