Lead Scoring: Recognize your full potential

Collect more donations through clever scaling

How would it affect your motivation if you knew that each of your fundraising efforts would most likely be successful? In plain language this would mean: You would no longer waste resources on unnecessary efforts and efforts. Sounds impossible? Not quite! Lead scoring is a way of measuring the interest of (potential) donors in your organisation and thus predicting the probability of their willingness to donate.

An official definition of modern marketing measures does not (yet) exist. A good description of the measure, however, is the following:

Lead scoring is a method of evaluating leads based on profile information and interactions with the content of an organization. The lead score is an expression of the conversion probability of a lead.

What does that mean?
Lead scoring is part of lead management. Lead management can be divided into four phases. In the first and second phase, the aim is to identify potential donors as such and convert them into contacts, i.e. leads. Subsequently, relevant content is made available to the leads at the right time via the right channel in order to steadily increase their interest in the organisation. With the help of Marketing Automation, information about the contacts is continuously gained. This information is used to evaluate the leads in terms of their interest and involvement. Based on the resulting lead score, the probability of a conversion of a lead, i.e. a donation, can be determined. If the lead score of a contact exceeds a certain threshold value, it is qualified as a donor lead and forwarded to the fundraising team, for example.

1. Phase: Lead Generation
2. Phase: Lead Nurturing
3. Phase: Lead Qualification
4. Phase: Lead Routing

Lead Generation
In this phase new contacts are collected. This can be done, for example, by subscribing to a newsletter or signing a petition. In the best case, the leads become donors* already in this phase through selected measures.

Lead Nurturing
In the second phase the contacts are “fed”. High-quality and personalised content increases interest and willingness to interact and donate. This phase forms an important basis for lead scoring, because only if the contacts interact can they be evaluated appropriately.

Lead Qualification
During this phase, the leads are further developed and constantly reassessed. This happens until they are so highly valued that they are considered to be donor leads. In the future concrete measures can be taken to convert the contacts to donors.

Lead Routing
Lead routing defines which team will take over the contact after the threshold is exceeded. In a non-profit context, this could be the fundraising team, for example.

Why is lead scoring so important?
Lead scoring is a way of saying how likely it is that leads will convert to donors. Leads can be prioritised, allowing both human and financial resources to be used more efficiently and effectively. Especially in a non-profit context, this also means that donations can be used more efficiently. Since only leads with a high probability of conversion need to be contacted, the use of a well-founded lead scoring model also leads to a higher conversion rate and higher donation income.

Which information influences the scoring?
Contact information and data about the online behaviour of the users, for example the number of website visits and their duration, are important for determining the scoring.

What are the difficulties of lead scoring?
Different types of data can be used for lead scoring models. Whether the lead score is meaningful and really allows a statement about the potential of the leads depends on the information selected and its weighting. However, choosing the right information and weighting it appropriately is a major challenge. Defining the threshold value also requires skill – because it determines resource utilization and conversion rate. Experience is the key to success here.

To ensure that you can be completely carefree when it comes to data protection, it is important that users are always informed what their data is being used for. It is necessary that they give their consent.

What role does marketing automation play?
Marketing automation makes it possible to supply the leads with different content. Which contact gets which content depends on their online behavior. In addition, with the help of Marketing Automation, user data is continuously collected and used for evaluation. Thus, the lead score is always up to date. A further advantage is that trigger-based processes can be used to initiate the immediate playout of the correct measure.

Conclusion
Lead scoring is a fundraising instrument for evaluating and prioritising leads. This allows to increase donation income and use resources more effectively. Experience is needed to correctly weight the factors that go into a lead-scoring model. By working with many large and small organisations, we have a wealth of experience at our disposal. We would be happy to draw on this knowledge for you and help you with the assessment. Contact us.