PQLs are not something you see every day in your marketing. However, if you’re new to this term and wondering what PQL is exactly and how it can benefit your business, we’re here to tell you!
What is a Product Qualified Lead (PQL)?
A PQL is a customer who has demonstrated an interest in purchasing a product or service from your company at some point in the past. They have never purchased anything online before and never engaged with any type of digital marketing before—they don’t even know what a lead magnet is yet!
But this customer has shown some form of interest by either visiting one of your web pages multiple times (and possibly reading through one or more of your blog posts), signing up for an e-mail newsletter (which means they like being on our lists), or spending time interacting with you on social media channels (all these things indicate that they like you). If we know anything about these people already, it’s that they are interested in buying something from us: hence the name “qualified.”
PQL vs. MQL
If you’re new to the world of product quality lead generation, the term “qualified leads” may sound like a foreign concept. But don’t worry—we’ll discuss what qualified lead generation is and how it can help improve your business.
PQL stands for Product Qualified Lead. It refers to leads who have already expressed some interest in your product by downloading your whitepaper, watching your demo video, or signing up for a free trial. These are leads who have already done their research on the product and are looking for more information before making a purchase decision.
MQL stands for Marketing Qualified Lead. It refers to leads who have never heard of your company or its products before, but you’re trying to convert them into paying customers through sales or marketing outreach efforts such as cold calling or email campaigns.
How to Identify Product Qualified Leads?
There are lots of ways to identify a product-qualified lead. The most common are:
- Your CRM, which will provide you with information about the user’s contact history, location, and interests.
- Your website, which can tell you what they’ve been looking at, how long they’ve been on-site, and where they came from.
- Marketing automation tools such as HubSpot or SalesforceIQ can provide a lot more in-depth analysis of who your leads are and what their needs may be. They also give you an idea of how likely it is that each lead will convert into a sale based on their behavior over time (i.e., if someone spends three minutes watching a video about widgets on your website but never makes any further progress towards becoming a customer).
Here are some tips for improving your PQL rate:
1. Utilize your CRM
Your CRM is a powerful tool for identifying, engaging and qualifying PQLs. You can use your CRM to find out who has made inquiries about products or services that are relevant to your business. Once you have identified these individuals, you can contact them via email or phone call with relevant information and special offers. The more people engage with your brand – either through word-of-mouth or social media – the better it will be for generating sales leads in the future.
2. Use a Landing Page When Collecting PQLs
The first step in the PQL process is capturing their information so that you can follow up with them later on in order to convert them into paying customers. The easiest way to do this is by creating a landing page where people can provide their information in exchange for access to a free product or service that interests them (e.g., a free whitepaper).
3. Optimize Website Content for Search Engines
The first step to optimizing your website for search engines is to make sure that it’s well-structured and easily navigable from the home page. This means that you should be able to find what you’re looking for within three clicks (or less) from the homepage. It also means that you shouldn’t have too many sub-pages or links that are superfluous or unnecessary — clutter makes it difficult for visitors to find exactly what they’re looking for, which hurts your rankings.
Make sure every page on your website has unique content. If someone visits two different pages from Google, they should see a completely different copy on both pages — this makes them seem like separate entities rather than duplicates of each other.
4. Create an Effective Call-to-action (CTA) Button
A call-to-action button is essential to any landing page, but it’s particularly important on PQL pages. The goal of the landing page is to get people to contact you, so it should be clear how they can do that. Use a button that clearly tells people what they will get from contacting you and where to click: “Contact Us” or “Get a Quote” are good examples.
5. Build a Lead-Scoring Model
The best way to achieve this is by building a lead-scoring model. This model will score leads based on their behavior and interactions with your company, which will help determine who are the most engaged and qualified leads. The scoring model should include factors like:
- Lead quality: The prospect’s profile, industry, and company data should be used as criteria in order to qualify them as having a high potential for being bought.
- Transaction history: If they have already made purchases through your website or app, they are likely to convert again in the future, so they should be considered high-quality leads.
- Geography: If a prospect from another country has shown interest in your product offerings, then it’s more likely that they’re serious about buying from you rather than just browsing.
6. Create Strong Content and Communication
Creating high-quality content that supports your product or service is not only a great way to nurture leads, but it can also help build trust.
So what makes good content? It’s a combination of great information and a great presentation. Here are some tips to help you make sure your content marketing efforts are successful:
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Include Images
Images increase engagement by 80% and can help convey complex ideas in a simple way. They also help people remember the information they read by giving them something visual to anchor their learning on (such as a product or service).
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Use Videos
Videos have become increasingly popular on social media, with Facebook users watching 100 million hours of video every day. Videos are also very effective in conveying information quickly and engaging viewers’ emotions, which helps drive action.
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Write Articles
Blogging is one of the best ways to attract potential customers because it creates an ongoing dialogue with readers that helps establish trust and credibility.
7. Offer Multiple Channels for Customers to Subscribe To Your Newsletter
If someone is interested enough in your product or service to take the time to fill out a form, they probably want updates on news and events related to it. Offer them a number of options for subscribing — from email newsletters to social media platforms — so that they can choose how often they hear from you.
In addition, consider offering different types of content when sending newsletters. For example, if you sell software solutions for small businesses, include articles about recent industry trends and tips for running an efficient business. This will help build trust between yourself and the customer by providing helpful content on topics that are relevant to him or her.
Use automation tools like Smart Campaigns or HubSpot’s marketing automation software so that when someone clicks on one of these links, he gets taken directly into your lead nurturing process without having to fill out another form.
8. Engage with your Customers in Their Desired Channel
While you may have a preferred channel for communicating with your customers, there are several other ways to reach them. In addition to the more traditional methods of communication like email and phone calls, you should consider using text messaging, chatbots, voice assistants, and video.
There are many advantages to engaging in the channels that buyers are already using. For example:
- Texting is becoming the preferred method of communication among younger generations; thus, if you want to reach this demographic, then it’s important that your brand start embracing it now!
- Chatbots can answer questions or conduct transactions without human intervention – perfect if you don’t have time or resources for customer service employees (or just don’t have any!).
9. Seize the Opportunity of New Channels like SMS and Chatbot
With the help of SMS and chatbot, you can send important information to your customers. This will help you engage with them more frequently. You can use this feature to gather feedback from your customers and follow up with them in case they have any queries or doubts regarding the product or services that you offer.
These features allow you to send bulk SMS notifications about the latest offers on products, new payment methods, etc., which would be useful for increasing sales and improving customer retention rates by keeping them updated about new products/services offered by you.
10. Follow up With Customers after Their Initial Purchase and Encourage Them to Leave Reviews on Third-Party Sites
This is a great way to collect positive reviews that will help you stand out from the competition. A good way to do this is by sending out a simple email asking if they enjoyed the product and would be willing to review it on Amazon, Google, or some other popular review site. You can also encourage them to share their experience with friends and family on social media.
Try running a giveaway in exchange for reviews, or offer a discount code for new customers who leave feedback on your website. You can also offer special promotions for those who leave positive reviews on Amazon, such as free shipping or discounts on future purchases.
Conclusion
PQLs are a key component of lead generation and sales. They provide a more accurate profile of your ideal customer, which can help you build better-targeted campaigns and ultimately close more deals. The key is to make sure that your PQLs are up-to-date, relevant, and complete so that your sales team has all the resources they need when it comes time for them to start closing on potential customers.