MQL in marketing: how to find and attract the best customers

Lead generation and lead management are critical for business: without a constant flow of potential customers, a company cannot grow and develop. The involvement of MQLs is relevant for business because it helps to focus efforts on better contacts and increase conversion. In this article, we will look at what MQL is, how it differs from SQL, how to identify it, what tools generate MQL, how to warm them up to the sales stage, and what mistakes to avoid.

What is MQL and how it differs from SQL

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a potential customer who has been initially qualified by marketing. He has shown sufficient interest in the offer, for example, by subscribing to a newsletter or downloading useful material. But they are not yet ready to buy directly. MQLs are often described as «engaged leads» – they match the profile of the target audience and show active interest, but need further warming up.

A SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is a lead that has passed the marketing checklist and is ready to talk to the sales team. They have demonstrated a clear interest and a high probability of purchase. These customers actively communicate with salespeople, inquire about prices, and can arrange a meeting or product testing. Unlike MQLs, SQLs are considered «promising» or «hot» leads and are at the lower stages of the funnel.

What is the difference between MQL and SQL?

MQL and SQL are simply different stages of the same process. However, the difference is determined not only by the level of interest but also by behavioral features: MQL requires further «warming up», while SQL is ready for sale. It’s not enough to ignore SQL or MQL: these categories form a single path for a potential customer to buy.

Let’s look at the specific actions of the marketing and sales departments.

How to define MQL

To distinguish MQLs from general leads, marketers set criteria and signals of readiness. The signs of MQL include, for example:

• repeated or long visits to the website, especially pages with product descriptions, prices, reviews;
• Filling out lead forms: contact forms, newsletter subscriptions, requests for a callback or consultation;
• activity in chats and social networks: comments, likes, messages in live chats or social networks of the company;
• downloading useful content: e-mail books, checklists, price lists, participation in webinars and free courses.

Lead scoring systems (BANT, GPCT, etc.) allow assigning points for behavior and customer data to automatically distinguish MQLs. At the same time, each business forms its own rules: some consider MQLs to be only those who have subscribed to the newsletter and opened several emails, while others consider them to be those who have returned to the website or visited the shopping cart several times. It’s important to synchronize the criteria with the sales team, i.e., to agree on what actions a lead takes to become an MQL.

For example, a SaaS company decided that an MQL is anyone who has visited the pricing page at least three times and left their email in the form. When a user has completed these actions within a month, he or she is marked as an MQL and is included in a nurture marketing campaign.

What helps to attract more MQLs

The first step is to attract potential customers and collect their contacts. Different inbound methods are used for this purpose. Let us consider the most effective tools:

Content marketing and SEO

Creation of useful articles, guides, videos, case studies, and their SEO optimization allow you to attract an audience from search and social networks. Good articles or infographics can attract MQLs if they contain answers to frequently asked questions of the target audience.

Lead magnets

Free «bait» for leads: checklists, templates, webinars, product demos, technical audits, etc. For example, an offer to download a free SEO audit of your website requires you to leave an e-mail and generates an MQL list. Thus, we see that lead magnet remains an effective tool for attracting potential customers.

Webinars and online events

Organization of free seminars, master classes, or live broadcasts with experts. Participants register and leave contacts – these are ready-made MQLs. For example, an IT company can hold a series of webinars on new technologies, collecting subscribers and then sending them in-depth materials. Such events attract a relevant audience and generate hot leads.

Social media and targeted advertising

Active work on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc., including promotional campaigns, allows you to find interested users. For example, targeted advertising with the offer «download a free guide to using…» leads to a landing page with a form, and people who fill it out will become MQLs.

Email newsletters and retargeting

Setting up regular emails with useful information keeps you in touch with your subscribers. Remarketing campaigns also catch up with website visitors who have not filled out the form by showing them ads. Let’s imagine a marketing agency launches a campaign «5 days of free marketing webinars». In each registration form, participants indicate their e-mail and field of activity. The collected contacts immediately receive a series of educational emails and become MQLs – they are the focus of the marketing department.

How to convert MQL to SQL

Once the leads are identified as MQLs, the next task is to warm them up to purchase and convert them to SQL status. To do this, multichannel nurture campaigns and a personalized approach are used.

1. Lead scoring and segmentation program.

Apply points based on lead actions, such as opening an email, clicking on a link, viewing a price list, etc., and distribute them according to the level of readiness. It’s important to have clear criteria: what hot SQL means for your business and what else is MQL. Both marketing and sales should know these rules.

2. Personalized nurture campaigns.

Set up an automated series of emails or notifications that provide useful content and special offers to each individual. It is important to take into account the characteristics of each segment of the target audience. For example, after a user has downloaded a product brochure, send him or her customer cases, answers to frequently asked questions, and demo videos. As a rule, MQLs expect new information and attractive offers, so you should send them relevant materials frequently. Over time, when the lead shows more interest (requests a price list or books a consultation), it is transferred to the SQL.

3. Marketing automation.

Use CRM or marketing platforms for triggers. For example, if a contact has opened the last three emails and visited the page with price offers, the system can automatically transfer them to SQL status and notify the sales team. Or send them an invitation to a personalized consultation.

4. Additional contact.

At this stage, one-to-one contact is important. Calls, personal letters, or even invitations to a meeting. The sales team should be quick to respond to requests from ready-made leads and answer their questions. Successful SQL qualification also involves clarifying the timeframe of the purchase and building a business case for the purchase.

5. Analysis and optimization.

Constantly track the effectiveness of your nurture campaigns: which emails are opened, how many MQLs convert to SQLs, and which channels the best MQLs come from. This data will help you adjust your content and strategy to increase conversions.

Thus, the path of MQLs to SQLs goes through targeted lead nurturing. And, without automated emails and valuable content, the hope that every lead will buy right away is futile. Instead, you need to build a series of communications that maintain interest, remove doubts, and gradually prepare the lead for a conversation with the seller.

Common mistakes when working with MQL

Even good strategies can fail due to organizational mistakes.

• Focus on quantity, not quality. If marketing overwhelms the sales department with a large number of unqualified leads, conversion rates drop. The fact is that not all leads are ready to buy, but many sales teams spend time on ineffective contacts, missing good ones. The lack of lead scoring and clear MQL criteria leads to the fact that «good» leads are lost among irrelevant ones.
• Premature transfer of leads to sales. If MQL is transferred immediately, without sufficient warming up, the manager may scare the client or waste time. For example, if a contact has just filled out a short form but hasn’t interacted much, transferring it to the sales department without a nurture campaign is unlikely to lead to a deal. SQLs should be really ready for a conversation: rushing to hand over a lead when they’ve just read a blog or liked a post on Facebook is a common mistake.
• Lack of a process for maintaining interest. It’s utopian to hope that every lead you receive will buy quickly. Marketers should set up automated email series and useful content to gradually warm up the MQL. Otherwise, many potential customers will simply go to competitors or lose interest in the service or product altogether.
• Poor alignment of marketing and sales. If there is no clear contact between the departments, leads can «fall out». Marketing sometimes passes on «low-quality» contacts, and sales employees, unfortunately, do not provide feedback. Lack of common understanding of MQL/SQL criteria or lack of regular meetings leads to misunderstandings.
• Ignoring analytics. Without analyzing channels and funnels, it is difficult to understand where to look for «good» leads. If you do not track where MQLs come from and how they are converted, you can waste budgets.

These mistakes prove that it is important not only to generate MQLs but also to set up clear processes for their analysis and transfer. Only a systematic and coordinated approach allows businesses to find and retain their most valuable customers.

Pavlo Vlasiuk

CMO

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