One of the best things you can do for your online business is set up CRM lead scoring automation to segment your highest value or most engaged subscribers. In this post, I’m going to show you exactly how I do this with Infusionsoft (Keap).
This is a bit off topic since my primary focus is Meta ads. But there is relevance for advertisers. At the bottom, I’ll show you how you could leverage this for your advertising.
I’ve used Infusionsoft for a decade now, and it’s mostly been a like/hate relationship. But one of the ways I’ve been able to take it to the next level is with lead scoring.
In this post, I’ll lay out the following:
- The Basics of Lead Scoring
- The Problem
- My Lead Scoring Strategy
- Set Up Tags
- Create the Automation
- Lead Scoring Rules
- How to Leverage for Meta Ads
Let’s get to it…
The Basics of Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is all about segmenting the list that you have to help highlight those who are most valuable. This can allow you to make sure that this group gets the proper focus while spending less time on those who aren’t as warm.
You can create a lead scoring system in Infusionsoft so that when your leads perform specific tasks, their score is updated. This is displayed visually in their contact as a series of flames.
You define what actions contribute to this score by creating a set of rules that can be simple or complex.
What you do with these scores is up to you. Maybe it triggers a phone call from a sales rep. Or it sends them into a new campaign. Or they become eligible to receive the latest email broadcast.
How I use lead scoring is a bit different. It helps me be more efficient with my email broadcasts so that I send more emails to those who are clicking them and fewer to those who aren’t.
The Problem
As mentioned, I may use lead scoring differently than the typical lead-to-salesperson pipeline. The vast majority of emails that I send are value-based. In most cases, I send broadcasts to share my latest blog post or video post. It’s a way of driving traffic without relying entirely on Google, social, or ads to do that work for me.
Of course, I do work in sales pitches as well. That may happen at the bottom half of an email that otherwise promoted my latest post. Or it could be a dedicated sales email that happens every now and then. But I want to be sure that those who get it are those who are most likely to act.
Truthfully, I didn’t originally care about this. If you were on my list and I had something to promote, I blasted everyone who could receive that email. My opt-out rate was always within solid ranges, so it wasn’t anything I was all that concerned about.
But email deliverability has changed, and strategies should, too. Gmail and other email services take signals to determine whether you go into the main folder, a marketing folder, or even spam. You want to generate a high percentage of positive response.
There’s also a matter of costs. Infusionsoft/Keap started doing something last year that created a cap on the number of emails you could send every month — both the raw number of emails delivered and average number of emails received per person. If you go over those caps, you start paying handsomely.
What’s funny is that Infusionsoft’s new model is really what inspired this change. I wanted to maximize my email broadcasts without going over these caps. So, I’m now paying much closer attention to how I send emails, who I send emails to, and when I send them.
Of course, the easiest way to never get complaints and unsubscribes is to never send emails. That’s not a good approach either. We want to find a balance.
While I’m generally sensitive about emailing too often, you can’t forget that some people actually want to receive emails — and potentially lots of them, as long as those emails provide value. These people are easy traffic if I give them the opportunity.
So, I want to isolate those people who are most engaged with my emails — in particular, those who click links to my website from my emails. I need a system that places value primarily on recency and updates in real-time.
My Lead Scoring Strategy
I implemented this strategy to help me limit emails sent to those who aren’t clicking while maximizing emails to those who consistently click. That engagement is a signal that volume isn’t too much. If they stop clicking because it becomes too much, they’ll begin to receive fewer emails.
This balance is important because I want to drive traffic to my website. That’s the point of most of the emails I send. About 90% are helpful with the only intent to drive people to a new blog post or video post. That way, subscribers are more open to considering a sales pitch when it happens.
Lead scoring for this strategy will be based on how recently someone has clicked a link.
- 5 Flames: Prior 7 days
- 4 Flames: Prior 8-14 days
- 3 Flames: Prior 15-28 days
- 2 Flames: Prior 29-42 days
- 1 Flame: Beyond 42 days
There are several opportunities for sending emails during a given week. Some people subscribe to receiving daily emails from me whenever I publish a new video post. But otherwise, broadcasts look like this…
Tuesday: New blog post (all newsletter subscribers)
Wednesday: Recent video post to promote daily subscriptions (5 Flame leads)
Thursday: New blog post (2+ flame newsletter subscribers)
Friday: Week of video recaps (3+ flame newsletter subscribers)
I’m also reserving Mondays for the occasional sales pitch. In most cases, I will limit this audience using something in the 2-5 flame scale. What I use will depend on the promotion, the email, and my recent frequency of broadcasts.
This approach is more ideal than something I’m strictly following right now. The reason is that I just started this system a little over a month ago, so these different scores are still filling out. But I’ve already started seeing the impact.
Here are some basic numbers for February…
1. Click Rate: 3.9% (up from 2.4% in 2023)
Going back to the beginning of 2017, there are only three months when I had an equal or better click rate. Each time that happened, I sent far fewer emails.
Once again, it’s a balance. If my only focus was click rate, I’d simply send fewer emails. When I send only to people who are most engaged, my click rate tends to be 10-20% — and sometimes higher. But that also limits the potential volume of clicks.
2. Opt-out Rate: .06% (down from .07% in 2023)
As far as I can tell based on a few Google searches, this is an insanely good opt-out rate. The expectation will differ by industry, but it seems a “good” opt-out rate tends to be at least twice as high as what I’m getting.
While my drop from .07% in 2023 to .06% in February may seem insignificant, that 2023 number was also the lowest opt-out rate I’ve had for a year.
Again, low opt-out rates could be possible while sending fewer emails. But the goal is to send more traffic than I’ve sent before.
This approach is finding that happy medium. I’ve increased the number of average email clicks per day from 202 in 2023 to 294 per day in February, and this number is still calculating. The last time I accomplished about that much across an entire year was 2020, but I sent about 60% more emails that year to accomplish it.
Prior to that, my emails generated about 16% more clicks per day in 2018, but I had to send an insane 145% more emails to get there. The hope is that this strategy will eventually allow me to get to that number of clicks while continuing to limit the number of emails sent.
Set Up Tags
Now let’s walk through how this is accomplished. If you use Infusionsoft, it starts with tags.
The tags you create will be critical for both the Automation (formerly called a Campaign) and the Lead Scoring Rules. The exact tags you use are up to you, so feel free to customize them however you want.
Here are the tags that you’ll need if you replicate the steps taken in this post:
- Active Clicks – Start
- Email Management -> 5 Flames
- Email Management -> 4 Flames
- Email Management -> 3 Flames
- Email Management -> 2 Flames
- Email Management -> 1 Flame
Remember that my purpose for using lead scoring in this case is to segment those who are most engaged with my emails. More specifically, I want to highlight those who click links.
To accomplish this, I have made it a habit of adding the “Active Clicks – Start” tag to any important link that I include in my email broadcasts.
The rest of the tags will be used within the Automation and Rules.
Create the Automation
Create a new Automation that starts with a tag, followed by a sequence, and finishing with another tag. It looks like this…
The Start tag is what begins the Automation.
The sequence itself will look a bit complicated, but let me explain what’s happening…
Once someone clicks a link, they are added to this automation via the Start tag. Then this sequence begins.
First, the “Email Engagement -> 5 Flames” tag is added.
As long as someone has clicked a link during the past seven days, we want them to have 5 flames.
Next, we remove five different tags.
Anyone who starts the campaign will have the Start tag. That needs to be removed once they enter so that if this person clicks again, they restart.
We also want to remove the tags for 4, 3, 2, and 1 flames if this lead has them. Because once they clicked a recent link, they should now have 5 flames.
Once they’re given the 5 flames tag, a 7-day timer starts.
If they click again during that 7 days, they start over. If they don’t, they move to the next step.
It looks just like the prior step, but the tags will be different.
Now we add the 4 flames tag.
Since you can only move to 4 flames from 5 flames, you’ll only need to remove the 5 flames tag here.
Moving from 4 flames to 3 flames will work mostly the same.
Add the 3 flames tag.
And remove the 4 flames tag.
I extend this timer to 14 days, but feel free to do what works for you.
You probably have a hang of it now, but here’s what the next part looks like…
Add the 2 flames tag.
Remove the 3 flames tag.
And we’re again going to set a 14-day timer. If they click during that timer, they’ll start over with 5 flames. Otherwise, they’ll move to the final stage of this sequence.
Add the 1 flame tag.
And remove the 2 flame tag.
There’s no timer this time. If the lead never clicks a link again, they’ll retain the 1 flame tag. Here’s what that entire sequence looks like…
The automation then completes with the start tag.
But it won’t restart unless a link is clicked again.
Lead Scoring Rules
To set lead scoring rules, click on the Settings link in the CRM menu.
This scoring system is based on 5 points equalling 5 flames, but customize this for your needs.
You can create lead scoring rules based on a contact’s activity or tags.
We’re going to do it based on tags. Then go through and create five rules, one for each level. In each case, it’s based on the contact’s tag containing a specific lead score.
There’s no need to have any of these rules expire because the related tag will be removed, when necessary, based on automation.
How to Leverage for Meta Ads
Micro targeting may not be as common as going broad these days, but there might still be times when using small custom audiences may be helpful. While these small audiences typically cost more, it can be worthwhile if it’s the right audience.
And that’s the entire purpose of this exercise — isolating the right audience.
So, feel free to experiment with creating custom audiences based on these lead scores.
I’ve actually found some initial success targeting these small groups to promote blog posts. If you’ve followed me for long, you know it’s been a years-long battle to find ways to drive high-quality traffic with ads. This may be the most effective since ads only reach those who not only receive my emails (a positive signal), but they actively click links in those emails (a second signal).
Of course, the limited audience also means that creative will fatigue quickly. So, I’ve created a system where I promote the latest blog post (excluding those who already read it) and update it every few days with a new blog post.
The result is that this has been more effective than optimizing for high-quality custom events like time spent and scroll depth. The volume here is limited, but the quality is much higher.
Even if you don’t use these custom audiences for direct targeting, they may be decent options for audience suggestions when using Advantage+ Audience…
Or you could use them as the source of a lookalike audience, if that’s something you use.
Watch Video
I recorded a video walk through on this as well. You can watch it below…
Your Turn
Even if you don’t use Infusionsoft/Keap as your CRM, I hope that this post inspires ideas that you can apply to your email marketing and Meta advertising.
If you have any questions about how these instructions, let me know below.
