What is a Marketing Qualified Lead?

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead that has been identified and vetted as having a higher likelihood of becoming a paying customer by your marketing team. MQLs are typically generated through inbound marketing activities, such as website visitors filling out a form to download an eBook or attend a webinar. Once a lead becomes an MQL, they are then handed off to the sales team to further qualify as a sales qualified lead (SQL).

How to generate Marketing Qualified Leads

There are a number of ways to generate MQLs, but most come from inbound marketing activities. Inbound marketing is all about creating valuable content that pulls people towards your company and product, rather than pushing your message out to them. Some common inbound marketing activities that generate MQLs include:

• Content marketing: Creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
• Search engine optimization: Earning traffic through organic search engine results.
• Social media marketing: Acquiring traffic and attention through social media sites.
• lead generation: The process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company's product or service.

The benefits of having Marketing Qualified Leads

There are a number of benefits of having MQLs, both for your marketing team and your sales team. For your marketing team, MQLs represent a group of leads that are more likely to convert, which means they can be more selective in their lead nurturing and outreach efforts. This can lead to increased conversion rates and higher quality leads. For your sales team, MQLs are a group of leads that have already been vetted by your marketing team and are more likely to close, which means they can focus their time and energy on selling, rather than prospecting.

How to nurture Marketing Qualified Leads

Once you have generated MQLs, it's important to nurture them to ensure they remain interested in your product or service and continue down the funnel. There are a number of ways to nurture MQLs, but some common methods include:

• Lead scoring: Assigning a numeric value to each lead based on their likelihood of becoming a paying customer, which helps you prioritize your outreach efforts.
• Lead nurturing: The process of developing relationships with leads through personalized communications to help them move down the funnel.
• Marketing automation: The use of software to automate marketing activities, such as email marketing, social media, and lead nurturing.

The difference between Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads

MQLs are leads that have been identified and vetted as having a higher likelihood of becoming a paying customer by your marketing team. SQLs are leads that have been identified and vetted as having a higher likelihood of becoming a paying customer by your sales team. The main difference between MQLs and SQLs is that MQLs are generated by marketing activities, while SQLs are generated by sales activities. MQLs typically require more nurturing than SQLs before they are ready to buy, but they are also more likely to close than SQLs.

How to measure the success of your Marketing Qualified Lead strategy

There are a number of ways to measure the success of your MQL strategy, but some common metrics include:

• Conversion rate: The percentage of MQLs that convert into SQLs.
• Lead-to-customer rate: The percentage of MQLs that convert into paying customers.
• Cost per lead: The amount of money you spend to generate each MQL.
• ROI: The return on investment of your MQL strategy.