A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead that has indicated interest in your business and is ready to progress further down your sales funnel. These are leads that have responded to and have expressed interest in buying your product or services. They have performed actions such as downloading an ebook, signing up to a webinar, or repeatedly visit a website.
The definitions of a marketing qualified lead will vary by business. These are unique identifiers that signal to a business that a lead has reacted to a marketing message and qualify as a prospective customer in the near future.
For example, a B2B company may qualify leads based on the number of employees working at a business, the amount of revenue per year, or a specific industry.
Why is a Marketing Qualified Lead Important?
MQLs have shown explicit interest in buying. They’re open to the idea of a sale and are willing to follow the marketing funnel of your conversion focused journey.
However, having an MQL does not necessarily mean that you are going to generate a sale. Throughout their journey along your funnel, there may be moments when your MQLs are not the right fit for your business. If this is the case, you or your marketing team should not waste time, effort, or money pursuing these leads.
To improve the impact of your marketing message, thereby improving the quality of your marketing qualified lead, evaluate “fitness” using a marketing attribution model.