Inbound Marketing With Progressive Profiling - Key Tips

04/03/2013 3 min read Written by Lynton

You have great content. You work hard to create useful, valuable content. Your leads consistently return and reconvert on multiple landing pages, yet you still only have their names and emails in the database. And, your VP of Sales continues to push for more qualified leads to meet quota. Sound familiar? 

As marketers, we have an obligation to deliver quality leads to our sales teams and support quotas, but we also know that requesting too much information on forms (especially on TOFU or top of the funnel offers) will reduce conversion rates and turn away valuable prospects.

In fact, that's why we specifically set up our middle of the funnel (MOFU) and bottom of the funnel (BOFU) landing pages to gather more qualifying information. In reality though, leads don't always follow the classic funnel, and that doesn't necessarily make them less qualified than the leads who are nurtured down the more traditional path. So, how do you find the right balance?

If you are serious about aligning  your marketing and lead generation efforts with sales goals, then you should consider investing in marketing automation software, like HubSpot, with built-in progressive profiling tools. Progressive profiling allows you to gradually profile leads with dynamic forms. This sounds complex but it simply means you're able to keep your forms short and collect new information each time a lead reconverts. The technology behind that, of course, is pretty sophisticated but HubSpot's technology takes care of that. 

Here's an example of a dynamic form sequence:

The Form Fields for the first time a visitor converts to a lead: 

  • First Name

  • Last Name

  • Email

  • Company Name

Pretty simple. Let's not ask for too much. But let's ask for just enough.  

So, that's good. We have a lead. The lead devours our content - yes it's that good. And the lead decides to come back and learn more about our product or service. The form fields for this second conversion might look like this:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Job Title
  • Number of Employees
  • Industry
  • Primary Challenge

A third conversion event might include the following form fields:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Current Solutions
  • Short Term Goals
  • Phone Number 

The more useful information you obtain about a reconverted lead the more easily you'll be able to determine how qualified this lead is. 

Progressive profiling is a valuable marketing tool for qualifying leads without adding unnecessary barriers like lengthy forms and redundant fields, to conversion. Spend the time to map out a strategy for your forms and your visitors will enjoy a more pleasant experience on your site, and your sales team will recognize your marketing team for their efforts.


Photo Credit: ruurmo via Compfight cc
By: Lynton

Lynton is a HubSpot Elite Partner that provides certified knowledge and tools to grow your business through integrated inbound marketing, including lead generation strategies, website designs and development, and CRM integrations.

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