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SEO Hacker’s Sean Si shares 9 tips on lead scoring & email automation

Chris Baldwin

May 25, 2021

SEO Hacker’s Sean Si shares 9 tips on lead scoring & email automation Featured Image
Chris Baldwin

May 25, 2021

Last year, Insider’s RESHAPE virtual summit brought business professionals from all over the world to exchange ideas on how to adapt to the new normal and RESHAPE the future. 

One of those professionals was Sean Si, the founder and CEO of the digital marketing agency SEO Hacker, host of the podcast LeadershipStack, and CEO and co-founder of Qeryz. During his presentation, Sean provided invaluable tips on lead scoring and email workflows that he used to achieve 30-60% open rates and click-through rates (CTRs) of over 12%.

In this post, we outline those tips so you can put them into practice and maximize your email marketing results. 

Table of Contents

  1. Lead Scoring

  2. Email Workflows

  3. Don’t miss out

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is when you assign points to potential customers based on their likelihood to buy from you. According to Sean, a great lead scoring system for an email list is paramount. Here are a few tips on how you can implement one for your own list:

  1. Start everyone off with the same lead score – Anyone who subscribes to your list should start with the same lead score. From there, subscribers increase or decrease their individual lead score based on their engagement with your emails and products. For reference, everyone on Sean’s email list starts at 30 points. 
  2. Deduct points For disengagement – When someone on the email list does not open emails or does not engage with content, deduct points from their lead score.
  3. Increase points for engagement – Opening your email, clicks through to the blog post you linked in an email, or downloads of your content should all increase lead scores.
  4. Point increases for an action should correspond with level of engagement – Downloading a white paper shows much more engagement than just opening an email, so your lead scoring should represent that. Sean gives 1 point for opening an email, 3 points for clicking on a link in the email, and 5 points for downloading something like a white paper.
  5. Segment those with high lead scores – Tag those that are most engaged with your products. Anyone with 60 points or higher on Sean’s email list is a “VIP”, and those with 100 points or higher are “Very Hot Leads.”
  6. Prune the disengaged – If a subscriber is not engaged with your content, it’s not likely that they will purchase anything from you. When a subscriber is under 30 points for an extended period of time, Sean takes them off his email list.

Email Workflows

If you have done any email marketing work, you’ve likely used an automated email workflow, which is a series of emails that are sent out to your subscribers. However, you may not be using them in a way that’s going to get you the best results. Here are some tips from Sean on how he uses email workflows for different segments of his subscriber base:

  1. Send welcome emails to new subscribers – Let your potential customers get to know you and your brand. Whenever someone subscribes to Sean’s list, he sends out an automated series of 5 emails that do just that.
  2. Provide value first – In your first emails, keep the selling to a minimum and provide value. Through his welcome emails and the emails that follow, Sean sends them segments of his eBook, full webinars, in-depth blog posts, and more. This establishes reciprocity, allows his engaged subscribers to build up lead scores, and lets Sean see which subscribers are truly engaged with his brand. 
  3. Sell to your VIP customers – Remember those lead score segments? Any subscribers that have a lead score of 60 or greater on Sean’s list trigger a special automated email workflow, where roughly 50% of the emails are focused on selling his products and services. The results speak for themselves, as these are the emails that achieve the 30-60% open rates and 12% CTRs mentioned at the beginning of this post.

In summary, this combination of lead scoring and email workflows can help you nurture new email subscribers, and sell to the ones that are most likely to purchase. 

Don’t miss out

Speakers like Sean Si will be providing valuable information like this during this year’s RESHAPE 2021 Virtual Summit. Join 8,000 other attendees who will listen to business professionals from all over the world, including… 

  • Gillian Tans –  Chairwoman at Booking.com
  • Peter Larko – Director of Marketing at Mercedes-Benz
  • Sir Martin Sorrell – Executive Chairman at S4 Capital
  • Hanneke Faber –  President of Global Foods & Refreshment at Unilever
  • Bryan Koh – Div. Vice President E-Commerce and Distribution at Singapore Airlines
  • Carolina Garcia – Global Digitalization Manager at IKEA
  • Federico Barallobre – Chief Marketing Officer at MODO
  • Andi Taufan Garuda Putra – Founder & CEO of Amartha

… and many more. 

Learn more and save your spot for this hotly anticipated event on reshapesummit.com.

Written by

Chris Baldwin

Chris is an award-winning marketing leader with more than 12 years experience in the marketing and customer experience space. As VP of Marketing, Brand and Communications, Chris is responsible for Insider's brand strategy, and overseeing the global marketing team. Fun fact: Chris recently attended a clay-making workshop to make his own coffee cup…let's just say that he shouldn't give up the day job just yet.