Top 5 Lead Source Best Practices

Demand Generation


Lead source is a critical piece of data you need in order to assess the value of your marketing campaigns and part of proper lead management.  By putting in place best practices, you will be sure you can measure the value of your marketing campaign efforts while also communicating with sales the important information about a lead.

  1. Avoid lead source clutter. When you first implement, your default lead sources are Web, Phone Inquiry, Partner Referral, Purchased List and Other.  While these may not perfectly describe your lead sources, try to keep the number of lead sources to a minimum when customizing.  If you want more descriptive lead sources add a second field that gives more specific information.
  2. Keep the lead source constant. Lead source should never change, even if the lead responds to a new campaign.  The lead source simply states the source the lead originates from and should not change once captured.  Always keep the original lead source and use the campaign functionality to capture campaign activity.  Then use campaign influence reporting to see these results of your campaigns instead of changing lead source.
  3. Periodically audit the lead source of closed opportunities. Every quarter-end review, take a sample of closed opportunities to ensure the correct lead sources are populated.  This is easily checked by reviewing the activity history and should be done to ensure that no changes are being made to the lead sources.  If changes are made, review the purpose of lead source with sales to ensure accuracy of this important field.
  4. Do not list the campaign as the lead source. I often see companies use the campaign name as a lead source.  This becomes troublesome as time passes because the increased number of campaigns will make it difficult to report on lead source success.
  5. Know the value of a lead source. For many companies, each lead has a different likelihood of success based on the lead source.  For example, a lead from your website may be more likely to turn into a sale then one from a list purchase. Because of this, consider implementing lead scoring based on lead source if certain sources produce higher quality leads. Calculate this by running the Opportunity Sources report and viewing by won opportunities.

Remember, following these tips will help ensure you can measure marketing ROI, proving the success from all your hard work.