For many B2B marketers, the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a critical milestone, because it’s the point where marketing hands over leads to sales and says: “This one’s ready.”
But what exactly does that mean? And how do you make sure your MQLs are more than just names on a list?
In this guide, we’ll break down what a Marketing Qualified Lead really is, how it fits into your demand strategy, and what you can do to generate more leads that actually convert.
What is a Marketing Qualified Lead?
A Marketing Qualified Lead is a lead that has shown meaningful engagement with your brand. That means they seem interested enough to suggest they might become a customer, but they haven’t yet been vetted by sales.
What makes something a MQL is often defined by a combination of behavior and fit. For example, someone who’s downloaded a whitepaper, attended a webinar, or visited your pricing page, and also matches your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
The reason we focus so much on MQLs is because when marketing teams pass on hot leads to sales, they’re more likely to close the deal. That means less time wasted chasing prospects who were never going to buy, resulting in a faster pipeline and more revenue.
MQL vs SQL: What’s the Difference?
A sales qualified lead (or SQL) is a lead that has also been reviewed by the sales team and deemed ready for the next stage in the sales process.
MQLs are different because although they’ve shown interest through marketing channels, they haven’t yet reached the sales team. Furthermore, an MQL becomes a SQL once it’s been passed to the sales team and they’ve agreed to pursue it.
What Makes a Good MQL?
The right MQL criteria depends on your business, but typically combines two factors:
- Fit. Do they match your ICP? (e.g., industry, company size, job role, geography)
- Intent. Have they engaged in a way that shows real interest? (e.g., visited product pages, requested a demo, attended an event)
For example, a VP of Operations at a 500-person manufacturing company watches your product demo and visits your pricing page twice in a week is a strong MQL.
Likewise, a student from a university who downloaded your whitepaper isn’t an MQL, because they’re just researching your company.
How Do You Get More MQLs?
Getting more MQLs doesn’t just mean getting more leads, it means driving the right kind of engagement with the right kind of prospects.
There are many ways to do it, whether you’re exploring demand gen strategies, lead gen strategies, account-based marketing, and beyond.
1. Align Your Content with the Buyer Journey
MQLs typically emerge mid-funnel, which is when a prospect moves from passive interest to active evaluation.
You could capture more interest, and generate more MQLs, if you tailor your content to this stage. Some examples of mid-funnel content that converts include:
- Product-focused webinars
- Industry-specific guides
- ROI calculators
- Comparison sheets
To take this a step further, you should also consider how you target people throughout your buying funnel with aligned content across every stage. For example:
- The awareness stage responds well to things like blog posts, industry explainers, social content
- The decision stage engages strongly with things like calculators, pricing FAQs, comparison checklists
The more relevant and targeted your content is, the more likely it is to attract leads who are genuinely evaluating your solution.
2. Use Paid Campaigns to Attract Your ICP
A high-performing MQL generation strategy focuses on fit over volume, which means you need to target your ICP with precision.
You can use firmographic filters in platforms like LinkedIn Ads, Google, or programmatic display networks to zero in on companies by size, industry, or job function. And you should promote content that speaks directly to their challenges and offers a clear next step for further engagement.
3. Use Gated Content Strategically
One way to capture more leads is to gate your content, so users can only get access once they’ve shared their details with you.
This works well when your high intent, or high value content, is gated. But this doesn’t work for every piece of content.
You should reserve your forms for high-intent content like downloadable templates, analyst reports, or product-specific webinars. Make your forms short, experiment with progressive fields, and always deliver immediate value in return.
4. Optimize Forms for Conversion
If your lead forms are clunky or confusing, you’ll lose even the most interested visitors.
Make sure your forms are short, easy to complete, and mobile-friendly if you want to improve your conversion rates.
You could even try using smart forms that adapt based on user behavior. For example, some forms hide fields for returning visitors or pre-populate known information from cookies or CRM data, which can reduce friction and boost form completions.
5. Use Lead Scoring to Focus Your Efforts
Not every lead will become an MQL. But if you use lead scoring, you’ll have a clear way to see which opportunities can be classed as MQLs, and which aren’t ready yet.
If you can automate this process, you’ll become even more efficient.
6. Align Sales and Marketing Around MQL Criteria
No matter how strong your marketing strategy is, MQLs will fall flat if sales doesn’t trust them.
You can work around this if you bring both teams into the lead scoring model. Share feedback loops on which MQLs converted, which didn’t, and why. And then use that insight to refine your targeting, messaging, and handover process to improve lead quality over time.
7. Add Live Chat to High-Intent Pages
Live chat tools can help surface those qualified leads who might not be ready to fill out a form.
If you add chat prompts to key pages like pricing, product tours, or demo booking, and use automated greetings tailored to the page content, you can then route hot leads directly to sales reps where possible. This creates real-time conversations from already engaged prospects and can be an under-valued way to capture more MQLs.
8. Build Intent-Based Nurture Campaigns
Just because a lead isn’t classed as an MQL today, doesn’t mean they won’t be next month. If you nurture them, you’ll remain top-of-mind when that time comes. And because you’ve taken the time to build trust and develop a relationship, you’re more likely to win their business.
You can use marketing automation to build nurture journeys triggered by specific behaviors, so you don’t have to manually send hundreds of emails each day. For example, if someone visits your pricing page, downloads a buying guide, or watches a full webinar, they could receive personalized, educational content that helps them take the next step.
9. Monitor High-Intent Behavior
There are particular signs that suggest someone is getting ready to buy, such as viewing your pricing pages or making repeated visits over a short period of time.
Tools like website visitor identification can help you spot this activity early, by revealing which companies are taking an interest in your website.
Because this happens before someone fills out a form, it means you can spot the warm leads before they start reaching out to suppliers. If you’re quick to react, you can pass these MQLs to your sales team and they can outreach before anyone else.
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