Scoring, Lifecycle, and Campaign Execution
Core concepts
Scoring combines behavioral (email opens, clicks, web visits) and demographic (title, industry) points. Lifecycle uses a lifecycle stage field driven by smart campaigns and scoring thresholds. Know smart campaign flow steps, triggers vs. filters, qualification rules, and wait steps. Understand score fields (behavior + demographic) and how score decay and thresholds trigger lifecycle changes.
Traps
- Confusing trigger campaigns (event-driven, run per person) with batch campaigns (scheduled, run on a list).
- Forgetting that qualification rules prevent a person from re-entering a campaign too soon.
- Assuming lifecycle stage changes automatically - it is driven by smart campaigns, not scoring alone.
- Missing that negative scoring (unsubscribes, inactivity) must be explicitly configured.
Rule of thumb
If a question asks how a lead becomes MQL/SQL, the answer is a lifecycle smart campaign triggered by a score threshold or behavior, not a field edit.
Worked example
A lead reaches 50 behavioral + 20 demographic points. A smart campaign with a score is greater than trigger changes lifecycle stage to MQL. Without that campaign, the score rises but stage stays the same - a common distractor.