# Funnel Strategy 2020

We're not making the most of our leads right now. Especially for people that fill out Step 1 and/or Step 2 of the Application form but don't fill out the final step, we're not doing anything with them.

This effort is so that the Admissions team with Clay, Ana, and Ashwin can make the most of our marketing efforts and improve the top of the funnel.

For more information, [see this deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1D4Ed869QamqeH3etrzVFUNnnpc_T64Iie5b1K1t078M/edit#slide=id.g8c94331a4f_0_3).

## Breakdown

### Core Changes

#### Improve the Apply forms

We're changing the fields we collect in each form, to optimize the funnel for conversions. Naturally, all responses need to be synced to Salesforce correctly

#### Use Salesforce Lead Stages effectively

Every step of the Apply form should be tracked in Salesforce using Stages on the Lead object. This will make it very easy to see how our funnel is doing, and also make it very easy to market to our leads.

#### Update the MQL Score every time the Lead Record changes

We need to calculate an MQL score for all 3 steps of the Apply form - ie. every time someone submits a form, we re-calculate the MQL score. We're also going to be adding a lot more things that drive a highr MQL score, such as engagement with emails or attendance at webinars.

We'll also be updating Leads outside of our own scripts (through Facebook Lead Ads, or even manually in the UI) - these changes should also trigger the re-calculation of the MQL Score.

It must be remembered that MQL scores are designed to be immutable. For example, if the MQL score for Person A was 2,500 yesterday, and today they opened an email which increased their MQL score to 2,600, we must create a new Metric Observation object in Salesforce with the new score and `observed_at` field set to today. We must not delete the Metric Observation from yesterday.

### Retargeting Setup

#### Setup Email Marketing efforts with Mailchimp

Once we start using Salesforce Lead Stages properly, we should setup Mailchimp with the new Salesforce instance to sync properly so that the Admissions/Marketing teams can send targeted emails to people at particular stages. Mailchimp should automatically sync `sent` and `opened` Campaign Member ojects to Salesforce, which can further drive user journeys.

#### Create personalized links for any of the Apply forms

When people don't complete the Apply form, we want to be able to send them marketing emails to complete the rest of their application. To enable this correctly, we need to be able to generate links that can be used easily with Mailchimp email merge tags. When the user clicks the link, it should open the step where they left, with their `applicant_id` and any other hidden fields automatically filled in. For example, if a user completed Step 1 and then left, the link should take them to Step 2.

### Facebook Lead Ads

We can create forms on Facebook itself, where people can fill out the first page of our Apply process without ever leaving Facebook. We need to be able to capture these leads in Salesforce. There is a [first-party Facebook integration](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/908902042493104?id=735435806665862) that will do this for us, but we should be very certain that it will put data in Salesforce the way we need it to go.

#### Maybe use the Lead Source field in Salesforce

Now that we're adding an additional source of Leads, we should think carefully about possibly using the Lead Source field in Salesforce. We could also use Campaign objects, but it's worth thinking about this some more.

### Enable Webinars

_I have questions for Ana about this_

## Questions

#### The idea of Qualified Lead is decomposed into two components
Which steps of the Application form they've completed, and what's their current MQL score. For example, someone that has completed Step 1 has the Lead Stage of `Step 1 Completed` in Salesforce and based on their responses their MQL score is 1000 (out of a possible maximum of 1,200 because they've only completed 1/3 of the application) - that means they're qualified.

#### If someone has only completed 2 out of 3 steps of the Apply form, but has a high enough MQL score, should we convert them?

It sounds great to convert them immediately in Salesforce, but we may have incomplete data for some of them, especially if they don't fill out Step 3. What we should be doing is marketing aggressively to these folks to get them to complete the final step and actually "submit" the application to us.