Contact Scoring

Feature Availability

Contact Scoring is an effective way to manage and analyze your contacts, helping you discover quality contacts and giving you insights about their stage in the sales funnel. Contact scoring is all about giving scores to your email recipients based on their profile, and campaign responses. Using these scores, you can infer the progress of your potential contacts, and watch them become customers.

For example, contacts who engage with your content, website, and events are going to get higher scores than those who are only subscribed to your newsletter.

In this guide, we describe how to set up contact scoring, and how contact scores are determined through campaign activities, contact information, and website activities.

The following instructions only apply to organization administrators.

Set up Contacts Scoring

As an organization admin, you can set up contact scoring for your organization by following these instructions:

Log in to your Zoho Campaigns account.
Select the Contacts tab from the Navigation Toolbar to the left and click Contact Scoring. A welcome page will appear.
Click Assign Scores Now to start the setup process.

Note: Contact scoring is available for all users under the Professional plan.

Qualifying Contacts through Campaign Activities

Zoho Campaigns provides you with an array of campaign activities that can be used to score your contacts and discover their place in the sales pipeline. Any contacts with your target score can be considered marketing- and sales-qualified.

Click Contacts and select Contact Scoring, then navigate to Campaign Activities in the Setup tab.

Here are all of the campaign activities your contacts may perform:

1.	Unique Open	Opens the campaign just once
2.	Multiple Open	Opens the campaign three or more times
3.	Unique Click	Clicks the link inside a campaign once
4.	Multiple Click	Clicks the link inside a campaign three times or more
5.	Unique Reply	Replies to your email campaign
6.	Multiple Reply	Replies to your email campaigns three times or more
7.	Positive Reply	Sent a positive or productive reply to your email campaigns
8.	Opt-in	Subscribes to your website
9.	Tell-a-friend	Refers a friend to your website
10.	Unsubscribe	Unsubscribes from your campaigns or newsletters
11.	Negative Reply	Sent a negative or unfavorable reply to your email campaigns

By default, each of the campaign activities specified will possess a score. You can edit the scores as you wish.

Edit Scores

You can edit your scores any time you wish to change activity priorities. Contacts will start getting the new scores as soon as you've changed priorities.

To edit contact scores:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Navigate to Campaign Activities in the Setup tab.
You need to enable the contact scoring for Campaign Activities before you can edit the pre-defined score.
Click the Edit Score icon on top of the score sheet.
Use the right and left arrows on the score sheet to adjust scores based on priority.

For example, the unique open action has a score of 10 and your contact has a score of 10 from that. If you edit the score for unique open from 10 to 20, next time the contact opens a new campaign, they'll be awarded with 20 more points and the new contact score will be 30.

Note:

Scores for multiple actions (i.e., multiple opens, multiple clicks) will be applied when the contact performs the same action for the third time. For example, the score assigned for a unique click is 10 points, while multiple clicks get 30 points. The first time a contact clicks a campaign, they'll get 10 points. This score remains the same on the second click, Then jumps 30 more points when they click for the third time for a total of 40 points. Further clicks do not give higher scores.

Disable Scoring

Score updates can be paused. Existing scores will remain the same until you enable scoring again.

To pause/resume scoring:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Navigate to Campaign Activities in the Setup tab.
Toggle the switch to Disable/Enable at the top of the score sheet.
In the pop-up that appears, click Disable.

Qualifying Contacts through their Field Information

Zoho Campaigns provides scoring for contacts based on their profile information. All you have to do here is specify the fields and their corresponding values, the contact should contain to earn the score assigned.

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Navigate to the Field Based Scoring Details section in the Setup tab.
Click Configure Now.
Fill in the required information
- Name - A name that describe your criteria.
- Assign score - This is the score that will be awarded for meeting your criteria.
- Criteria - Define the scoring conditions that must be met by using the drop-down menus. You can define up to three conditions for each criteria.
After creating the score, to view its details, you can navigate to the Field Based Scoring Details section. Here, you can Disable/Enable this field-based scoring, Edit, and Delete this scoring. You can also use the Create Field Scoring button to create another field-based scoring.

Contact Classification

Defining your contacts' stage in the sales funnel will help you understand their quality and determine when they'll be sales-ready. Our contact scoring system lets you classify contacts into Most-engaged, Progressing, and Getting Started based on their scores.

For example, contacts who actively engage in reading blogs or request a demo for certain products will score higher and become a most-engaged contact. Contacts who only download your newsletters will earn comparatively lower scores and will be classified as progressing contacts.

Now that you're all set with contact scoring, follow these steps to define score conditions for Most-engaged, Progressing, and Getting Started.

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
You can see the Contact Classification section at the top.
Click Define Contacts to start the classification process. A pop-up will appear.
In the pop-up, enter the score limit for most-engaged and progressing contacts.
You can classify your contacts based on their total score OR their scores in a particular time frame.

Negative Scoring

You can choose to assign negative scores to your contacts when they perform any action in your emails that you consider as negative. Using this, whenever a contact makes any specific negative response that you've set, the assigned score will be subtracted from the overall score. To setup negative scoring:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Edit Score icon on top of the score sheet under the Campaign Activities section. If this section needs to be enabled, please first enable it using the toggle next to the edit button and then edit.
Use the left arrows on the score sheet to assign negative scores to a particular activity or place the cursor inside the score and directly type a negative score.
The least value that you can assign is -50.

Note:

Enable the Allow contact score to go below zero toggle at the top-right to enable negative scoring for your contacts. This allows for the overall score of the contact to go negative. If this is not enabled, and if a contact performs an action which incurs a negative score which is higher than the current contact score, then the contact score will remain zero. For example, if the current score of a contact is 10, and if a contact provides a negative reply whose score is -18. 10-18 is -8, but if this option isn't enabled, then the score will go to zero and not lower than that.

If you want to disable negative scoring, simply turn off the toggle. In the pop-up that appears, click Disable. It will take some time, as the scores of all contacts with negative values will be reset to zero.

Custom Rules

A custom scoring system is specially designed for activities you feel should have more significance in contact evaluation. The setup process lets you define criteria (rules) for contact activities and your contacts will be assigned with points when they meet those criteria. You can assign both positive and negative scores for the conditions that you set in custom scoring.

For example, you can set up a custom rule and score your contacts if the total opens from a particular country is greater than or equal to a certain number.
Another scenario which can be useful for setting up custom rule to score your contacts would be to check if the total clicks from a particular country is greater than a certain

To setup custom rule:

In the scoring page, you can find Custom Rules in the Campaign Activities section.
Click Create Custom Rule.
Enter the criteria name, the score to be assigned, and the condition.
Click Save.

Note:

The custom rule that you setup will be applied to all the email campaigns that you create. However, you can disable the custom rule for individual campaign at the time of their creation in the campaign's review page.
For already created campaigns, you can disable the custom rule in Draft, To be Reviewed, Reviewed, and Scheduled campaigns but not in Sent campaigns.
Apart from the custom rules, you can assign negative scores to contact only when they either unsubscribe from your newsletters or they make a negative reply to your email.
You need to enable Reply Tracking for your campaigns, only then you'll be able to track the negative replies to your emails.

Scoring in Email Campaigns

While we discussed about qualifying the contacts through campaign activities above, the contact scoring needs to be enabled for each email campaign you create in order to make use of this functionality. Let's look in detail about the scoring types in email campaigns and how it works.

Where to find?

When you're creating an email campaign, click on the Show advanced options below the Content section.

You'll see the Contact Scoring section.

You'll see there are three options, namely, Default Scoring, Campaign Specific Scoring, and Custom Rules.

Types of Scoring

There are three types of scoring inside an email campaign that you can enable or disable, as per your requirement:

Default Scoring
Campaign Specific Scoring
Custom Rules

Default Scoring

This is the default contact scoring present under Contacts -> Contact Scoring -> Campaign Activities. If this scoring is enabled in the Contact Scoring module, you can make use of it for an email campaign. Default Scoring will show as Enabled by default during campaign creation if it is enabled in the Contact Scoring module.

You can click the View option beside the Enabled text to disable this scoring as a whole or disable only certain activities.

Clicking the View option will open a window. Click the Disable button at the top-right to disable this scoring entirely.

To disable only certain activities, turn the toggle switch to off under the Status column.

If you want to enable the default scoring after disabling it, simply click the View option again and click the Enable score button.

If you partially or completely disable the Default Scoring when creating an email campaign, it won't be disabled under the Contact Scoring module. You're disabling only for this campaign.
On the other hand, if the contact scoring under the Campaign Activities section in the Contact Scoring module is disabled, it'll also be disabled for Default Scoring when you create an email campaign. When you try enabling it using the View option, a pop-up will appear where you need to click the Set up Scoring button.

You'll then be redirected to the Contact Scoring module where you need to turn on the toggle switch for the Campaign Activities at a global level. Notice the option to go back to your email campaign in the below image.

Campaign Specific Scoring

As the name suggests, this type of scoring can be setup only when you're creating an email campaign and will be applicable to the particular campaign you're creating.

You can click the Create option next to the Not Configured text to enable this scoring.

Clicking the Create option will open a window. Click the Add Scoring Criteria button to create a new criteria.

Provide a Name for the criteria, Assign score for it and choose a condition from the available list. You can use the + button to add another condition. Click Save once you've finished.

Below GIF shows the available conditions when setting up a criteria.

After creating the criteria, you'll see a window listing it. If you want to create multiple criteria, you can use the Add new criteria option at the top-right of this window.

You'll also see the option to disable a criteria using the toggle switch under the Status column. You can edit and delete the criteria using the buttons available at the far right.

Custom Rules

Custom rules can be created in the Contact Scoring module. If it is enabled, by default, it'll be enabled when creating an email campaign as well.

You can click the View option beside the Enabled text to view the rule details and also disable it.

Clicking the View option will open a window. You can click the rule name to view its details. You cannot edit the rule from here. You have to navigate to Contacts -> Contact Scoring -> Custom Rules to edit or delete it.

To disable the rule, you can turn the toggle switch to off to disable it. Disabling Custom Rules when creating an email campaign will also disable it in the Contact Scoring module.

Custom rule works the same way as campaign specific scoring where you need to set a condition. The list of conditions are also the same. Only difference is, the custom rule is applied at a global level whereas the latter is specific to a particular email campaign.
If you've created a custom rule, but have it disabled, then you can enable it even when creating an email campaign; it'll be enabled automatically in the Custom Scoring module as well.
Similarly, disabling Custom Rules when creating an email campaign will also disable it in the Contact Scoring module
Even if the contact scoring for campaign activities is disabled at a global level, it doesn't affect the custom rule. Custom rule is independent of the campaign activities scoring.

Reset Scoring

Before you reset your contact scores, make sure that you won't need them anymore. Once you reset these scores, your contacts will start from zero again.

To reset contact scores:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Reset button on the top-right corner of the page.
Read the terms and check the I Agree checkbox.
Click Reset Now button to reset the scores. Depending on the number of contacts in your Zoho Campaigns organization, it can take time for the scores to get reset to zero.
If you want to start the scoring process after the reset, click Enable Scoring.

Note:

After the reset, assigned scores on the score sheet will remain the same but your contacts' scores will set back to zero.

Reset History

It is possible to see the entire reset history for your organization. This option will show you when a reset has been done, who did it, and any noted reasons for the reset.

To view reset history:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the drop-down next to the Reset button at the top-right.
Click Reset History button from the drop down.

The following information apply to both organization administrators and users.

How can I see my contacts' scores?

Learn about your contacts with score updates. Contacts scores are calculated by summing up all the scores a contact has earned for their activities. This helps you prioritize contacts and focus your attention on the most active contacts.

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select All Contacts.
Click a contact's email address.
You'll see the smart view of the contact information. You can view the contact score on the right.

You can also know the contact's score from the detailed view:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select All Contacts.
Click a contact's email address.
You'll see the smart view of the contact information. Click the View All Details button.
The detailed view will open where you can find the contact score.

Note:

If you want to do a quick filter of contacts based on their contact score, you can tick the Score checkbox option in the left side and use the various filter options present.

View Reports

You can also view your contacts' performance with the help of scoring reports.

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select All Contacts.
Click a contact's email address.
You'll see the smart view of the contact information. Click the View All Details button.
Scroll down the page until you see the Contact Timeline section.
Here, you can find activities of this contact including contact score and the time the scoring took place.

Insights into contact scoring are extremely valuable for your organization, allowing you to watch your contacts' growth based on normal activities like opens, clicks, etc. Some businesses will want a scoring system based on some special activities. To facilitate this, Zoho Campaigns provides a custom scoring system for campaign activities.

Filtering Contact Score Activity

While the Contact Timeline is a useful section to view the entire history of the contact, it might not be quick enough for you to view the activities related to contact score alone. To combat this, you can use a filter specifically for Contact Score to view only the contact score-related activities. To do this in the Contact Timeline section:

Segmenting Contacts Based on Scores

You can segment your contacts based on their scores, scoring period and other criteria such as country, first name, last name, etc. You can also view reports of the segmented contacts with respect to mailing lists and countries.

Create a Score-based View

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Scores View tab.
Click Create View button.
Fill in the required information:
- - Name - a name that describes your view.
  - When score is - This is the score based on which contacts are segmented. You can choose a condition of your choice and specify the score based on it.
  - Scoring period - Define a scoring period from which contacts are to be included in the segment, e.g., last 15 days, last month.
  - Add contact criteria - Beneath Scoring period you'll see this option; click this to define the scoring criteria that must be met by using the drop-down menus. You can define up to two criteria.
  - Select mailing lists - Select mailing lists from which the contacts are to be included in the segment. Either choose all the lists or specific lists.
Click Save.

Email Notifications for Score-based View

You can get notified on the summary of your score-based view periodically via emails. All you have to do is set up the frequency to receive the email notification.

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Scores View tab.
Click the score-based view for which you want to set up email notification.
Navigate to the Email Notification section and click Set notification frequency now.
Specify the time and users who should receive email notification for this view.
Click Save.

Edit frequency

You can modify the frequency of email notification to your convenience. Follow the below steps:

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Scores View tab.
Click the score-based view for which you want to edit the email notification.
Navigate to the Email Notification section and click the edit icon.
In the pop-up that appears, make the necessary changes and click Save.

Disable Email notification

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Scores View tab.
Click the score-based view for which you want to disable the email notification.
Navigate to the Email Notification section and turn the toggle off.
In the pop-up that appears, click Go Ahead.

Note: If the criteria specified for the score-based view is a definite period, you will not receive email notification periodically. Rather, you can download the summary as a PDF or receive a one-time email.

View Reports of Score-based View

You can view reports of the score-based view based on mailing lists and countries.

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Contacts and select Contact Scoring.
Click the Scores View tab.
Click the score-based view for which you want to view the reports.
You will be able to see the summary of the view and contacts under the view based on the mailing lists and country.

Scoring Contacts through Workflow

Zoho Campaigns' workflow automation enables you to categorize contacts based on their behavior and information, then assign scores accordingly. To assign scores,

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Automation.
Click Create Workflows.
Select a workflow template you want. Alternatively, click the Custom Workflow button at the top-right. Provide a name for the workflow and click Create.
Under the Trigger section on the left panel, drag the trigger and drop it onto the canvas start your workflow. For example, you can choose the Enter a Segment trigger and click Select segment on it to select any segment you want. It is entirely dependent upon how you want to create a workflow to assign the contact score. Also, choose the contacts who can enter the workflow. Click Save.
Under the Process section on the left panel, you can set the necessary criteria using the Simple condition. Click Configure on it to set a condition. Click Apply.
Drag and drop the Add Score component from the left panel under Action -> Productivity section onto the canvas and click Configure. Set the score you want in the pop-up window that appears.
Since you've chosen a Simple condition, you must also choose the alternate action if the first action fails. For this, drag the Subtract Score component which is right next to the Add Score component.
Activate the workflow.

Push Contact Scores to Zoho CRM

This method is for the new Zoho CRM integration model, please refer here if you are in the old CRM migration setup.

With different ways to score your contacts, we will now see how you shall push those scores into Zoho CRM. Follow the below steps:

Log in to Zoho Campaigns.
From the Navigation Toolbar, click Contacts and select Sync Services.
Hover over Zoho CRM and click Active Syncs.
Click Setup in the top-right corner.
Enable the Update Lead Score toggle.
Map Campaigns fields with relevant CRM fields. Click Save.