How to Achieve an 83% Open Rate for Lead Nurturing Emails

Earlier, I shared how we gathered lead contacts and nurtured them to meetings by conveying the value through a series of emails written by an AI content creator. The content turned out to be a dream. (I already boasted that these emails achieved a 75% conversion rate to meetings).

But there’s one catch — how to convince people to open these emails?

The logic is simple: the more people open the email, the higher the chance the meeting and subsequent sale will happen. Therefore, it’s critical to achieve a high metric at this step in the scenario. Instead of the standard 30–40% open rate, we aimed for 50% (which seemed quite high).

Now, the most interesting part — what methods we tested👇

Immediately after the qualification quiz and meeting booking, we offer leads to continue the conversation in their preferred channel (email, WhatsApp).

This is important because it allows the client to get answers to their questions before the meeting and allows the company to push them toward attending the meeting.

1️⃣ But before moving on to the emails themselves, in the last message of the quiz, we intrigue leads with useful material waiting for them in their inbox. This incentive could be a discount, a useful guide, or, as in our case, a selection of message templates for automating communication with customers.

In this message, we specified the content sent and, importantly, showed how it would appear in the inbox: sender and subject line. An alternative here could be a preview of the lead magnet content. 

2️⃣ Additionally, we replaced the technical email-sending domain with a branded one. Through these experiments, incentives, and technical optimization, we achieved amazing results: 

• The first iteration — 58% open rate. We were thrilled and continued experimenting. 
• The second iteration gave us 83%!!! 

• Now we periodically reach up to a 90% open rate. 90%! (Reminder: we initially aimed for 50%)

Read also:
The Upside Sales Approach: Master the Inverted Funnel for Maximum Growth
Sales Funnel Stats That Matter: Boost Conversions and Growth in 2024