Lead Nurturing at Generali: How cold leads become hot deals

How do you engage cold leads and convert them without being pushy? I was able to tackle precisely this challenge together with my colleagues from Ruby and Frickin Creative in an exciting pilot project for Generali Switzerland. The focus: lead nurturing for contacts in the running sector.

Every year, Generali generates thousands of leads through brand activation campaigns—many of them at the awareness stage. Our task was to develop an automated email flow that would convert these cold leads into interested prospects.

The setup: Multi-stage routes, clear KPIs, measurable success

• Three personas, each with individual pain points

• Six emails per persona – with a clear arc of tension from the first contact to the consultation invitation

• Interactive content : blog articles, surveys, product information, brand touchpoints

• A scoring model that evaluates interactions and qualifies leads – automatically stored in the CRM system

• Implemented in four languages , for maximum reach in the Swiss market

The results: Above the industry standard

The numbers speak for themselves:

• Open rate: >70%

• Click rate: >5%

For comparison: In the financial and insurance industry , 30–40% opens and 1.5–3% clicks are already considered solid benchmarks.

What we learn from this for lead nurturing

A well-thought-out lead nurturing setup makes all the difference. Not only for sales, who receive better pre-qualified leads, but also for the leads themselves, who feel the relevance of the communication.

This type of email campaign isn't mass mailing, but rather data-driven relationship building. And that's precisely where the future of marketing lies.