LeadMagnetGeniusEven if you don’t set up a formal point system, you can qualify leads simply by observing their engagement and then segmenting your list: - New Subscriber Sequence as a Test: Think of your initial welcome or nurture sequence as a proving ground. For example, you send 5-7 emails of valuable content plus maybe one soft offer. Leads who open most and click through, especially on an offer link, clearly are warmer. Those who don’t engage at all might be cold. You could tag or move people into different segments after this sequence: “engaged” vs “unengaged”. Engaged ones get more aggressive or personal follow-ups (like an invite to a strategy call), while unengaged go to a lighter touch general newsletter until they show interest. - Use Trigger Links to Gauge Interest: A clever technique is to send an email that asks something like “What are you most interested in?” with a couple link options (even if those links just go to an article or the same page, it’s the click that matters). Depending on what they click, you tag them. Or directly, “Are you interested in hearing about our premium coaching program? Click yes or no.” If someone clicks yes, that is a hand-raise – you might mark them as a qualified lead (or at least more qualified) because they literally said yes I’m interested. They essentially self-qualify. Not everyone will click, but those who do are valuable. - Surveys/Questions: Early after opt-in, you might send a one-question survey or even include a few optional fields in the sign-up form. For example, “What’s your biggest challenge with X?” Open-ended answers can be telling – someone who writes a paragraph describing their challenge likely has a pain point, maybe more qualified than someone who writes “none” or doesn’t answer. Or ask for company size, etc., to measure fit. On the B2C side, ask about their goal (e.g., fitness trainer might ask “What’s your #1 fitness goal?” – someone who says “lose 50 lbs by year’s end” is probably more motivated than “just browsing tips”). - Engagement-based clean-up: If someone’s been on your list for 6 months never clicking anything, they’re effectively disqualified (at least for now) – either try re-engagement or remove them to focus on active leads. It improves your focus and email deliverability. Meanwhile, someone who’s been on list 6 months and just recently started clicking lots of stuff – that might mean their interest has grown (maybe timing is better now), so they could be qualified now even if not before.
Mailmodo’s guide suggests using your welcome/onboarding sequence to collect more details (name, location, etc.) and direct the user to next steps, basically onboarding them. Also they mention using lead nurturing sequences to qualify leads by their engagement, and once they show intent you “move them to qualified leads and nurture using different series”. That supports the idea: treat engaged leads differently.