Business leaders are always looking to leads. Marketing may take the back seat to other more pressing or quotidian concerns, but the need for more leads remains constant. 

However, marketing is, and should be, a priority for any business owner looking to grow their revenue. Attributing sales directly to marketing can be tricky, but research has shown that marketing contributes between 20-30% to new sales pipeline, and within SMB/channel that average rises to 40% (source).  

This is your sign to put marketing in the driver’s seat.  

Diagnosing marketing burn out

If you’ve noticed your campaigns haven’t been generating as much interest as normal, you may be suffering from marketing burn out.  

Symptoms of marketing burn out:  

• Decreased campaign open rate  

• Decreased content engagement  

• Decreased lead volume 

You can review your campaign analytics in Campaign Monitor.

Battling burn out isn’t rocket science – but it is science. Just as workers and creatives can implement revitalizing regimens to spark productivity and inspiration in their work, marketers and business owners can perform precise protocols to reinvigorate their email campaigns. 

We’ve done the hard work of experimenting, analyzing, and collating the actions you can take today to improve your next campaign. With pinpoint precision, we present to you a step-by-step guide to generate more leads immediately. 

Step #1. Fully authenticate your sending domain

Effort Level: High 🔨🔨🔨

Impact Level: High 🔥🔥🔥

We design our programs to be low effort for partners, but that doesn’t mean they’re no effort. Domain authentication requires some elbow grease. 

This protocol is the most complex as well as the most critical. Let us explain why.  

In February 2024, major Email Service Providers (ESPs) updated their security requirements and began requiring domain authentication for all senders. This is great news for users and senders, as it reduces spam and improves deliverability. However, if your domain is not fully authenticated, this presents a terrible new problem: ESPs are likely blocking your marketing emails from inboxes. 

ESPs use (3) methods to verify your emails are safe for their users: DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. 

• DKIM: Operating like a digital signature, ESPs use your domain’s public key to verify the authenticity of your email. Work with your Extu rep to generate your key’s value, and your IT department can upload it to your DNS. Detailed instructions here. 

• SPF: A whitelist of domains and servers permitted to send emails for you. Since we utilize Campaign Monitor to distribute emails, you must create an SPF record on your DNS enabling them as a sender. Detailed instructions here. 

• DMARC: A policy that informs ESPs how to treat your emails that fail or lack DKIM or SPF validity. Determine your policy and then upload it to your DNS. Detailed instructions here. 

Lacking these verifications? Your monthly campaigns could be wasting away in the spam box – or worse, quarantined, never reaching your audience. This is why it’s critical to fully authenticate your sending domain; it can immediately turn your campaigns around.  

Here’s our comprehensive guide to domain authentication. Please reach out to your Extu rep to check your statuses.  

Step #2. Refresh your campaign contact list

Effort Level: Medium 🔨🔨

Impact Level: High 🔥🔥🔥

We have a serious question: when was the last time you updated your campaign contact list?  

It’s obvious sending marketing campaigns to the same people, month-over-month, is not a winning strategy for sustained selling success. Eventually, you exhaust your audience, and their interest in your brand wanes; they open your emails less, read your articles less, until they’ve become totally disengaged.  

Without an occasional infusion of fresh contacts, your campaign send list becomes a catalog of stagnant leads and missed opportunities. 

Plus, and I know we’ve said it a million times: your email list naturally decays, typically around 23% each year. Updating your campaign send list is basic marketing hygiene, it keeps your campaign metrics in healthy ranges and new sales opportunities flowing. 

• Remove subscribers who have been inactive for 12+ months 

• Dig into email bounces and follow up on contacts with hard bounces 

• Add new email addresses to your list 

• Invite clients, prospects, and peers to sign up for your newsletter 

Now, you might be thinking, “getting new email addresses is not easy.” You are so right, but we do have some tips.  

• Look through old stacks of business cards  

• Get folks contact info via their LinkedIn Profile page 

• Comb through your events and conferences connections, including event apps for contact information 

• Create a newsletter subscribe form and add it to your email signature and social media  

Step #3. Log into Insights Hub

Effort Level: Medium 🔨🔨

Impact Level: Medium 🔥🔥

Did you know Extu offers a mind reading tool? You can predict your prospects’ purchasing needs with the Insights Hub.  

The Insights Hub is a lead generation tool. In addition to real-time lead notifications, the Insights Hub tracks users that engage with your campaign content and provides a shortcut to identifying warm leads. 

• Track individuals’ content engagement via Account Profiling 

• Get notified when prospects fill out interest forms 

• See what businesses are searching for products and services you offer with Intent Signals 

• Receive recommendations on which leads to follow up with and how 

• Manually add external leads to organize your pipeline 

A window into the buying interests of your prospects, the Insights Hub provides all the cold email confidence you need. By analyzing what type of content users interact with, you can pitch product and service mixes that align with their engagement activity.

This tool is not automatically available to partners, but you may have access to this tool and not even realize it. If you’re unsure, try logging into Insights Hub or reach out to your Extu rep for more details on your access status.  

Extu knows a thing or two about leads  

There’s a reason thousands of IT resellers across the globe trust Extu to deliver. Our award-winning content and clever email technology helps our partners close more business – every single month. Always-on, always-there, our email marketing campaigns will get your business noticed. Contact us to learn more about how we do it.