Results first
For Codio, we booked 80 appointments with universities and schools, outperforming its KPI every month. Alongside outbound, a nurturing campaign for inbound leads added 12 more appointments.
- 80 appointments in 7 months
- 145% average KPI, with targets exceeded every month
- 12 appointments from nurturing inbound website leads over 6 months
- 6,000 leads researched
- 21% reply rate, with open rates peaking at 76%
- 200% growth in new members in the first 6 weeks
The market was small and specific: computer science departments at universities and schools, many of which already knew Codio. Results came from adapting to that audience, with shorter emails, a focus on finding the right contact rather than the most senior one, and re-engaging institutions that already had the product.
“Belkins reps booked 80 meetings for 7 months of work, which was very satisfying for us. They’re incredibly flexible and creative and are highly talented researchers.”
— Joshua Ball, VP of Marketing, Codio
The challenge: A niche market + a small team
Codio’s in-house team was small, and it couldn’t keep both outbound and inbound running consistently. The company needed a partner to run outreach and manage the workflows using its own proven approaches. The market made this harder: Codio sells to a narrow group of education buyers, and it needed a partner that could understand that market quickly and adapt to it.
Our approach and playbook
The campaign ran on cold email, with additional support for Codio’s inbound lead flow.
Re-engaging universities that already had Codio
Many of the world’s top 200 universities already used Codio but weren’t using it as actively as expected. The team ran targeted campaigns to re-engage these accounts and renew demand for the product.
Testing tone and message length
The first assumption was that universities would respond best to long, formal emails. Testing showed the opposite: short, direct messages got more traction and delivered more value for this audience.
Reaching the right contact, not the most senior one
The team built the outreach on Belkins’ referral approach: emails that asked whether the prospect was the right contact or mentioned a colleague who might be. Targeting the most senior people at each institution didn’t produce results; the referral approach engaged more people and found the decision-makers within each department.
Turning inbound leads into appointments
Codio also wanted more value from leads coming through its website. The team integrated HubSpot CRM, helped manage incoming leads, and filtered out irrelevant ones. A nurturing campaign for these inbound leads produced 12 appointments over 6 months.
Obstacles along the way: A narrow audience that ignored senior-level outreach
With such a small target market, every campaign had to fit Codio’s processes, workflows, and needs closely. The team immersed itself in how Codio worked to build campaigns that resonated. The biggest correction came early: outreach to the most senior prospects didn’t work, so the team shifted to the referral approach to engage more people in each institution.
Lessons: What this campaign shows about selling to universities
- Don’t assume academia wants formal. Short, direct emails outperformed long, formal ones.
- Find the right contact before the senior one. Asking about the right person reached decision-makers that top-down outreach missed.
- Re-engage existing accounts. Universities already using Codio were a ready audience for renewed demand.
- Connect outbound and inbound. Handling website leads alongside outreach added appointments a lean team would otherwise have missed.
This approach fits edtech and other companies selling into a narrow, well-defined education market with a small internal team. A company with a broad market and a full sales development team would need less of the inbound support and more volume-focused testing.
