Here's the thing about a tap. Turn it on, water comes out. Turn it off, it stops. Instantly. Nobody's surprised by that.
Yet an awful lot of Microsoft partner marketing works exactly the same way. One campaign, one burst, one webinar, one email send. It runs for six weeks, and if they're lucky, it produces a handful of leads. But then the tap is turned off, and it stops. And the moment it stops, the pipeline stops with it.
Turn it on, it might drive leads. Turn it off, it definitely won't.
That's the biggest issue with one-off activity, and it's why I keep pushing partners towards an always-on, multi-touch, multi-channel approach instead.
One-offs can feel productive - low cost, high reward if you're lucky. At least on the surface; it's easy to rest on your laurels when you get a couple of quick leads coming in. And that's precisely the trap that partner after partner falls into.
I get why they happen. A pot of budget lands, there's a deadline on it, and the quickest way to spend it is one big visible thing. An event. A burst of paid ads. A shiny piece of content nobody's got the time to promote properly.
It feels like progress. There's a deliverable, there's an invoice, there's something to show the board. But busy isn't the same as well directed.
Because what actually happens next? The activity ends. The audience you just warmed up goes cold. Six months later somebody asks why the pipeline's thin, and the answer is that you stopped talking to people.
Your buyers didn't disappear. They just weren't ready when your campaign happened to be switched on.
Key takeaways
- One-off campaigns work like a tap: leads might flow while it runs, but the pipeline stops the moment it's switched off.
- Nobody buys on the first touch, so an always-on, multi-touch approach reflects how buyers with budgets, stakeholders and procurement processes actually decide.
- Buying groups sit across different channels, so a single-channel campaign only reaches part of the audience and multi-channel consistency builds recognition.
- Microsoft's FY27 Co-op guidance now requires a paid anchor plus at least two supporting activities running as one campaign, effectively writing the multi-channel requirement into the funding rules.
- Always-on marketing needs a consistent core message, a rhythm you can sustain, and enough channels to reach the buying group, measured over quarters rather than weeks.
Nobody buys on the first touch. Nobody.
This is the bit that gets glossed over. A partner selling Copilot, or a security assessment, or a modern work migration isn't selling a £40 impulse purchase. You're selling something with a budget line, an internal champion, an IT stakeholder, a finance sign-off and probably a procurement process behind it.
That decision doesn't get made because somebody saw one LinkedIn ad on a Tuesday.
It gets made over months, across a mix of people, after they've seen your name enough times to trust it. A blog they half-read. A webinar a colleague forwarded. A post from one of your consultants. A follow-up email that landed the week their renewal came up.
Multi-touch isn't a marketing luxury. It's just an honest reflection of how your customers actually buy.
Multi-channel matters because your buyer isn't in one place
And it's not only about how often you show up - it's about where.
The IT director might live on LinkedIn. The finance lead almost certainly doesn't. The technical champion is reading forums and vendor docs. The CEO is skimming an email on their phone at 7 am.
Run a single-channel campaign, and you're betting your entire quarter on everyone in the buying group hanging out in the same place at the same time. They don't.
Joined-up beats loud. The same message, landing in a few different places, over a sustained period - that's what builds recognition. One channel shouting once builds nothing.
The latest Co-op guidelines are nudging you this way anyway
Here's the practical bit, and it links straight back to the Co-op funds guidance I shared.
The claimable categories were never designed around single activities. For FY27, Microsoft has gone further and folded most demand generation into one category: paid media with a multi-touch campaign. To claim it, you need a paid anchor plus at least two supporting activities - a landing page, email or direct mail, content, SEO, boosted organic social - all running as one campaign. Standalone social or website claims no longer pass.
Read that again. Microsoft has written the multi-channel requirement into the rules.
And the newer guidance is pushing partners harder in that direction - I've just built a proposal where the funding contribution is deliberately spread across paid media plus website copy plus blogs, precisely because a single line item doesn't cut it any more. Paid media drives the reach. The website gives people somewhere credible to land. The content gives them a reason to come back.
That's three touches doing three different jobs, funded from the same pot. That's the shape you want.
If you don't use it, you'll lose it - so use it properly
Co-op pots expire at the end of each half, and partners leave serious money on the table every single year. I've written about how to spend your Co-op before, and it still winds me up.
But spending it badly isn't much better than not spending it. Blowing the whole allocation on some related activities and one event in May, then going quiet until November, is technically "using your funds". It just doesn't build anything.
Spread it. Plan the half, heck, plan the year if you can, not the fortnight. Put a foundational piece in place - good quality research, strong messaging, engaging content - and then keep feeding it out across channels for months. Foundational work you commission in H1 should still be earning its keep in H2.
The result? A pipeline that keeps producing when you're not actively spending, and a much easier story to tell when it's time to justify next half's investment.
So what does always-on actually look like?
You don't need a huge team for this. You need three things:
A consistent core message
- one proposition, said the same way everywhere, so the touches build on each other instead of confusing people.
A rhythm you can genuinely sustain
- a monthly blog you actually publish beats a weekly one you abandon in March.
Enough channels to catch the buying group
- typically paid, organic social, email and your website, working together rather than in isolation.
Then leave it running. Measure over quarters, not weeks. Resist the urge to switch it off the second one month looks flat.
Marketing builds on itself. Stop-start doesn't. Every time you turn the tap off, you're paying to warm the same audience up all over again next time.
Your competitors who never switched off? They're already three touches ahead of you.
Frequently asked questions
Why does our lead flow dry up as soon as a campaign ends?
Because one-off campaigns behave like a tap: turn them on and leads might trickle out, turn them off and the pipeline stops instantly. The audience that was warmed up goes cold once activity ends, and buyers who weren't ready at the exact moment the campaign ran are simply missed. The fix is an always-on, multi-touch, multi-channel approach that keeps running underneath any specific campaign, rather than relying on isolated bursts of activity.
How many touches does it typically take before a Microsoft partner buyer makes a decision?
The article makes clear that nobody buys on the first touch, especially for something like Copilot, a security assessment or a modern work migration, which involves a budget line, an internal champion, an IT stakeholder and often procurement sign-off. That decision gets made over months, across a mix of people, after they've seen your name enough times to trust it, for example through a blog, a forwarded webinar, a social post and a well-timed follow-up email.
Why do we need to market across multiple channels rather than focusing on one?
Because your buying group isn't in one place. An IT director might live on LinkedIn, a finance lead probably doesn't, a technical champion reads forums and vendor docs, and a CEO skims email on their phone. Running a single-channel campaign bets your whole quarter on everyone being in the same place at the same time, which they aren't. The same message landing in a few different places over a sustained period builds recognition; one channel shouting once builds nothing.
Have Microsoft's Co-op funding rules changed how partners should plan campaigns?
Yes. For FY27, Microsoft folded most demand generation into one category, paid media with a multi-touch campaign, which requires a paid anchor plus at least two supporting activities such as a landing page, email, content or SEO, all running as one campaign. Standalone social or website claims no longer pass. This means Microsoft has effectively written the multi-channel requirement directly into the Co-op rules, pushing partners towards the always-on approach anyway.
What does an always-on marketing approach actually look like in practice?
It needs three things: a consistent core message stated the same way everywhere so touches build on each other, a rhythm you can genuinely sustain (a monthly blog you actually publish beats a weekly one abandoned in March), and enough channels to catch the buying group, typically paid, organic social, email and the website working together. It should then be left running and measured over quarters, not switched off the moment one month looks flat.
Is it better to spend Co-op funds on one big campaign or spread across the half?
Spreading it works better. Blowing an entire allocation on one event and then going quiet until months later is technically using the funds, but it doesn't build anything. The article recommends planning the half, or even the year, putting a foundational piece such as strong messaging or research in place, and then feeding it out across channels for months, so work commissioned early in the year is still earning its keep later on.