Meenakshi Nilakantan, Senior Manager of Field Marketing EMEA at Sirion, shares her journey from working on content creation, digital marketing, events, and campaigns to leading global B2B marketing initiatives across geographies. She discusses the evolution of field marketing beyond events, building creative yet data-driven campaigns, aligning GTM and content strategies, and creating prospect and customer experiences that drive engagement, opportunities, and measurable business impact.
It’s a pleasure to host you for this interview, Meenakshi. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as a marketer.
Hi. Pleasure to be here, and thanks a lot for having me. B2B marketing need not always be boring. That’s the way I have handled marketing in my career so far. I started as a Java coder and quickly realized that marketing is my true calling. I have 13 years of experience in B2B marketing/communications, encompassing field marketing, content, events, branding, sales enablement, product marketing, digital marketing, influencer marketing, partner marketing, customer marketing, and ABM. I have been fortunate to have worked with IT giants like Capgemini, Hexaware, and WNS, and have also confidently handled marketing strategies for more agile SaaS-based companies. I have worked with teams across geos like the US, EMEA & APAC. Currently, I lead all the marketing initiatives for the EMEA geography for Sirion, a CLM solution provider.
In today’s GTM-oriented structure, how has the role of field marketing evolved?
Field marketing is no longer about just events. Though events are very crucial in the larger scheme of things (and form almost 80% of the work we do), field marketing today encompasses a wider range of activities like events, webinars, regional campaigns, regional content, customer advocacy, and partner programs, to name a few. Also, when it comes to events, businesses have started looking at vanity metrics beyond mere booth presence and leads generated to ensure the right messages are sent out, relevant conversations are had, creative content is curated, solid opportunities are created, and product activation programs are conducted. So quality over quantity, which is great news for us all.
How do you approach creating and nurturing lead generation campaigns?
I follow a simple rule. Research, create, distribute, repeat. Be it any channel, it is important to ensure that marketers understand the audience first, look at relevant channels, and then start creating content to meet the audience’s pain points. And most importantly, keep distributing and promoting. Also, events give access to a lot of ICP data. How you are able to nurture those contacts through the right campaigns and ensure they are engaged and communicated with in close collaboration with other stakeholders like Sales, Alliances, Presales, and SDRs is what truly separates great marketers from the average ones.
You recently attended the DPW event in Amsterdam. What were your key takeaways from the event?
DPW is a powerhouse when it comes to events. As a marketer working on events day in and day out, the 3 key things that really stood out were
- Event experience matters the most: Just getting people to an event is great, but no longer sufficient. How you engage with them, make the event useful to them, and let them learn from their peers and industry experts while having a lot of fun and understanding your brand better along the way are crucial differentiators. So, make it fun while being educational. Think interactive sessions, fun pictures/giveaways, powerful speakers, speed networking, breakout sessions, and side events, to name a few.
- Make it about them: Putting the focus on your own brand is easy and is very commonly seen at many events. But think about this—why will an attendee attend your event just to hear you speak about yourself all the time? How do you put the focus back on the attendees and let them take back some value out of events? That is what really makes an event tick.
- Gather and work on data: Though this may seem a little naive, tracking every engagement and activity when it comes to thousands of attendees seamlessly without seeming annoying is an art. And once you have this goldmine of data with you, think what possibilities could open up to promote, upsell, and cross-sell your products. Not to mention, multiple avenues to promote your content, too.
“The most important aspect for marketers today is balancing creativity with relevancy—that’s what helps you truly stand out.”
What’s your approach to crafting content that resonates with target audiences while driving business outcomes? How does this change when you work across geographies?
The key here is relevance, which can come from discussions with customers (decision makers as well as influencers), partners, and thought leaders. There is another layer of “regional nuances” that gets added, especially when you shift from one geo to another. So understanding the pain points or the trigger points that will help your audience take note is crucial. Then the second bit is about distributing the content through the right channels, be it through relevant partner networks, industry bodies, webinars, or events.
Tell us about your most challenging yet meaningful marketing campaign experience. Any specific regional campaign that you can share with us?
One recent example that I can quote is how we, as a team, were able to get a lot of prescheduled meetings at an important event through a multi-pronged approach. So we used channels like paid campaigns, LinkedIn, emails, organic social, SDR outreach, and event apps to ensure that the prospects are seeing us everywhere at a regular frequency and pace. Also, since we were promoting an event in a specific region, we had to be smart to target the folks who were likely to come to the event. The challenge was, of course, to narrow down on the relevant folks, but once the outreach began and we started talking to people, we were ultimately able to get to the right people. Considering all the investment that goes into conferences, such pre-scheduled meetings immensely help create buzz and opportunities even before the team arrives on-site.
Which key metrics do you focus on when measuring the success of your marketing campaigns?
Marketing has evolved (thankfully) from focusing on vanity metrics like leads. We look at account coverage, opportunities generated, opportunity stage movements, engagement levels (how many people we engaged), engagement depth (how engaged those people were), influence over closed-won accounts, etc. Closing opportunities is now a collaborative effort across teams.
What is your advice for aspiring marketers on developing the right skills and mindset?
The most important aspect for marketing or field marketing enthusiasts would be to balance creativity with relevancy. We often say B2B cannot be like B2C, which is true, but you can definitely stand out if done the right way. Also, a few hacks like listening to sales calls, conducting win/loss calls, analyzing competitors, following thought leaders, and working closely with local partners can work wonders. There is a lot of hype around AI currently. Using AI as a sounding board and research partner but ultimately using your judgment, writing skills, and creativity is what will separate you from your peers. And yes, keep learning and adapting to changing circumstances. Agility is key in a volatile yet exciting journey of marketing.
About Meenakshi Nilakantan
With over a decade of experience in global B2B marketing, Meenakshi Nilakantan has led award-winning initiatives across content, digital, events, product marketing, and GTM strategy. Currently leading marketing for EMEA at Sirion, she’s passionate about blending creativity with data to craft meaningful brand stories that drive engagement and business impact. Her expertise spans field marketing, regional marketing, ABM, sales enablement, partner marketing, customer advocacy, and campaign management across the USA, Europe, the Middle East, and APAC geographies.
