A results-driven marketing professional with over 10 years' experience with a commercially focused attitude that has effectively driven strategy and market positioning for growing scale up companies. Highly experienced in the planning and creative execution of end-to-end integrated marketing campaigns across multiple channels, with a particular focus on SaaS and customer experience solutions.


Specialties: B2B marketing, campaign management, marketing budget management, sales collateral, events management, acquisition, stakeholder management, agency relationship management

Fran Langham

Varonis

•Oversee and manage four teams: Demand Generation, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing + Marketing Operations

Senior Director of Global Demand Generation

• Increased inbound & paid marketing-sourced opportunities by 62% YoY
• Increased target account demo request submissions by 74% YoY
• Grew database for new market by 127% in one year

Key Responsibilities:
• Design & lead a comprehensive demand generation strategy for key business initiatives
• Work closely with Product Marketing to define go-to-market strategies and content needs for product launches
• Develop & track comprehensive metrics and advise on the effectiveness & future direction marketing campaigns & spending
• Grew Demand Gen team from 1 to 5, including adding the Content Marketing team under my management
• Assist in the development of content marketing & thought leadership programs, overseeing all promotional planning in support of these programs
• Optimize targeting, creative, media, and budget allocation to maximize effectiveness & ROI
• Define & manage program budgets

Director of Global Demand Generation

Mongoose

• Increased marketing-generated new revenue from 25% to 73% YOY
• Increased marketing-sourced new opportunities from 10% to 50% in my first 12 months
• Generated over $1 million in new revenue from webinar strategy in 2021
• Shortened sales cycle of marketing-sourced opportunities from 5 months to 2 - 3 months
• Implemented webinar series & higher ed community initiative that has over 2000 registrants & 200+ live attendees at each session 

Key Responsibilities:
• Oversee execution of strategic marketing initiatives including demand generation, product marketing, market research, brand marketing, and more
• Report to CEO & work directly with the Executive Leadership team to identify areas of opportunity for growth, articulate marketing initiatives, and offer solutions to business problems
• Collaborate frequently with Product, Sales, and Client Success teams
• Build, scale & manage a high-performing marketing team of 7
• Coach & mentor team members, ensuring career development & maximum use of the team’s talents

Director of Marketing

Columbus McKinnon

• Increased online RFQs by 78% in first 12 months
• Increased targeted database users by 45% in first 12 months
• Led the redesign for Columbus McKinnon's global enterprise website, consolidating over 40 regional websites
• Received Employee of the Month Award in February 2020 & December 2020

Key duties include:
• Primary internal digital marketing expert, driving global collaboration & alignment across all business units & regions
• Oversaw deployment, integration, and operating model for marketing technology stack that includes HubSpot Marketing Hub, EpiServer, inRiver, LearnUpon, Oracle CRM, and Google Analytics
• Developed campaigns and executed go-to-market strategies; aligning with direction articulated by stakeholders for both short & long-term business objectives
• Led the North American marketing team responsible for content marketing, social media, demand generation, brand marketing & communication, PR, and analytics
• Communicated new campaigns to the executive team, highlighting met goals, forecasting KPIs, and setting a clear vision for the department
• Measured & reported performance of all digital marketing campaigns, analyzing industry & campaign data, to create an informed & market-led marketing strategy
• Founding member & Enterprise Leadership Council for Columbus McKinnon’s first Employee Resource Group, WIN (Women's Influence Network)

Digital Marketing Manager, North America

World Business & Executive Coach Summit (WBECS)

• Served as organization's marketing leader, managing a global team of over 20 people
• Increased Annual Summit Program revenue by 67% in first year
• Strategized & executed integrated and brand strategy for organization and individual program brands
• Increased brand awareness & demand generation via marketing initiatives including content, social media, SEO, paid social media, email & more

Marketing Director

PrivateFly

• Increased online bookings by 79% in first 12 months
• Increased PPC conversion rate by 23% in first 12 months, while also reducing CPC & overall costs
• Coordinated with PR Agency to achieve corporate coverage in multiple publications including Travel+Leisure, CNN, Fox News & BuzzFeed

US Marketing Manager

Digital Marketing Executive

Guaranteed Rate

Social Media & Content Marketing Manager

Appraisal Desk Coordinator

Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Publications Intern

Demand Gen @ Varonis | B2B Marketing Strategist | Somewhat Funny Meme Creator

I'm an innovative & agile marketing leader with global experience in B2B SaaS for a variety of industries. I have expertise in demand generation, brand marketing, content & social media, and product marketing.

I have a Master's Degree in Strategic Marketing & Communications and have worked in both North America & EMEA. 

My strengths are in go-to-market strategies, team development, creative content & social media campaigns, and building online communities.

Nicole Gates

Marketing teams don't struggle because they lack ideas. 

They struggle because they lack conviction. 

Right now, we live in an era of infinite inputs: benchmarks, best practices, LinkedIn hot takes...

It's never been easier to know what everyone else is doing. And never been harder to decide what you stand for. 

Here's what I've learned leading marketing teams: 

Strategy isn't built by collecting inputs. It's built by making smart tradeoffs and knowing what to focus on. 

You can either: 
- Chase every channel 
- Test every trend
- React to every internal request

Or you can decide: 
- This is our ICP
- This is our narrative
- This is where we're placing our bets

Average marketing reacts. 
Strong marketing decides.

VP Marketing @ Varonis | Top Growth Voice to Follow | Occasionally Opinionated About B2B & Cybersecurity Marketing

When I saw that viral McDonald's CEO burger video, I immediately knew how they got there.

Because I’ve been there. And I'm sure most marketers also have.

Somewhere between scripting, rewrites & approvals, the video shifted.

And the people making decisions forgot who & what the video was for. 

Calling a burger a “product.”
Taking a careful, hesitant bite.
Speaking like you’re in an earnings call instead of a drive-thru.

This is what happens when leadership wants authenticity — but doesn’t empower the people who know how to create it.

So where did this go wrong? 

The 30 rounds of approvals the video probably went through. 

Committees feel safe. No one gets in trouble if something goes wrong.

But committees also turn great ideas into forgettable ones.

They remove risk — and memorability.
They optimize for internal comfort instead of audience resonance.

Most great marketing ideas don’t fail in the market.
They die in the approval chain.

If you hire smart marketers, trust them.

Trust them to shape the message.
To understand the channel. To know the audience.

And if leadership isn’t ready to hand over that trust?
Don’t force the trend.

Because great marketing can't be created by a committee.

Everyone is obsessed with optimization.

This hack for a 10% lift.
This tweak to conversion.
This AI workflow to improve efficiency.

And yes - optimization matters. But true growth won’t come from just a collection of small improvements stacked together.

I believe there are three stages of marketing maturity:

1. Activity
2. Optimization
3. Narrative

Stage 1 is activity.

Do more. Launch more. Produce more.
Teams look busy, but not necessarily strategic.

A lot of startups live here longer than they should.

Stage 2 is optimization - this is where most teams stall.

They get better at targeting, segmentation, reporting.
They improve performance.

But they never decide what they want to be known for.

And without that clarity? All the hacks eventually lose impact.

The real leap is Stage 3: building a narrative.

Owning the story.
Defining what you stand for.
Choosing what you’re willing to ignore.

That’s when marketing shifts from execution to influence.

Without narrative, optimization is just motion.
With narrative, it compounds.

taplio

The Battle

Fran Langham

Nicole Gates

Followers

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taplio

The Battle

Fran Langham

Nicole Gates

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nicole Gates's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNicole Gates's LinkedIn Performance