EMEA Field Marketing and Lead Generation Case Study

I served as the EMEA Marketing Manager for Viavi (formerly Network Instruments) for an enterprise network performance management company, specialising in complex network performance data packet capture hardware and associated enterprise software. My primary challenge was to expand our regional footprint and drive revenue across diverse, multilingual markets—specifically the UK, Germany, France, and Italy. I needed to build a unified but localised marketing engine that could simultaneously strengthen channel partnerships and consistently fuel the sales pipeline.

Measurable Outcomes

• Strong pipeline growth across EMEA through integrated regional marketing campaigns.

• Consistent flow of qualified enterprise leads supporting regional sales teams.

• Higher engagement from senior decision-makers via targeted events and partner initiatives.

• Improved marketing-to-sales visibility with clearer pipeline contribution tracking.

The Context & Challenge

Selling high-value enterprise hardware and software involves complex, 8-month-long sales cycles. To succeed, the marketing function had to do more than just generate top-of-funnel awareness; it needed to deeply engage buying committees over long periods, continuously nurture prospects, and align perfectly with regional sales teams to ensure opportunities didn't stall out.

My Strategy & Execution

To capture market share and empower our regional partners, I architected an integrated, full-funnel marketing approach that combined highly targeted digital campaigns with high-touch experiential events.

• Experiential Event Marketing: I orchestrated a massive, multi-tiered event strategy designed to engage prospects and partners face-to-face. This included managing regional roadshows across 3 key countries (the UK, Germany, and France) with 4 targeted events in each country. To build global brand authority, I directed global annual conferences in major European hubs, including Paris and Frankfurt, and hosted 2 exclusive annual partner events in Munich. I also organised intimate executive dinners to connect directly with key stakeholders and decision-makers.

• EMEA Channel & Partner Enablement: I spearheaded the channel marketing strategy, collaborating closely with partners across Europe to execute localised co-op campaigns. In the UK, I managed partner engagement directly and championed the regional adoption of sales tools, creating training programs for partners, customers, and new employees to ensure the ecosystem was equipped to close the leads we generated.

• Content Generation & Social Media: I took a hands-on approach to marketing asset creation, leading the content writing and design. This custom content was repurposed across outbound email campaigns and targeted social media marketing promotions to maximise our reach and nurture prospects through long purchasing cycles.

• Digital Strategy & Paid Google Ads: To capture active market demand, I optimised our digital footprint through SEO and managed highly targeted paid Google AdWords campaigns. By tightly controlling our targeting and messaging, I was able to maximise the impact of our digital spend.

• MarTech Lead Generation Engine: I tied all tactical efforts into a comprehensive inbound and outbound lead generation system. I leveraged a powerful MarTech stack that included Salesforce Sales Cloud, Marketo, Eloqua, Rainking, and LinkedIn to track performance, align with regional sales teams, and provide concrete ROI reporting.

Highlighted Outcomes & Metrics

My integrated approach successfully bridged the gap between marketing and sales, delivering measurable pipeline growth and high-converting opportunities despite the lengthy enterprise sales cycles:

• High-Yield Pipeline Generation: Executed a highly efficient paid Google AdWords campaign with a lean spend of $1,000 per month for 3 months, which successfully generated over $500k in pipeline over the course of our 8-month sales cycles. ROAS of 166%

• Event-Driven Lead Volume: Generated over 400 qualified leads through the strategic execution of country-wide roadshows, global conference sponsorships, and targeted executive dinners.

• Social Media Campaign Execution: Developed and executed social media strategy in English (LinkedIn) and German (Xing) resulting in 20% increase in followers in the first year

• Exceptional Conversion Rates: Achieved a highly successful 30% conversion rate of generated leads into qualified sales opportunities, proving the quality of the demand generation engine and the effectiveness of our MarTech nurturing strategies

Customer Testimonials

“Tonya is very helpful in supporting our sales organization and our channel network in planning and organization of all marketing activities. We have had great success with our seminar series with couple of hundreds attendees and really great feedback. We as sales team were very happy that we were able to focus on sales activities, as Tonya took care of everything else. Tonya is a great person to work with. It has always been great pleasure.”

Ales Mahler, Account Executive

“Tonya, for me it is always a pleasure to work with you. Your structured planning and realization bring us mutual success, this motivates for new tasks. In addition, your multilingualism should be emphasized, your excellent German enables you to perform all processes and organizations in the German-speaking countries.”

Johann Tutsch, Viavi Family

Length of engagement: 7 years 3 months