Field Notes with Deepika Vani, Senior Manager of Field Marketing for Whatfix

Please tell us a bit about what you do and your role.
Hello, everyone. My name is Deepika, and I lead the North America Field Marketing initiatives at Whatfix. I have about 7 years of experience in regional marketing, and I’m currently the Senior Manager of Field Marketing at Whatfix, a B2B SaaS digital adoption platform that provides in-app guidance and performance support for web applications and software products. Before this, I was with Freshworks, leading regional marketing for India & APAC region. In my role, I oversee field marketing campaigns and on-ground initiatives, focusing on crafting multi-channel campaigns that drive thought leadership, enhance brand awareness, and generate pipeline and revenue for the North American region. I work very closely with the sales teams to understand their prospects and strategies for comprehensive field marketing initiatives that aim to deliver high-quality leads and ultimately contribute to our pipeline and revenue targets.

As for how I got into field marketing, it all began with sales enablement and product marketing. I initially helped build some of the foundational pieces for field marketing teams, and I really liked what they were doing. I gave it a shot, and there was no looking back. It was a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but I soon found myself thriving in this dynamic environment of field marketing, and I’ve been passionate about it ever since. So, I’m quite excited to share my experiences and insights with you today.

I love how you got really passionate about something you didn’t expect to find so much depth in. So, what is your sales and marketing focus at the moment?
At Whatfix, our primary field marketing team operates with a very clear goal: to create demand. Our focus is to boost the pipeline and drive revenue for our sales team. We do this by creating and nurturing leads through targeted marketing campaigns and engaging prospects throughout their buying journey. We design and execute marketing campaigns tailored to specific segments of our audience. These campaigns are crafted based on our customers’ needs and behaviors, ensuring that the messaging resonates with the right people at the right time.

Besides this, organising and managing events is a crucial part of our strategy. Whether it’s virtual roundtables, webinars, in-person roadshows, or industry conferences, we create events that provide valuable content and foster meaningful interactions between our team and potential customers. These events are designed to showcase our solutions and build relationships with our prospects.

That’s very interesting! Since we’re talking about events, how do you define success in these types of field marketing events or in field marketing in general?
There are multiple ways to measure success, right? Lately, everyone’s been talking about ROI from marketing campaigns. The best way to measure success is direct ROI. There have been many instances where we run multiple marketing campaigns with multiple touchpoints, but attributing direct revenue, pipeline, or sales to these campaigns is crucial.

We do this in multiple ways. At Whatfix, we use a multi-touch attribution model, where we see if a lead has had multiple touchpoints, such as submitting a demo request or attending one of our events or webinars, and then coming into our pipeline. So, there are multiple ways to track this, and that’s how we’ve been measuring success so far.

I love what you said about multi-touchpoints because that’s one of the topics we covered in a recent Ortus Club internal roundtable. It can be challenging to identify where a lead comes from when they’ve interacted in multiple ways. Since we’re talking about challenges, what would you say is the biggest challenge in field marketing today?
One of the biggest challenges I’ve been facing recently is converting virtual event attendees. During COVID, there was a huge spike in virtual events and webinars, and we all pivoted to digital engagement platforms. For example, at Whatfix, we hosted about 150 virtual events in 2020, including a three-day virtual summit. At that time, it was the primary way to connect with our audience, and we saw good conversion rates.

But with almost every brand out there doing webinars, prospects are now probably invited to hundreds of webinars, resulting in saturation. This has shown up in our engagement and conversion rates as well. To overcome this, we had to get creative, bringing people back to human interactions and offering our audience interesting experiences beyond just their laptops and mobile devices. I felt there was an overload of digital content during those two years, and now people aren’t engaging as much as they used to.

That’s a great point, especially considering the volume of events. Congratulations on hosting so many! Since we’re talking about successful field marketing, can you share a particularly successful marketing campaign your team recently executed?
Absolutely. This is something close to my heart as well. One standout campaign recently was our Roadshow series, which we rolled out earlier this year in major cities like New York, Chicago, and Houston. These were half-day in-person events where customers and prospects socialised in an informal setting—more engagement, less presentation, and no feature-dumping. What really set this campaign apart was the unique experiences we offered. For example, in Chicago, we hosted our event at Wrigley Field, the iconic home of the Cubs. We arranged a tour of the stadium, which added an extra layer of value beyond just presentations.

The real strength of these roadshows was that they allowed prospects to hear directly from our customers about their experiences without a direct sales pitch. This helped accelerate our sales pipeline by building credibility through real customer interactions. These specialised events are cost-effective and curated, offering a distinct advantage over larger, more overwhelming trade shows. We’ve seen great success with this initiative in North America, and we’re expanding it globally now.

That’s really impressive—congratulations on leading such a successful initiative! How did you measure the ROI of these events?
There are several touchpoints that we track. One is prospects who are already in our existing pipeline. If we’re able to convert them into a sales-qualified lead or move them to the next step, we measure that as a successful outcome from the event. This applies not just to prospects but also to business development, sales partnerships, and even customer upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

It sounds like your team works closely together on this. How does your company stay ahead of its competitors in terms of marketing?
We stay ahead of our competitors by adopting a bottom-up approach to our marketing strategy. Instead of focusing primarily on engaging decision-makers at the C-suite level, we also target a broader range of personas, including end users of our products. These users often play a crucial role in advocating for our solutions within their organisations, and their influence can significantly impact the decision-making process. By focusing on both users and decision-makers, we improve our understanding of different personas and enhance our ability to drive engagement and adoption across various levels within an organisation.

That’s a great point—understanding all levels of the organisation can be key to long-term success. In your opinion, what’s the biggest opportunity for field marketers today that might not have been available in the past?
The biggest opportunity for field marketers today is personalised engagement at scale. In the past, field marketing often relied on broad outreach or mass email campaigns. But today, with tools that provide insights into customer behaviour and preferences, we can position our offerings more relevantly. For example, leveraging CRM data, ABM tools, and marketing automation platforms allows us to segment our audiences effectively and deliver customised messages.

Additionally, hybrid events have emerged as a key differentiator post-pandemic. They allow us to engage with both in-person and remote participants, offering a more flexible and inclusive experience than traditional events. The combination of personalised technology and immersive experiential tech for hybrid events presents a transformative opportunity for field marketers.

I completely agree—personalisation and technology are crucial for modern marketing. Moving to our last two questions, what career advice would you give to someone starting in marketing? And are there any marketing courses you’d recommend?
My advice is to prioritise enhancing the customer experience over chasing the latest trends or technology innovations. While staying informed is important, it’s essential to focus on how these advancements can improve the way you serve customers. I’d also emphasise engaging regularly with your audience through events, webinars, and even listening in on sales calls. This helps you better understand your customers’ evolving needs.

As for courses, while education is important, I believe experience matters more. Learning by doing and improving through trial and error is key. I’ve done a few LinkedIn courses and networked with people, but real growth comes from executing campaigns end-to-end, learning from mistakes, and course-correcting as needed.

That’s excellent advice. Last question: How would you describe the role of a field marketer in one word, and why?
Integrator. A field marketer integrates various marketing tactics—be it events, content, or data analysis—to align business objectives and engage target audiences effectively. This role involves coordinating across different channels and teams to create a cohesive marketing approach that drives results.

I love that word choice—it really captures the collaborative nature of the role. Thank you so much, Deepika, for sharing your insights and taking part in this series of field notes from Ortus Club.