How Varonis Drove 40% Growth by Rebuilding Demand Gen into a Strategic Growth Engine

Nicole Gates didn’t just scale pipeline. She rewired the marketing org to drive real growth.

When Nicole Gates joined Varonis, she was their first-ever demand generation hire. Today, she’s the VP of Global Growth Marketing—and the architect behind a cross-functional strategy that helped deliver 40% revenue growth.

In a recent Game Changers live session, Nicole shared how she transitioned from managing campaigns to leading a growth engine that connects content, ops, digital, brand, and demand into one tightly aligned function.

Here’s what we learned from the conversation.

From Demand Gen Manager to VP of Growth

Nicole started where many marketers do: focused on pipeline. But as she gained visibility across teams, it became clear that silos were limiting impact.

“Everyone was running in different directions,” Nicole said. “We had content, social, and digital spread across different teams—and no shared focus.”

She saw an opportunity not just to run campaigns, but to orchestrate strategy across functions. As her role evolved, so did the structure of the team—rolling content, digital marketing, ops, and social into one unified growth org.

What Growth Marketing Actually Means

In a world where “growth marketing” often gets thrown around like a buzzword, Nicole offered a refreshingly grounded take.

“Growth marketing isn’t a hack or a template. It’s understanding where the business needs to grow—and building the right strategy to support that.”

For Varonis, that meant moving beyond a pure pipeline obsession. While pipeline remains her core KPI, Nicole emphasized the importance of soft signals—brand sentiment, social engagement, even direct feedback from LinkedIn—as critical growth indicators.

She also stressed that brand, content, and top-of-funnel plays are essential growth drivers, not nice-to-haves.

“We started hearing in sales calls that prospects didn’t know about our new products. That was a wake-up call. Brand became a lever for growth.”

The Plays That Drove 40% Revenue Growth

So what fueled the 40% jump?

It wasn’t a single campaign. It was focus.

Nicole’s team built systems to analyze pipeline sources and identify what worked. Webinars emerged as a top performer—not just for leads, but as a central content pillar that powered paid, organic, and retargeting campaigns.

“Webinars are our best-performing channel. They help us test messaging, drive conversion, and create content for every other channel.”

They also doubled down on cross-functional alignment. Field marketing, demand gen, content, and brand all now operate with a shared strategy—and collaborate through campaign “hubs” that combine regional, digital, and experiential tactics.

What’s Next: Thought Leadership, Advocacy, and Influencers

Looking ahead, Nicole is leaning into three plays:

• Thought leadership: Building Varonis’ POV through internal experts
• Employee advocacy: Empowering teams to amplify brand reach on social
• Influencer marketing (cybersecurity-style): Partnering with niche creators on Substack, YouTube, and Reddit

“We’re not looking for TikTok stars. We’re working with people who already influence the cybersecurity conversation.”

Nicole said it best:

“Growth marketing is just… good marketing. It’s strategic. It’s cross-functional. And it’s focused on driving outcomes, not just output.”

For companies looking to evolve their GTM strategy, her story is a masterclass in how to turn a fragmented function into a unified growth engine.