Welcome to the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence.

On today’s episode, Carrie Maurer joins host Sara Payne for a candid exploration of marketing’s impact in complex B2B environments where buying cycles are long, decisions are high stakes, and the revenue impact of marketing matters more than ever. With over 25 years as a CMO and growth leader working alongside CEOs in large enterprises, high-growth companies, and startups, Carrie is uniquely positioned to offer a real-world perspective on how marketing can—and must—operate as a genuine driver of revenue in regulated, highly complex industries.

The episode is anchored around one crucial question: If marketing disappeared tomorrow, would revenue actually suffer? Together, Sara and Carrie dig into what it means for marketing to be accountable to revenue, as opposed to simply activity or awareness metrics. They explore how marketing’s influence goes beyond campaigns or messaging, and instead is about aligning strategy, operations, and storytelling so that growth can happen.

Carrie brings clarity to the often-overlooked design problems that prevent marketing from impacting revenue, emphasizing the importance of leadership decisions, system design, and cross-functional accountability. The conversation moves from practical signals of marketing’s real impact—like buyer momentum and internal champion empowerment—to the nuances of strategic partnership between sales and marketing, and the discipline of sequencing growth activities. Rounding out the episode, Sara and Carrie discuss the value of patience as a strategic advantage and the critical need for marketing to measure and influence decision movement, not just attention.

Thank you for joining the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence. The future of B2B marketing depends on it.

Key Takeaways:

1. Marketing’s True Accountability Is to Revenue, Not Activity
2. Carrie challenges marketing leaders to reconsider what they measure. Activity metrics—like campaign impressions, downloads, or event attendance—are visible and controllable, but they signal motion, not movement. The real test of marketing’s impact is whether it drives revenue by helping decisions progress within the buyer’s and seller’s organizations.
3. Design Problems Need Leadership Decisions and System Alignment
4. If marketing’s absence wouldn’t affect revenue, it’s not a failure of people but a sign that marketing hasn’t been designed to influence where decisions are made. Fixing this requires leadership choices around scope, structure, priorities, and operating models—not just more marketing effort.
5. Strategic Partnership Between Sales and Marketing Is Essential
6. For marketing to have a revenue impact, it must sit at the strategic table with sales, product, and operations. When marketing has commercial fluency—understanding the product, competitive landscape, buyer environment, and internal business case dynamics—it strengthens sales teams, empowers internal champions, and helps navigate complexities that stall high-stakes decisions.
7. Sequencing and Patience Are Strategic Advantages in B2B Growth
8. In complex sales cycles, the discipline of sequencing—guiding both buyer and seller

Welcome to the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence.

On today’s episode, Sara Payne welcomes Robin Goldsmith, practice leader for Verizon’s healthcare domain practice and host of the “Healthcare on Air” podcast. With more than two decades of experience spanning patient engagement, media, data analytics, and digital transformation, Robin Goldsmith shares his unique perspective from the frontlines of healthcare marketing innovation. This conversation explores what it takes to lead through moments when the pace of innovation outstrips understanding—and the old playbook no longer works.

Throughout the episode, Sara and Robin discuss what it feels like to drive (and survive) fundamental change in healthcare, the challenges and surprises of shifting entrenched practices, market readiness for innovation, and the evolving role of marketing leadership as technology transforms how care is delivered and experienced. From navigating resistance and cultivating trust to finding simplicity in complex solutions, this episode is packed with actionable insights for marketing and leadership professionals at every stage of healthcare transformation.

Thank you for being part of the Health Marketing Collective. The future of healthcare depends on strong, innovative leadership and marketing excellence.

Key Takeaways

1. Change Management Requires Courage, Storytelling, and Customer Focus

Robin recalls the shift from broad campaigns to data-driven marketing at Everyday Health and CrossX, highlighting that guiding organizations through change demands leaders to step out of their comfort zones. Success hinges on the ability to weave a compelling, benefit-driven narrative and keep the end customer—whether patient or practitioner—at the forefront of every strategy (03:53).

1. Market Readiness Is Critical for Innovation Success

Innovations in healthcare marketing only flourish when the market is fundamentally ready for change. Robin emphasizes the importance of identifying early adopters and mapping out educational phases to gradually build acceptance and momentum. Pushing the market too soon often results in resistance; thoughtful go-to-market strategies, incremental testing, and understanding organizational priorities are essential (06:24).

1. Building Trust—Not Just Change—Drives Adoption

Trust is the foundation for any successful transition in healthcare marketing. Teams must anticipate objections, map customer concerns, and create easy on-ramps for testing new strategies. Robin notes that allowing incremental adoption and being honest about failure builds genuine trust with stakeholders, crucial for long-term success (10:02).

1. Simplicity Over Complexity in Messaging

Both speakers reflect on the challenges of communicating complex technological and strategic shifts. Simplicity in messaging—distilling narratives to their essence—improves understanding, buy-in, and word-of-mouth advocacy. Overcomplicating dilutes impact and drives disengagement, especially within large organizations or when rolling out innovative solutions (14:03).

1. Marketing Leadership Must Be Elevated in Times of Change

As healthcare changes faster than ever—accelerated by the pandemic, new technology, and shifting consumer expectations—Robin advocates for marketing leadership to have a seat at the strategic table. By shaping narratives,...

1. Clarity and Simplicity Win During Disruption: Holly emphasized that, especially in transformative moments, more information is not necessarily better. Instead, marketers should focus on clear, simple messages delivered through trusted voices. Avoid the trap of excessive complexity and lean on simplicity to help audiences—whether internal teams, clients, or consumers—truly understand and connect with your story.
2. Building a Timeless, Elastic Narrative: Great narratives answer the basics: who you are, what you do, and the value you deliver. Holly shared Included Health’s approach of selecting familiar but meaningful words that are aspirational enough to grow with the company, yet grounded in today’s reality. Successful messaging is both “speakable” (easy for everyone to use in conversation) and emotionally charged—capable of rallying both employees and customers.
3. Buzzwords Alone Don’t Differentiate: In a marketplace saturated with terms like “integrated care” and “whole person health,” standing out requires more than industry jargon. Holly described how Included Health extends buzzwords with clear, ownable language—such as “mind, body, wallet support”—to spark genuine curiosity and make their value proposition concrete and memorable.
4. Internal Alignment Is a Process—Not an Event: Achieving strong company-wide adoption of a new narrative demands intentional rollout: from partnering with the CEO and leadership, to department-level rollouts, all-company meetings, and hands-on workshops. Holly advised that embracing new language often feels awkward and requires letting go of comfortable legacy terms, but it’s necessary to position the organization for where it’s going—not where it’s been.
5. Harness AI for Both Efficiency and Strategy—And Use It as a Feedback Loop: Holly described Included Health’s integrated approach to AI: using tools like Writer for generating content “catalogs” that meet both audience needs and channel requirements, while...