CMOs: The New Growth Architects—Maximizing Marketing’s Impact Beyond Brand
Marketing Isn’t a Cost Center. If It Is, You’re Being Left Out of Key Growth Conversations.
Let’s be real—healthcare marketing has long been defined by brand awareness and digital engagement. But your internal audience is missing the bigger picture if they focus on leads, clicks and impressions. Success today hinges on driving revenue, enhancing patient experience, and justifying budget allocations in an industry where every dollar is scrutinized.
The good news? According to research from HBR and McKinsey, CMOs who integrate marketing with operations and finance are 2X more likely to achieve 55% or more revenue growth. I’ve worked with health system leaders who have cracked this code, moving from marketing as a cost center to a strategic growth engine.
So, where do you start? Let’s break it down into four high-impact moves you can make today.
1. Prove Marketing ROI with Finance-Aligned Indicators
Gut Check: Are you still tracking “engagement metrics” or proving how marketing drives actual revenue?
Executives don’t speak in reach and lead generation; they speak in customer growth, revenue impact, cost savings, and operational efficiency. If marketing is going to get a bigger seat at the table, it needs to speak the language of finance.
Quick Wins:
- Align Marketing & Finance: Assign a marketing team member to work directly with finance. When marketing and finance co-own ROI reporting, the discussion shifts from marketing costs to revenue impacts.
- Rename Campaign Metrics: Instead of reporting on campaign clicks, track how marketing efforts convert into patient acquisition, engagement, and retention.
- Highlight Cost Savings: Show how digital engagement strategies (self-serve scheduling, AI chat, digital forms) reduce operational burden and keep clinician schedules full.
Next Step: If marketing generates demand, but access can’t schedule and schedules can’t handle it, where is the breakdown? Fixing these leaks protects your ROI.
2. Own the “Customer Insight Engine” Across Departments
Gut Check: Is your marketing team sitting at the strategy table or just taking campaign requests?
Marketing leaders in high-growth organizations don’t just create ads—they drive customer intelligence. When marketing, IT, operations, and finance work together, the customer experience becomes a growth driver, not just a brand asset.
Quick Wins:
- Create a Customer Growth Council: A cross-functional team ensures alignment between marketing, access, finance, and service line leaders so marketing insights drive smarter decision-making.
- Co-Own Growth Metrics: Align marketing with service line & access teams to ensure readiness for demand surges and new patient volumes generated by marketing.
- Sharpen Competitive Positioning: Use mystery shopping, social listening, and digital competitive analysis to ensure your brand differentiation is clear.
Next Step: Who else in your organization needs to co-own growth with marketing? Start by setting up a cross-functional growth meeting this quarter.
3. Outmaneuver Competitors by Controlling the Market Narrative
Gut Check: If a prospective patient mystery shopped you and a competitor, what would stand out?
Larger systems often outspend healthcare marketing teams, so how to compete? Opportunity: Own the story. The brand that defines the attractive and attachment oriented conversation wins.
Quick Wins:
- Leverage Clinician-Patient Storylines: Use real-life narratives to position your brand as the trusted authority. Showcase unique clinical expertise, outcomes, and differentiators.
- Monitor Competitor Digital Sentiment: Regularly review how competitors are positioning themselves online, including their calls to action, pricing, and messaging shifts.
- Dominate the Digital Frontline: Your web presence, reviews, and social engagement shift by the hour. Ensure you’re responding in real time and shaping how patients perceive your organization.
Next Step: When was the last time you mystery-shopped your own brand online? Try it this week and identify three areas for improvement.
4. Fix Conversion Bottlenecks & Ensure Marketing Efforts Translate to Growth
Gut Check: If marketing generates leads but 55% aren’t converted due to scheduling issues, what’s the fix?
A powerful marketing message means nothing if it leads patients to a broken process. The best CMOs aren’t just responsible for attracting patients—they ensure they convert and stay engaged.
Quick Wins:
- Track the Full Patient Journey: Identify where prospective patients drop off in the funnel and fix it. Are they calling but not booking? Booking but not showing up?
- Co-Own Scheduling & Access Metrics: Work with operations to ensure when marketing creates demand, the system can actually deliver.
- Use DX & Sentiment Analysis: Monitor real-time patient feedback, online sentiment, and NPS scores to refine your campaigns AND service delivery.
Next Step: Where is the biggest conversion bottleneck today? Fixing just one major drop-off point can unlock significant revenue potential.
Final Thoughts: Is Your Marketing Function Driving Growth? Let’s Find Out.
If marketing isn’t tied to revenue, it’s at risk of being seen as a non-essential function. Let’s change that.
- Want a quick benchmarking tool to see where your marketing stands? I can send you one.
- Need to talk through where your biggest marketing-to-growth gaps are? Let’s book 20 minutes to brainstorm.
- Interested in joining a small-group strategy session with other CMOs tackling this exact challenge? Let me know.
Let’s start today. Want to read more, or have a take 20 minutes to find ways forward? Marketing’s insights and assets are the first step to the customer experience, own the space! At BVK we would love to help.