What’s the question every board asks that most marketers aren’t ready for?

Board members demand ROI proof that most CMOs can't deliver. Ruth Zive, Chief Marketing Officer at Voices, explains how voice-first technology changes brand measurement fundamentals. She outlines performance-grade voice AI implementation across customer touchpoints and reveals why traditional marketing metrics fail in conversational AI environments. Ruth details specific frameworks for measuring brand impact when customers interact through voice rather than visual channels. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

• 0:36Speaker 02

  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

• 0:53Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's a host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

• 1:16Speaker 04

  I'm Benjamin Shapiro and joining me today is Ruth Zive, the Chief Marketing Officer at Voices. Voices works with over 60,000 enterprise customers, including Microsoft, BMW and Shopify to power their voice experiences across marketing, products and AI systems. And today Ruth is going to explain how you need to rethink brand building in a voice-first world. Last question, you've been a CMO four times. So what's the question every board asks the most that marketers aren't ready for?

• 1:47Speaker 05

  That's a great question and I'm not certain that I have a bulletproof answer, although I'm usually ready for the question. And that's, what's the ROI of the marketing investments that we're making? Show me that it's paying off. And that's not an easy one to answer, but marketers have to get very crisp about connecting those dots. And they need to be ready for that question. If they can't represent to the board how they're delivering value, and by the way, value means dollars, then they're going to be the first team that's cut when the going gets rough. So I think it's really important that marketing is always anchored on targets and goals that are revenue oriented.

• 2:32Speaker 04

  Let's talk through that a little bit because I've heard different stances on this where, yes, of course, we need to have an understanding of ROI in our investment. And that's a demand generation component of marketing. But a lot of what we do is making sure that we have brand and awareness, which in theory lowers our cost of acquisition over time, but it's really hard to track. So how do you think about, well, I need to be ROI focused when a lot of my investments now, A, don't drive a click, and B, are meant to get people to know, like, and trust me, not necessarily buy right away?

• 3:07Speaker 05

  So I think of brand investments as air cover for the revenue targets that we're chasing and some of those more measurable marketing activities like, you know, MQLs and pipeline. But even in the case of brand, establish something that you can measure, something that your CEO and your board can buy into. And it might be outcomes versus outputs.

• 3:33Speaker 05

  Sorry, it might be outputs versus outcomes. So in the case of PR, for instance, which is often a very costly investment, you might be measuring tier one mentions. In the case of social media, you might be measuring follower growth. But measure something that you can say that you're growing or improving that air cover over time. Now, of course, if those measurements don't correlate to revenue growth, you've got a problem. But at least you're measuring something and then you can make a determination if they're not paying off about how or where you want to cut back based on the data. So be as data oriented as you can.

• 4:16Speaker 05

  Don't try to boil the ocean. Pick the metrics that are impactful. And clear, get buy in from your CEO and then report regularly to the board along those lines.

• 4:27Speaker 04

  I couldn't agree more. You should have something to measure. I also think that not everything should be tied directly to revenue. There are some activities we do that are pre revenue activities and us as marketers, mostly on the B to B side, tend to try to push everything towards demand generation. And that's just not really how the best marketing works. That said, Ruth, voice, going back to our original conversation is something that is coming on fast, strong, hard. It is here and I appreciate you coming on the podcast and telling us a little bit about how to use voice in our marketing practices.

• 5:02Speaker 05

  Thank you. My pleasure. This has been a great conversation.

• 5:05Speaker 04

  All right. That wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Ruth Zive, the CMO of Voices for joining us. If you'd like to contact Ruth, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com. Or you could visit her company's website, which is voices.com. If you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or follow us on YouTube. We'll be back every week. All right. That's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

• 6:04Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast and I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand, then visit ihereverything.com.