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

Summary

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MarTech Podcast™ – Episode Summary

Episode Title: What’s the question every board asks that most marketers aren’t ready for?
Date: May 1, 2026
Host: Benjamin Shapiro
Guest: Ruth Zive, Chief Marketing Officer, Voices

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Overview

In this episode, Benjamin Shapiro interviews Ruth Zive, CMO of Voices—a leading platform powering voice experiences for 60,000+ enterprise customers. The central discussion revolves around a critical boardroom question: What is the ROI of marketing investments? Ruth shares her perspective from years of executive marketing experience, revealing how marketers can better demonstrate value, establish measurable goals, and bridge the challenging gap between brand building and bottom-line results.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Boardroom’s Most Challenging Question

[02:55]

• Ruth Zive identifies the perennial question almost every board asks:

  "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."
  — Ruth Zive, [02:55]

• She emphasizes the necessity for marketers to clearly connect their activities to business value, especially revenue:

  "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."
  — Ruth Zive, [03:21]

2. Balancing Measurable ROI with Brand Awareness

[03:40]

• Benjamin acknowledges common sentiment: measurement is essential, but marketing isn't always about immediate clicks or sales:

  “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.”
  — Benjamin Shapiro, [03:40]

• He presses Ruth on how to reconcile ROI focus with the need for less tangible brand investments.

3. How to Measure the Immeasurable

[04:15]

• Ruth introduces the concept of “air cover”—brand-building efforts supporting demand generation and direct revenue actions.

• Her advice: Always measure something meaningful, even if not directly tied to immediate outcomes.

  “Establish something that you can measure, something that your CEO and your board can buy into...it might be outputs vs. outcomes.”
  — Ruth Zive, [04:24]

• Examples:

  • PR: Track “Tier 1 mentions.”
  • Social media: Track follower growth.

• She cautions: If those metrics don’t correlate to revenue in the long term, it’s a sign to reassess investment, but at least data is being collected for decision-making.

  “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.”
  — Ruth Zive, [04:47]

• Pillars for success:

  • Be as data-oriented as possible.
  • Avoid overcomplicating—pick clear, impactful metrics.
  • Secure CEO buy-in and regularly report to the board.

4. Not Everything Can—Or Should—Tie Directly to Revenue

[05:35]

• Benjamin reaffirms the value of also tracking pre-revenue, top-of-funnel activities:

  “Not everything should be tied directly to revenue. There are some activities we do that are pre-revenue activities and us as marketers...tend to try to push everything towards demand generation and that's just not really how the best marketing works.”
  — Benjamin Shapiro, [05:35]

5. The Role of Voice in Marketing

[05:50]

• As the conversation concludes, Benjamin circles back to the emerging importance of voice technology in marketing, thanking Ruth for insights into integrating voice into contemporary strategies.

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Notable Quotes

• “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.”
  — Ruth Zive, [02:55]

• “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.”
  — Ruth Zive, [03:21]

• “Establish something that you can measure, something that your CEO and your board can buy into...it might be outputs vs outcomes.”
  — Ruth Zive, [04:24]

• “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.”
  — Ruth Zive, [04:47]

• “Not everything should be tied directly to revenue... that's just not really how the best marketing works.”
  — Benjamin Shapiro, [05:35]

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• [02:55] Ruth reveals the board's ROI question and its career implications for marketers.
• [03:40] Benjamin challenges the focus on ROI in brand investments.
• [04:15-05:10] Ruth offers actionable advice on measuring brand and “air cover” activities.
• [05:35] Benjamin advocates for the value of pre-revenue marketing tactics.
• [05:50] Return to the growing influence of voice in marketing strategies.

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Takeaways for Marketers

• Always be prepared to justify marketing spend in business terms, especially revenue.
• Even with less tangible brand activities, select measurable outputs that are meaningful for your leadership team.
• Balance your focus: Blend long-term brand building with metrics-driven performance marketing.
• Open, regular communication with the board and executive leadership is key to securing ongoing investment in marketing.

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For more on Ruth Zive and Voices, visit voices.com.
Catch further episodes and resources at MarTechPod.com.

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

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 iheareverything.com.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

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. Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising. Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours. 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.

[Podcast Announcer]

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 you technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro

[Benjamin Shapiro]

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 Today's interview is brought to you by Shift Paradigm. Marketing today is buried in complexity. You've got the tech, you've got the tools, but moving the needle feels harder than ever. And the last thing us marketers need is another consultant pitching digital transformation. Enter Shift Paradigm Shift is an integrated team of experts who help enterprise brands turn complexity into traction. Their work is insight led and strategically grounded, designed not to sell you a service or a piece of tech, but to actually solve real business challenges. What makes them different? Well, they're AI enabled but not AI dependent. They're human first, but plugged into the latest tools and models and the moments those models need to go through to prove themselves. They get techy without losing sight of the real person behind every click. And they don't just hand you a deck, they build the blueprints and stay to develop, deploy and run the engine. Growth isn't one size fits all, so stop settling for strategies that collect dust and start working with the team that actually builds for you. Visit ShiftParadigm.com to see how they can help you connect meaningfully with your audience. That's ShiftParadigm.com 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.

[Ruth Zive]

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.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

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 and 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.

[Ruth Zive]

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, MQL's 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. 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 1 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. 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.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

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 B2B 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.

[Ruth Zive]

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

[Benjamin Shapiro]

A special thanks to Shift Paradigm for sponsoring this podcast. Shift is an integrated team of experts who help enterprise brands bridge the gap between strategy data and customers. Human first, AI enabled and execution led. They build the blueprints, then stay to develop, deploy and run the engine you need. So stop settling for decks that collect dust and start working with a team that actually builds for you. Visit ShiftParadigm.com to see how they can help you connect meaningfully with with your audience. All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Ruth Zaid, 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 where we 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.

[Podcast Announcer]

Foreign 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 iheareverything.com.