The Hidden Potential of Marketing in Regulated Industries

By Brock Pernice 
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Connect with me on LinkedIn

For decades, marketing has been typecast as the creative wing of business, responsible for brand awareness, ad campaigns, and top-of-the-funnel activities. Meanwhile, sales teams, customer service departments, and other business units have taken the reins when it comes to revenue and growth. This is especially true in regulated industries, where stringent compliance requirements and legacy infrastructures make change feel risky, slow, and daunting.

But here’s the truth every growth marketer knows all too well: marketing is capable of so much more.

Marketing, when empowered, is not just a storytelling function; it’s a growth engine. It has the tools, data, and creative strategies to drive outcomes at every stage of the customer lifecycle—from lead identification and conversion to nurturing loyal, long-term customers. Yet, in many organizations I’ve observed, marketing struggles to break free from its outdated role as an awareness powerhouse, leaving sales and retention teams to shoulder the weight of tangible business growth.

Why? Because marketing, in most cases, still operates under conditions that limit its evolution.

The Barriers Holding Marketing Back

Recent research conducted with senior marketing leaders from Fortune 500 companies in regulated industries paints a clear and concerning picture. Marketers face a tangle of challenges that prevent them from claiming their place as cross-functional growth partners. Here’s what those leaders shared, and why it matters for businesses in regulated industries.

1. Siloed Departments, Disconnected Goals

Many organizations lack alignment between marketing, sales, and other departments like customer experience or product development. Each team has its own priorities, metrics, and systems, leading to miscommunication and missed opportunities. For example, marketing often works hard to capture leads, only for those leads to be deemed "unqualified" by sales because targeting criteria weren’t agreed upon upfront.

This lack of alignment wastes resources, slows pipelines, and creates friction between teams that ultimately undermines business growth. Worse, it reinforces the perception that marketing operates in isolation rather than collaboratively across the funnel.

2. Outdated Processes and Tools

Regulated industries aren’t known for agility, and this is especially true when it comes to marketing. Over 50% of marketers in these industries cite fragmented systems, outdated tools, and inconsistent data as top challenges. Without real-time visibility into customer behavior or the ability to measure performance accurately, marketing is left in the dark, unable to demonstrate its impact on growth.

When marketing doesn't evolve its capabilities, the entire organization suffers. Data silos persist, decision-making becomes reactive instead of proactive, and growth strategies fail to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions.

3. The Resistance to Experimentation

Fear of failure runs deep in highly regulated businesses. The conservative cultures within these industries stifle creativity and discourage risk-taking, making it difficult for marketing teams to test and adopt modern techniques. Less than one-third of organizations actively encourage structured experimentation in marketing, despite the fact that companies who do tend to lead the way in growth outcomes.

No experiments mean no innovation. And without innovation, marketing remains stagnant, clocking in as a cost center rather than a contributor to growth.

4. The Shrinking Role of the CMO

While the Chief Marketing Officer’s role is expanding in theory, many CMOs find themselves stuck in structures that don’t allow them to fully realize their growth potential. They're tasked with driving transformation but lack the operational frameworks, resourcing, or buy-in needed to execute at scale.

A staggering 77% of marketing leaders say CMOs are increasingly responsible for full-funnel growth, yet only 14% believe their organizations are equipped to support this evolution. This mismatch between expectations and resources leaves organizations unable to capitalize on one of their most valuable assets in the growth equation.

5. Cultural Resistance to Change

Without strong change management practices, even the best growth marketing strategies can’t gain traction. Less than 15% of marketing leaders believe their companies effectively manage change, a sobering statistic for a function that requires constant adaptation.

It’s one thing to recognize the need for transformation; it’s another to overcome organizational inertia to make it happen. Siloed teams, legacy systems, and a lack of vision for what good looks like collectively create a culture that resists progress.‍

The Stakes for Regulated Industries

The consequences of failing to modernize marketing capabilities go beyond just missing out on revenue opportunities. When marketing is sidelined as a growth driver, businesses lose traction in several key areas:

Sales Alignment Breakdowns‍

Without coordinated marketing and sales efforts, pipelines slow, and customer acquisition becomes more costly and inefficient.

Customer Retention Challenges

‍Marketing’s absence downstream limits an organization’s ability to deliver personalized, consistent engagement that supports loyalty.

Erosion of Trust and Credibility

If marketing doesn’t evolve to drive tangible value, stakeholders lose confidence, budgets are cut, and influence wanes.

Competitive Disadvantage

Competitors who invest in modern, data-driven marketing solutions quickly pull ahead, leaving stagnant organizations struggling to keep up.

Why Transformation Starts with Us

From my work at TrueVoice Growth Marketing, I’ve seen firsthand how regulated industries can unlock growth by breaking these patterns. It’s not easy, but the results are worth the effort.

When marketing operates as a fully integrated function—not just a department that creates awareness but one that drives measurable outcomes across the funnel—it becomes a formidable force for growth. This transformation requires us to invest in the tools, teams, and processes necessary to align marketing with sales and retention efforts. It demands a commitment to change at every level, from leadership to front-line teams. And it starts with shifting mindsets, challenging the perceptions that silo marketing or relegate it to a supporting role.

What’s Next?

The path to marketing transformation is clear, but the details require deliberate focus. My next blog will outline actionable strategies for overcoming these barriers and driving cultural, operational, and technological change to empower marketing as a growth engine.

We’ll cover key steps like bridging the gap between marketing and sales, fostering a culture of experimentation, and leveraging frameworks like TrueVoice’s Full-Funnel Growth Framework to build marketing systems that deliver real results.

This is where growth happens—not just for marketing, but for the entire organization. Stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll focus on how to break through the inertia and create a marketing function that doesn’t just set the table for growth but drives it forward.

Are you ready to turn marketing into your company’s most valuable growth partner? It’s time to take the first step.

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