Reclaiming Your Time: Critical Strategies for the Lean Healthcare Marketer
3/18/2026 Cindy Thomas
The phrase “distressed marketer” isn’t just a catchy expression — it’s an unfortunate reality many of us are living right now. As pointed out in recent Iridio℠ by RRD research, marketers are being asked to do more with less: 85% of survey respondents indicated that budget constraints are somewhat or very serious. Navigating the fine line between cutting costs and driving member engagement is a challenge that we’re continuously facing.
Yet, solutions to this challenge are available — marketers just have to recalibrate their thinking and ensure they’re considering all options. This was made abundantly clear during the recent “Force Multiplier Framework” session at RISE MMS 2026 in Las Vegas.
Force multipliers: three critical strategies
As Holly Bolinder, the former Director of Marketing at Blue Cross of Idaho, pointed out during the RISE MMS session, 2025 was a “perfect storm” of a year — one defined by CMS complexity, budget compression, and the dizzying acceleration of AI. It was a year forcing healthcare marketers to recognize "time thieves," those manual processes and endless customizations that drain our strategic capacity.
The solution for marketers, however, isn't just working harder. Rather, it’s about changing the operating model. With this in mind, Steve Keca, Director of Solutions Development at RRD, introduced the session audience to the concept of “force multipliers,” a hybrid of technology and strategic partnerships designed to scale output without increasing headcount.
Keca, Bolinder, and Kelly Nelson, Founder and Principal Advisor at Sparkstone Partners, identified three critical strategies marketers can undertake in order to counter the challenges now facing them:
- Centralize broker materials in a single platform: Since brokers represent approximately 70% of Medicare Advantage distribution, supporting them is non-negotiable. RRD’s ConnectOne® Storefront℠ eliminates the "one-off" requests that haunt marketing teams, giving brokers the speed they need while maintaining strict compliance.
- Outsource creative production: This is a lifeline for teams lost in the daily production grind. By leveraging a trusted BPO partner for versioning and localization, internal teams can reclaim time for high-value strategic work like AI testing and segmentation.
- Deploy self-service campaign portals: Consider the sheer complexity of a typical agency-led campaign — why does it have to be this way? A self-service portal allows for quick-turn execution of smaller campaigns that usually drain internal resources.
Integrating an efficiency roadmap for 2026
By eliminating manual processes and other similar "time thieves," it’s possible to improve the bottom line — and also mitigate burnout and protect your most talented team members from feeling lost in the grind.
It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t need a full-scale transformation overnight. The goal is to:
- Navigate change by leveraging smart outsourcing
- Think creatively within your current constraints
- Drive growth through scalable acquisition and retention
As Nelson suggested during the session, start with a preliminary efficiency map: Identify one impactful place where you can remove friction and begin there. From there, see how else you can reclaim your strategic time and turn pressure into progress.
Cindy Thomas is Director of Business Development, Healthcare at RRD. She served as moderator for the RISE MMS 2026 session, “The Force Multiplier Framework: Operational Strategies for the Lean Healthcare Marketer.”