In this episode, Lisa Spira, VP of Content Intelligence at Persado and host of the Motivation AI Matters podcast, connected with Linda Itskowitz, VP of Marketing at Quicken. Linda has extensive experience in marketing and leadership roles and as a consultant for brands across multiple industries. In her role at Quicken, she makes decisions around how to communicate. Much of these decisions surround language, understanding consumer psychology, and how to use words to connect with customers on an emotional level.

Since her days in product management, Linda has been interested in the psychology of consumer behavior. “I'm very interested in research and data and just using that research to understand what's important to people and how you can impact what the consumer does based on how you express your offering to them. Those subtle changes make a huge difference and that is really fascinating to me,” said Linda. 

Language plays a pivotal role in impacting and understanding consumer behavior. But, so much else goes into it such as pricing, research, product, and testing. Marketers also must take into account which channel they are reaching customers on. People on different channels are often focused on different benefits of the product. One example Linda shared is when reaching a younger audience on TikTok, Quicken might talk about saving money, while on Reddit the message is focused on investing. Knowing which messaging to use all comes down to data for today’s marketers. 

But, it didn’t always used to be this way. Linda mentioned that when she started in marketing, they didn't have the data and marketers sat around in a room and asked “what do you think people would want to hear?” Back then, marketers were making decisions based on their personal lived experience, not necessarily what will perform best in the market. Now, they measure every aspect of the funnel. Like many marketers, Linda is often surprised at what works and what doesn't work. However, she finds that consistency is important in getting customers further down the funnel. For example, if a customer clicks on a message telling them to save money they are likely going to lose them if the next message is on how to invest better. 

As the best-selling personal finance software in the US, Quicken is a trusted and established brand. One opportunity for growth that Linda explained is to increase brand awareness and market share among younger generations. Much of reaching different audiences is understanding what language resonates with them. Linda shared that while older customers want to control their finances often down to the penny, younger customers want to stay on top of their finances by accessing them quickly and conveniently. These changes in the language show different approaches to similar products based on the audience, similar to how language has to be adapted to each channel

Aside from a data-based approach, Linda also highlighted the importance of thought leadership in establishing trust and brand authority. 

For more insights and to hear about Quicken’s study on how job loss could impact marriage, listen to the full episode.