Signal Over Noise: How Marketers Win in a Social-First World

Zach:
How are we doing? Good day so far? Yeah. Good, good, good.

All right. So yeah, as Alex just said, Danielle is a University of Tennessee, Haslam and marketing alum. Go Vols!

We’ve also discovered, I had the opportunity the last couple of weeks to talk to Danielle a little bit, and we also discovered that she now lives in the suburb of Atlanta that I grew up in. So go Big Blue!

Go Big Orange, obviously. I mean, it was my high school. It’s fine. Alex is over filling out my pink slip right now as we speak.

But yeah, it’s been an absolute privilege to get to know Danielle over the last couple of weeks. I’m very excited for this afternoon for you to be able to hear from her as well.

So Danielle, to start us off, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your career at Intuit so far?

Danielle:
Well, I feel like you all have already run down my life. But no, I have been spending the past 18 years since I left this beautiful town with so many beautiful people really just building on the marketing and sales foundation that was laid here in Knoxville. I can’t tell you how much the city means to me.

And it really helped me land my first job, to be honest with you, and more about that to come. I don’t want to steal any thunder from Zach and my conversation, but I essentially started working downtown Atlanta 10 days after I graduated from the University of Tennessee, believe it or not.

Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of working in cable television advertising as well as tech most recently. Through those experiences, I have been able to really sharpen the tools in my toolbox and really be able to show up as a leader in this industry.

But I think what’s most important is the fact that over these 18 years, I’ve been able to really learn how to work cross-functionally. And all of that really started here on Rocky Top.

So I don’t want to steal any thunder. That’s just an overview. I don’t want to run down the résumé again because you all already heard it. But that’s my telling of the story.

Zach:
Fantastic. That’s a good segue, actually. Tell us a little bit more about how your time at UT in particular has impacted your success.

Danielle:
Yeah, so one of the stories I like to tell is that I had an offer my senior year in January. I attended a career fair like what you all had yesterday here on campus, and I got an offer from Newell Rubbermaid. I was like, “Yes, I scored my first job!”

And then they wanted me to move to Richmond, Virginia, and I was like, “Womp, womp. No.”

So I told my mom, “Mom, I’m so excited to have this opportunity, but I just don’t think that’s where I’m supposed to be.”

And she was like, “Well, how about you just have an informational interview over spring break at Turner Networks? There’s a colleague of mine in HR that hires a lot of young professionals out of college.”

And I said, “Okay.”

So I went and interviewed with Marnie and got the next interview. Long story short, I ended up in the final round of the interview, interviewing with Ed Perry at Turner Networks, who was a director there in sales and marketing.

About five minutes into the interview, he looked at my résumé and saw that I helped recruit football players at the University of Tennessee. He was like, “So tell me, who are you most proud of that you helped recruit?”

And I was like, “Well, I would say Eric Berry. Might ring a bell for you.”

And he was like, “Oh my gosh, really? Eric Berry?”

And I was like, “Yes.”

He was like, “Tell me all about it.”

So, long story short, we ended up spending the whole 30 minutes talking about UGA football and Tennessee football and what Eric’s visits were like. That helped me get my first job, the fact that I had basically been a part of that organization.

The rest was history. Ed Perry is still a mentor of mine. We still talk to this day. He’s now at Chick-fil-A. And I credit that to really my experience here at the University of Tennessee.

Had I not had the amazing background and foundation in marketing and sales, and had I not spent my Saturdays doing that for the university, then I may not have gotten that job because I was able to find something that I had in common with him and something that we both liked. That helped me get my job.

Zach:
Fantastic. One of the pieces of the talk today is “signal over noise.” We’ve seen the proliferation of content over the last 20 years through social media and now with AI. I’ve heard lots of conversations today about AI slop and how we’re all inundated with that now.

So how would you define signal over noise, and why is that more important now than ever?

Danielle:
First of all, Facebook was invented while I was here, so that’s just dating myself. I think Charles helped me create my first Facebook account with the utk.edu email address, just to date us a little bit.

We know that in a social-first world, signal over noise isn’t really about volume, right? Because there are so many things that are distracting us day after day, hour after hour, second after second.

But knowing your audience and knowing the message that resonates most with them is what’s going to help us stand out as marketing and sales professionals.

If you do not know your audience, then you will not be able to stand out on social media, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn. It doesn’t matter what channel you’re on.

The important thing for us to do as sales and marketing professionals is to really understand: Who is our target audience in a data-backed way?

And then, once you know who your target audience is, what messages are going to convert them based on your business goals and KPIs?

You want to make sure that you are winning because you really shouldn’t be focused on your competition. You should be focused on winning that time that is getting your target audience’s attention. How do you stand out in that crowd?

That’s how I define it.

I think attention is earned. It’s not given. So you need to be relevant. And you’re not relevant if you don’t know your audience and you don’t know the message that’s going to resonate with them to ultimately get them to convert.

Zach:
Right. You’ve led go-to-market strategies for Mailchimp and QuickBooks. How are these brands thinking about multichannel strategy today?

Danielle:
I love nothing more than kicking off a brand-new campaign across our brands. There’s nothing more exciting internally than collaborating cross-functionally with creatives, product leaders and engineers, as well as marketers and salespeople.

What we find is that we need to leverage all channels in order to meet that target audience where they are.

You can’t just be in one place. You can’t just be on paid media and think that a big check on March Madness is going to get you your goals.

How we think about that at Intuit is that it needs to really be across not only our owned and operated channels, like email and in-product display and on our website, which costs us nothing, but we also have to invest in that go-to-market strategy on third-party partnerships.

We have over 300 third-party partnerships across the tech space, and we also leverage them whenever we’re doing a product launch because you amplify your message when you lean on other channels, not just your own.

Then paid media, social, all of that needs to work as really a flywheel in your marketing and sales strategy in order to win with your audience.

We really think about it as a cross-functional opportunity to, number one, make sure we’re all on the same page about what we’re doing across all these channels, but we also think about it from an external way.

It usually starts with the customer journey as well. How are you mapping out how your customers are behaving so that you can then go find them wherever they are?

We usually spend a few different sessions by channel mapping out those customer journeys. Where are they starting? Did they see us on Facebook first, or did they come in from Google and then come to our website and ultimately convert?

There are numerous ways in which our target audience can find us. Our job is to make sure we’re everywhere where they might come into our funnel.

Zach:
I know journey mapping can be very intensive and requires a lot of resources too, right? How often is this something that you guys are doing?

Danielle:
We do it pretty often.

It’s funny because during COVID we even got iPads and did it on Zoom and did it remotely. We’re so fortunate now to be back in person to be able to actually get in there and whiteboard it out together or use tools like Miro and Figma to do it together.

We probably do it at least on a monthly cadence, and definitely every time we kick off a new campaign, because you want to look back and really rediscover and reimagine what it could look like.

Things are changing from month to month, week to week, day to day. You can’t assume that what worked last month is going to work this month.

So we do it pretty often.

Zach:
Fantastic. I think you’ve got an example of a campaign, just to get a little bit more practical and show us some stuff that you guys have been working on.

Danielle:
Yeah, I love it.

One of our favorite campaigns right now that’s actually up for two awards is our Ease Into It campaign that we ran a year ago.

You’re probably like, “Danielle, a year ago is stale and old.” But in our world, it could take as many as 365 days for a mutual Mailchimp and QuickBooks customer to convert to one of our platforms and apps.

What we did a year ago, as we’re seeking to not just be known as our individual apps but really as an Intuit family of brands, is we basically hired micro-influencers across the United States of America to come and join us in Joshua Tree.

Have y’all been to Joshua Tree at all? I’m seeing, yeah, I love it.

We all went out to Joshua Tree. We obviously hired these micro-influencers to join our brand teams, and we basically spent three days out in the middle of nowhere.

But it was really cool because it was basically a financial wellness retreat. We had 12 sessions, as you can see here in these images.

It was really fascinating because we were able to give them business advice to help them run and grow their business from lead to cash.

We were paying them to be there, obviously, but then they also helped us amplify our messages across all of their audiences as well as across our brand handles.

We had this event that was very impactful for those of us there, but what it did for those after the fact was that we were able to really reframe how the Gen Z audience thinks about financial wellness.

It’s something that a lot of us are scared of, right? We don’t want to talk about finances. It’s not something that I know is a strength of mine as a marketing and sales person.

But once we really narrowed in on the Gen Z target audience and understood who they were, and then brought in these social media influencers, you can see the outcome of our campaign.

We got 14.1 million views, 372,000 engagements and 10.3 million impressions. We had an engagement rate overall of 3.58%.

This is because we brought in a multichannel perspective and we cut through the noise by not just talking about ourselves and beating our own drum, but really allowing others to speak about their experiences with our brands and with our apps and solutions.

I believe, as sales and marketing professionals and as upcoming students who will be professionals in a short amount of time, it’s important to be able to leverage other people.

This social media influencer approach and tactic is very impactful, as you can see from these numbers. This is one of my favorite examples of how we’re reimagining sales and marketing strategies as a technology brand.

Zach:
Talk a little bit more about the target audience. So Gen Z looking for experiences essentially rather than products or services?

Danielle:
Exactly.

I think what we’ve learned about the Gen Z audience is that they don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to, right? They want things to feel very authentic and organic to them in terms of attributes and behaviors.

And then if you can get them to try before they buy, then they’re more likely to convert to our solutions.

The thought process around the customer problem was that we need to be able to get our brands in front of the upcoming generation and be relevant and meet them where they are.

What has worked for Intuit and Mailchimp and QuickBooks in the past is not going to work. We need to do something outside of the box, like going to Joshua Tree and spending three days doing yoga sessions and financial therapy sessions and marketing consultations.

I was blessed to be there as a product marketing SME and speak about how Mailchimp can really help them understand, okay, where are you seeing revenue conversion in your channels for your brand? And then how can that help you in your financial peace and wellness, focusing on the right people in the right spaces at the right time?

That’s what we learned about Gen Z, and then that’s how it showed up in this campaign. As you can see, it delivered dividends and is now up for two awards.

Zach:
Yeah, it’s a fantastic campaign. I spent a little bit of time looking at it.

Just give yourself a shameless plug here. What’s the domain name for the website where you can see the video?

Danielle:
I think it’s EaseIntoIt.com, right?

Zach:
EaseIntoIt.com. Yeah. Have a look at that.

Great insights there into that particular campaign, but what are some of the lessons that you’ve learned when it comes to cutting through the noise?

Danielle:
I think some of the lessons that we’ve learned when it comes to cutting through the noise is it all goes back to that audience and making sure that you know who they are.

How we think about that at Intuit across all of our brands is really all about the quant and the qual research data.

Something that Intuit really feels strongly about is making sure that we invest a lot of money in research, right? Because if you don’t know who they are, then how can you make sure that your campaigns are impactful?

How we think about that is really making sure that we know who they are, we know what they’re doing, so that we can make sure that we get the behaviors that we ultimately want to meet our business goals and shareholders are happy.

Zach:
I know one of the things that we look for in digital are immediate returns, essentially immediate metrics that we can know this is working, that people are responding the way that we want them to.

What are some of the challenges around that and these kind of longer-term metrics for return on investment?

Danielle:
One of the things that we learned when talking to the Mailchimp and the QuickBooks audience is that, number one, they are very different.

How you speak to a marketer and how you speak to an accountant or a tax consultant is completely different because their strengths are quite opposite of one another.

What we learned as we were working on the bidirectional acquisition of these audiences was that we needed more time.

We were expecting them, and our executives were expecting them, to convert in like two weeks.

But once we partnered with our analytics teams and looked at the data cross-functionally month over month, quarter over quarter, we actually found that 57% of the QuickBooks audience took at least 90 days to convert to the Mailchimp product.

So if we ran a campaign in January, we would not see the fruits of that labor, so to speak, until at least three months later.

That was a huge game changer for our business because that was unheard of.

Typically for QuickBooks, there is a quick conversion rate because you need to pay your taxes and you need to know how much you owe. But for a marketing solution, selling that to that same audience is a completely different customer journey. It takes a lot more time.

What we started doing was putting in analytics reports and dashboards that didn’t just look at the first 30 days. We needed to look back at the impact of our campaign across all of our channels, both owned and operated, for the 30, 60, 90 and even 365-day markers, so to speak.

That’s how we do it.

The KPIs that we’re looking for are ultimately that conversion. How many converted from free to paid? How many upgraded as a result? Those are some of the key metrics, and of course, revenue.

What we learned is that our mutual customers actually are more likely to bring in more revenue. They average over $5,000 in lifetime value for us, which was a really cool insight.

Zach:
Where do you see teams typically getting it wrong when it comes to executing multichannel go-to-market strategies?

Danielle:
It’s once again what I’ve been preaching. It’s the messaging. It’s all about the messaging. It’s all about the audience.

There are some really cool tools out there right now. I know there’s been a lot of talk about AI. There’s been a lot of talk about how we leverage these tools in today’s marketing and sales world.

One of my favorite things to do right now is to really run those message tests and partner with your creative teams and content strategists on developing that messaging quickly via AI as your partner, and then putting them in like a 24-hour test.

We use a third-party research partner that really helps us take the output from our AI partner in combination with our expertise and then run that through research.

That can then be put back into the AI tool and spit out to you the synthesis of: What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? What are the opportunities for the brands when it comes to messaging?

I believe that you typically get it wrong in the messaging and in the targeting.

We can leverage AI tools that we have at our disposal today to help you get it right and get it right quickly so that you’re not in the marketplace for weeks, days and months with the wrong message to the wrong audience.

Zach:
So some of those traditional fundamentals about knowing your audience. You guys take it a step further at Mailchimp, though, and you say “customer obsession.”

Talk to us a little bit about customer obsession and why that’s important today.

Danielle:
Customer obsession is extremely important because you need to ensure that you’re not only quantifying and qualifying their behaviors and their thoughts and their feelings. We call it “feel, think, do.”

But you also need to ensure that you are really applying what they’re then telling you.

It’s not enough just to hear it and see it in black and white and in your research. You literally have to then pivot your strategy as a result of what they’re telling you.

If you just listen and don’t apply the implication, then you’re missing the business opportunity.

We really use that in practice.

We also do things at Intuit like “Follow Me Homes.” We call them Follow Me Homes, and it’s essentially where you go home, literally, or go to the business and spend a day with them.

You literally watch how they utilize QuickBooks and Mailchimp and see: Where are they getting stuck? Where is the customer experience not what we expect it to be? How can we make their lives better?

Those are just a few examples of how we try to be customer obsessed every single month and whenever we’re looking to launch a new product or capability.

Zach:
Well, I mean, that’s commitment. So you’re saying someone at Intuit will follow a person home and watch them use the product?

Danielle:
That is correct. Like a stalker.

We will do it! And we’ll pay them sometimes for it, so we make it worth their while because we understand if we’re coming into their business, we’re taking time away from their clients and their customers.

You need to make sure that you are also compensating them for that.

Zach:
You could obviously pivot with your product based on the feedback from that, but do you have other examples of where you guys are using the feedback to pivot, either with a product or strategically?

Danielle:
Absolutely.

There is one that we did this past fall where I’ve talked about the challenge between getting QuickBooks customers to convert to a marketing channel when they’re not comfortable with that.

They know they need to be doing it, but they don’t want to do it, which I can understand. I wouldn’t want to do taxes every single day.

What we found was we were putting a Mailchimp in-app lander in the QuickBooks app, and we weren’t seeing the conversion.

We were literally seeing 98% of the QuickBooks audience leaving the QuickBooks app and still going to Mailchimp.com in order to convert.

We were like, “Why are they doing that?”

We have built the capability for them to select a plan and immediately come into Mailchimp, but instead they’re coming out of that app, going to our website and converting there. It was very frustrating for us, to be completely transparent.

We actually used some of the messaging and the product research that we had done.

What we discovered from what product marketing had led was that the QuickBooks audience wants to use email templates.

But we had been going to market with our advanced segmentation and personalization and all these sorts of things, Zach. In reality, they just wanted something to help them do it and get to it quickly.

That’s what an email template will do. We have over 500 of them in our app.

I said, “Hey team, what if we actually listen to the customer? Instead of us putting the pricing lineup with prices and this list of features that they get by each package, what if we just immediately drop them into email templates and they could see our library of email templates by their industry and then just immediately start making an email in the QuickBooks app?”

They were like, “Yeah, why not? Let’s rip it from our website and put it into the QuickBooks app.”

Y’all, we tried that. And guess what?

The conversion rate increased by like a hundred percent. Essentially, we went from like 0.2% conversion to 2% conversion.

Everyone was blown away.

And I’m like, “Well, we were actually customer obsessed.”

Now we should pivot our product roadmap and focus on this approach instead of trying to throw a pricing lineup, which is not sexy at all, down their throats.

That’s how we really, in practice, actually pivoted the product roadmap from making it all about pricing and packaging to actually making them get to that payoff moment quicker.

Zach:
We’ve heard a little bit about personalization today in several of these different meetings, and I feel like personalization has been the buzzword for 10 or 15 years now.

I’ve got some stats for you.

A Twilio study from 2024 showed that 84% of businesses say they deliver a good or excellent personalization experience, but only 54% of customers agree with this.

So how deep do teams need to go to truly understand their audience? And what are some of the ways that Intuit is implementing that?

Danielle:
I love this.

I think that it is so important. Obviously, that’s what I’ve been preaching this whole time. In order to get the signal and get through the noise, you have to know your audience.

We are implementing that by really understanding who they are and really admitting where we’re wrong.

One of the big assumptions when Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit for $12 billion was that our customers were the same, and that they were small businesses and had low revenue.

But what we have learned through continuing to lead with customer obsession is that 80% of the Mailchimp and QuickBooks mutual customers are actually mid-market businesses.

Y’all, they are not small. They are usually a mix of service and product-based businesses.

It was important for us to dive deeper into that.

We call them our unicorns. They’re our best-in-class audience, and we need to go find more of them as we look to become an Intuit platform that’s all-in-one and leading with AI and business intelligence.

We know that we need to continue to dive deeper into that platform audience and then be able to apply that.

How we’re now implementing that is that we have started a brand-new solution called IES, which is Intuit Enterprise Suite.

It is all about those customers who will use both Mailchimp and QuickBooks.

It essentially allows them to be able to see a multitude of their businesses. If you say you own multiple Chick-fil-As, then you’re able to see all of your Chick-fil-As in one place.

How are they performing from a business perspective? How are they performing from a marketing perspective?

Then essentially be able to surface insights that are data-backed for them across our platforms.

That’s how we’re implementing it. We have stood up a whole new customer experience for these mid-market businesses as a result of finding out that nugget.

I think it’s really important that we continue always learning about our customers and then apply that so that we can build new innovative solutions and product experiences for them.

Zach:
Okay, so insights to inform product development. How are you using insights for shaping your brand voice, your brand tone, brand personality?

Danielle:
Kind of similar to that is when we’re going to market with a mutual customer who might want to buy that particular all-in-one platform that Intuit delivers, or if it’s someone who only wants QuickBooks or only wants Mailchimp, what we’ve learned is we can’t message to them the same way.

As a result of that, we have to give them the brand voice that they’re expecting. We can’t come to them in a way that is unfamiliar to them.

We go to market differently depending on where the customer is in their customer journey.

If they’re a Mailchimp customer, then we’re going to lead with the Mailchimp brand. We’re going to lead with that quirky, fun, Cavendish yellow experience that everyone has known us for for over 20 years.

But if they’re a QuickBooks customer, we’re going to do the opposite.

We’re going to meet them where they are. We’re going to speak more business and revenue and bottom-line focused and deliver their expectations.

When we are true to that brand experience, then we can convert them over to the other app or service.

Those are some insights that we learned. You have to change up how you message in your brand tone depending on who the audience is that you’re starting with.

And prospects are completely different as well.

Zach:
It seems like such a huge challenge for a brand like Intuit, with QuickBooks and also with Mailchimp, two totally different audiences, two totally different products.

How are you guys balancing consistency with the need to adapt that message? You talked a little bit about it there, but maybe expand on how you’re balancing that across those platforms.

Danielle:
It’s an everyday challenge, I’m going to be honest with you.

But I think it’s once again coming back to that authenticity and making sure that all the internal teams are on the same page about who you message to, when and where, and then following that messaging hierarchy.

I remember in my time here at Tennessee, it all comes back to that fundamental approach to staying true to the marketing and sales messaging and approaches that we learn about here.

How do you essentially continue and stay consistent with that?

You can’t have a different message in different channels. You have to continue to put the same message in different channels so that the brand recall is increased and you ultimately get the return on the investment that you’re delivering.

Zach:
All right. So maybe some practical answers here for the audience in terms of what they can be doing.

Marketing and sales leaders, what can they be doing to cut through the noise?

Everything’s changing so fast. A lot of conversations today about how quickly things are changing. What can they be doing to cut through the noise?

Danielle:
I think to cut through the noise, it is really about being true to who you are.

I think that customers and businesses, whether you’re doing B2C or B2B marketing, you are just hyper-customer obsessed and you are essentially meeting them wherever they are.

You know, based on where they are in the customer funnel, how to reposition and re-message the benefits and the features of your solution or of your product and service.

I believe that’s practical advice on how they can be successful.

And using AI, right? Just to reiterate the personalization and the AI conversations that have been happening today, you must move quicker because their attention spans are shorter.

How can you leverage those tools to make sure that you’re pivoting your message based on where they are in their journey and what’s important to them as a consumer?

What are their behaviors? What are their attributes? Where are they? Where is their familiarity with your brand and with your service?

So that you’re not saying something to them that is not going to land or you’re not acting in a way that isn’t going to resonate with them.

Zach:
One of the things that we spoke about previously was this issue with third-party data and access to third-party data, with cookies kind of disappearing a little bit.

I was able to bend Jeff’s ear about this a couple of days ago.

So browsers are now doing away with third-party cookies, like Safari, and Chrome is moving in this direction too, maybe.

Talk to us a little bit about the implications of that and the importance of first-party data and how businesses need to be gaining that first-party data and utilizing it.

Danielle:
First-party data is going to be essential.

If we no longer have access to those third-party cookies, then you’re not going to know who you’re talking to and where they are.

You can imagine the lights being shut off in this room right now and you not knowing who you’re talking to and where they are.

I think that we as brands and as sales and marketers have to essentially ensure that we have the proper tooling and analytics in place now in order to get ahead of that so that we have direct access to that data from a first-party way, and we’re not reliant on these third-party experiences to deliver the information that we need so that we can be data-backed.

How Intuit thinks of that is really, now that we have Credit Karma and we have Mailchimp to add to TurboTax and QuickBooks, okay, we now know how much they’re spending, when they’re spending it, what they’re subscribed to, what they’re not subscribed to.

Then how is that translating to marketing? Are they engaging with it? Are they not? When are they clicking? What’s delivering from a marketing and sales perspective based on that revenue data that QuickBooks and TurboTax has?

I think how we think about it is making sure that we have really the connective tissue across all of our platforms and apps so that we can know what our customers are doing and what their customers’ customers are doing.

We can surface those insights to be like, “Hey, did you know that Zach hasn’t done business with you in two years? Maybe you should offer him a special offer to bring him back.”

How do we know that? Based on the marketing and sales first-party data that we have.

I think that we also have to apply that to our own marketing strategies and make sure that we have that connective tissue and those integrations so that our data isn’t disconnected, but it’s actually talking to one another.

That helps you be able to behaviorally target based on what they are or are not spending with your brand.

In that case, you hadn’t maybe come to the cupcake place in two years. Maybe you bought those for your son or daughter for their birthday, and I want to bring you back.

That financial data can help give that signal and get through the noise if I meet you there and I’m personalizing and I’m also knowing that your son or daughter’s birthday is here or that you just haven’t done business in a while.

Then I can help drive you to the action that I want you to take.

Zach:
All right. So a lot of talk today about technology and AI and the pace of change.

This isn’t your first rodeo. You were cutting your teeth earlier in your career with social media.

I’m often saying to students, the opportunity in AI right now feels a lot like the opportunity that we had with social media 15 or 20 years ago.

So how have you navigated the technological change and the pace of change throughout your career?

Danielle:
I think it’s been interesting.

I remember, I think I shared this with you as we were preparing for this, it was a big deal when I went from Turner Networks to Comcast.

I was essentially making a pivot from sales to a marketing role, and I was told essentially I cannot give anything away from a marketing perspective, a trip, a ticket, nothing, unless they’re spending on digital impressions and buying on dot-com.

That seems like ages ago.

But I got ahead of that by really diving deep and spending time with the digital media team.

I wasn’t in digital media. I wasn’t in a sales role. I was now in a marketing role. But because I spent daily time with my colleagues in another department, I learned how they sold digital media.

What did that look like? How did I calculate CPMs and costs per points and all those sorts of things?

That helped me really get ahead of the curve and land the job at Cox Communications in my first product marketing role.

I would just encourage people to step outside of their comfort zone and spend time with other disciplines that may not be similar to your own so that you can make those pivots.

AI is no different.

I now try to use it and get exposure to how other cross-functional partners are using it.

Then how can I apply that to my marketing strategy to also come to the table with quicker, sharper ideas as a result of using that tool, right?

I would have normally had to wait to brainstorm with someone. Now I have a companion right here with me, with a Claude or with ChatGPT, to help brainstorm with me so that I come to the table with that.

I would just encourage everyone, like I told the students yesterday, to not be afraid to use those AI capabilities today just to make a menu or just to help prepare for Easter dinner.

That’s how I use it, practical ways in my personal life. But that can also be applied to our professional lives as well.

How do you then prompt Gemini and NotebookLM to give you insights and help you aggregate data quickly in your career?

Those are just some of the things that I would say. If you use it personally, then it will bleed over into your professional career to get ahead of the curve.

Zach:
Fantastic.

I want to save some time for the audience because I’m sure there are going to be a lot of questions for you from here too. But I’ve got one more. I’m going to hog one more question.

So, some students in the room today and some young marketers. Thinking back on yourself as a young marketer, not too long ago…

Danielle:
Not too long!

Zach:
What’s one piece of advice that you would have for yourself as a young marketer?

Danielle:
Number one, I would switch places with you right now. I would love to be back on these amazing streets of Knoxville and on the campus.

So number one, just take advantage of every single moment.

And you’re already doing that with this amazing event today, with the sales and marketing conference that the team has been so grateful to deliver to you all now for the past few years.

Just take advantage of all of this because this is such an amazing place. It’s so special.

There are so many gifts and people willing to pour into you.

So I would say, don’t miss out on any opportunity to tap into the resources and the programs.

Then what I would tell myself is to really leverage the skill set that you’re getting in these group projects and presentations.

Because when I tell you that those helped set me up for success today, that’s why I really don’t get scared speaking professionally.

I remember having to deliver presentations on campus and having to do that. That really helped me get over the fear.

So now I can go to Sydney, Australia. I can go to London and represent Intuit brands because of the faculty and staff really pushing me to make those presentations and work with people who aren’t like me.

I really believe that those group projects, I would say, “Girl, lean into it. Absorb it. Learn how to find your team members’ strengths.”

Because that’s what we have to do in the real world every single day as sales and marketing professionals.

It’s like, okay, what do I have in common with my coworker and how can I understand their strengths as soon as possible so that I can know how we can all bring something special and unique to the table that delivers on campaigns like Ease Into It?

Those are the skill sets that I learned when I was here at the University of Tennessee that still carry me to this day.

I’m sure I get on my team’s nerves because I’m like, “This is Marketing 101, guys. This is Marketing 101.”

Because I learned the four Ps of marketing here on this campus, and I still use that pricing, packaging, promotion and positioning to this day. All of those things can still be applied.

So I would just say to my younger self: Take advantage of everything. Absorb everything, from the group projects to the events like this, because you will be leveraging it for the rest of your career and the rest of your lives.

Zach:
Fantastic. Thank you.

All right, some questions from the audience. We can have a roving mic, I think. I’ll give you mine.

Audience Member:
My name is Caroline Carney.

Going back to your influencer campaign that you did at Joshua Tree, you said it was something different. It was something new for you guys.

This is kind of a two-part question.

When it came to deciding who you were going to do it with, why did you choose micro-influencers versus bigger names?

And then also, since it was new and you hadn’t worked with influencers really before, what was the process like of picking which ones would be the best fit for this trend?

Danielle:
That’s a really great question. I love that.

I think, number one, micro-influencers were chosen over macro-influencers because of budget, just being transparent, right?

The more audience you have, the more the influencer is going to cost the brand.

Our goal was to ensure that we had at least 10 to 15 influencers there.

That allowed us to be able to get a higher quantity, but still get the reach that we wanted because they still had really strong followings.

Then, in terms of how we picked them after we determined micro versus macro, it was really about how are they leveraging our solutions and our apps within the Intuit product portfolio in a way that’s best in class?

Because as a salesperson, as a marketer, you want to make sure that the influencers that you’re choosing for these campaigns actually genuinely use your services and product.

Otherwise, it’s inauthentic, and that’s not going to deliver the results that the business is looking for.

For the Mailchimp and QuickBooks influencer, who I think was pictured on that previous slide, she was super cool.

She had a podcast, she had the social media presence, and then she also was very comfortable talking about multiple brands.

Since we’re trying to really not just be known as our cornerstone brands, but as an Intuit family of brands, it was important that she had that flexibility.

That’s what helped us pick her over some other options that we had at our disposal.

Great question. I love that.

Audience Member:
Hi. So as a young marketer, what would you say is one skill that would really help put you over the edge or give you an advantage, maybe something that not everybody else in the industry knows?

Danielle:
Like what do I have right now? Or what do you mean?

Audience Member:
I guess both. If you were going to recommend to everyone here that we go and learn one skill to give us an advantage, what would that be?

Danielle:
Here’s the thing.

I believe, and maybe this is how I was raised as a good Tennessee girl, that everyone has unique gifts and talents.

So I try not to tell people you need to have X, Y or Z because, to me, what you’ve been blessed to have is different from what I’ve been blessed to have.

But I can tell you what I’ve had.

A special talent that I have that I think has helped me from Turner Networks, or WarnerMedia now, to Intuit is the ability to be able to influence and communicate orally, quite frankly.

I hate writing, by the way, so I always have a good content strategist next to me. That is my weakness.

But the ability to be able to influence and the ability to also be able to collaborate in an effective way.

I would encourage you as a marketer to ensure that you understand how to influence in a way that people don’t know that you’re influencing them.

I’ve been given the feedback that I’m very hard to say no to in the workplace.

That comes from spending time with salespeople and having to find win-win opportunities, number one, with your internal client.

As a marketer for salespeople, I spend a lot of time with people who are trying to meet a quota.

I need to help them do that.

How do we do that? It’s by influencing the decision-makers who may be the advertiser or maybe the subscriber.

So I would encourage you to work on those influencing skills.

And then how do you collaborate cross-functionally to build relationships?

I try to make it my business to make my brand about building bridges.

Influencing, building bridges and that cross-functional collaboration is something that I think you need to have as a marketer because we usually are the connective tissue across all of the departments.

You have to work with legal to get your promotions and your campaigns approved, and you have to work with product and engineering and sales.

I would encourage you to understand how to influence and how to work cross-functionally because that’s essential as a marketer.

And then, yeah, what is your unique talent?

I would like to turn that around to you and be like, what’s unique to you?

Because that’s what’s ultimately going to make you thrive.

You’re welcome.

Audience Member:
Danielle, hi.

Something, a question that I had. I think with Gen Z, you made this comment that they don’t like feeling like they’re being sold to.

I think that’s something that has periodically been a thing from a consumeristic point of view, but it is really heavy for people that have grown up around the internet and a lot of the kind of 2000s marketing efforts.

When we look at a campaign like Ease Into It, how are you treading the line of making sure that your call to action and your conversion is still being effective while still kind of putting a blanket over something that’s a little bit more engaging at the get-go?

Danielle:
I think it comes from all the unique personalities that we chose from an influencer perspective.

I think that it’s essential that you get people from all walks of life.

We had an athlete from some major college. I don’t remember now. Clearly it wasn’t the University of Tennessee, or I would remember it!

But it was like Southern California, I think, if I remember correctly. He had an NIL deal, y’all.

Then you had people who had been entrepreneurs, like the woman pictured here, for like 20 years.

So I think number one is we needed to get a plethora of people who represented all different walks of life and backgrounds and different expertise and different industries.

Number one, because then your campaign’s going to get more reach.

I think that’s one of the things that Ease Into It did really well and helped us deliver on these amazing business goals because we picked someone who everyone can identify with.

But there needed to be a consistent thread in the messaging that we gave them.

How they delivered that was totally up to them.

When we were there, they were putting cameras on their cars. They were filming coming in and out of the gates of one of those AutoCamps.

Everyone had their own little glamping camper, if you can imagine.

They were filming what it was like to be inside of those campers and what the sound-bathing experience was and the yoga experience was.

They all had these different experiences, but it was all a common thread with, number one, their usage of our platform, with the messaging and positioning.

But then how they experienced what we delivered to them at this event was all different.

I think it’s important that you apply that to your campaign.

Make sure that you get a multitude of influencers that represent all different walks of life, all different industries.

But then in order to deliver on your business goals, it’s important that you have that common thread of what’s the message that’s consistent.

They all also were required as a part of the deal to post the video and the content within a certain period of time and include certain talking points.

That’s how we were able to balance the authenticity with also the ability to deliver on what we were seeking to accomplish.

Audience Member:
All right. Thank you.

Danielle:
You’re welcome.

Audience Member:
Hi. You talked about using first-party data. How do you do that ethically in a way that promotes fairness?

Danielle:
That’s such a good question.

Because also there’s a conflict, right? When you’re working with a marketing platform versus working with opt-ins that generally aren’t, quite frankly, required for financial management software.

When it comes to that, there are terms and conditions, if you ever subscribe to any technology platform, that you have to accept as a subscriber.

We have to work with our legal partners in order to ensure that however we’re planning to use that first-party data as a brand and across all of the Intuit brands is represented there so that we get your permission.

Number one, it’s ensuring that the language is in the terms and conditions and the terms of services when you sign up for that particular app.

Then number two, it’s giving you the option to opt out.

We always, as a marketing platform and solution, give our subscribers the opportunity to opt out of us using that first-party data.

If you look on any of our materials, it’s important that if there’s something that you’re experiencing that you don’t like, that you call support or either find it on our website to be able to remove yourself from however that’s being utilized.

That’s how we ensure that our customers are, number one, okay with how we’re using that.

Then number two, if they missed that when they signed up, is there a way for them to remove themselves from us using that on the back end, if that makes sense?

Audience Member:
I guess one slight follow-up to that is, what percentage of Intuit customers do you think actually know that?

For example, our company uses Mailchimp. We have 150,000 people that we put data for. But I don’t know…

Danielle:
I have no idea. You have stumped the speaker on that one!

And I’m going to be authentic right up here and say that I do not know that answer.

But I know that it’s something that, as a marketing institution, we hold very highly because of GDPR.

We’re a global app, and so we have to follow all of that opt-in and opt-out subscriber information.

It’s something that is continuing to evolve.

But in the European Union, it’s definitely more strict, I can tell you, than it is here domestically.

It’s something that I do not know the answer to, that specific number about how many people are aware that we’re using their data in that way.

But it’s something that we’re constantly talking about with our legal teams.

Whenever we deploy new capabilities and services that are leveraging the capabilities across apps, we have to seek legal counsel and ensure that we’re covered for that.

Thank you for that question. You stumped me on the number.

I will find out and circle back if we can get his name. I’m happy to do it.

And I think we have time for one more question.

I think he might be ready for happy hour!

Zach:
All right. I think we’re good on the questions.

Thank you so much, Danielle.

Danielle:
You’re more than welcome. Thank y’all.