Interview with Joyce Poole, Sr. Director of Marketing CRM at LendingTree
How B2C Marketers Can Navigate an Economic Downturn
Joan Jenkins, CMO at Blueshift: Thanks everyone for joining us today. We're diving into a critical topic—how B2C marketers can navigate marketing strategies in an economic downturn. I'm thrilled to be joined by Joyce Poole, who leads CRM marketing at LendingTree.
Joyce Poole: Thanks, Joan. Excited to be here. Just a quick intro—I've got over 30 years of experience across several industries including hospitality, real estate, big box retail, and now financial services. The last 12 years I’ve been focused on direct-to-consumer, data-driven marketing.
What LendingTree Does and How Its Marketing Team Operates
Joan: For those less familiar with LendingTree, can you give us a quick overview of the company and your role?
Joyce: Absolutely. LendingTree is an online marketplace for financial solutions—we’re not a lender. We connect consumers with offers across loans, credit cards, insurance, investments, and more. Think of us as a matchmaker between consumers and financial providers.
We manage a wide range of financial products, and our team is responsible for communicating these to customers in a personalized, effective way. It’s similar to managing various retail categories—you have to align the right product with the right audience.
Interpreting Economic Trends from a Marketing Perspective
Joan: With the economic climate shifting, how do you define or interpret a downturn from a marketing perspective?
Joyce: When we think about a downturn, we start with what’s happening in our business. Are trends across products declining? Yes, and in many cases we’re seeing a gradual slide downward.
But we also ask: how are our customers feeling? LendingTree’s internal research shows:
- 40% of Americans have cried over their finances
- 83% say inflation is hurting their budgets
- Nearly half dread the holidays due to expense
We’ve also seen increased demand for debt consolidation loans—typically personal loans used to pay off credit card debt, which carry high interest rates.
How LendingTree Identifies Urgency in Customer Behavior
Joan: Let’s talk more about signals. What are some of the behavioral indicators you're seeing that inform your strategy?
Joyce: We’ve noticed a rise in debt-related inquiries. We track this via:
- Survey responses from loan applications (e.g., debt consolidation as a reason)
- Urgency indicators like needing funds within 48 hours
- Abandonment trends across products
- Shifts in loan size or credit scores
This data gets piped back into Blueshift, where we can build segments based on urgency, engagement, and needs. These insights help us create more targeted, relevant messaging.
Direct-to-Consumer Channel Trends and Challenges
Joan: What are you seeing across your direct-to-consumer channels in terms of performance?
Joyce: We manage email, push, SMS, and direct mail. Open rates have risen—partly due to iOS changes—but click and conversion rates are sliding. We track these by product line to see where we’re gaining or losing traction.
Segment Building and Activation with Blueshift
Joan: How are you leveraging Blueshift for segmentation?
Joyce: We pull logic from recent activity, user attributes, messaging engagement, traffic sources, and transaction data. For example, we might build a segment of users who:
- Recently clicked on credit score decline emails
- Are seeing rising credit utilization
- Haven’t converted in past visits
- Came from high-intent sources like SEM or SEO
We size that segment instantly and then activate messaging—email, push, or suppression for paid.
Syndicating Segments for Paid Media Efficiency
Joan: Are you extending these audiences into paid channels as well?
Joyce: Absolutely. First-party segments can be used for:
- Direct targeting
- Lookalike modeling
- Suppression to avoid wasted ad spend
The ease of pushing segments to platforms through Blueshift minimizes match rate loss and increases efficiency.
Adjusting Content and Channel Strategy in a Sensitive Climate
Joan: How has your messaging and content approach shifted in response to economic uncertainty?
Joyce: We publish a lot of financial content—tips, FAQs, and articles—which we link in our emails. We’ve launched a newsletter called The Vine, aimed at audiences who need support and guidance.
Everything from our landing page copy to email tone has shifted. Empathy matters more than ever. For first-time downturn consumers, it’s critical they know they’re not alone.
Journey Building and Optimization in Blueshift
Joan: What’s your process for building and iterating customer journeys?
Joyce: We use Blueshift’s journey builder for multichannel flows—email, SMS, push—based on triggers and user behavior. We monitor performance closely:
- Click rates by touchpoint
- Drop-offs in engagement
- AB testing on subject lines and content
We can optimize on the fly. If Touch 3 sees a major drop, we test new content and adjust quickly.
Measuring the Impact of Campaigns and Customer Interactions
Joan: How do you define success for your campaigns?
Joyce: It varies. We set objectives upfront—open rate, engagement, conversions, or re-engagement. Then we set goals like increasing click rate from X% to Y%.
We also use a "do no harm" lens: make sure campaigns don’t hurt other KPIs like cross-sell conversions or unsubscribe rates.
Making the Most of First-Party Data
Joan: You won our Omnis award for first-party data strategy. What’s one example you’re proud of?
Joyce: The Vine newsletter is a great one—strong engagement and timely content. We also revamped our onboarding journeys to reflect user needs better. Because we collect zip codes, we optimize send times by time zone to improve open rates.
We’ve tested message timing—weekend vs. weekday, evening vs. morning—to see what resonates best. All of it is powered by first-party data.
Ethical and Empathetic Use of Sensitive Customer Data
Joan: How do you handle sensitive customer data responsibly?
Joyce: Some of our customers become members and grant us access to their credit files. We treat that with care. If someone’s utilization is rising or they miss a payment, we send support content—not just product pushes. It’s an empathetic and trust-driven approach.
Paid Media Activation Using First-Party Data
Joan: How does first-party data play into your paid strategy?
Joyce: It improves targeting precision, helps build effective lookalike audiences, and lets us layer on in-market signals. Syndication via Blueshift makes this seamless—minimizing data loss and maximizing relevance.
Collaboration Between DTC and Paid Teams
Joan: How do your teams work together on shared goals?
Joyce: Paid and DTC are separate but tightly aligned. My team builds the segments, the paid team activates them. We meet regularly and shape strategies together. Marketers own the logic because we’re closest to the customer data.
Lifecycle Campaigns and Cross-Sell Strategies
Joan: What’s your approach to customer lifecycle and cross-sell?
Joyce: We’ve mapped common conversion paths across products. For example, someone applying for a home equity loan might benefit from homeowner’s insurance suggestions. We use analytics to inform next-best offers and sync weekly with product and analytics teams to refine.
Why LendingTree Chooses Blueshift
Joan: Why does Blueshift work for you?
Joyce: It puts power in the marketer’s hands. We can:
- Build and size segments instantly
- Launch and optimize journeys
- Adjust content and logic on the fly
No need to wait on engineering. Everything’s integrated, and insights flow back into our systems for full-funnel measurement.
Joan: Thank you so much, Joyce—so many valuable takeaways today. And thanks to everyone who joined us!
