Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

SPECIAL SERIES ==> 🌼 Taco Bell? Subject Line Test Ideas? <== | BATHROOM Break #117 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

Show Notes

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact ă…€ Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206 ă…€ Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter ă…€ Register for GuruConference (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.guruconference.com ă…€ Check out Eventastic (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.eventastic.com ă…€ Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/ Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask ă…€ Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out! ă…€ Somewhere between a rant about weird breakfast clubs and the great Taco Bell salad panic, there's a legit masterclass on subject lines hiding in here. Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray swap the moves that actually lift open rates, including the stuff no AI tool would ever hand you, like leading with ellipses, skipping capital letters, and writing subject lines so long they get cut off on purpose. It's half tactical, half unhinged, which is exactly what a bathroom break should be. ă…€ Follow Daniel on LinkedIn and check out The Marketing Millennials podcast for sharp, no-fluff marketing insights. Subscribe to Ari Murray’s newsletter at gotomillions.co for sharp, actionable marketing insights. ă…€ Best Moments: (00:44) Jay confesses the real problem with pickleball isn't the sport, it's having to talk to the same people every week. (02:22) Daniel's go-to subject line arsenal, from emojis to oddly specific numbers like 7, 11, or 6.5. (03:45) The Claude versus human split test, and why the human still usually comes out on top. (04:32) The case for absurdly long subject lines that fill the whole line and get cut off on purpose. (05:08) Starting a subject line with ellipses and dropping every capital letter to dodge the AI look. (06:49) Telling someone exactly who they are as the easiest engagement trick in marketing.

More from Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

Oct 23, 2026

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact ă…€ Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206 ă…€ Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter ă…€ Register for GuruConference (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.guruconference.com ă…€ Check out Eventastic (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.eventastic.com ă…€ Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/ Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask ă…€ Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out! ă…€ Download Wunderkind’s free report, The Battle for the BFCM Shopper, and connect with Daniela Cubillos on LinkedIn. ă…€ Holiday shoppers have gotten very good at gaming brands, and a lot of the classic Black Friday playbook is quietly paying for it. Jay Schwedelson digs into fresh Wunderkind data with Daniela Cubillos to find where holiday budgets are leaking and what gets someone to buy when another discount won’t. If your BFCM plan is basically bigger coupons and more retargeting, this one is worth your time. ă…€ Best Moments: (01:45) Retargeting eats the most budget, but a tiny 24-hour window leaves a leaky funnel (04:04) 40% of holiday shoppers abandon carts on purpose and wait for the discount email (05:03) Why time-boxed offers and staggered drops beat stacking another discount (06:20) One in five shoppers use fake email addresses to pose as first-time buyers (08:11) Gen X is leaning on AI for shopping research, yet very few checkouts happen there (10:25) Opening Black Friday in waves so each loyalty tier gets its own early access

Oct 20, 2026

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact ă…€ Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206 ă…€ Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter ă…€ Register for GuruConference (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.guruconference.com ă…€ Check out Eventastic (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.eventastic.com ă…€ Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/ Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask ă…€ Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out! ă…€ MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, CallRail! CallRail is the AI-powered lead intelligence platform that helps marketers prove exactly what’s driving results. With CallRail, you can connect every call, text, chat, and form submission directly to the campaign that generated it so you finally know what’s working and where to double down. Plus, with built-in AI conversation intelligence, CallRail analyzes your customer conversations, captures leads 24/7, and gives you deeper insights into what your prospects actually care about. If you’re tired of guessing about your marketing ROI and want real data behind your campaigns, CallRail has you covered. Start a Free Trial Here: https://www.callrail.com/dothis ă…€ LinkedIn’s new Super Like gives paying members a reaction that might push a post further than any regular like, which raises a fair question about who really controls your reach. Jay Schwedelson sorts out what’s confirmed from what’s still rumor, then flags a couple of small platform changes that could quietly reshape how people engage with your content. After that, he takes a hard left into a three-hour documentary he says he could have watched for ten, plus a streaming chart that makes you wonder what everyone is doing with their free time. ă…€ Best Moments: (00:33) The Super Like is real, and premium users get a purple star to hand out (02:30) Pinned comments are back, and they let you steer the whole conversation (03:17) Instagram Edits now shows what’s trending with your specific audience (04:34) The five industries with the worst inbox placement, starting with business services (05:45) You Can See Everything, the three-hour Elizabeth Holmes documentary that somehow feels too short (07:15) The Big Bang Theory ended seven years ago and still pulled 950 million streaming minutes

Oct 19, 2026

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact ă…€ Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206 ă…€ Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter ă…€ Register for GuruConference (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.guruconference.com ă…€ Check out Eventastic (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.eventastic.com ă…€ Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/ Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask ă…€ Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out! ă…€ Check out the new Bathroom Break podcast with Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray on Apple and Spotify. ă…€ Follow Daniel on LinkedIn and check out The Marketing Millennials podcast for sharp, no-fluff marketing insights. Subscribe to Ari Murray’s newsletter at gotomillions.co for sharp, actionable marketing insights. ă…€ Google is cracking down on lazy AI content, but the AI tools themselves still love a cheesy listicle and ignore any page you haven’t touched in a year. Jay Schwedelson calls it the 1995 version of the internet, and Daniel Murray shares a retargeting text that actually got him to click. There’s also a Halloween rant about parents using babies as candy spokespeople, and a skincare mishap that had half of Instagram worried about Jay. ă…€ Best Moments: (02:43) Google’s latest update flags low-quality AI content, scraped posts, and spammy backlinks (03:38) Pages that haven’t been updated in a year are two times less likely to be cited by AI tools (05:35) Why listicles dominate AI citations, even though they feel like a throwback (06:04) Ahrefs tracked 1,900 pages and found adding schema did nothing for AI visibility (06:46) A retargeting text with a 2:00 PM deadline that really expired, and why that works (08:09) Retargeting is one of the most cost-effective channels if you treat it as its own program

Oct 16, 2026

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact ă…€ Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206 ă…€ Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter ă…€ Register for GuruConference (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.guruconference.com ă…€ Check out Eventastic (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.eventastic.com ă…€ Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/ Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask ă…€ Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out! ă…€ Follow Courtney Dagher on LinkedIn, and secure your budget now for UNBOUND 2027, with tickets going on sale Cyber Monday at unbound.hubspot.com. ă…€ Nobody graduates with a degree in British Victorian history and literature planning to run one of the biggest marketing events in the world, but that's exactly where Courtney Dagher landed. She and Jay Schwedelson get into what makes someone feel like they genuinely can't miss an event, and why the answer has less to do with the agenda than you'd think. It's an honest, funny look behind the curtain from someone who still gets a rush from thousands of people and zero sleep. ă…€ Best Moments: (02:23) How a Harvard history grad with no tech background talked her way into HubSpot (07:55) The year and a half of work behind retiring the INBOUND name (11:56) Why the most successful events are actually boring for the people running them (12:59) The one thing that gets speaker submissions rejected every time (15:46) Attendees are tired of hearing about agents and want outcomes instead (20:07) Execution is the new currency, and why great ideas aren't enough anymore

Oct 13, 2026

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact ă…€ Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206 ă…€ Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter ă…€ Register for GuruConference (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.guruconference.com ă…€ Check out Eventastic (FREE + VIRTUAL!) https://www.eventastic.com ă…€ Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/ Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/ Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask ă…€ Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out! ă…€ Big shoutout to our sponsor, Knak! Marketers, you know the pain
 You spend hours on a campaign, and then it gets stuck in review cycles and barely looks like what you started with. Knak makes it simple. Build emails, landing pages, and mobile messages; collaborate and launch - all in one place. No tool hopping, no messy handoffs, with AI built in to help you move faster. See how it all works, get started at knak.com/demo ă…€ Election season is making your cost per acquisition look terrible, your emails are landing in spam, and your LinkedIn views fell off a cliff. None of that is your fault this month. Jay Schwedelson walks through brand new data on how $11.6 billion in political ad money is quietly wrecking inbox placement and ad pricing, and what to pull out of your reporting before you start blaming the offer. Stick around for the candy corn verdict, which is not up for debate. ă…€ Best Moments: ă…€ (01:19) Political ad spend hits $11.6 billion this cycle, more than the last presidential race ă…€ (02:08) Thirteen states soak up over 70% of that spend, and your cost per acquisition there is paying for it ă…€ (03:28) New Validity data shows inbox placement dropping more than 5% the week before election day ă…€ (04:44) Why November 3rd is the worst possible day to launch a sale or run a webinar ă…€ (05:41) LinkedIn impressions and video views cratering across the board, and why that is not a you problem ă…€ (07:58) The candy corn rant that ends with a full prosecution and no witnesses for the defense

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