Ep. 187 - 250% INCREASE in Opt-In Rates!😳NOBODY SHOULD GO OUT TO DINNER WITH ME!!😡 Jay’s SCOOP

0:08Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately. You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwetelson. Let's do this, not that.

0:39We are back for Do This, Not That presented by Marigold. And I am excited because we are heading into the most important time of the year for both business and consumer marketers for database growth. This is it. From October 15th through December 15th, this is the ultimate time to grow your database. Okay, I'm going to get into some specific tactics that you can do to get people onto your list for both business and consumer marketers. But this October 15th date is critical. So let me first give you some stats about why it's so important. So first on the consumer side, for consumer marketers, from October 15th through December 15th, opt-in rates, that's people signing up onto your list, opt-in rates are 250 % higher than any other 60-day period of the year.

1:31this is the moment these 60 days are when you're going to get the most amount of people signing up for your list now on the emails that you do send out from october 15th through december 15th okay your email open rates are 32 percent higher than any other 60 day period of the year the last stat which a little bit confusing is that your unsubscribe rates the people that are removing themselves from your list. During this 60-day period of the year, 60-day time period is 210 % higher than any other 60-day time period of the year. Why are unsubscribes higher and yet the people signing up for your list also higher?

2:11Because as people are signing up for certain lists, they're taking themselves off of other lists because they want to kind of have an equal thing going on in their inbox. So these are really all important stats to know. What about on the business side. For business marketers, okay, this period, October 15th through December 15th is everything. When your marketing communications go out, your emails go out during this 60-day period, and you mention 2025, the upcoming year, in your subject lines, in your content headlines, in your landing pages, it increases conversion rates by over 120 % than if you don't include 2025 in the title of your content, in your offer title, in your CTA, in your subject lines, 120 % higher just by mentioning 2025 within this 60-day period.

3:04Now, similar to the consumer side, unsubscribes are way high during this October 15th through December 15th period. They're up about 195 % higher than any other 60-day period. Why? exact same thing. We're all going through our inbox and be like, how do we clean up our inbox? We want to have less email. We want to have less clutter. So this 60-day period is critical. So now that we know this is when people are signing up for stuff, okay, this is when people are reacting to 2025 content, what should we be doing? What are those specific tactics that we should be doing? The most important thing that you could be doing is thinking about your website and specifically making sure that you have pop-ups going.

3:47Somebody goes to your website, you have a pop-up, and you say, okay, put in your email address to get our discount code for the biggest discounts of the year. And put it in there right here. It's one field or two fields on the consumer side. And on your actual website, right on that homepage, make sure it's very clear how to sign up for discounts in a very bold way. Get our pre-Black Friday discount list, okay? Make sure that your website starting October 15th is ready with pop-ups on the way in and then exit pop-ups on the way out. Do everything you can to grab the data. And the same thing on the business side.

4:23Okay. You want to have a pop-up. As soon as they go to your site, that says something like get the 2025 must-know trends for HR pros. 2025 huge changes tip sheet for SMB owners. Get them on the pop-up on the way in. Make sure there's a huge sign-up on that homepage on your site. get the exit pop-up on the way out, this 60-day period is when you're going to grow your list. This is when we are all in the mode of, I'm going to do something for next year. I need to know what's going to happen for next year. I need the discounts for the holiday season. I need to save some money when I buy these things.

4:56This is how you grow your database is take advantage of this time period. Now, there are other tactics. If you do anything on Instagram, you have to use ManyChat. This is not a commercial for ManyChat. I'm not paid by ManyChat. And you're like, what's that? ManyChat, which is M-A-N-Y chat, C-H-A-T. It is free to use. Okay, you ever go and you see somebody on Instagram and they said, hey, if you want the 2025 guide to whatever, in the comments, write the word 2025 and we'll DM you the link, right? And then you go in the comments and you write 2025 because you want that guide. And then instantly on Instagram, you get a DM with a link and you click on the link and you put in your email address and you go on that – the data, you go on the list of that company.

5:45they are using ManyChat. It is free up to a thousand DMs. Again, this is not commercial for them. I don't get paid by them. On the consumer side, it's the same thing. If you want our biggest discount code of the year, if you want our pre-Black Friday code for discounts, put in the chat pre-Black Friday. Just write that and then instantly you have it set up. A DM then will go to that person with a link back to your form where they will give you their email address. ManyChat is secret sauce stuff on Instagram. It also works on WhatsApp and some other platforms. So the last piece that I'll really be thinking about as it relates to this time period of the year, this October 15th through December 15th time period is for business marketers.

6:30You really should be thinking about your content, okay, as a pipeline building machine. You don't just want to title your content the 2025 tip sheets for the retail sector. That's fine. That's okay. But what you really want to do is take it a step further because you know you're getting more people to sign up for your stuff right now than any other time of the year. Be very intentional because what people download, the name of the content that people download can let your sales people jump on these opportunities immediately. So if you're, for example, the name of your content is the 2025 guide to picking a new CRM platform.

7:13Instantly, when somebody downloads that, what does it tell your sales team? It says, oh, this person's in market for a new CRM platform. We sell CRM platforms. This is a good lead. It's not a top of the funnel lead. Now it's a mid funnel lead, right? Because what they're downloading tells you what they're interested in. Or the 2025 new tips for hiring solutions for small businesses. And let's say that's what you're selling, right? You're selling an HR hiring solution for small businesses. You know that these companies, this individual is in hiring mode. So make your content intentional so that way your salespeople can jump on these immediately.

7:51Really what I want to do is raise your awareness of this time period of the year. October 15th through December 15th for business and consumer marketers is it. And remember, do not be scared off by unsubscribes. Do not be scared off by unsubscribes because you will get a lot of them this time of the year. That is the time of the year that we're in, and it is okay. All right. Before we get to Since You Didn't Ask, which for new listeners, that is the portion of this podcast that just goes off the rails. It is ridiculous. But I want to tell you this podcast is sponsored by Marigold. Now, normally, you guys all tune out when I say something sponsored by any sponsor.

8:26But don't because there's a new piece of content from Marigold. Marigold, by the way, is my email sending platform. I send out over 6 billion emails a year. If you don't know Marigold, you can check them out at meetmarigold.com. Business, consumer, small, medium, large companies, my favorite email sending platform. That's at meetmarigold. But they have a new piece of content, the five steps for selecting the right email marketing platform. This thing is awesome. If you go to jschwedelson.com slash Marigold, that's jschwedelson.com slash Marigold. you can download for free the five steps for selecting the right email marketing platform super helpful check it out all right let's get into since you didn't ask uh so i don't know i always get so upset when i go out with other people they always all bother me i should i should just not go out with other people to dinner and stuff so we went out to dinner with this other couple i hope this dude's not listening he probably isn't oh maybe he is i don't even care he was so annoying so i was dinner with this me and my wife and this other couple we've never been out to do with them before.

9:32Okay. And the dude was like studying the menu, like it was his job. And I, I don't know how everybody else is. I don't really think dinners need to be more than 90 minutes. I just don't. I like to go out and then I like to come home. Maybe I'm a tool. Maybe I'm boring. I don't know. I can't handle these two and a half hour dinners. I just can't do it enough. We don't need to say that much to each other anyway. So he's studying the menu and we're there, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes already. And finally the waiter comes over and I'm like, thank God, where's this guy been? I'm ready to order. And the waiter says, Hey, so is everybody here ready?

10:08I want to take your order. And the dude that I'm there dinner with from the other couple goes, you know what? We need a few more minutes. And I was like, are you actually kidding me? Because you know what happens when you tell the waiter, we need a few more minutes. They don't come back in like two minutes. They come back in like 30 minutes because they're like, all right, dude, I'm going to go to my other tables. I tried. Sorry. And I look at this guy. I'm like, are you, is this a joke? Right. And of course the waiter disappears. All right. And then the waiter comes back, finally comes back. Okay.

10:41And he goes, how about now? We're all good now. And I saw it in my, in this guy's face I was dealing with, he was about to say he wasn't ready and I was about to kick him under the table. And so I immediately said to the way I go, we are good. Let's roll. Okay. And then we order and this dude asked like 37 questions. I don't understand what's wrong with him. Um, and then the meal was extremely long. I was so bored. And then not only did the guy order dessert, which I usually bail on unless like I really am into the dessert, but then after dessert, he ordered coffee after dessert. I'm like, what are we doing?

11:15like are we moving in here this is out of control 90 minutes that's it there should be a bell that goes off at everybody's table after 90 minutes it's like it's over you need to leave and that would be amazing so uh i don't know what's wrong with me i i shouldn't be around human beings i'm just not good around other human beings whatever anyway listen if you have not registered for the free virtual guru conference that is the world's largest email that it is free it is virtual We have only a handful of virtual seats left. GuruConference.com. Sarah Jessica Parker is speaking. The founder of Morning Brew is speaking.

11:53Amy Porterfield is speaking. I'm going to be there. That's probably a negative. You need to go now. Stop listening. Go to GuruConference.com. You are awesome. And leave this thing a review. Even if it stinks, you could leave it a review. That would be awesome. You'd do me a solid. All right, later. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, visit guruevents.com.

12:36So you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John, Martha Stewart, and me. guruevents.com. Check it out.