What to Do During the First 2 Weeks of January | Bathroom Break #87

0:08Welcome to a new special series called The Bathroom Break. That extra 10 minutes, you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom or both. But I don't recommend both, but that's your choice. This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwettlson, from the Do This Not That podcast and subjectline.com. each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out. We are back for the bathroom break.

0:42I'm here with the ultimate marketing millennial, Daniel Murray, and I am Jay Schwetelson. And I'm like, is anybody out there even listening more to the world? Tune it out. So Daniel, like this time of year, are you still consuming like marketing podcasts and business stuff or are you just all in on watching home alone three or whatever i think column a and column b but i i try to consume as much as i can just for ideas but i feel like this type of year is just all old content recycled from from the whole year so you're just getting a bunch of curations which is great because my adhd brain could now consume more your content if you're doing that the right way so keep well the good news is we're like the only podcast in the entire country that's just not mailing it in and just reposting like you know greatest hits from the year we have actually a new episode here we should like high five each other look at us i know how are we doing this i'm this is crazy this is crazy this is craziness all right well let's talk about the topic of the day topic of day is the first two weeks of january here we are the year's wrapping up and then you're going to get hyped to do your marketing those first two weeks of January.

1:52And there are some very specific tactics you should be aware of, you should avoid, and all things because it's not a normal time of the year. So Daniel, what do you think about those first two weeks of January? Is it just regular marketing for you? No, I think... First, I have to say is the first two weeks of January for any marketing, you shouldn't phone in the marketing because this is the worst time to phone in because if you get behind in January, you're going to be behind in February, then you're going to be behind in March. So try set monthly goals for the next three months, not quarterly goals because you'll feel like you're falling right.

2:35So set small monthly goals. I think the other thing is a lot of people right now probably have a test budget, probably have things that they're going to try new things in 2026 that they want to try. you can't treat every month the same of the year especially like you can't treat how things are working in december to how things are working in january especially in the b2b space where people some people are just coming back from vacations coming back from holidays so their inbox is flooded their heads down trying to hit their goals and they probably not consume your content so i know you have some data behind this but what i'm trying to say is don't just cancel your goals with the first two weeks.

3:15Let them play out a little longer because they could be coming back in February, March, April, when people have more time to consume and more time to view your content or marketing you're doing. Yeah. And let me double down on something you said. Those first two weeks, if you test something new that you've been waiting to test and you test on like January 8th or 9th and it doesn't do well, that doesn't mean that that tactic or that test is just not going to do well. Those first two weeks are historically horrible because everyone just getting themselves straight. They're catching up, they're doing things.

3:45And we see it, for example, on email click-through rates, on promotional email, the second two weeks of January versus the first two weeks of January, those last two weeks of January have about a 30 % higher average click-through rate than those first two weeks because our brains just aren't there. The other thing you want to think about is go through all your automation streams, all your triggers, all your stuff, get 2025 out of there. There's nothing worse than a negative signal to start the year in your marketing and letting people think, oh, they're not with it. They're not organized. They don't know what's going on.

4:19This is the time to audit all of that. So you come out of the gate strong, but realize those first two weeks are not going to be strong. I think that's a good point you made too is there's so many documents and emails and a piece of content where this could be a good time to just remix it right now and just add that 2026 or add a couple lines to make it relevant for 2026 instead of doing all the new ideas so if you have something that was conferences to attend in 2025. Now just switch it up and change the dates and do conferences to attend in 2026. See what content was working that had 2025 in.

5:02There's low lift to try to change that up because those could be easy ones going into the new year is just switching the 2025, 2026 and just changing the relevancy of the content, sprinkle some new stuff in and reposting that onto your feeds, into your emails and stuff like that. yeah and then whether you're a business or consumer that's such a smart play you know the 2026 fashion trends 2026 health things whatever slap 2026 it will crush it the other thing to think about is our subconscious mindset we are so busy we have so much stuff to start out the year we want to see short copy we want to see a lot of white space in the social posts in the emails that we receive we want to see shorter subject lines we don't realize it but shorter is what we want to consume because our attention span is actually super short those first two weeks.

5:52So really think about the mindset of who you're marketing to and where their head is at because you know, like January 2nd or 3rd, the last thing you want to do is be on a Teams meeting. That sounds like the worst thing on earth. So getting a giant long form email on January 3rd ain't it. So think about all of that. And Daniel, let me ask you a question. What do you got? I just was going to add something that you could do if you don't know what to do is go back to your inbox from January last year and see what you would have opened from last year. And that could be some new, fresh ideas. So go look at what are the emails that were sent out.

6:31Audit those. Now you have AI. You can audit the subject lines. You can audit things that people did in the first week of last year. So I think just go back and look at what worked for other people and what would work for you if you would open it and try some of those things in your marketing. So the most random question I have for you is that I saw that the new avatar is out or whatever. I've never seen any avatars, you know, the tall blue people. I feel like you're somebody who knows a lot about the movie Avatar and you care. Is that true? Are we talking about the blue people avatar? Yes, we are.

7:10Or like Avatar The Last Airbender. No, Avatar The Blue People. No, I am the person who went to the first Avatar like five times when it first came out and then had to wait 10 years until the next one came out. I think it's a great movie. I'm so behind that I didn't know there was a new one coming out. So you're not that excited about it. So I'm definitely not that excited about it, but I will. it's really funny when you have a kid that all the things that you actually are missing out because you're not thinking about go to the boobie theater right now so you're not looking at what movies are coming out and you're probably not watching we connected with aliens there's we found aliens on earth while you had a baby maybe you missed it great thanks all trending news send it my way because I'm um behind the that's some good content to send me was what what what's trending in the next two three four months what happened years two three four years exactly um all right everybody uh yeah keep it real we'll check out the next one Daniel come on man I gotta get back to work get out of there all right while he's still in there This is Jay.

8:24Check out my podcast, Do This, Not That, for marketers. Each week, we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing. And I hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out. Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Mark and the L.A. podcast. But also, tune into this series. It's once a week, the bathroom break. We talk about marking tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email, subject line, to any marking tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out. Later.