Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

SPECIAL SERIES ==> Growing Email Tactic in 2026! and Daniel's Thanksgiving Plan <== | BATHROOM Break #83 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

November 24, 2025

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Speakers & Context

The Format: Host discussion between two marketing experts.
The Key Players:
- Jay Schwedelson: Founder of SubjectLine.com and host of Do This Not That. Credible as an email marketing authority with deep tactical knowledge.
- Daniel Murray: Host of Marketing Millennials. Brings a younger, social-first perspective with emphasis on engagement metrics.
The Vibe: Casual, humorous, and tactical. The hosts blend personal banter with actionable marketing advice, creating an accessible tone.

🎣 The Executive Hook

The "One Big Idea": The reply rate on promotional emails is the most underrated metric for 2026, and AI will accelerate its importance. Getting recipients to reply to marketing emails is a dual-force multiplier: it boosts inbox deliverability (the #1 signal to ISPs) and generates high-quality first-party data.
Why It Matters: As AI floods inboxes with generic content, the ability to trigger genuine human interaction becomes a critical competitive moat. This tactic directly counters spam filters and builds audience trust, making it essential for any brand relying on email as a primary channel.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:07) **🎙️ Introduction: Daniel Murray**
2 (02:35) **The Explosion of Reply Rates in Email Marketing**
3 (03:38) **Tactics to Drive Email Replies**
4 (05:06) **Underrated Reply Tactics for Content & Discounts**
5 (06:28) **Applying the Reply Strategy to Social Media**
6 (07:28) **Real-World Example and Data Insights**
7 (09:28) **Closing Banter and Holiday Movie Discussion**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Holiday email engagement is somehow both nerdy and genuinely fun here, as Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray use Thanksgiving food opinions, Hallmark movies, and Bathroom-Break banter to get into why replies matter way more than most marketers think. They dig into how to engineer responses in your emails and stories, why reply rate is a killer signal for both humans and algorithms, and how AI plus simple prompts like “Reply GUIDE” can quietly blow up your results. It’s basically a playbook for turning “one-way” campaigns into conversations people actually want to have.

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.

Best Moments:

(00:50) Daniel shares his not-so-traditional Thanksgiving background and why dry turkey is an instant no.

(02:06) Jay’s hard rule for Thanksgiving dinner: mac and cheese is required, salad is banned.

(02:49) Jay explains why the reply rate on promotional emails is about to explode thanks to AI and better follow-up.

(03:28) Daniel’s tricks for prompting real human replies, from light personal questions to hidden Easter eggs in the middle of an email.

(05:20) Jay’s “just reply GUIDE” tactic for content and discounts that crushes landing page forms and boosts inbox placement.

(07:14) Daniel shows how the same reply mindset on Instagram Stories boosts distribution while keeping interactions feeling human.

(09:28) They break down how replies become a goldmine of first-party data and even shape future content topics like reality TV.

(09:49) A rapid-fire holiday movie riff that goes from Die Hard and Home Alone to The Grinch, romcoms, and why Hallmark is secretly elite.

(11:15) Jay and Daniel pitch their very on-brand Thanksgiving “gain 5 pounds, then lose it” logic as the ultimate holiday hack.

Check out Jay’s YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson

Check out Jay’s TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelson

Check Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: h