December might feel like a throwaway month, but Jay Schwedelson is here with a simple shift that turns the end of the year into a lead and revenue spike by using intent signals as your actual offer. He walks through how to spot and capture real buying intent across B2B, consumer, and nonprofit campaigns, then finishes with some very honest (and funny) thoughts on holiday cards and those ridiculous surprise-car commercials. Expect specific copy ideas you can steal right away while everyone else is mentally on vacation.
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Best Moments:
(00:20) Why December is secretly a goldmine if you stop mailing it in and lead with intent-based offers.
(01:45) B2B examples like Q1 readiness audits, vendor comparison checklists, and RFP kickstart kits that instantly reveal who is in market.
(03:05) Consumer plays such as last-minute hero finder and VIP early access for sellout items to target shoppers who are still actively buying.
(04:15) Nonprofit hooks like donation impact calculators and sponsor a need selectors that surface serious year-end donors.
(04:55) How intent signal campaigns in December and early January crush for pipeline, platform switches, and tax-motivated giving.
(05:40) Jay’s rant on random family holiday cards and unrealistic holiday car gift commercials you never see in real life.
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Transcript
Jay: We are back for do this, not that podcast. And I wanted to rip through this tactic that works so well in the month of December and a little bit into January that I think most marketers sleep on. Whether you're a business to business marketer, consumer, nonprofit, it doesn't matter. There is a way to get really good leads.
Jay: Really good pipeline, really good opportunity in the month of December, and everybody usually just mails it in. They're like, oh, Thanksgiving's over. I'm turning off my brain until the second week of January. But this is a golden time for one specific tactic, and that is using intent. Signals as your offer when you use intent signals as your offer in the month of December, we see it actually generate over a 30% increase than any other content related offer in the month of December, and that's for business consumer, nonprofit, and that's from World Data Research.
his stuff like, you know, the:Jay: But if you use intent signals as your offer, you can get a lot of people coming into your database and a lot of the right people at the right moment. What do I mean by that? So let's say for example, first on the business to business side, what does an intent signal offer feel like? Sound like, look like?
Jay: So if you went out with an offer, now that was your. Q1 readiness audit. Or the end of year vendor comparison checklist or your RFP kickstart hit. Why do these things work? Well, first off, anybody that wants to download or visit a blog or consume content that's related to a vendor comparison checklist or an RFP.
Jay: Kickstart hit. What does that really mean? That means that that company, that person is thinking about doing an RFP. That means that they're looking at comparing vendors. And the reason this time of year is critical for that is when do you think most. Change happens as it relates to business to business vendors.
Jay: It happens right now and into the month of January. So when you take your content and you package it up, okay, into this mid funnel opportunity where the people that are consuming it, you're able to identify who is in market potentially for your product or thing. You not only get a lot more people.
Jay: During this time of year, but you get the people that are doing it right now and you're tapping into their mindset of them exploring a potential other vendor. Now on the consumer side. You can also play this same exact game. You wanna tap into the people that are in market to buy products right now.
Jay: Right? So if you went out and you said, and your offer was last minute hero finder, what is that really saying? Like, oh, this person's still out there shopping, they're trying to find the thing. We're gonna speak to that right. Now. Okay. What about if you had something like VIP early access for sellout items?
Jay: You are now going back to your database of customers. You're saying, listen, we sold out here, but we know you still want it. Here's where it is. Okay? Or something. Let's say you have a big product you're pushing like, like a couch. Before you replace your couch, check this. And the reason that matters is now you are talking to people that are in market for replacing their couch or replacing whatever it is.
Jay: Still need one more gift. This helps. You want to use the intent that the person has, they may not even realize it, and that is how you crush on the nonprofit side. This is the best time of year. The month of December is perfect for these intense signals, right? Something along the lines of donation impact calculator, or, um, sponsor a need selector.
Jay: Meaning you are looking for the people that actually wanna make a donation right now. And if your content and your offers speak to what they're looking for and then they react to it, you win. And the month of December is when all of this actually turns into magic, right? So if you, if you've never really considered doing intent signal marketing, it is right now and into like the first half of January.
Jay: It crushes it. 'cause this is when people are looking for those last minute gifts. This is when people are changing their business to business platforms or vendors and this is when they're thinking about their donations because this is when they could make it the tax advantage before the end of the year.
Jay: Special time of year. Alright, let's get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast since you didn't ask. This is where I talk about nonsense. So this time of year is always like, uh, things drive me. Wild. I can't handle it. So what do I mean by that? First off, I got, we got in the mail. I know I'm gonna get shredded for this.
Jay: My I, my family will shred me whatever we got in the first holiday card in the mail. Right? I don't know what lists we're on, but we only get holiday cards of families. I am convinced we have not spoken to in, I don't know, 10 plus years. And then we, we get these holiday cards of these people that I have no really, I mean, I know who they are.
Jay: Do I care? I hope they're doing well. But do I care, eh, a little bit? Not much. And here's the problem. Uh, my wife takes the holiday card because, oh, it's so nice. They send to us and then we put it up and we prominently display it somewhere in our house. Like we walk by it every day. And for like a solid 30 days, there's usually like four or five of these holiday cards of these random families that I have no relationship with anymore, that I'm walking by every day and I'm like, I don't care.
Jay: Can we just put a picture of our family or something? I, I, I need to get, there needs to be an expiration date that if you don't talk to a, a family for a certain period of time, you get off their list and they, we need to not put them up in my house. I need to, I need to get involved. Which ones we are putting up in our houses.
Jay: Uh, what else is on my mind? Oh, I was thinking about this last night. I was watching TV and I saw a commercial, uh, a holiday, commercial Christmas commercial, whatever for a car. And I feel like every other holiday commercial, are people getting surprised? Somebody else bought them a car, like as a holiday gift.
Jay: Is this happening? Have you ever heard of anybody that you know in your life being like, guess what? I came home and there was a ribbon on this giant car and my significant other. Got me a car for the haul, for Christmas, for whatever. I've never once heard that. And yet the amount of commercials that you see with this scenario taking place, you would think people were like gifting each other like cupcakes or something.
Jay: Does this happen? Does do, are surprising each other with cars. Do I just have crappy friends or whatever that people don't get me a car. If you don't need me a car, get me a car. I don't know. I, I don't know. What am I talking about? I don't know. Uh, anyway, listen, appreciate you and, uh, you want a partner? Go to jay sch delson.com.
Jay: We could do all sorts of stuff. You work with my agency, you work with me. You could block me.