What’s Up THIS WEEK: Email More NOW! Google AI Mode Game-Changer…TikTok Horrible Trend 😳 | Ep. 475

Jay Schwedelson: We are back for what's up this week from the Do This, not that podcast. This is our super short episode. We break down what's going on this weekend, marketing in business and in life, and we have our other episodes later in the week. Let's jump into it. So first off, the biggest news definitely is from Google.

Jay Schwedelson: Google has radically changed the game this week, and if you're not aware of it, you should really look up something called. Universal Commerce Protocol, UCP. So they literally just announced it. And this is gonna a massive impact on business to business marketers, consumer marketers, nonprofit marketers, and basically what they've done is all in with their ai.

Jay Schwedelson: Whether you're just going to Google to search for something or you're using Gemini, you go on Google and you say, Hey. I'm interested in getting a new piece of luggage now with this new setup they're doing. Uh, when you ask that new piece of luggage, what's going to pop up with their AI mode instantly are different luggage options that you can buy.

Jay Schwedelson: Like, oh, I like this brand, I like this one. But you don't click and leave Google and go to that luggage brand's. Right there. You could pick the color, you could see if there's any discounts, pricing, whatever. If it's available when it will ship, you click another button. You go to checkout. Right now you're using Google Pay, but about, they're also about to roll out with PayPal and other payment options.

Jay Schwedelson: You click pay and it goes, it ships you get your confirmation. It's done. Okay, and this isn't theoretical. They now have 25 of the world's biggest retailers already on board, including Shopify and Walmart and Home Depot and Target, and Best Buy and Wayfair, and you name it, and Etsy and all of them. Okay?

Jay Schwedelson: What that means is right now it feels like a consumer play. That instead of people just going to your direct to consumer site or your overall consumer product site within AI mode is where the shopping is going to take place. And Gemini is exploding. I knew Google was gonna win. Okay, because chat BT is great.

Jay Schwedelson: Uh, but. It's not able to keep up with the behemoth of what Google has behind it. So Gemini and Google are almost at the same level in terms of usage. It's getting close to chat, jt, and it's gonna explode even further with things like this. But the reason that all marketers need to check out this UCP, okay, is because now imagine you're a business marketer and you fast forward a few months and now you're out there, somebody who's looking for a SaaS product and you're like, oh, I wanna book a demo.

Jay Schwedelson: They're gonna book a demo. Right there in AI mode, they're gonna download your content right there in AI mode. If you're a nonprofit, they're gonna make the donation right there. It is no longer, your marketing is no longer about generating clicks back to your site. It is generating influence so that way when the person is thinking about what they need and they see your offering, whatever it is.

Jay Schwedelson: They're interested in that it is gonna be much more of a be everywhere type of thing. So you're there in the right moment. So. Check that out big time. Uh, other things that are going on that I think people aren't aware of that are actually really, really important is that these next two weeks, okay, these next two weeks from January 20th through January 30th, that's really more of a 10 day span.

Jay Schwedelson: But basically these next 10 days are among the best periods of the year for email marketing. Specifically that's according to World Data Research. It's actually a top five, a 10 day period. I know that's a weird thing, but it's a top five, 10 day period from January 20th through January 30th in terms of generating, uh, demo requests, content downloads, people, uh, buying products and things not tied to a holiday.

Jay Schwedelson: So we have a little bit of timeout before we have a Valentine's Day. And the reason this 10 day period is so strong. Is because we came out of the new year, everybody was sick of working. They didn't wanna come back to work. They had to get their act together. Right? And now you're like, oh, but I do wanna kick butt this year.

Jay Schwedelson: And now they're finally in motion. So I would really think about, believe it or not, sending out more promotional emails from January 20th and January 30th. This is a great, great period to actually generate. Some of your best results of the year. So if you're not intentional about that period of time, I think you're missing out on some of the best opportunity to drive performance.

Jay Schwedelson: Some other random things that are going on. I was a lot somewhat sad about this. I saw sprinkled cupcakes. I dunno if you know sprinkled cupcakes. Those are the cupcakes that you can get out of vending machines, okay? And they had a zillion of these locations. It went outta business. That stinks. Um, and some of these vending machines though, you go in the airports and there's vending.

Jay Schwedelson: I, first of all, I saw a vending machine for champagne. I don't know who was going to the airport. Oh, I'm going to get a bottle of champagne from a vending machine in the airport. It's the weirdest thing of all time. I, I went through, um, Idaho. Boise, Idaho. They had a vending machine for french fries. Now this, of course, I had to try it.

Jay Schwedelson: Was it good? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. They're known for their potatoes, but I had to try it. But the vending machine thing is a little bit like, what are we doing? Like let's just shove anything we can into an actual vending machine. Um, I don't know what I'm talking about on useless news. Um. I know the Golden Globes are a little behind us now, but Amy Poer won for the best podcast, which is great 'cause her show good hang is awesome.

Jay Schwedelson: Love Amy Poer. But I'm gonna get in trouble for this and I don't really care. I saw that Dax Shepherd was nominated, right? He was nominated. I find him very annoying. I do. I find Dak Shepherd annoying. Is that bad? Can I say that? I don't understand. Why is his show popular? Uh, maybe I'm annoying. I definitely am annoying.

Jay Schwedelson: Whatever. Who cares? Um, so I. What other nonsense going on? Serious nonsense going on and that's a very valid question. Alright, so Star Search is coming out. I don't particularly care about Star Search coming out on Netflix that's coming out, uh, in a few days. It's gonna be a live version of where it's like a whole town competition.

Jay Schwedelson: They're have live shows twice a week. And that's coming out in like the next two or three days. And I mean, yeah, I get it. Beyonce, Britney Spears, Adam Sandler, they all came through the original version of Star Search a zillion years ago. But I don't know. These competition throws. It's too much. Speaking of too much.

Jay Schwedelson: This is unacceptable. Did you know that there's a trend on TikTok right now? It is called Perfume talk. This is real and it's this concept of scent stacking. This is getting like billions of views, scent stacking, and the idea is you take, you know, three or four different types of perfumes or things that are like really scented and you put them on yourself and you make like your own special scent.

Jay Schwedelson: That is so disgusting. What are we doing? People need to stop. I was outside on a walk. It was seven 30 in the morning and I walked past this person. Sh they had so much perfume, cologne. I don't know what it was. I want to throw up seven 30 in the morning outside. What are we doing? You're in, you're in running clothing, what are you doing?

Jay Schwedelson: Okay. And then, uh, I went to the mall. And you know, I feel, I feel that that whole thing where you're one of the perfume people and you're trying to get people to take the little thing and smell the little thing and do the little thing, I feel for those people, that is not easy. That is a tough one. You know, that you have to try to, you know, make that sale.

Jay Schwedelson: I feel for those people. But if I work there in one of those perfume counters, I would have the worst headache I would wanna throw up within, I don't know, an hour that seems. Putting aside how hard it's to make that sale, just from a physical standpoint, that seems like a very hard thing to do. Everybody needs to put on less.

Jay Schwedelson: You smell great, you're doing fine. Okay? Not everybody needs to smell you if they're in the car, uh, on the other side of the street. We need to stop. Okay, what are we talking about? Once again, I don't know. Check out Google stuff. Get your emails out the door. Make it a great week, and, uh, hit me up@jschshettleston.com.

Jay Schwedelson: I wanna work with you. We got all sorts of new consulting gigs. We're doing new packages, new things, new new events. We're doing Jay sch shettleston.com. I'll see you there later.