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In this episode of The Bathroom Break, hosts Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray discuss marketing myths and debunk common misconceptions in the industry.

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Best Moments:

(00:00) Intro and banter about toilet papering houses

(01:49) The myth that marketing best practices found online are often outdated

and not true

(02:06) Busting the myth that you can’t repeat or repurpose content

(03:42) The myth that open rates in email marketing are meaningless

(05:04) The myth of relying too much on list size over open rates

(06:00) Discussing the practice of “churning” email lists to focus on engaged subscribers

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Transcript
Speaker A:

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break.

Speaker A:

That extra 10 minutes, you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom.

Speaker B:

Or both.

Speaker A:

But I don't recommend both.

Speaker A:

But that's your choice.

Speaker B:

This collab is going to be super fun.

Speaker B:

We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials, and me, Jay Schwedelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com.

Speaker B:

each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics.

Speaker B:

And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine.

Speaker B:

Just don't tell us about it.

Speaker B:

Thanks for checking it out.

Speaker B:

We are here for more bathroom breaking.

Speaker B:

We're gonna break bathrooms.

Speaker B:

This is Jay Schwedelson, and I'm here with the man himself, Daniel Murray from the Marking Millennials.

Speaker B:

Daniel, are you ready to have a toilet paper fight?

Speaker A:

I am.

Speaker A:

I haven't TP'd a house since high school.

Speaker A:

I shouldn't admit that, but I haven't TP'd a high house since high school.

Speaker A:

Also, I'm excited to be with the Jane Goodall of marketing right here.

Speaker B:

Oh, that's funny.

Speaker B:

That's nice.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

There was a post about me that I was also in the same post with Jane Goodall, which is fine.

Speaker B:

I like Jane Goodall.

Speaker B:

I feel like she's probably a cool hang.

Speaker B:

I don't know.

Speaker B:

Now, wait a minute.

Speaker B:

You toiled people at people's houses.

Speaker B:

Were you, like, a bully?

Speaker A:

I wasn't a bully.

Speaker A:

I was like, one of the people who got roped into doing it.

Speaker A:

I was actually really, like, trying to be a goody goody kid.

Speaker A:

And it's just like you got to when you get roped into.

Speaker A:

I was like, one guy who, like, threw one little toilet paper and then ran away.

Speaker A:

I was like, I'm not doing this anymore.

Speaker A:

But I knew friends who were really loved it.

Speaker B:

All right.

Speaker B:

By the way, anybody out there who really loves toilet paper in your house, you're a loser.

Speaker B:

Let's just go there and just.

Speaker B:

That's that.

Speaker B:

All right.

Speaker B:

Speaking about other losers, let's talk about.

Speaker B:

We're going to talk about today, and that is the fact that there is a lot of myths out there.

Speaker B:

And the people that are spreading these marketing myths are also losers because.

Speaker B:

Cause when you go ahead and you Google marketing best practices, nine times out of 10, it's outdated, it's not true, and it's actually a myth.

Speaker B:

So we're gonna try to bust some of those myths.

Speaker B:

So, Daniel, I'm gonna talk to you first.

Speaker B:

Let's bust a myth about repetitive content.

Speaker B:

What do you got?

Speaker A:

Well, that is the myth that you can't repeat your content and you can't put your content in multiple places and the same content.

Speaker A:

That is a very big myth.

Speaker A:

The key to winning in marketing is finding your winners.

Speaker A:

As strange as it says is once you find a winner, you repeat it till it doesn't work anymore.

Speaker A:

What a lot of people try to do is hit a goal on their content marketing calendar.

Speaker A:

For example, I have to write 10 blog posts this week and they all have to be net new or the month and they all have to be net new when really you probably have written 20, 30, 40, 50 blog posts in the past and most of them need to be updated, revamped, remixed, reused, that you can make way better.

Speaker A:

And people are honestly wasting time just keeping writing new stuff when they can repeat winners that are great.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

And I think along those lines, when you find winners, I mean, look at Gary Vee for example.

Speaker B:

I like Gary Vee a lot.

Speaker B:

He basically says the same three or four things over and over and over again and just kind of repackages it a different way.

Speaker B:

You don't need 30 winners.

Speaker B:

Right?

Speaker B:

You could have a handful of winners that just go deep down that path.

Speaker B:

So this idea that, you know, you have to always be pumping out and be a content machine, to me, I think is a myth.

Speaker B:

I'll tell you another myth that drives me crazy in the world of email marketing.

Speaker B:

All these experts out there will say things like, you should only focus on your click through metrics because open rates are meaningless.

Speaker B:

It doesn't matter if it says it's open because a lot of open rates and email metrics are bots or there's an inflation from Apple, iOS and that is the most ridiculous, annoying myth in my universe.

Speaker B:

Because an email open is no longer an open rate metric is no longer absolute.

Speaker B:

So if you send an email that says you got 12,342 opens, it's not true.

Speaker B:

You didn't because of all the bots and garbage that's out there.

Speaker B:

But if you do an a B test on an email and on one version of your subject line use an emoji and the other subject line, you don't.

Speaker B:

Okay?

Speaker B:

And the one that you use the emoji can gets a 35% open rate and the one that didn't gets a 20% open rate directionally, you know, because of your open rate tracking that the, the emoji was the winner.

Speaker B:

Right?

Speaker B:

So it's like doing a Gallup poll on your marketing and open rate tracking is incredibly valuable.

Speaker B:

Anybody that tells you otherwise is clueless.

Speaker B:

So that's a myth I don't like.

Speaker B:

What's another one you don't like?

Speaker A:

One thing that I is also a myth is that people rely on list size more than they rely on open rates.

Speaker A:

And I think getting people out of your list and getting to closer to who are the real fans, opening your email and finding those fans is way more valuable than having a hundred thousand people opening at a 20% rate or cutting your list to the 20,000 that aren't opening your email and getting a 40 open rate.

Speaker A:

Like I feel like a lot of people are relying.

Speaker A:

It's better to know that here are my raving fans.

Speaker A:

Let me just focus on my Raven fans.

Speaker A:

Who cares about that left side?

Speaker A:

I think it's just a vanity metric.

Speaker A:

Focus on in the at.

Speaker A:

What we do in the marketing millennials is every month we churn our list, we turn our list just to get closer to raving fans.

Speaker B:

So wait, let's talk about that for a second.

Speaker B:

What do you exactly?

Speaker B:

Because I think this is going to be eye opening for people.

Speaker B:

What do you exactly do?

Speaker B:

What does churn your list actually mean?

Speaker A:

Yeah, so what we do is we look at who has been inactive in the last 90 days on our list.

Speaker A:

Like who has not open, click, done any action.

Speaker A:

And what we'll do is try to get a one back campaign to a couple emails to see if they're they even there anymore.

Speaker A:

And if they don't in the the next like 30 days, click or engage with any of the email.

Speaker A:

We just take them out our list because we want to.

Speaker A:

For me, it's more valuable to see who actually cares and reading my emails and get closer to those people than have just a bunch of people who are inactive not doing anything on my list.

Speaker A:

I think it's really way more valuable to get closer to the people who are your raving fans.

Speaker A:

And I think it's a myth that people need to keep.

Speaker A:

I know that's a vanity metric because I could say that my list is 60%, 70% more if I just add people who haven't been opening for the last year or two.

Speaker A:

But I don't because I rather have a 50% open raid of a smaller list than a 20% of operate of a larger list.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

And I would add if you are going into a marketing meeting and One of your KPIs, one of the things that you're supposed to do by the end of the quarter, end of the year is to grow your list by X amount.

Speaker B:

Okay?

Speaker B:

If that's something that your marketing department is being charged with, you should walk into the next marketing and be like, this is a ridiculous target for us to want to achieve because it's forcing us to have dead people in our database.

Speaker B:

That is a boat anchor in our attention.

Speaker B:

It's a boat anchor in our email deliverability.

Speaker B:

You can't have an ego about the size of your database.

Speaker B:

That is a recipe for marketing failure.

Speaker B:

And I'm on board with the marketing Millennials are doing.

Speaker B:

You know, 90 days is the right amount.

Speaker B:

I think it's a myth that you should wait for 12 months to pass before you look at who's engaged and who's not.

Speaker B:

Or even two years, which for some reason is the most common period of time people wait to say, okay, they haven't opened or clicked in two years.

Speaker B:

I mean, are you kidding me?

Speaker B:

Two years ago?

Speaker B:

Who knows what I was doing two years ago?

Speaker A:

A good target for you is growing the base of opens.

Speaker A:

Like, that is something that you should.

Speaker A:

And going back to.

Speaker A:

Like, that's why open rates matter.

Speaker A:

Like, if you can grow the base from 10,000 opens to 15,000 to 20,000.

Speaker A:

Like, it doesn't matter if you grow the base your list 20,000, but you get to 1, 2, like, 1,000, 2,000, where you can grow open rates.

Speaker A:

So that means focus on having better content, better subject lines, better things to keep people repeat.

Speaker A:

Repeat openers are more valuable than one time opener.

Speaker A:

I'll die on that.

Speaker A:

Like, stick with those people.

Speaker A:

Figure out why they like your content.

Speaker A:

And that's why Operate is not a mess.

Speaker B:

Totally.

Speaker B:

All right, there's gonna be a lot more episodes coming up.

Speaker B:

We're gonna tackle a bunch of other stuff.

Speaker B:

Appreciate you checking out the bathroom break and stay tuned for next week's episode.

Speaker B:

Daniel, come on, man.

Speaker B:

I gotta get back to work.

Speaker B:

Get out of there.

Speaker B:

All right, while he's still in there.

Speaker B:

This is Jay.

Speaker B:

Check out my podcast, do this, not that for marketers.

Speaker B:

Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try.

Speaker B:

Oh, here's Daniel.

Speaker A:

He's finally out back from my bathroom break.

Speaker A:

This is Daniel.

Speaker A:

Go follow the market Millennials this podcast, but also tune into this series.

Speaker A:

It's once a week.

Speaker A:

The Bathroom Break.

Speaker A:

We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out.

Speaker A:

And it could be anything from email, subject line to any marketing tips in the world.

Speaker A:

We'll talk about it.

Speaker A:

Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear.

Speaker A:

Peace out.

Speaker B:

Later.

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