When Jenny from Lockhart, Texas asked whether email and social tips really apply to nonprofits, Jay Schwedelson gave a hard yes—and then proved it. This episode is all about how to rewire your calls to action with “inner dialogue” buttons that speak directly to what your audience is thinking. Whether you’re in nonprofit, B2B, DTC, or SaaS, these simple tweaks can boost your click rates way more than you’d expect. Also: Jay’s love-hate relationship with green markets, lavender dog biscuits, and mildly gross soap people.
Best Moments:
(02:00) Why “does this apply to me?” is the most common (and misguided) marketing question
(03:44) The one element everyone overlooks that can drastically lift click-through rates
(04:59) How to replace “Donate” with CTAs that actually reflect what donors are thinking
(06:30) B2B examples of flipping “Download” into clicks that convert
(07:43) Ecomm buttons that tap into guilt, indulgence, and the online shopping spiral
(08:15) Jay’s favorite SaaS CTA: “Convince me this is worth it”
(09:00) Why green markets feel like a fever dream of soap, lavender, and risky mushrooms
(10:58) The one vendor Jay always buys from (hint: it’s briny)
=================================================
Check out our 100% FREE + VIRTUAL EVENTS! ->
Guru Conference - The World's Largest Virtual EMAIL MARKETING Conference - Nov 6-7!
Register here: www.GuruConference.com
=================================================
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: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/
=================================================
AND don’t miss out on this awesome FREE upcoming Quick Hit!
Marigold: Should I Switch Email Platforms? 5 Truths & Myths!
6/24 11am – 12pm ET.
Register HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/events/7325947932031991808/comments/
=================================================
MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Marigold!!
Email chaos across campuses, branches, or chapters? Emma by Marigold lets HQ keep control while local teams send on-brand, on-time messages with ease.
Podcast & GURU listeners: 50 % off your first 3 months with an annual plan (new customers, 10 k-contact minimum, terms apply).
Claim your offer now at jayschwedelson.com/emma
Transcript
Jay: We are back for ask us anything from the Do This Not That Podcast presented by Marigold. This is our short episode where all week long we get in questions, we get in work questions, and we get in super ridiculous questions and we try to tackle one of each. And if you wanna submit a question, you would actually be extremely cool.
Jay: All you gotta do is go to jay.com. There's a button that says podcast, another one that says, ask us anything. Put stuff in there. I mean, we get some bonker stuff, so let's jump into it. Let's do the work question first. We get a question from Jenny from Lockhart, Texas. Lockhart, Texas. I know nothing about Lockhart, Texas, but I feel like Texas, I.
Jay: You all probably barbecue a lot. This is just on my mind 'cause I was just at a barbecue and this is, I don't know if everyone else, this has gotta be what everyone else is like. So I got a burger and I walked away from the dude that was grilling it, whatever I was with my, some friends they go, oh, that's all that you got.
Jay: And some people are like two burgers on the thing. Some people like a hot dog or two burgers, whatever. And I'm like, I don't know, maybe I'll get some more food. Or I, I don't know. And they were like, shaming me. And I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, if I was at a restaurant and I was like, can I have two burgers, please?
Jay: I would, they'd be like, you're a, you're a farm animal. Like, what's wrong with you? But when you're at a barbecue, it's like, there are no rules. It's like. You need to have two burgers, three hot dogs, chicken, corn, and the cob, and then you're like, that's your appetizer. Like, what's wrong with this? I don't know.
Jay: Meanwhile, fast forward, I did have two burgers, so I am a farm animal. Who cares? Anyway, Jenny, what is your question? Well, how do I wind up talking about this? I don't know. Jay, love the show. Oh, thank you. But we are a nonprofit. And wonder if these tips that you mentioned apply to us too? You know, that's an excellent question, and this is probably the number one thing I get in terms of feedback on this show is, Hey, great tips, but I'm mean, you know, B2B healthcare, or I'm in a boring regulated industry, or I'm in nonprofit, or I'm this or I'm that.
Jay: And what you just talked about. Does that even apply to me? And the answer is, I would say 99% of the time, everything that I talk about applies to everybody. And why is that? I'm gonna give you some examples and some tactics that I think you should be testing for each category, broken down specifically, and nonprofit being one of them.
Jay: But in general, I. We have to always remember something. We are marketing to people now more than ever, with this AI tidal wave of, of generic garbage and everyone pumping out the sameness all over the place, regardless of industry. Regardless if you're a business to business marketer or a consumer marketer, everybody's pumping out volumes and volumes of sameness and generic garbage.
Jay: So the more that we actually insert humanity into our marketing, the more that we can break through, the more that we're getting sales and customers and pipeline and awareness. So this idea that, hey, do these tips apply to what I do? Yes. 'cause at the end of the day you wanna, every time you hit send on an email or you post a social post, or you do whatever you wanna be thinking about, who is the person I am marketing to, not the business.
Jay: You're not marketing to a business, you're not marketing to a target audience, you're marketing to a person. And when you start to think of it that way, it really can be a game changer. I will, I'll lemme give you an example and I'll break it down by industry. So. One of the easiest things that you can do to change the level of engagement, how many people are clicking through on your email marketing campaigns or on your social posts, is to focus on your call to action.
Jay: Button, the rectangular buttons that you're putting on that social post or that you are putting in your email. And the thing that you wanna do regardless of industry, is something that we call the inner dialogue, CTA, the Inner dialogue call to action. What is the person that you are marketing to thinking about inside?
Jay: What are they really trying to solve for? And then when you flip the script and you put the call to action buttons, the actual words on the button, and you use kind of this inner dialogue, it changes everything. And let me give you a stat first off, this idea of doing inner dialogue called to action buttons, which are really first person.
Jay: Call to action buttons, they will increase your click-through rates on average on the business side over 22%, and on the consumer side over 25% just by flipping the script with some of the examples I'm about to give you here. That was for email and on social media posts. When you do it, it will list lift your overall engagement by about 15%.
Jay: So, let me give you an example. So let's talk about nonprofit first. 'cause that was your question, Jenny, and I wanna make sure we tackle that. So a nonprofit, like for example, when you send out your emails and you have your button in those emails, what do you, what does every nonprofit say? For the most part, the button.
Jay: That rectangular button, it normally says donate or donate here. 'cause they want people to donate. But that's not the inner dialogue people should have, right? That's not what they're having when they're thinking about it. When they're getting this email from a nonprofit, what's going on in their mind is this dialogue.
Jay: It's, I wanna help, but does this even make a difference, right? If I donate, does it even make a difference? So instead of having donate on that button, what if it said, this matters. I'm in. Or the button said, let me be part of the solution. I. Or, uh, I'll give a month of clean water. You are then allowing the person with that inner dialogue to see themselves in that button and allows them to jump in.
Jay: What, I mean, what would you sooner click on? Donate or I'll give a month of clean water, right? What sounds better to you? And this isn't every industry, this idea of inner dialogue crushes it. So let's say you are in B2B, healthcare, super boring, whatever it is. Okay, and you want something to download your uh, uh, white paper or whatever garbage it is, that piece of content you have out there.
Jay: What is the inner dialogue in that business to business healthcare category for that? The inner dialogue is, I just need to make sure this won't create more headaches, right? They're saying, if I download this thing, will this help me? Like solve for the issues that we're having to do things faster, better, whatever.
Jay: And so if you flip the script and instead of it saying, you know, download on that call to action button, right? And it said, just show me it's compliant, or instead of download it said, help me avoid risk. Instead of download said, I need the data to convince my team. Your call to action buttons can be a sentence.
Jay: They could be lots of words. They don't need to be one word. And I think that's the part that we miss, and this is why click-through rates are so much higher, right? It's not like someone's gonna see the button and be like, oh my God, this is the best button I've ever seen. But when we think about marketing, social media posts or email marketing, the littlest things make a difference.
Jay: You're like, oh, our click through rates are down. It must be because we have a bad offer. We're sending out the wrong time of day. We have bad creative. It literally could be just because your call to action button stinks, right? What if you are direct to consumer, uh, marketer, right? E-commerce, like, well, I can't do this Inner dialogue stuff.
Jay: That couldn't be further from the truth. So your inner dialogue, right? When you're trying to get someone to buy something and shop the inner dialogue for the person that you're marketing to is, uh, I know I don't need this, so, eh, whatever, and you're gonna skip over it. That's the inner dialogue. So what you wanna do instead of buy now or shop now, right?
Jay: You can go even beyond, you know, make it mine what you can do instead of shop. Now you could do things like, oh fine, I'll treat myself that call to action button, that UGH, fine, I'll treat myself. Or instead of Shop Now it said, yep, adding to my cart again, um, or Shop Now or give me early access. I want in.
Jay: Make it a little bit exciting and get in their minds. Get in their minds. And if let's say, oh, I'm, I'm in, uh, SaaS B2B SaaS, great. Okay. Instead of request a demo, it's skip the fluff, gimme the demo, or I'm just here for the ROI or convince me this is worth it. Right. What would you rather click on? Request a demo or convince me this is worth it.
Jay: And this is for any industry. You wanna be thinking about that inner dialogue because when you get in the mindset of who you're marketing to, this is how you win. Alright, let's get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast, because why not? So we got a question in from Dave, from Baltimore. Dave, what do you got?
Jay: Dave said, Jay, you talk about TV a lot. Do you ever leave your house on the weekend? Uh, well, first off, I would prefer not to, but I do. My wife's always like, let's go here, let's go there, let's do whatever. I live in south Florida, Boca Raton, Florida. Very hot here, by the way. So do I leave my house? So this past weekend, what did I do?
Jay: There is a new green market that just opened up in, in right five minutes from where I live. I love a green market. I don't know why. I think everybody's very odd when you're there. I like staring at people and so yes, Dave. I left my house, I went to the green market, although here we go. I'm about to go down a rabbit hole.
Jay: Oh, well I don't understand green markets. Okay, so this green market had like, I don't know, 70 different stalls or whatever they're called, and I don't care what green market you go to. There's always random stuff being sold. So like, like there was a thing that was selling lavender stuff. Lavender, like everything like lavender honey and lavender body butter and dog biscuits.
Jay: I'm like, what the hell's going on in lavender? It, it doesn't even smell that good. Like, I don't understand. You have a business. Like I know. What if we would make just lavender crap? What? I don't know. And then, then there was a booth, uh, mushrooms, all these different mushrooms that you could buy. But I'm looking at them and I'm like, dude, if I buy this, I am so scared that my head's gonna explode because I don't, I do, I really trust that this rando who has a booth here, uh uh, mate got these mushrooms and it's not gonna make me turn into a psychedelic, uh, whatever.
Jay: So that freaked me out. The other thing that freaks me out is some of these stalls, they sell all these soaps, these handmade soaps, right, in these weird colors and shapes. And I, this is so bad, I'm gonna get so much hate for this. But what I do is I stare at the people that are selling it, and if they look like mildly gross, like I.
Jay: I don't know what's going on. Like maybe they go home and like it's just like a hoarder and it's like, I don't scary. Then I'm like, I don't wanna buy their soap. But if they look like they got their act together and all that, I'll look. I'm still not buying the soap. I don't care. I don't even know what I'm talking about.
Jay: The thing I do like is the pickled stuff. I don't know why the pickled stuff is better than the lavender stuff, but I like pickled anything. So when people are like, oh, we have pickled this, that, or whatever, I do wind up buying pickles most often. Um. And then the, the other thing that's a, there's a lot of is the crystals and the healing stones.
Jay: I usually go to those booth and talk to the people just because I think that they're gonna be like, you know, oh my God, you're, you're in Aries. Do you realize that that means that you're going to go to, uh, Guadalajara and you're gonna find yourself and you should go and stare at the sun? I don't know. I just love talking to these peoples.
Jay: I don't know anything about the stones. Like, oh, this stone's so magical. What am I talking about? Ever. I don't know. Listen, you're awesome. Leave this review. I don't know why. Leave it a comment. That would be even better. And find me on LinkedIn. Let's connect on LinkedIn and, Ooh, I have a new YouTube channel.
Jay: Check it out at Schon. I'm trying. This is hard. If you go and you subscribe, you'll be my best friend. You're awesome. And uh, go buy some lavender or something later.