SPECIAL SERIES == Waitlists Aren’t Just for Hype 🧠 <== | BATHROOM Break #63 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

Daniel Murray: Welcome to a new special series called the bathroom break. That extra ten minutes, you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom or both. But I don't recommend both, but that's your choice.

Jay Schwedelson: This collab is gonna be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the marketing millennials and me, Jay Schwedelson, from the do this not that podcast and subjectline.com. Each episode in the series, we are gonna go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you wanna be in the bathroom, fine. Just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out. We are back again for another bathroom break. And today, we're crushing the power of wait lists on the business and consumer side. I'm here with Daniel Murray, who is the marketing millennial. I'm Jay Schwedelson from Do This Not That. So Daniel, before we get into this, I'm curious about something. When you go to the supermarket, alright, are you like a self checkout guy and you crush self checkout? Or do you have you just go down the regular aisle because you don't wanna have that random person come over because you have a problem with your self checkout and you don't know how to scan it? Or is this not a problem for you? Because oddly, I I don't think I ever done self checkout without needing somebody's help.

Speaker 3: It depends on items. Like, if I need if I'm trying to go fast, I'm self checkout. But if I have, like, a whole card of groceries and stuff and it depends, yeah. I I think it's definitely comes down to items for me. I like the ability to self checkout, but if I I hate the people who have a whole card of, like, 400 things in there in self checkout, and I'm like, you could have just gotten over here, please. You're just like holding out the self.

Jay Schwedelson: I just don't know how, like, if I go somewhere and I get like, you know, maybe they have a prepared food section and I get it, and then there's like all these buttons you press, you weigh it, or I I'm not able to use the technology to self self checkout. And the other thing I read is that 15% of people steal when they do self checkout.

Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. That's a big problem. That's crazy. That's a big problem. That's that's why a lot of companies are anti self check out of, like, where people go and

Jay Schwedelson: Do you do you steal? I've never. Daniel, you admitted that right now? I steal every time.

Speaker 3: I've known, like, people in, like, high school and stuff that terrible.

Jay Schwedelson: So stupid. So bad. Well, we're not gonna do that today. We're gonna be talking about the power of wait list. So what are we even talking about? Is it worth doing wait list in your marketing? Should this be a part of your arsenal, or is this a bad tactic?

Speaker 3: I think number one, I would say I'll be if it's general, it depends. But I I do think that, like, building lists are really important in marketing. Like, you need to collect emails. So if you do not have any emails, like, building a wait list or building a list of people is so important because algorithms, you can't like, emails algorithm prove that you know you're the email guy. So building a list also, it lets you know, like, gauges, like, am is my landing page copy or the the offer I'm having? Is it is it serving the people I thought it was serving or not serving? So but it's always important to collect an email. I think there's way reasons not to do a wait list, and we could talk about that and reasons, not to call it a wait list. And those are the two things I would stray away, but I think most in most cases, a wait list is is good for, like, a product launch or a big launch, like, collecting emails.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah. And I think that people get confused about waitlist and they think, okay. I'm not a direct to consumer product that's gonna drop a new color of a fitness outfit and, so I can't do a waitlist. And so for example, with with my events, we put on these big free virtual events. Why would anybody wanna get on a wait list for a free virtual event? That just sounds stupid, and it would be stupid if we say get on a wait list for that. So what we do is, and the reason we do it, we will say things like, okay. The first, you know, 500 people that join the wait list for our free virtual event will be entered in to win these these wild, you know, 50 different VIP swag boxes that we're giving out. And the reason that we do that is number one, we wanna build up hype. Number two, we dig into the data because let's say nobody registers to get some of way. Let's say, uh-oh. We have a clunker here. This thing's gonna stink. Nobody wants in. Or we get a boatload of people that do sign up. We then look at the data and say, okay. Cool. This isn't our, you know, target audience. This is what we're going after, or we have to tweak our marketing or tweak this. It gives you a little peek behind the curtain before you go too far with your product event or service.

Speaker 3: I would add on to that. I would say that it's always better to not rely on one big moment in marketing, especially that. Because if you're gonna do a big launch, for example, and you don't know how, like, social media is gonna act on that day, you don't know how email is gonna act on that day, you don't know how paid's gonna act on that day. So having something like a rolling thunder, like, launch where you're you're dropping little, like, nuggets on the way where you could do with wait list, you could do first come, first serve, you could say, like, get in our VIP circle to know when something happens. But I think the key here is also just, like, collecting, but I I do think you have to if you're gonna do a waitlist, it has there has to be an incentive of someone getting on the wait list, and and depends what type of company you are. So either it has to be like they entered to win something, they get a status like VIP. They have to have some sort of in because I see where I see people go wrong with this is that they collect emails for a wait list from a list that they already built, and then it's like filling out 15 different spots where, like, they're not preregistering for them for, like, an event or stuff. And then now you have to get three different conversions, which is so much harder. So promising something or giving something away or giving status like VIP is a great way to do a wait list. Or, like, for ecommerce, I've seen it a lot where, like, an influencer drops a product and people get on the wait list because you know that there's hype. And if you don't get on the wait list, then you the product's gonna sell out. So, like, a good way also to do this is limited quantity. Like, when you launch something, like, I we're only gonna launch a 100 something. Like, say it ahead of time. That's a good test too. It's like only launching a 100. You know, you might have more in inventory, but only launching a 100 products on this drop.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah. And totally. And first of all, that's like the biggest hack right now in direct to consumer marketing is everybody's saying their stuff is sold out, they sold four of them. But it's great for social proof. And on the business side, if you're like a SaaS platform and, you know, you give people beta access to a new release, a new whatever, it's super valuable to build that wait list or be the first to try, be the first to have access. So if you're not doing this, it is a really great way to figure out who your super fans are, to figure out if you're hitting your target audience, and to Daniel's point, to build up a new list of people. Sorry. Before we wrap up this one, you know, back back to the supermarket. So now you're checking out. Are you do you grab stuff? Are you grabbing like, write a check? Oh, I need the Tic Tacs. I gotta get this drink over here. Or are you laser focused and you're locked in and once you have your cart this is the most random question ever. No. Do you do you get any extras at the end?

Speaker 3: I had one thing because I'm I'm a marketer in this. This is the o g up the o g upsell cross sell of like this. Like, having going through a line and seeing the magazines, chocolates,

Daniel Murray: stuff.

Speaker 3: I think, yeah, if I need gum or if I need a water, I probably I probably fall for the trap sometimes. You know the ones where there's, like, a long Sephora does this where, like, the it's like a long zigzag and there's, a thousand products there. I bet

Jay Schwedelson: so many people. Oh, Lululemon. I bought so many hats at Lululemon because I'm I'm on the line, which is so long. I'm like, oh, another random one color really weird hat that won't fit me properly. I'm definitely buying that. And then I go home with a hat I never wear again. It's amazing. I know. I've never seen you

Speaker 3: in a hat.

Jay Schwedelson: Oh my god. In the weekend, you you don't see me without a hat.

Speaker 3: Oh, wow.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah. I'm a hat guy. You're you're a guy.

Speaker 3: I am a very big

Jay Schwedelson: hat guy. You're a hat guy.

Speaker 3: I've seen you in

Jay Schwedelson: a hat. Yeah. I know. It's very exciting. What's not exciting is is what we're talking about. So listen, you all are awesome. Go and hook up the market millennials. Follow their show. Follow do this not that. Follow some other random podcast that is awesome, whatever that is for you, and, we'll see you at the next Daniel, come on, man. I gotta get back to work. Get out of there. Alright. While he's still in there, this is Jay. Check out my podcast,

Daniel Murray: Do This Not That for marketers. Each week, we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing, and I

Jay Schwedelson: hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

Daniel Murray: Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the marketing millennials podcast, but also tune in to this series. It's once a week, the bathroom break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out, and it could be anything from email subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you wanna hear. Peace out. Later.