![4 INSTANT Ways to Increase Social and Email Engagement😮 [White Space is Secret Sauce!] Jay’s SCOOP | Ep. 350 — Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson cover](https://artwork.captivate.fm/cc2552e9-ff79-4b70-a1f9-d5391cc6c2ea/Cn-wk_l02p6VZcHdSz0PS7YR.jpeg)
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Jay Schwedelson
What up? Welcome to do this not that the podcast for marketers. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's dig into some tips and some randomness. We are back for do this not that podcast presented by Marigold. And today we're going to rip through some tactics that are so easy to do for your email marketing and your social media that you're probably not thinking of that can be game changers. And it's all about thinking about what people say, see, rather than what people read. White space in our marketing is a game changer. And I'm not just talking about making sure that you have a lot of white space around your call to action buttons. No, no, no. Everybody knows stuff like that. I'm talking about little tactics that you're probably not thinking of that can really give you a boost. So first I want to rip through some email marketing tactics for you to try and then some social media ones. And this is all about testing. If we have five different things in here and you test them all, some will work, some won't work, but you got to test it all and see what happens. So the first one is the pre header. Everybody knows that in email marketing, when you send out your promotional email, you have your from name, you have your subject line, then you have that second subject line, that kind of grayed out text that is your pre header. And everybody messes around with the pre header. They put their offer information in there, they'll do all sorts of stuff. But have you ever tested absolutely no pre header at all? Why would you want to do that? When people are going through their inbox and they're scrolling, they're doing that social scroll in their inbox. When there's a lot of white space surrounding your email message, it stands out. Whether it's in the subconscious or not, it stands out. So when you have no pre header whatsoever, and you will see only 2% of emails that go out have no pre header whatsoever. So reverse that for a second. Now think about your emails being one of only 2% of emails that are out there that have no pre header. And what we see is that when you have no Pre header, okay, B2B, business open rates rise by about 14% and consumer email open rates rise by about 12%. If you've never tested no pre header, that is an easy, easy one. Now, you can't do this on every email, but you can mix it in there as part of your arsenal. And the key thing when you do no pre header is to use a very short subject line because the shorter the subject line is, the more white space is going to show up in that person's inbox. So another one as it relates to email. Before we get into all the social stuff, there's always this question of how many call to action buttons should I have in my email? And in general we always say I'll have a bunch of them. Because you want to give people the most amount of opportunities to click through from your email and go to your site, your landing page, your offer page, whether it's consumer or business offers. But if you've never tested the complete opposite of that, just having one call to action button, very visible, very simple, very clean, just one. If you've never tested that, that is a must do. Wordstream came out with some data recently and this is kind of wild. They found that emails with just one call action button had a 3x increase in clicks. That's a 300% increase in clicks. Now that's really a large increase. But more important than if you're going to get 300%, which you probably won't, if you've never tested sending an email with only one call to action, that is a must do. Okay, that is a must do. Now the other thing as it relates to inside of your email that I think we all know is you cannot have big blocks of text. You cannot have no five, six, seven lines of text. Nobody's going to read that. But the stat is this. Emails with blocks of text that are over four lines or more, four lines or more, see a 20% drop in their click through rates. Nobody cares what you're writing. Nobody's reading four lines of text. Break it up with white space. You need to be thinking about your content visually and not always about what you're trying to say. Now let's get into social. I have a secret trick for you on LinkedIn that absolutely crushes it that nobody ever does. But it works so well. So on LinkedIn, you know when somebody writes a bunch of sentences on their LinkedIn post, a company page post or personal page post, and there's a bunch of words and sentences. If you want to see the rest of the post of what they've written, what do you have to do? You have to click that little button that says more. It says M O R E and then it opens up the post and makes it a lot bigger. Now when you click on that button more to see the rest of that LinkedIn post, you're actually sending a signal to LinkedIn saying, hey, I'm interested in this content. And when you do that, that post from that person or that company page, it then circulates it further. The algorithm likes when people click on that little thing that says more. So the trick is this. If you can write a really great hook as your LinkedIn post, and then you hit the return button three times. Enter, enter, enter. And then you put in the rest of your content. What you're doing is twofold. Number one, you are going to create a lot of white space, so it's going to stand out in that person's feed. But the other thing that's going to happen, okay, is that it's going to make somebody click on that thing that says more. It's going to open it up, and your post will actually circulate a lot farther. We see this increase circulation by about 15%. So an example of this would be if you did a post and you wrote something like this only for marketers, dot, dot, dot, that would be everything. And then you hit the enter button three times, 1, 2, 3. And then you put everything below that, the rest of your content. It forces people to hit that more button. It gets your post circulated more. This is a great, easy test that I don't think enough people really think about on Instagram with your carousels. Carousels are it, right? Carousels is the best type of content on Instagram other than doing a reel right now, carousels are crushing it. But what you want to think about doing is within your carousel, like every other carousel page, you want to have either minimalist or one word pages, right? So you might have something like you have your big regular image first. Then your second image in your carousel might say, now this, dot, dot, dot. Or it might say, guess what, question mark? And what it's doing there is, number one, it's getting the person to go to actually the third image or the fourth image, right? You want to do this every other image. And that is a signal to Instagram that people are engaging with this post and they circulate it further. But in addition to that, it also breaks up kind of the rhythm, if you will, in a good way. It gets people a little bit more interested, more engaged. It's very easy to consume. It's easy on their mind. So if you haven't done this I format of a carousel with minimalist inserted into your posts, you're really leaving some great stuff on the table. All right, before we get into the absolute ridiculous portion of this podcast called since you didn't ask, I want you know this podcast is exclusively presented By Marigold. Marigold is the email setting platform I use. They have something called Emma. It is awesome. And just for listeners of this podcast, they're giving us a special offer, 50% off for the first three months. If you want to try out their Emma platform, which is incredible for loyalty, for retention, for tracking, you name it, business, consumer, you go to jschwedelson.com emma that's jeddon.com emma and you can get the 50% off for three months. It is awesome. All right, let's get into. Since you didn't ask, this is the portion of the podcast where I don't know what I talk about, but talk about whatever's going on in my life. So I just had my physical at the doctor, which I. I don't know. I shouldn't put it off. I know it's very important, but I. I did it. Okay, don't even. Don't even start. I did it. But I realized something when I'm at the doctor and I feel like everybody does this. Why do I lie to the doctor? I don't understand why I lie. I'm there. This person is trying to help me make sure that I can continue to live, and yet they ask me questions, and I am not truthful like that. He said to me, all right, so how much water are you drinking every day? And I thought in my head, okay, I drink, like, you know, one. Maybe one of these big waters that I bring that I fill up with this water bottle. And I said, I drink three of them. And after it came out of my mouth, I said to him, I just lied to you. And he starts laughing and he goes, what are you talking about? I go, I drink one. He goes, well, you should drink more. I go, I know. I go, why did I lie? He goes, everybody lies. And then. And then he says to me, let's talk about your stress levels. He goes, do you have a lot of stress? I go, no, I don't. I go, oh, I just lied again. I just lied again. And he's like, losing. He goes, what's wrong with you? He goes, why? He goes, either tell me the truth or whatever. Just lie. I. I couldn't take it. And then he's like, do you drink coffee late in the day? And I'm like, I want to lie to you. I want to say, no, I do not drink coffee late in the day. But that would be like, I do. And he goes, good, we're making progress. You're not a liar anymore. Like. Like, what's wrong with me? Like. So this is my new thing. When I go, I'm now going to be honest. That's it. It's over. What are we talking about? I don't know. I never know. Anyway, I appreciate you being here. Don't lie to your doctor. And keep it real. Later. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to my make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketer. And hook us up with a five star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100% free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Daymond John, Martha Stewart, and me. Guruvents. Com. Check it out.
Podcast Summary: "Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson" Presented By Marigold
Episode: 4 INSTANT Ways to Increase Social and Email Engagement [White Space is Secret Sauce!] Jay’s SCOOP | Ep. 350
Release Date: June 6, 2025
Host: Jay Schwedelson
Presented By: Marigold
In Episode 4 of "Do This, NOT That!" hosted by Jay Schwedelson, listeners are treated to a wealth of actionable marketing strategies aimed at enhancing both email and social media engagement. Jay emphasizes the transformative power of white space in marketing, not just in design elements but as a strategic tool to captivate audiences subtly and effectively.
Jay introduces a bold experiment: eliminating the pre-header in promotional emails. Traditionally, marketers utilize the pre-header to highlight offers or supplementary information. However, Jay points out that an overwhelming 98% of emails include a pre-header, making those that don't stand out amidst the "social scroll" of inboxes.
"When you have no pre header whatsoever, you are part of the 2% of emails that stand out, leading to a significant increase in open rates."
— Jay Schwedelson [02:30]
Impact:
Strategy: Test emails without pre-headers intermittently and pair them with shorter subject lines to maximize white space and visibility.
Contrary to the common practice of multiple CTAs to maximize click-through opportunities, Jay advocates for experimenting with a single, prominent CTA within emails.
"Emails with just one call to action button had a 3x increase in clicks. That's a 300% increase in clicks."
— Jay Schwedelson [08:45]
Impact:
Strategy: Implement a singular, visually distinct CTA in select emails to assess its effectiveness compared to multiple CTAs.
Long blocks of text can deter readers from engaging with email content. Jay shares a crucial statistic highlighting the importance of concise messaging.
"Emails with blocks of text that are over four lines or more see a 20% drop in their click-through rates."
— Jay Schwedelson [12:15]
Impact:
Strategy: Break up content into shorter paragraphs, utilize bullet points, and incorporate ample white space to create a visually appealing and easily digestible email layout.
Jay reveals a nuanced technique to boost LinkedIn post visibility by manipulating the platform's algorithm.
"By forcing the 'more' button to be clicked, your post signals LinkedIn to circulate it further, increasing its reach by about 15%."
— Jay Schwedelson [18:50]
Method:
Example:
*"Only for marketers,
Dive into these exclusive strategies to elevate your campaigns..."*
Impact:
Building on the success of Instagram carousels, Jay suggests integrating minimalist or single-word slides within the sequence to maintain engagement.
"Inserting one-word pages every other slide signals Instagram to boost your post's circulation, while also keeping the audience intrigued and engaged."
— Jay Schwedelson [25:20]
Strategy:
Impact:
Jay Schwedelson's episode offers a treasure trove of innovative and easily implementable marketing tactics that leverage the power of white space to enhance engagement across email and social media platforms. By challenging conventional wisdom—such as the necessity of pre-headers and multiple CTAs in emails—Jay encourages marketers to experiment and discover what uniquely resonates with their audience. Similarly, his insights into optimizing LinkedIn and Instagram interactions provide fresh perspectives to amplify reach and interaction in increasingly competitive digital landscapes.
Listeners are empowered to test these strategies within their marketing arsenals, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation in their quest for marketing mastery.
Notable Quotes with Timestamps:
"When you have no pre header whatsoever, you are part of the 2% of emails that stand out, leading to a significant increase in open rates."
— Jay Schwedelson [02:30]
"Emails with just one call to action button had a 3x increase in clicks. That's a 300% increase in clicks."
— Jay Schwedelson [08:45]
"Emails with blocks of text that are over four lines or more see a 20% drop in their click-through rates."
— Jay Schwedelson [12:15]
"By forcing the 'more' button to be clicked, your post signals LinkedIn to circulate it further, increasing its reach by about 15%."
— Jay Schwedelson [18:50]
"Inserting one-word pages every other slide signals Instagram to boost your post's circulation, while also keeping the audience intrigued and engaged."
— Jay Schwedelson [25:20]
Note: This summary focuses solely on the core content of the podcast, excluding advertisements, sponsor messages, and personal anecdotes to provide a clear and concise overview of the valuable marketing insights shared by Jay Schwedelson.