Podcast Summary:

"Ask Us ANYTHING!! INSTANT Performance Boost Secrets! 😳 Dating Advice?😳 | Ep. 478"
Podcast: Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson
Host: Guru Media Hub
Date: March 20, 2026

Overview

This lively episode of “Do This, NOT That” dives into actionable marketing tactics with host Jay Schwedelson, focusing especially on the power of numbers in marketing copy. Drawing on large-scale campaign data, Jay explores why oddly specific numbers, imperfection, and even negative positioning can significantly boost performance. The second half takes a humorous detour into dating advice, where Jay, the self-declared “old nerd,” provides tongue-in-cheek responses to quirky listener questions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Specific Numbers in Marketing (01:30–17:10)

Why Numbers Work:
Jay explains that using numbers—especially very specific ones—across subject lines, blog titles, landing pages, newsletters, and product marketing directly increases engagement.
Specific vs. Generic Numbers:
- Example: “Join 57,542 other leaders” outperforms “Subscribe to our newsletter” or “Join 10,000 others.”
- Specific numbers create credibility; generic ones feel fabricated.
  
  “When you are weirdly specific in anything that you are doing in the marketing that you are doing, it does incredibly well.” — Jay (02:40)
Data-Driven Results:
- Specific (non-rounded) numbers (like 9,113 vs. 10,000) increase engagement by over 15%.
Listicle Numbers: Round vs. Non-Round:
- Recommendations:
  - Titles or hooks should never end in 0 or 5; use “9,” “7,” or any other non-round number.
  - This can increase engagement by 22%.
  “…do not allow that number to end in a 0 or a 5…Non round numbers actually increase engagement over 22%…” — Jay (05:45)
The Pratfall Effect (Imperfect = Trustworthy):
- Audience trusts brands more when ratings aren’t perfect (e.g., 4.8 vs. 5.0).
- Imperfect scores are believable and lead to better business outcomes.
- Jay notes his own 4.9 podcast rating brought more sponsor interest than a perfect 5.
  
  “It is more believable when you are not perfect.” — Jay (08:20)
Negative Numbers & Loss Framing:
- Using negative numbers in marketing (e.g., “Down 17% until we fix this”) drives a “rubbernecking” curiosity and increases engagement by about 10%.
  
  “Negative numbers … will actually lead to about a 10% boost in engagement. It’s almost like … rubbernecking.” — Jay (11:00)
The Weird (But Effective) Use of Decimals:
- Subject lines like “3.5 subject line tricks” or “4.8 things you should know” seem illogical but increase open rates due to their oddness.
  
  “…It makes no sense, but it gets the person to pause.” — Jay (13:50)

2. Brief Interlude: Sponsor Shoutout (17:10–19:10)

(Skipped as per instructions.)

3. Rapid-Fire Dating Advice (19:15–25:20)

Jay answers offbeat dating questions submitted by listeners, reminding us not to take his advice too seriously (“I’m an old nerd… married for 22 years…” — Jay, 19:45).
Selected Listener Questions:
- Q: If he still likes his ex’s photos on social media, is that normal?
  A: “That’s not normal… massive red flag. Get out of that bad situation.” — Jay (20:10)
- Q: If she never asks me anything about myself, is that just how she is?
  A: “That’s not a relationship, and it’s not going to get a lot better… That person seems like a loser.” — Jay (21:10)
- Q: If they cancel and I see them out somewhere else, is that a deal breaker?
  A: “A billion percent… If it was me, I would go up to the person and say, hey, you clown… Later. Smell you later.” — Jay (22:05)
- Q: If he disappears for a day or two and comes back like nothing happened, what am I supposed to do?
  A: “Where the hell were you? Are we dating? …I don’t like these games… That’s weird.” — Jay (23:15)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On specific numbers:

“Specific numbers increase engagement by over 15% versus generic numbers. Generic numbers make it feel like it’s not real.” — Jay (04:05)
On non-round numbers:

"Do not allow that number to end in a 0 or a 5... non round numbers at the start of a subject line, blog post, podcast title... raise engagement over 22%" — Jay (05:45)
On the pratfall effect:

“It is more believable when you are not perfect. Everybody can't love what you're doing.” — Jay (08:20)
On loss framing/negative numbers:

“…Negative numbers and it’s framed as a negative way…gets us to do that millisecond pause and it works. It’s really strange.” — Jay (11:00)
On liking an ex’s photos:

“That is a massive red flag. Anything other than that, get out of that bad situation.” — Jay (20:15)
On dealbreakers:

“If it was me, I would go up to the person and say, hey, you clown. Hey, you loser. You blew me off to be here. We’re never hanging out again. Later. Smell you later.” — Jay (22:05)

Timestamps for Important Segments

01:30 — Introduction to “Numbers” & why they matter
02:45 — Specific numbers vs. generic numbers; data insight
05:45 — The “no zeros or fives” rule for numbered lists
08:20 — The pratfall effect (imperfect ratings)
11:00 — Using negative numbers for loss framing
13:50 — Odd decimals and subject line experiments
19:15 — Jay’s disclaimer before dating advice
20:10–23:15 — Rapid-fire dating questions and Jay’s candid responses

Conclusion

Jay Schwedelson’s energetic and humorous style keeps this episode both practical and entertaining. The key marketing takeaway: specificity, imperfection, and risky (even negative) framing in your copy can significantly boost connection, credibility, and engagement. The irreverent dating advice segment offers laughs and some surprisingly sound red-flag spotting—reminding listeners to ask daring questions in both their marketing and their relationships.

Ready to supercharge your subject lines? Try those oddly specific numbers, and maybe keep Jay out of your love life—but not out of your inbox!

Transcript

A (0:01)

Welcome to do this not that, the podcast for marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for Ask Us Anything from the do this not that podcast is our short episode where all week long we get in work questions. We get in ridiculous questions. We try to tackle one of each. If you want to submit a question, it's really easy. Just go to jschwedelson.com there's a button that says podcast. Another one says Ask us anything. That's where we get the questions. So before we get to the ridiculous question, let's do the work question. We got a question from Jordan from Little Rock, Arkansas. What up, Arkansas? Jordan? What do you got, Jay? We tried putting the top 10 things to know about our industry as a blog post title. And and I was our subject line and it did okay. Not great. I thought numbers do really well when you include it in all of your marketing. What did we do wrong? Okay, great topic. And I have a lot of new data to share on this. I'm very excited. Numbers. A lot of you are going to tune out. You're like numbers. What are we about to talk about? But this works for business marketers, consumer marketers, nonprofit marketers, and these little things I'm about to tell you about how to use numbers or are going to blow your mind. So World Data Research was my research group from my agency where we do, you know, thousands of different marketing campaigns. We're always looking at stuff. So that's where this data comes from. So for example, we talk about numbers and I'm going to talk about all sorts of different ways to use them. But let's say I was trying to get you to subscribe to a newsletter and one landing page said, hey, subscribe to our newsletter. Another landing page, the B version of that landing page. Instead of saying subscribe to our newsletter, it said, join 57,542 other leaders that are reading this amazing newsletter. Which one would you be more likely to respond to? The one that said 57,492 other leaders. Because it's very, very, very specific. When you are weirdly specific in anything that you are doing in any of the marketing that you are doing, it does incredibly well. So to give you an idea, let's say you are promoting a newsletter. You can put on that landing page or you could put in the email or on the social post. Join 12,847 other marketers who are reading this, or let's say you have a product, okay? Join 9,113 other people that are enjoying these socks. Whatever it is that you are promoting. A newsletter, a webinar, a content piece, a consumer product. The number of donors that are donating to something when you are weirdly specific. Okay, believe it or not, specific numbers versus generic numbers, like 9,122 versus 10,000, even though 10,000 is higher. Specific numbers increase engagement by over 15% versus generic numbers. Generic numbers make it feel like it's not real. Now, a lot of times when we think about numbers, we're using them at the start of our hook, right? We're using them as a listicle of some kind. The 11 ways this failed, the nine outfits that made people look, the 13 tests that actually worked, the seven things all HR leaders need to know. Here's the secret sauce thing that you always need to know. Whatever it is you're promoting, that listicle, that thing you want, people downloaded that sale, right? The anything, whatever it is. And you're starting it out. That blog post you're starting out, you should start with a number. That subject line, you're starting it out with a number. That podcast title, you're starting out with a number, but do not allow that number to end in a 0 or a 5. It can't be the number 10. It can't be the number 25 number like 9, 11. That is what you're looking for. 7, 4, anything that doesn't end in a 0 or 5. Believe it or not, we consider those round numbers 0 or 5 non round numbers at the start of a subject line, a blog post, a podcast title, any content piece actually increase engagement over 22% versus those that are a zero or a five. I know this is crazy and ridiculous and all this nonsense, but it actually works. The other one is this actual real psychological thing called the pratfall effect. Okay? The pratfall effect is like a legit psychology term. And what it is, it's all about, is that when there are some numbers that show flaws, they're more believable than perfect numbers. What do I mean by this when I say the pratfall effect? All right, if you are, are going, and you're looking at, you're going to order, you're going to order something. Uber Eats, okay? You're looking at a restaurant review, a Google review, right? You're looking at a Google review for the plumbing company that you want to hire for Your house, if you go on there and you see it as a 5.0 rating, okay. Or if that same company had a 4.8 rating, believe it or not, the one with the 4.8 rating versus the 5.0 rating or will actually do better, will actually get more business, more calls. It is more believable when you are not perfect. A lot of people get nervous. Like for example, my podcast, right? If you go on Apple and this is not being a Flex or whatever, I have a 4.9 rating out of five on my podcast reviews. You probably are going to give it a one. Now we'll go down to 4.7. I whatever. But I have a 4.9 rating. Okay. For a while I had a 5.0 rating and it went down to 4.9. And oddly, okay, weirdly, we actually got more sponsors interested in sponsoring the podcast when it went down to 4.9. It is more. I didn't nothing to do with it. I just got some bad reviews ironically. But it is more believable. Everybody can't love what you're doing, okay? So actually having reviews and highlighting them that are not personal perfect does really, really, really well. It's so odd how that works. The other one that people sleep on is negative numbers. Loss framing actually crushes it. And I'll tell you exactly what I mean. But here's the stat. Negative numbers, for example, in your subject lines and your blog post titles and in your sale titles will actually lead to about a 10% boost in engagement. So imagine you saw a subject line that says something like this. Down 17% until we fix this. Or lost 22% of clicks overnight. It's almost like I feel bad saying it this way. It's almost like rubbernecking. When you're on the highway and you see an accident, you don't want anything bad to happen, but everyone slows down. That's why traffic occurs, because everybody's looking at it like, oh, what happened? That's not good, right? When you see negative numbers and it's framed as a negative way in that podcast title, in that subject line, in that whatever it gets us. Do that millisecond pause and it works. It's really strange. The other one, that is the weirdest one that we're testing right now, a lot of which is the strangest thing in the world is using things like, like 3.5 subject line tricks. Like in the subject line as a subject line. We're doing that in our marketing, right? Or 4.8 things you should know. It is Ridiculous. It makes no sense. What do you mean? 4.8 things I should know. 3 and a half subject lines, tricks to try. It makes no sense, but it gets the person to pause. And we're still testing through this, but we're actually seeing it lift open rates a lot on a lot of the email marketing that we're doing. So I'm not advocating for doing this whole decimal thing yet, but it is pretty, pretty wild. All right, before we get into the ridiculous question, I want to let you know that this podcast is sponsored by a company called Knack K N a K. Listen. We have all spent a zillion hours designing email campaigns and landing pages and we're trying to find the person, our company, that knows how to code stuff. And they're busy, they're out to lunch, they're out sick. Oh, no. Our email is going to take three more weeks to get done. It takes forever. So my company switched over to NACS platform. Their platform is you don't need to know how to code anything. You could design all your emails, your landing pages. They have this collaboration tool. They now have this AI thing. You could even just talk to it and say what you want your email to look like and NAC spits it out. Some of the biggest brands on the planet use knack. I am telling you, it is radically changed how fast we can get our emails done. What they look like, it is incredible. If you don't know knack, go to kn a k.comdemo. that's knack.comdemo. i love what they're doing. All right, let's get into the ridiculous question. So over time, I don't know why people submit dating advice questions, but on the form on my website, on J Schwal.com, we get a lot of people submitting questions that they want me to answer about dating advice. First off, I know I'm going to answer them right now. We have a series of them. We group them together. I have not read them, so I'm going to read them for the first time now. My team grabbed them together. But I will tell you, you should not listen to me about dating advice because first of all, I'm an old nerd. Second of all, I've been married. I have the greatest marriage. My wife is the greatest human being of all time. Married for 22 years. I don't know anything about dating. And my teenage kids that are 18 and, well, not. And 20, not teenage. When they talked about dating, I don't know what they're talking about. I'm Clueless. But I will give you my advice, because here we are. But take it with a grain of salt because I don't know what I'm talking about. All right, here are the questions that have come in over the last few weeks about dating Jay. If he still likes his ex's photos on social media, is that normal, or am I supposed to pretend I don't notice that? Okay, that's not normal. First of all, I think that's very bad sign. I don't even think. I mean, maybe they could still be connected, but I don't think the person should be. Your ex should be viewing their stories, in my opinion. I definitely don't think they should be liking their post. If they're liking the person's post, that's it. That is a massive red flag. Anything other than that, get out of that bad situation. That's my take on that. Okay, next. Jay. If she never asked me anything about myself, is that just how she is or is that the whole answer? I don't really know what that means. But if she doesn't ask you anything about yourself, then that sucks. That's not a relationship, and it's not going to get a lot better. And even if you say to her, hey, you don't ever ask me anything about myself, she'll do it for a little bit, but then she'll go back to the way that she is, a narcissist, and get out of that. That person seems like a loser. That's my opinion. Okay, J. If they cancel and then I see them out somewhere else, is that really a deal breaker? A billion percent. What type of question is that? You're telling me if you have a date with somebody and they are, sorry, I can't go, and then you go out and you see them at the bar with their friends, guess what? They would rather be doing that than be with you. It's the instant deal breaker. If it was me, I would go up to the person and say, hey, you clown. Hey, you loser. Hey, you tool. You blew me off to be here. Guess what we're never going to do again. We're never hanging out again. Later. Smell you later. That's what I think, anyway. Last one, Jay. If he disappears for a day or two and then comes back like nothing happened, what am I supposed to do with that? You're supposed to be. Where the hell were you? Are we dating? Are we together? Like, hello, this ain't it. You know, it's not like you. You. Unless you give somebody the heads up, right hey, I'm gonna go and hike this mountain. They're not gonna have cell service, but in the world that we live in now, constant communication. And I don't like these games. Oh, they're not gonna talk for two days because they're trying to seem like they're not that into it. Screw that. I think that's weird. I don't like it. All right, listen. Two things. I want to work with you. Go to j schweddelson.com. there's a form there. We should work together. I have an agency. I do demand gen. I do database growth. I do all this stuff. I do a lot of brand partnerships. I want to promote your brand. Just go there. There's a partner form on the top, right? Click it. Leave this thing a review. Leave a comment. That's how it circulates. You are awesome. Submit your questions and be cool later. Wait. The party is not over. Go to jschwettleson.com because I want to do stuff with you. I want to partner with you. When you click on the button and partner with Jay, you let me know what you got going on. Work with my agency. Work with me directly. Get access to all of my free resources@jschwedelson.com and I got a book coming out this April. It's called Stupider People have Done It. And all of the net proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Go on Amazon. Buy Stupider People have Done it. That way, you can help kick cancer's butt with me. And if this podcast wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, it might have been. Leave it a review. Follow the show. You are awesome. Go out there and crush it.