Ep. 262- 😧Work-Life Balance IS A MYTH! (+Weekends CRUSH it NOW for Business & Consumer Offers: New Stats!) 💸AND "girl math" & "bro logic" Jay’s SCOOP

Summary

Episode Summary: Ep. 262 - 😧 Work-Life Balance IS A MYTH! (+Weekends CRUSH it NOW for Business & Consumer Offers: New Stats!) 💸 AND "Girl Math" & "Bro Logic" Jay’s SCOOP

In Episode 262 of "Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson," host Jay Schwedelson delves into the nuanced realities of work-life balance, explores innovative weekend marketing strategies, and shares entertaining insights from his personal life that shed light on consumer behavior. Released on January 24, 2025, this episode is a treasure trove of actionable marketing tips, backed by recent statistics and enriched with relatable anecdotes.

1. Debunking the Work-Life Balance Myth

Jay opens the episode by challenging the conventional notion of work-life balance, arguing that it's an unrealistic daily pursuit. Instead, he posits that true balance should be assessed over one's lifetime rather than adhering to a strict separation between workdays and weekends.

Jay Schwedelson [02:15]: "Your work-life balance is something that you look at in totality over your entire life. Are you able to make sure that you made time for your friends and your family and the things that you cared about and you made sure that's a priority in your life."

Jay emphasizes that the ability to completely disconnect from work during designated off-hours may indicate a lack of passion for one's role. He suggests that those truly invested in their careers naturally integrate work-related thoughts into their personal time, viewing continuous learning and industry engagement as part of their professional growth.

2. Unlocking Weekend Marketing Potential

Transitioning from personal insights to professional strategies, Jay presents compelling data on weekend marketing trends, highlighting a significant shift in how both business and consumer audiences engage with content outside traditional workdays.

Business Marketing Insights

Jay cites a recent Media Post study revealing a 23% surge in weekend web traffic among top executives—CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs, and VPs—over the past year. This indicates a growing opportunity for B2B marketers to reach decision-makers when they're more receptive and less inundated with weekday communications.

Jay Schwedelson [10:45]: "From 10-20-23 to 10-2024, click-through rates in emails for business to business email sent out on the weekend, click-through rates have gone up 62% in that one year."

Despite the increased engagement, Jay notes that the volume of B2B emails sent during weekends remains significantly lower—88% less compared to weekdays. This reduction in email clutter means that carefully timed weekend emails can achieve higher open and click-through rates, presenting a golden opportunity for businesses to optimize their outreach strategies.

Consumer Marketing Insights

On the consumer side, Jay shares intriguing statistics from Mailcharts about unconventional email sending times adopted by brands like Glossier and Bombas Socks. Glossier sends 29% of their emails on weekends, with over 60% dispatched after midnight, while Bombas Socks sends 34% over the weekend, with more than 30% post-11 PM. These atypical timings suggest that consumers are engaging with content during off-peak hours, prompting marketers to rethink traditional scheduling.

Jay Schwedelson [15:30]: "The biggest mistake that marketers make is they'll be like, oh, we send out these emails on Sunday and they had a 25% open rate and a 2% click through rate. But the same emails during the week, they get a 40% open rate and a 4% click through rate during the week destroys the weekend. And that is stupid."

Jay advocates for separate benchmarks for weekend and weekday marketing efforts, encouraging marketers to tailor their strategies to the distinct behaviors of their audiences during these times. He underscores the importance of continuous testing to refine weekend email campaigns and paid social media ads to maximize engagement and ROI.

Optimizing Paid Social Media Ads

Further expanding on weekend marketing tactics, Jay references a Gupta Media study indicating that the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for paid ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube is 20% lower on weekends than weekdays. This cost efficiency allows marketers to allocate budgets more effectively, running targeted weekend campaigns that capitalize on reduced competition and lower advertising costs.

Jay Schwedelson [18:00]: "Being over 20% lower, if you're not looking at the weekends in a siloed testing environment, you're leaving money on the table."

3. "Girl Math" & "Bro Logic": Insights from Personal Anecdotes

Shifting gears, Jay shares humorous and insightful stories from his home life, illustrating how everyday "girl math" and "bro logic" reflect broader consumer behaviors and decision-making processes. These personal anecdotes provide a relatable lens through which marketers can better understand and anticipate their audience's motivations.

Return Department Dynamics

Jay describes his role as the family "return department," managing returns for his wife and teenage daughter. He humorously highlights the flawed logic behind justifying purchases based on returns:

Jay Schwedelson [25:00]: "We're buying this thing, and because you return that thing, it's basically free. I like going out with just my family. I don't like going out with other people because they're annoying."

This scenario underscores the importance of understanding the rationalizations consumers use when making purchasing decisions, emphasizing the need for marketers to craft messages that resonate with these thought processes.

Eating Habits and Behavioral Patterns

Jay also touches on his own eating habits, likening them to flawed logic:

Jay Schwedelson [27:30]: "That's the same idea. That doesn't make any sense. That's dumb."

By sharing his family's "bro logic"—such as justifying large meals based on skipped lunches—Jay illustrates how seemingly irrational behavior can influence purchasing and consumption patterns, offering valuable insights for marketers aiming to tap into authentic consumer motivations.

4. Key Takeaways and Actionable Insights

Throughout the episode, Jay Schwedelson reinforces the importance of adaptability and continuous testing in marketing strategies. Key takeaways include:

• Reevaluate Work-Life Balance: Focus on long-term balance rather than daily separation, integrating professional growth into personal time.

• Capitalize on Weekend Opportunities: Utilize higher engagement rates and lower advertising costs on weekends for both B2B and B2C marketing campaigns.

• Tailor Marketing Strategies: Develop separate benchmarks and strategies for weekend vs. weekday marketing efforts to optimize performance.

• Understand Consumer Rationalizations: Leverage insights from common logical fallacies in everyday life to inform marketing messages that resonate with authentic consumer behaviors.

Conclusion

Episode 262 of "Do This, NOT That" offers a blend of professional marketing wisdom and personal anecdotes, providing listeners with a multifaceted understanding of effective marketing strategies. Jay Schwedelson's candid discussions challenge conventional norms and encourage marketers to explore innovative approaches, particularly in leveraging weekend engagement and understanding consumer logic. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or new to the field, this episode delivers valuable lessons to enhance your marketing prowess and drive meaningful results.

Transcript

[Jay Schwedelson]

Foreign welcome to do this, not that the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately. You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that we are back for do this, not that podcast presented by Marigold. And I'm going to make some people angry at me today, but that's okay. We're going to talk about work life balance. Why I think it's kind of a myth. And then what are the specific tactics, whether you're a business marketer or consumer marketer, that you should be doing on the weekends that maybe you're not doing? And really how this has all changed in the last year or so in terms of what it is that we are consuming. Business information, consumer offers on the weekends now. But first, let's talk about why a work life balance is a little bit of a myth. Right. When you leave work on Friday, do you not think about work again until Monday morning? I do. Right. On the weekends, do you consume no content related to your job? I do. Right. When you leave work at 5pm do you not think about anything work related until 9am the next day? I do. And you know, a lot of other people do too. And you know, your work life balance is not something that you achieve, in my opinion, daily. It's not something you just accomplish on the weekends or at night. Your work life balance is something that you look at in totality over your entire life. Right. Are you able to make sure that you made time for your friends and your family and the things that you cared about and you, you made sure that's a priority in your life. It doesn't mean that you just shut things off at a certain time of day. Right. And I think that that's a myth and I think it actually harms us. We think we are failing as people because we are not able to just shut it off. And you know what? I think that's a good thing. And this is where people can get really upset with me. I think people that are able to at 5pm Shut it off until 9am the next day. And on the weekends, you shut it off from Friday until Monday morning. And absolutely, you don't think about work in any capacity. You don't care about it. Right. If you're able to do that, I would sort of argue that Maybe you're not passionate about the job or the role that you have. I know that's kind of rude. I do. But if you really are into it, you really want to learn what's going on, you really want to care, you really want to consume. It doesn't always even necessarily feel like work when you're finding out new stuff about what's going on in your industry, your sector, what other people are doing right. If you're able to turn it off, maybe you're not into it. It's okay. Maybe you need to figure out what you are into. So what does this mean related to actual tactics that we should be thinking about in our marketing? Well, this is really interesting. Media Post shared some really great information the last few weeks. Let's talk about business marketing first. Then we'll get into consumer so on the weekends they shared that there's been a 23% surge in weekend web traffic from CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs, and VPs. Okay, a 23% surge in web traffic over the last year. And what do we do on the weekends? Well, we're not getting messages on our slack. We're not getting those Microsoft Teams messages from people in our company. We have the ability to actually focus in on some of this content and that's why decision makers are really able to interact with more of this content. And we see it on the email side a lot. So in the Last year from 10-20-23 to 10-2024, click through Rates in emails for business to business email sent out on the weekend, click through rates have gone up 62% in that one year. Right. Because this is how we are now consuming content. The other piece of this is that B2B weekend email sending. Right. How much email is being sent on the weekends is 88% lower for business emails on the weekends than during the weekdays. Right. So not only are people able to spend more time with whatever you're sending out, there's less clutter in that inbox. And on the consumer side, okay, what's really interesting is that of course consumer marketers send out their emails on the weekends. We know that. But they're sending it out at interesting times. And this is why we have to always be thinking about differently. So for example, according to mailcharts Glossier, that's that really cool brand that sends out like this makeupy type stuff and all this other stuff. Well, 29% of their emails are sent down the weekends, but over 60% of their emails are sent out after midnight, which is pretty wild, right? It's a totally bizarro time. How about bombas socks? 34% of their emails are sent out on the weekends, and over 30% of them are sent out at 11 after 11pm what does that all mean? Okay, why does that matter? It matters because we need to be testing things and be looking at things differently. And the biggest mistake that marketers make is they'll be like, oh, we send out these emails on Sunday and they had a 25% open rate and a 2% click through rate. But the same emails during the week, they get a 40% open rate and a 4% click through rate during the week destroys the weekend. And that is stupid. What you really want to be doing is you want to have benchmarks for the weekend and benchmarks for during the week. They're two very different things. And you want to constantly try to better yourself, do better on your weekend emails, do better on your during the week emails. Whether you're a business marketer or consumer marketer, there are different populations of people that are consuming your stuff, your offers, your content in different ways at different times. All right? So if you're not testing the weekends for email, you should be. Now, the other thing beyond email, okay, is social media, paid social media ads. Gupta Media came out with this really cool recent study that found on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, okay, cost per thousand for paid ads across all of those social networks is 20% lower on the weekends than during the week. You can siphon out just weekends and run paid ad campaigns. And when you're paying on impressions, that's an ad view. Or you're paying on clicks, you're paying on performance. So it being over 20% lower, if you're not looking at the weekends in a siloed testing environment, you're leaving money on the table. Whether it's email, paid social media ads, anything. All right, before we get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast, I want to let you know that this podcast is exclusively presented by Marigold. Now you're tuning it out. You're like, oh, it's an ad. I don't care. But here's why you should care. Okay? They're my email sending platform, but they're also the best loyalty program tool on the planet. And they have a guide, the Loyalty Program optimization guide. And you can get [e-mail] Marigold now, why should you care if you don't have a loyalty program or your loyalty program stinks? You need to spend Energy on it. Why? Because when you send people personalized rewards, you have milestone recognition. You treat your customers like actual VIPs. The revenue you get from those customers, how often they're purchasing from you, it goes up exponentially. And the Loyalty Program Optimization Guide shares it all. You can get [e-mail] Marigold it is free. It is awesome. Check it out. All right, let's get into. Since you didn't ask. So I don't know if this goes on in your home, but there is something going on in my home a lot right now, which is this idea of girl math or bro logic or dude economics, whatever you want to call it, okay? It's this idea where we're all justifying, like, spending money or saving money or doing something that, like, we're bending logic to make it feel like it makes sense, even though it's the dumbest thing in the world. And I realize it's. It's just. It's nonstop. So in my house, I am the return department. So when my wife or daughter buy something and they want to return it, my teenage daughter, they give it to me. I print out the shipping label. I send out my son. My teenage son, he hasn't bought something. I mean, he. If it was up to him, I think he would wear the same hoodie, the same socks from now until the time he's 112 years old. But that's a whole nother topic. Anyway, so I'm the return department, so. Which is super fun because I'm always like, I need the shipping label. Forward me an email. How do we get this thing returned? I don't know what I'm doing anyway. And so I return it, and then I'll come home that, hey, the return went through. We're all good. And then my wife or daughter be like, oh, cool. Well, we're buying this thing, and because you return that thing, it's basically free. I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. What do you mean it's basically free? Yeah, because you returned. We got the money back, so it's free. I'm like, no, that's not how. That's not how it works. We bought the thing originally. No, no, no, no. That's how it works. And then, of course, my daughter, who's, again, way smarter than I am, she'll bust me, and she'll be like, yeah, but that's very similar to, like, when you come home sometimes after working, you'd be like, hey, you. I always make these announcements, like, I'm gonna eat so much dinner tonight, I'm so hungry. Which is just a weird announcement to make. I don't know why I do that, but I do. And I'll say things like, I didn't eat lunch today, so I'm going to crush dinner. I'm going to eat so much dinner it's going to be ridiculous. And my daughter would be like, that's the same idea. That doesn't make any sense. You know, just because you skip lunch doesn't mean that you can go and set a world record for eating whatever. That's dumb. And I'm like, and I'm busted. And this is what happens. And I realize in every area of my life I am doing bro logic or girl math or whatever. I'll be like, oh, we can't go out to dinner because if we go out to dinner because I like to, I don't like to go out dinner. So if we go out to dinner with other people, I like going out with just my family. I don't like going out with other people because they're annoying. If we go out to dinner, then I'm gonna get home at like 11 o'clock and then I'm gonna be really tired the next day and that's gonna be terrible. Okay? And it's like, well, that doesn't make any sense. That's not even a valid argument. Everything I say is not valid. I don't even know what I just talked about. Listen, you're awesome. Two things you check out that are free. CertifiedGuru.com that's our free email certification course. It's about to close up. We only open up for a few days. Certifiedguru.com if you want to become an email marketing specialist. Free and eventastic. That's our new free virtual event. It's going to be bananas. And hey, leave this thing a review because you are awesome. Thanks for being here later. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five star review. If this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. 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