Ep. 278- Email & Social TEMPLATES are GARBAGE! QUICK Fix! 🛒 Self-Checkout FAIL! 📺 Love is Blind UPDATE!!😳 Jay’s SCOOP

Summary

Podcast Summary: Ep. 278 - Email & Social TEMPLATES are GARBAGE! QUICK Fix! 🛒 Self-Checkout FAIL! 📺 Love is Blind UPDATE!!😳 Jay’s SCOOP

Introduction

In Episode 278 of "Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson," hosted by GURU Media Hub and presented by Marigold, Jay Schwedelson delves into the detrimental effects of overusing email and social media templates in marketing. Released on February 21, 2025, this episode offers actionable insights to help marketers maintain engagement and avoid falling into the trap of repetitive, ineffective strategies.

Main Discussion: The Habituation Effect in Marketing

Jay opens the episode by addressing the habituation effect, a psychological phenomenon where repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to decreased response over time. He emphasizes that this effect is significantly impacting the performance of marketing templates.

Jay Schwedelson [00:40]: "The habituation effect is a huge deal in marketing and I don't think that we are really focused in on it and it's actually ruining our performance."

Jay explains that while new email and social media templates initially boost engagement, their effectiveness plummets as audiences become accustomed to them. He cites studies to underline his points:

• Research Gate Study: Effectiveness of an advertisement can decrease by up to 50% after five exposures.
• World Data Research: 60 days after introducing a new email template, the performance boost drops to less than 10% compared to the prior template.
• Social Media Impact: A similar decline occurs within 45 days of launching a new social media template.

Jay Schwedelson [00:40]: "Research Gate found that effectiveness of an advertisement can decrease by up to 50% after only five exposures."

Critique of Common Template Practices

Jay criticizes the over-reliance on standard templates in email and social media marketing, describing them as "garbage." He uses the example of webinar promotional emails to illustrate the issue:

Jay Schwedelson [04:15]: "Webinar emails are so funny to me because we all copy each other and they're total garbage."

He highlights the lack of originality in these templates, which often feature generic images and uninspired text that fail to engage recipients after the initial novelty wears off.

Solutions: Implementing a Rotating Template System

To combat the habituation effect, Jay advocates for a rotating template system. This approach involves using multiple formats and regularly switching them to keep the audience engaged. He suggests a variety of email styles, such as:

• Text-heavy, personal style emails
• Visual-heavy newsletters
• Interactive emails
• Short, punchy emails with memes

Jay Schwedelson [07:20]: "You want to have a rotating template system. Instead of relying on one email template, you use about three to five different formats and you rotate them all the time."

Similarly, for social media, Jay recommends diversifying post types throughout the week:

• Mondays: Tweet-style text posts
• Tuesdays: Carousel posts
• Wednesdays: Behind-the-scenes videos
• Thursdays: Memes or GIFs

By continuously refreshing formats, marketers can maintain high engagement levels and prevent their content from becoming "wallpaper."

Real-World Analogy: Dieting

Jay likens the stagnation of marketing templates to starting a new diet. Initially, enthusiasm is high, but without variety, adherence drops as the routine becomes monotonous.

Jay Schwedelson [09:50]: "It's like when you go on a diet. A new diet – first week you're like, yeah, I could do this forever. Three weeks later, it's boring."

Personal Anecdotes and "Since You Didn't Ask" Segment

In the latter part of the episode, Jay shifts gears to share personal stories, including a frustrating experience at a pharmacy with a malfunctioning self-checkout system. He uses this anecdote to segue into a humorous critique of the reality TV show "Love is Blind," expressing his disappointment with specific contestants' behavior.

Jay Schwedelson [09:00]: "Every time a new girl walks in that he has to meet or say hello to, he'll go, 'What's wrong with you?'"

While these segments are more personal and anecdotal, they provide a relatable break from the main marketing discussions.

Key Takeaways

1. Beware of the Habituation Effect: Repeated use of the same marketing templates leads to decreased engagement.
2. Diversify Your Templates: Implement a rotating system with multiple email and social media formats to keep content fresh.
3. Monitor Performance: Continuously analyze the effectiveness of different formats and refresh them as needed.
4. Avoid Becoming Wallpaper: Repetitive, unchanging content becomes invisible to your audience over time.

Conclusion

Jay Schwedelson wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of adapting and varying marketing strategies to sustain audience interest. He encourages marketers to step away from monotonous templates and embrace a dynamic approach to communication.

Jay Schwedelson [10:45]: "You cannot just rely on these boring templates. You need to have a rotation."

Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Jay concludes by urging listeners to leave reviews and engage with the podcast, emphasizing the value of community feedback. He also promotes Marigold's latest content, the "2025 Consumer Trends Index," available for free download.

Jay Schwedelson [11:20]: "You will get so much out of this thing. It is the 2025 Consumer Trends Index."

Overall Impression

Episode 278 offers a compelling analysis of the pitfalls associated with repetitive marketing templates and presents practical solutions to maintain audience engagement. Jay's blend of research-backed insights, real-world analogies, and personal anecdotes makes the episode both informative and entertaining for marketers seeking to enhance their strategies.

Transcript

[Unknown Speaker]

Foreign.

[Jay Schwedelson]

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.

[Unknown Speaker]

We are back for do this, not that podcast presented by Marigold. And you know what? We get excited about stuff and then we get unexcited about stuff. This is human nature. I bought sneakers the other day and I usually don't even care about this stuff, but I bought sneakers and I was hyped about them. I'm like, oh, they're pretty cool. And then for like two days, I'm walking around, I'm like, I dig my sneakers. Couple people were like, hey, I like your sneakers. And then after a few days, I didn't care. Nobody else cared. And this is exactly the way it works with our social media templates and our email templates. And I have some new data to share about this idea of the habituation effect. Right. The habituation effect is a huge deal in marketing and I don't think that we are really focused in on it and it's actually ruining our performance. So what is the habituation effect? It basically means that when people see or experience something repeatedly, they start to notice it less and less over time. And this happens all the time in a marketing. What do I mean by that? So I hate templates of any kind. I hate email templates, I hate social media templates. You know, templates are the thing that, like, oh, we're going to redesign our template. We're going to put our images here, we're going to put our logo here. This is going to be the background color. This is how it's all going to be structured. And the problem is when we put our new templates into motion, we email them out or we put them on social media, our new templates there, they work. They work. And then we're like, great, it works. But what we don't realize is that there's massive fall off really fast and there's something that we can do about that fall off to make sure that our performance stays really high. And there's some new data out about this. So first off, there's a study from Research Gate that found that effectiveness of an advertisement can decrease by up to 50% after only five exposures. Okay. And World Data Research found that 60 days after a new email template is introduced, the boost in performance is less than 10% as compared to the prior template that was being used. Meaning, like, after two months of you using your new template that you're so hyped about, it basically does not give you any additional boost because it becomes wallpaper. And then the same thing for social media. It's even a shorter window that 45 days after a new social media template is introduced, the boost in performance is less than 10% as compared to the old social media formats. You know, think about it for, like, webinar, and this is for, by the way, business and consumer templates, email templates and social media templates. But I always think about webinar emails. They're so funny to me because we all copy each other and they're total garbage. Without even looking at your inbox right now, okay, if I said to you, I want you to imagine what a webinar promotional email looks like, and in your mind, you could probably see these two circles, right? With these random people's heads in them. And it says, hey, register for our webinar. There's a big, like, text block in that email. And these two random circles of people, you've never heard of them before. You don't care who they are. And that is the webinar email promotional template. And the same thing on social media. You see that rectangular social media post with, you know, the pictures of these two random people are going to be at this webinar with some sort of, like, blue background saying, register here. It's epically boring. Nobody cares. Okay, so what do we need to do? And what is really the problem? The problem is you work hard, you make this new template, you send it out. Okay, great. And guess what? It gives you a boost. It does really well. Why does it do so well? Because it's new, okay? We like new things. It's working because it's new. It's not working because you came up with the greatest template of all time. It's just not boring in that moment. But a month from now, two months from now, it is boring. It's the same thing with your social media posts. You're like, oh, wow, we can do this new format that we put out on Instagram or on LinkedIn. It did so well. Let's now do this forever, okay? And that is how you become wallpaper. That's how you become boring. And that is the habituation effect. Okay, so what do you want to do? What is really, really important? You want to have A rotating template system. Okay? So instead of relying on one email template, you use about three to five different formats and you rotate them all the time. So you might have emails that are super text heavy, that are written in a personal style. You might have a visual heavy newsletter. Okay, you'll have an interactive email as another one. Maybe a short, punchy email that has, like, memes in it. You have a rotation of radically different formats that you are using, whether you're a business marketer or a consumer marketer. And then once in a while, you sprinkle in the surprise format something that is completely different. Maybe it's a super long email that's storytelling. Maybe something has absolutely no images whatsoever. And then you do the same thing on social media. You need to have a rotation. You know, Mondays, maybe it's like a tweet style text post. On Tuesdays, maybe it's a carousel post. Wednesdays, a behind the scenes video. Thursdays, it's a meme or a gif. Okay. And so on and so forth. You need to analyze how they're all doing. You need to refresh formats. You cannot just say, oh, we have a new template. Great. It checks every best practice box. It did really well in those first two weeks. So now let's use it for the next six months. That is how your performance goes in the garbage. That is how you become wallpaper. That is why people stop engaging with you. It's like when you go on a diet. Okay, A new diet. And you, you're like, okay, great. I'm gonna get all my foods ready for this new diet. And the first week, you're like, yeah, I could do this forever. I love this food. I love these portion sizes. I can do this forever. I love this diet. And then three weeks later, you're like, I can't take it. This diet stinks. I'm starving. I want to go eat the old way I used to eat. This is boring. That is exactly what's happening with your email and social media that's out there. And you need to have a rotation. You can't just rely on these boring templates. All right, before we get into the ridiculous portion of this thing called, since you didn't ask, which is always ridiculous, I wanted to let you know that this podcast is exclusively presented by Marigold. Now, I use Marigold for all my email sending. I send out billions of emails, but they have a new piece of content. This piece of content is Ba Na Nuz. It is my favorite piece of content for the year. It just came out it is the 2025 Consumer Trends Index. Marigold. Okay? They surveyed over 21,000 people, asked them all this stuff about why they feel connected to brands and all these specific tactics. And you can get access to this report that just came out. It is ungated. You don't have to fill out a form. All you got to do is go to meet marigold.com/cti. That is meet marigold.comcti. there is no form. You can download it right there. I am telling you, you will get so much out of this thing. It is the 2025 Consumer Trends Index. Hopefully you check it out. All right, let's get into. Since you didn't ask. All right. So I just got over the flu, or I'm still just getting over the flu. It's probably why I sound like garbage. And I was at the pharmacy this week trying to get like some Motrin. Whatever. I felt so bad for this dude. Oh, my God, why am I telling this story? I don't know. So I fe so bad for this dude. So it was one of these pharmacies have self checkout. So I'm like, behind him. There was like actually a long line and the dude was. Apparently he had stomach issues. I'm not judging. Who cares? Okay. He had stomach issues and he was trying to buy. I guess he was trying to buy some Imodium ad. Okay? It happens. That's called life. But the self checkout thing wasn't working, okay? The self checkout thing wasn't working. And so. And the lady that was like helping everybody when your self checkout doesn't work. A self checkout never works. Was like really far away. And the dude's like, he's trying to get her attention, like, hello, I need to check out. I need to check out. And she like yells from across the way, what are you trying to buy? What do you need? What's. What's going on? And he's like trying not to say, you know, I just gotta get this thing, whatever. And she was like, what? What is it? And I'm like, why don't you just walk over and help this dude? Like, what? What do you want to announce? Whatever. So then the guy just holds it up as if it was like, you know, this like, trophy goes, this is what I'm trying to buy. Okay. This is what I'm trying to buy. And he holds up the boxes of moti mate. I felt so bad for this dude. Why does everything have to be a disaster? Oh, speaking of disaster. Wow, this is a Hard left. Turn right here. I started watching Love is Blind, which I know you're not watching. It's a great season. It's on Netflix. But I've lost all faith in humanity, because even if you're not watching, doesn't matter. They have these guys and these girls that date, right? And there's a wall in between them. They can't see each other, so they could only date by. By talking. That's the way they get to know each other. So there is this guy who's an absolute clown that's on the season. His name is Dave. I'm not ruining anything. He is a tool, okay? And I'm only a few episodes in, but this guy is a tool. Every time a new girl walks in that he has to, like, meet or say hello to, okay? The girl walks in and she'll go, hi. How are you? And then he goes, hi. What's wrong with you? That's his opening line. What's wrong with you? Implying that for them to go on this show, something's got to be wrong with them or, why are they still single? What's wrong with you? That is his opening line. Is that the rudest thing of all time? Oh, but the only thing even ruder that this clown Dave does. He said this. I almost had to turn the TV off, but I didn't because I watch horrible tv, okay? This girl walks in the room, okay? And they go, hi, how are you? Whatever. And Dave goes, how old are you? And she goes, I'm 30. And he said this is his instant reaction. Oh, so you're not attractive anymore? Are you kidding me? Oh, my God. First of all, if I was her, I would have given him the F bomb. And then I would have been like, peace out. Smell you later. And I would have walked out of that room. Who do you think you are? Like, in what universe is that a normal thing or an acceptable thing or even an acceptable thought to have, let alone say it? Have it come out of your mouth. You are a tool. Anyway, I don't know what I'm talking about. Listen, I appreciate you. What I would really appreciate is if you leave this thing a review, you will be my best friend. It helps to circulate this thing, makes it go all around with the algorithms. If you can follow the show, you would rock. Because it actually does matter. I appreciate you. And if you want to partner with me in any way, shape or form, you just go to jschwettleson.com we could hang out. There's all sorts of stuff going on there we can connect. Thanks for being here and go watch Love is Blind later. You did it.

[Jay Schwedelson]

You made it to the end. Nice, but the party's not over.

[Unknown Speaker]

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[Jay Schwedelson]

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[Unknown Speaker]

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[Jay Schwedelson]

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[Unknown Speaker]

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[Jay Schwedelson]

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